F01/PP <<The First Few Lessons Are Free>>

[Warren 0]

Spoiler

Warren
Level 3
HP 60
EN 6
DMG 6
ACC 2
MIT 18
Keen
Bleed

Battle Ready Inventory
Healing Potion(3) - Restore 50 HP
Empty Slot
Empty Slot
Empty Slot
Empty Slot

Equipment
Claymore of the Sands - T1 Perfect 2HSS [2 DMG, 1 BLD]
Vanguard’s Armor - T1 Rare HA [18 MIT]
Lucky Banana - T1 Perfect Trinket [2 ACC, 1 KEEN]

Skills
Rank 1 THSS Mastery

Housing Skills
RELAXED: Increases HP regen by (5 * Tier HP) and decreases full energy regen to 2 Out of Combat Posts
ADVANCED TRAINING: +2 SP to a thread. Limit one use per month.

Boredom, in Warren's experience, was always a great motivator. He certainly enjoyed sequestering himself inside of his little laboratory in the middle of nowhere, there were only so many different ways to make the same handful of potions and salves. He stopped by Oscar's place and did a little grinding at the Mega Slime Farm that the man had set aside for him. Warren hadn't the foggiest why Oscar had gone so far to help him out, but he was certainly grateful for it. From there, he headed back into town and stepped onto the Teleport Platform. "Town of Beginnings!" Warren felt the ground beneath his feet abruptly wink out of existence. He tumbled through space, hurtling at breakneck speeds past infinite orbs of light. He was on a collision course for one orb in particular. As he neared, the orb grew in size until eclipsed everything else in his vision. As the light enveloped him, he felt the ground beneath his feet appear once more. He took a moment to shake it off. That whole display was absolutely was seizure-inducing.

"There really should have been a warning on the box," he muttered to himself. He blinked several times, attempting to clear his vision of the dark dots still floating around his periphery. Oscar had made the whole process seem easy, but he'd probably come and gone a million times. Warren wondered whether he'd be able to get used to it. He wandered around the town for a bit, trying to decide on a task to take on for the day. Eventually, he settled on handling the tutorial quests. But before that, lunch. Warren stopped by this weird ramen shop that hadn't been here the last time he'd been on the floor. He grabbed a bowl to go from the white-haired shop owner and dropped some Col on the counter. "Thanks a bunch," he said in passing as he walked off.

Mega Slime Farm used +2 SP to thread - Next use available 6/17/2020

[Elora 0]

After knocking and hearing a "Come in", Elora placed her hand on the door and gently pushed -- leaned all of her wait against it until it gave way and opened with a loud creek. She was immediately greeted with the enchanting site of an impressive amount of bottles, books, and trinkets. Speckles of dust flitted in the air, each gleaming intermittently as they danced through beams of light which shown through circular windows. The spotlights intersected, creating a focal point on an old man who was sitting at a table and finicking with some sort of chemistry set. 

"Zackariah?" Elora asked as she approached him. 

"Welcome young traveller. I'll be with you in a matter of moments, I'm just needing to finish up some calculations for my latest experiment. Please do have a seat in the meantime."

She nodded appreciatively and sat in a just-as-creeky wooden chair to wait patiently for him to finish his work.

[Warren 0]

Warren had finished his meal and disposed of his refuse in a responsible way. By which I mean that he just tossed it on the ground and let the system take care of it. From there, he was off to Zackariah to get his quest started. When he arrived, he was surprised to see someone already there. Zackariah seemed busy with his work, so Warren entered without a word and sat down next to the girl. Well, not right next to. He left a single-seat buffer as was polite and comfortable for him. He didn't really like to sit close to people he didn't know. Or people that he did know. Or people in general. Still, he regarded the woman with a polite nod just as Zackariah turned around to face them.

"Oh! I didn't realize that there were going to be two of you. Well, the more the merrier! I'm going to teach you the basics of gathering and crafting. First, go out into the field and gather some materials for me. Only fresh herbs will do. Monsters won't drop the proper items we need for this lesson. When you're done, come back and we can move on to the next step."

Warren resisted the urge to point out that he was already a somewhat-accomplished Alchemist. Clearly that had nothing to do with this. A screen propagated before his eyes. It asked whether he wanted to accept the quest. He pressed the green circle button and the quest appeared in his log. With that done, he rose from his seat and headed for the door. He was just about to leave when he suddenly stopped. The man thought for a moment. He definitely wasn't expecting company, but it would be rather rude of him to just head off on his own when someone was there accepting the quest with him. And while even doing the quest was pushing him far out of his comfort zone, it wasn't like he could be 110 percent uncomfortable. He let out a sigh and turned to look at the woman.

"I'm Warren. Might be easier if we knocked this out together, no?"

[Elora 0]

Elora moved to accept the quest as Warren had. After doing so, she remained seated, contemplating for a moment how worried she felt about wandering outside of the city's walls. In all of her years of playing, she never really had been able to shake the feeling of being under threat once she left the sanctuary spaces. The beginner quests wouldn't require everyone to scavenge in the wild if it wasn't safe to do at a low level. I'll be fine. She did her best to console herself before the voice of the other player interrupted her thoughts. 

Upon hearing his offer for them to complete the quest together, Elora visibly perked up from her chair. She was close to blurting out her acceptance, but decided to reign in her excitement before agreeing. Standing and walking over to the man, she smiled and nodded in confirmation. "Yes, I think that would be best. I can't say that I'm very knowledgable about different kinds of herbs. I mean, I studied plants in high school because I thought that Botany would..." She was rambling. There wasn't a reason for her to talk about what she had learned; they weren't living in that world anymore, and that knowledge wasn't applicable here. "Well, anyways, I have some ideas on where we could start looking unless you have some locations in mind."

[Warren 0]

Warren crossed his arms over his chest and thought for a moment. He hadn't really had much experience with gathering. He knew that the low-level mobs around the town dropped a solid amount of resources. Of course, they wouldn't work for the purposes of this quest. With that option rather shot, Warren finally shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "Can't say that I do. I did a similar quest to this before, but I was able to kill the boars roaming around the city. Haven't really tried to get any gathering done," he remarked. Warren found himself completely oblivious to the worries that had troubled the young woman prior to his question. With a slight smile, he gestured in the vague direction of the gates. "If you have a rough idea of where to go, I think we should run with it. We shouldn't have to worry about anything attacking us on the way. All the mobs around the city are non-aggressive."

[Elora 0]

Elora began to walk with him toward the gates of the town. "I think that heading in the direction of Hor...unka village would be a good start? I've heard that it's surrounded by some pretty dense forests, and I'm sure there are plenty of flowers and herbs that would thrive in that environment." 

She considered for a moment that maybe the game included dangerous plant-life too, ones that could be turned into poisons. Having some sort of field journal to assist them in this situation would be helpful. Maybe she could sketch drawings and record descriptions of how whatever they encountered could be used. 

As they began to leave the town, Elora thought it might be good to strike up some sort of conversation with the player accompanying her. Breaking the ice before heading out on a long hike might give them something to talk about along the way. That, or it would just make the whole experience infinitely more awkward. "My name is Elora by the way. How have you been fairing since the day we were...you know...trapped?", she decided to ask him.

[Warren 0]

"Horunka Village it is," Warren said plainly. Although he wasn't one to necessarily enjoy the company of others, he found himself rather self-conscious about his conduct around this new woman. Just because he didn't like conversation didn't mean that he wasn't self-aware enough to know that not engaging might cause discord between the two of them. The least he could do was try to engage. But, he had no idea how to initiate small talk. Mercifully, her next question was something that he could actually latch on to. As they made their way out of the town, Warren paused for a moment to pick a flower before responding. "I spent a while sheltered inside of the city. Eventually, I got bored and decided to unlock my profession. Ran into this guy called Oscar after I finished the quest. He's been sorta sponsoring me ever since. I think he's just in it for the free potions, but I don't know. Nowadays, I run an alchemist lab up on Floor Seven. How about you?" Warren wondered whether he'd provided too much information. He really only had two modes: silence and gushing. He hoped he'd been able to strike an adequate balance between the two. "I'm Warren by the way. It's nice to meet you."

Spoiler

ID: 151409 Searching - LD18 1/5 Materials found.

 

Edited May 27, 2020 by Warren

[Elora 0]

Elora eyed the beautiful flowers in the patch nearby as Warren talked, choosing to crouch down and gather one as well. It appeared periwinkle in color and was shaped like a little bell. A few fuzzy-looking stigma peaked out from beneath it, dusting the top of her hand with pollen once she uprooted it. She pulled it from the ground with such force that all of the petals fell from the flower and disintegrated into pixels.

 "Sh*t" she cussed "Guess I'll need to be more careful with these things..."

"Floor seven is pretty far away, I haven't even left this floor yet. It just seems so risky to leave when I have everything I need here to survive." She seemed thoughtful for a moment as she imagined all of the amazing creatures and environments that could exist on different levels of Aincrad. Maybe she was starting to get bored of staying stationary after all. "What's it like being an Alchemist? Do you feel like you get to do more for yourself here? And more for others? 

Spoiler

ID: 151498 LD5 Searching Failed

 

Edited May 29, 2020 by Elora

[Warren 0]

Spoiler

ID: 151710 LD9 Searching Failed

Warren just shrugged. "I suppose. I've got more potions than I know what to do with. Don't really have a lot of customers though. But, then again, there are a ton of Grandmaster Alchemists. Why come to a lower rank professional when it's just as easy to come to a Grandmaster?" Warren stopped to try and pick another flower, but just like with Elora's attempt, the item shattered when he went about picking it wrong. He sighed and shoved his hands into his pockets. Gathering materials by hand definitely wasn't for him. "You and me both," Warren grumbled. Failing at something so simple just rubbed him the wrong way. How hard could it possibly be to pick a flower? As they strode down the path to Horunka Village, Warren noticed that the previously-sparse materials had become much more plentiful. At the very least, they wouldn't need to hunt for flowers to try to pick. More specifically, there were pink blossoms completely blanketing a hillside. A gentle breeze rolled over the slope, filling the air with the scent of flower petals. "Look at that," Warren began, gesturing towards the flowers. "That's really beautiful."

Edited May 30, 2020 by Warren

[Elora 0]

Elora's complexion seemed to somber slightly in response to his words, as if what he said wasn't as uplifting as she had expected it to be. "Oh...yeah, I guess that makes sense..." Eyes lowering, she watched as Warren leaned forward to pick another flower. She couldn't help but chuckle at his response to it shattering from his grasp. It was comforting to know that maybe she wasn't the only player in the game to struggle with completing basic tasks. 

A wave of serenity washed over her as they happened upon a fragrant lush meadow. "No kidding" Elora agreed, marveling at the multitude of colorful flowers in full bloom. Taking a knee on the soft grass, Elora gently cupped one of the pink blossoms and removed it from its stem. This flower resembled a cherry blossom but with curled tips that turned a deeper shade of magenta as they grew out, almost like they had wilted from being held over a flame. 

Off in the distance, Elora spotted clusters of mushrooms that had sprung up from beneath fallen logs overgrown with moss. "Look at those HUGE MUSHIES!" she exclaimed, excitedly running over to the grove that shaded them.

 

Spoiler

ID: 151879 LC18 (1/5 Materials Found)

Edited May 31, 2020 by Elora

[Warren 0]

"Look at those HUGE MUSHIES!"

Elora's delighted shriek rang out just as Warren attempted to pluck a flower from the ground. His concentration broken, he accidentally crushed the delicate plant in his hand. He swore under his breath to see Elora darting off to get a closer look at some massive mushrooms. That struck him as odd. There was far too much light and not enough moisture to warrant mushrooms of that gargantuan a size. Unless. His hand flipped up to the hilt of his blade as he clocked the health bars wrapping around the mushrooms. From her angle, Warren surmised that she couldn't have seen it. He broke into a sprint, loosing his blade from its sheath. "Watch it," he bellowed.

The mushrooms began to shudder as Elora closed in, turning to face the sudden intruder. Their dark, beady eyes bore straight into her soul as they pulled their feet from the dirt and shuffled over to her. These creatures were a bit higher-leveled than the boars that roamed around the Town of Beginnings. They were also aggressive, to boot. The mushrooms were almost upon her when Warren skidded to a stop in front of her. His claymore - cloaked in a bright red aura - tore through the air. Its razor-sharp edge sliced the trio of fungal foes in two. Warren wasn't much higher-leveled than Elora but he did have the benefit of better equipment. He let out a shaky sigh and put away his weapon.

"You okay? We're not around the Town of Beginnings anymore so some of the mobs are aggressive."

Spoiler

ID: 152372 LD6 Fail

 

Edited June 5, 2020 by Warren

[Elora 0]

"Watch it", she heard him warn. She froze from alarm at the sound of his sudden yelling. Before Elora could turn to address Warren, she noticed the fungi pop out of the ground and begin to waddle toward her. At first glance, their approach didn't unnerve her. They appeared too docile and squishy to cause either of them any real harm. However, as they drew nearer, Elora reassessed her sense of security. She was mistaken. All three mushrooms stood at easily twice her height. 

A flash of red swelled beside her as Warren swept his blade and killed the creatures before they had the chance to attack her. Spores curdled high into the air, then quickly streamed down in a thick cloud before coating the mossy ground a bright yellow color. 

"Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry for endangering us, I had no idea that monsters could camouflage so well into the environment like that." As she spoke, she noticed the powder soak into the ground. Soon after, miniature mushrooms began to push through the underbrush, sprawling out in fairy circle-like arrays. "Speaking of which, I have no idea whether or not these little guys are actual mushrooms or just fetus mongrels." Elora approached one of the fungi carefully before it jumped out from the ground and quickly wobbled toward her. 

"JESUS!" she shouted, leaping up and stomping on and crushing the inch-tall creature beneath her boot. 

Spoiler

ID#: 152789 LD6 Fail

 

Edited June 9, 2020 by Elora

[Warren 0]

Spoiler

ID: 153501 LD2 Fail

Warren had some measure of concern for the girl as she was accosted by yet another mushroom. This one, however, was no larger than a few inches tall. It was quickly crushed underfoot. As she dealt with that, Warren attempted to gather one of the many flowers that lined the knoll they stood on. Just like with the last one, he completely failed at gathering the item. He let out an audible sigh and placed his hands on his hips. "You know, Earning a Living wasn't nearly as annoying as this. I just one-shot a handful of boars and I was done gathering. Why is it that we can't do the same now?" Warren knew the reason. This was meant to be a tutorial for the gathering/crafting system. If that be the case, his impressions of the system was that it was jank. Why was it that he could obtain more materials faster by killing mobs than from actually picking the flowers generated by the system. "I think this is going to be our whole day."

Edited June 22, 2020 by Warren

[Elora 0]

She observed in solidarity as Warren once again attempted to and failed at gathering another item. Their objective seemed to quickly be losing its original appeal. "You'd think with so many resources at our disposal that it'd be easier. I guess that's the point though: if everyone could just gather their way to the top, we'd all be there in a day's time." 

Although she was justifying the tedious mechanics of the game's system, she wouldn't mind having some rewards come a bit easier once in awhile. She had been handicapped by remaining a Level 1 player for years now and only because she'd rather not, what, risk her LIFE to go out and collect a measly item? 

"AHH!" She suddenly exclaimed, as she felt a series of sharp barbs jab through her glove and into the palm of her left hand. Upon quickly retreating it to inspect the source of pain, Elora noticed that a chain of purple sand burrs had lodged into her. She must have absently closed her fist around them instead of another plant while scouring the flower beds.

 

Spoiler

ID#: 154739 LD1 Critical Fail

Edited June 22, 2020 by Elora

[Warren 0]

Spoiler

ID: 154748 LD6 Fail

As Warren attempted to gather yet another flower, only to be jabbed by a thorn and drop it, he could only agree with her. "But I would imagine gathering the materials for this quest would be a bit easier than normal gathering. So much for that." Warren kicked a rock only to find out that it was actually a rock crab. The creature latched onto his boot, delivering a nasty pinch to his big toe. Warren winced and swore, thrashing his leg about wildly until the thing finally let go. It slammed against the trunk of a tree and shattered like glass. "IS ANYTHING HERE ACTUALLY NOT A MONSTER?" His question was answered when a tree branch came sailing through the air and blatted him in the face, knocking him on his rear.. Apparently, the tree he had just inadvertently struck was also alive. Thankfully, it didn't press the assault. Warren didn't want to think about what kind of damage a tree could do if he fought it. As he got back on his feet, he looked at Elora with a rather sheepish expression. "You didn't see that."

Edited June 22, 2020 by Warren

[Elora 0]

"Let's get the hell out of this place and try looking in a different area" Elora suggested as she stood and began to lift her glove. The barbs of each burr slowly peeled away from her skin until only the leather fabric suspended them. Removing this piece allowed her to carefully pluck off each thistle without the risk of pushing them back into her hand. She worked on this task as they journeyed down the field's well-worn path. Before long, it twisted and descended the slope of a shallow river bed. 

The water's surface glistened in patches of sun that scattered through the tree's canopies when their leaves tumbled in bursts of rushing wind. Patches of fanning ferns, fluffy moss, and floating lilypads, were illuminated by its beams. "Ah, this looks nice for some variation" spoke Elora as she candidly crouched down and separated one of the lily flowers from its stem. 

Spoiler

ID#: 154749 LD16 (2/5 Materials Found)

Edited June 22, 2020 by Elora

[Warren 0]

Spoiler

ID: 154766 Fail

A change of scenery would probably help. His attempts to gather here had been less-than-stellar. Especially this last one. He went to pick up a mushroom and then that mushroom punched him in the face. He then yeeted that asshole into the nth dimension and turned to follow Elora. They wound their way past the tress, Warren making sure to give them a wide berth in case he managed to offend one of them again. Eventually, they found themselves at a clearing deep in the forest where the river cut through. Warren sat down on a fallen log to take a breather. The sound of the river cutting through the forest filled the canopy with the sound of rushing water. It was rather soothing. "This is really beautiful," he stated plainly. "Almost justifies the frustration caused by this quest. Almost." Honestly, if he'd known this was gonna be such a pain, he might have decided to do something else today.

Edited June 22, 2020 by Warren

[Elora 0]

"Yeah, it reminds me of where I grew up" Elora found herself reminiscing about what life used to be like when she was a child roaming the real world. "My brother and I used to explore the creek that ran through our backyard. We would catch bugs, build forts, and make weapons out of the sticks we found." Recounting all of the times he needed to carry her back home after she'd been stung by bees brought a smile to her face. "It was probably pretty dangerous for us to wander through the woods like that, but I think our parents enjoyed hearing us talk about all the things we did and discovered. That, or they just wanted us out of the house for awhile"

Elora proceeded to use the point of her spear to saw off a small clump of moss that was dotted in miniature white flowers. "Anyway, it might take us awhile to get everything we need, but at least we can enjoy the scenery without worrying about the small insects" 

 

Spoiler

ID#: 154771 LD 14 (3/5 Materials Found)

Edited June 22, 2020 by Elora

[Warren 0]

Spoiler

ID: 154772 LD11 [2/5 Materials found]

After a little rest, Warren decided to get back at it. Looking down towards the river, there was a rock that had some sparkly moss growing on it. Warren trotted over and started to peel the moss away. By some miracle, he gathered most of the moss in one large clump. It had been so long since he had last tasted success that he was rather shocked when one of the quest items was added to his inventory. With that done, Warren listened her her story about wandering through the woods with her siblings back in the real world. When she made a comment about the inherent danger, Warren piped up, "Yeah, probably. But you didn't have to worry about giant mushrooms trying to donut you. Of course, I'd probably rather have than than deal with bugs all the time. So it's a trade-off." He stuck out his tongue to punctuate his obvious joke. He was almost able to keep up with her in conversation. A lot better than he would have usually done anyway.

[Elora 0]

"The difference is that now we have weapons that actually protect us", she added sarcastically to play off of his joke. "Accept for when they don't" Well, that's a little bit bleak, considering what the outcome could be... It seemed that Warren's spirit was lifted when he was finally able to acquire an item. If Elora had been him, she would have long since given up. Her focus shifted from admiring his resilience to whirling a fern around her fingers and using the leverage to pull it from the ground. 

"It's a shame I can't share my items with you or we'd probably already be on our way back to the city", Elora remarked proudly. She didn't seem to consider how the comment could hurt Warren's feelings since he was obviously facing some difficulty in completing the quest. "But either way, I'm sure we'll find everything we need soon enough" 

 

Spoiler

ID#: 154778 LD 11 (4/5 Materials Found)

Edited June 22, 2020 by Elora