[F01| SP] The First Few Lessons Are Free - Lila Bloome

[Lila Bloome 0]

She had finally made it- the Town of Beginnings was finally before her. After weeks of wandering through the woods, she had managed to get some NPC to give her mildly accurate directions to this place. All beginning players were supposed to start here, or at least the quests here would be at a low enough level that it could probably help her figure out what she’s going to do next. Maybe she’d be able to scrounge enough money to get some filling food for the road. 

“Geez...took me long enough.” Lila began to mindlessly wander around the streets- watching NPCs and players chat and interact like she had seen in every other town that she had stumbled upon on her way here. The want to talk to other people was at an all-time low- so she found herself a corner alleyway to hide in and the eavesdropping began.

Spoiler

General
Level: 1 | HP:  20/20 | Energy: 2/2

Stats
DMG: 1 | EVA: 0 | MIT: 0 | ACC: 0 

Skills
None

Equipment(In use):

Steel Dagger w/ damage enchantment [E]

Short-sleeved blouse and skirt (light armor) w/ Evasion Enhancement

Consumables
(5) Starter Healing Potions

 

Edited June 16, 2020 by Lila Bloome

[Lila Bloome 0]

Lila stood there for about an hour or so before another doe-eyed beginner player waltzed up to some random NPC to inquire about quests in the area. The NPC had mentioned a Zackariah who lived a little further into the village. Supposedly he was a potion-maker who had a mentor complex and wanted to help beginners in their journey. ‘Suppose it’s as good a start as any. Alright, I can make potions. No problem. How hard can it be right? A little herb there- a dash of salt and presto! An instant potion of invisibility ready to use in battle.’ With a cocky air, she set off further into the Town of Beginnings to find Zackariah’s workshop. After a few wrong turns and a little hurt pride, she had made it to the little hut that he called a workshop. She bounded up the front steps and knocked twice on the heavy wooden door. 

[Lila Bloome 0]

She received no response- and she took this as an invitation to come right in. The hut was elaborately decorated from floor to ceiling with herb plants and hanging potions. There were books strewn across the floor- some half-opened and others had managed to collect so much dust- it was questionable whether or not they had been opened at all. 

Lila:  “Hey Mr. Plague Doctor, heard ya wanna help some low lives. Well hey, lonely low life ready and willing to get some frigging SP- since it’s so damn hard to come by nowadays.” 

Zackariah: “Well...I must admit- Mr. Plague Doctor is a first. Though, I suppose I’m not entirely against the notion.” laughed the potion-maker. 

Lila: “Oh….you must be Zackariah. I heard about your quest from an NPC and thought I oughta just-”

Zackariah: “Let yourself in without being invited? I know I’m slow in my old age, dear, but do give me a chance to get to the door. But yes- I could very well use your help.”

[Lila Bloome 0]

Lila: “What do you need my help with, Mr. Plague Doctor?” Lila smirked, giving Zackariah room to maneuver about his workbench in the center of the room. 

Zackariah: “I’m sure I will grow to despise that name…” he signed, placing down one of his books on the counter. “I need you to retrieve some items for me. This will also, hopefully, be a lesson you remember for the future if you’re ever in need of some quick healing.” Lila furrowed her brow a little at this. 

Lila: “Pfft, you make it sound like I’m actually gonna get hit by one of those things. Don’t be stupid, gramps, I got this covered. But anyway, whatcha need?” 

Zackariah: “You are more idiotic than I first believed…Ah, well, can’t be helped I’m sure.” He signed to himself. “I need you to head into the woods outside of town and find these ingredients.” He presented Lila with a parchment with a list of odd herbs. “Find them and bring them back to me and we shall begin your potion lesson.”

[Lila Bloome 0]

With that, Lila set out on her mini-adventure. She waltzed out beyond the reach of the city gates and found herself within the woods surrounding the area. She noticed some other low-level players lurking around in the dirt- probably other low leveled players trying to finish Zackariah’s quest. 

Lila: “Now, what exactly did he need again..?” She pulled out the parchment that Zackariah had given her and glanced it over a few times in an attempt to memorize its contents. “This is literally all chicken scratch- jeez, this old man really needs to take penmanship classes again..” Lila begins searching around for anyone of the ingredients Zachariah has decided to send her out for. She finds a group of bunched up bushes and thinks that this would be her gold mine in disguise. How wrong she was indeed, for all she found was a few mangey bugs who decided to lend her arms some painful bumps for the rest of the quest.  

Spoiler

ID# 153514

Roll: 10

 

Edited June 16, 2020 by Lila Bloome

[Lila Bloome 0]

Lila: “Well, not only was that absolutely useless, but now I’ll be scratching at my arms...all. Damn. day. GREAT!” A huffy attitude slowly started to sink in as she continued on her way to find Zackariah’s ingredients. She continued her search, heading a little deeper in the woods. A small outcove appeared before her. She prayed that this place would give her a little bit more luck in finding Zackariah’s items. She searched under some rocks, and only found some worms and spiders- to which she did not entirely enjoy. “This is stupid- why am I out here struggling to find herbs and [censored] when he could just be doing it himself? He’s not that old.” She huffed to herself and plopped down on a boulder. With no luck finding any materials so far, she begins to think to herself “Maybe if I just cut through some bushes or something I’ll find his dumb materials”.

 

 

 

 

Spoiler

ID#: 153530

Roll: 5

 

Edited June 16, 2020 by Lila Bloome

[Lila Bloome 0]

She pulls out her dagger, examining the cool steel beneath her fingers. 

Lila: “Damn, I will never get tired of looking at how pretty you are…” Her heart sank a little as a reminiscent smile crept onto her face. “Mikey would’ve loved you...You’d be a lot duller now from all the times he’d use you to carve stuff into trees...But still, he’d have loved to steal you from me.” She laughed to herself and hopped down again. She found a tree towards the back of the outcove that had a small open knot in the trunk. She thought it would be as good a place as any to try and find something, but lo and behold, this too was empty and held nothing of value to her. She pulled her blade and carved an ‘LB’ into the trunk, smiling at her handy-work. “Perfect- now all will know that the fearsome Lila Bloome trekked through these woods!”

Spoiler

ID #: 153534

Roll: 5

 

Edited June 16, 2020 by Lila Bloome

[Lila Bloome 0]

As she looks around for more items she thinks to herself.

Lila: “Many newcomers will traverse these dangerous woods in their early stages, but will quake in fear when they realize that I have claimed this land as my own. I will grow an army of Boar Cubs like none have ever seen, they will be a force to be reckoned with, no question. Then again I probably won’t need them, as they will only hold me back in my conquest of this land. Once I beat this game, all will look to me as a hero, I will be showered with rewards and gifts beyond comprehension. Then I can rub it in my stupid brothers’ faces as me and Mikey relish in my victory, hahahahahahaha!... Wait, I should probably be looking for those materials shouldn’t I? Crap!” 

Returning from her daydream, she runs to look for at least one material at this point.

Spoiler

ID#: 153535 

Roll: 10

 

Edited June 16, 2020 by Lila Bloome

[Lila Bloome 0]

She headed over to the lake, watching the koi fish swimming in between the pieces of grass and kelp that grew from the lake’s floor.
Lila: “Whoa...this is beautiful...Hey little fishies!” She smiled to herself until she realized what she was looking at. “Hey! Kelp! Wasn’t that on Zackariah’s list?” She frantically pulled the parchment from her satchel and scanned it over with her eyes. “Ha! IT IS! FINALLY! I FOUND SOMETHING!! AHAHAA!!” She lept in the air, kicking up some water from the lake and throwing it into the air. “I DON’T SUCK AT FINDING THINGS AFTER ALL!!” She quickly maneuvered herself around to pull some kelp from it’s soil and she wrapped it carefully and placed it in her pouch. “Alright, one down, four to go..Although it did take me nearly a half hour just to find that...This is gonna take so much longer than I expected...isn’t it?”

Spoiler

ID#: 153536

Roll: 20

 

Edited June 16, 2020 by Lila Bloome

[Lila Bloome 0]

Lila, with a newfound confidence, set off even deeper into the woods, finding more bushes and trees along the way. 

Lila: “Man, I sure hope it only gets easier to find these materials from here. I hate these woods.” She began to wack at some of the bushes along her way, hoping that maybe something would come of it. Thankfully, it did! With a slash of her dagger, she noticed some red berries fall to the forest floor. “Heey...I don’t know much about berries and stuff but....he’ll find a use for this at some point I’m sure if it’s not a part of my mission.” She would come to learn that it would be a part of the potion that she was soon to make. Sometimes idiocy and impulsivity can lead you down the right path- though I’m sure we’re all well aware it can only get you so far. 

Spoiler

ID #: 153541

Roll: 16

 

Edited June 16, 2020 by Lila Bloome

[Lila Bloome 0]

She checked off another material from her parchment list and smiled like a lunatic. 

Lila: “I knew I could do this. See! I am incredible! No one could ever be better at finding potion materials than I, Lila the Greatest Warrior this world has ever seen!” She skipped further ahead to some oozing trees. The syrup that dripped from their trunks was a dark maroon. With a swipe of her finger, she tasted the odd liquid. “Heey, this is kinda good...man...tastes like maple syrup from home…Oh hey! This was on his Zackariah’s list too, right? Aha!” Lila pulled out a vial that Zackariah had thrown at her last minute before she had rushed out the door and scooped some of the delectable syrup into the bottle. She fastened the lid and another wave of confidence overcame her. “This may be….the best day of my life.” She sniffed, shedding a small tear.

Spoiler

ID #: 153543

Roll: 19

 

Edited June 16, 2020 by Lila Bloome

[Lila Bloome 0]

After placing the vial of tree syrup in her pouch with the berries and the wrapped up kelp, she knelt down by some nearby bushes that seemed to have some strange branches hanging off the sides. She had noticed them from her mother’s garden and they appeared to be one of the simpler items from Zackariah’s list. 

Lila: “Ahh, I love the smell of fresh mint in the morning...Come to Mama.” She quickly slices off the branches and scours the mint leaves off of them. “Man….I miss mint ice cream. That was the bomb in the summer. They don’t have anything close to that in this world...Imma find a way to make mint ice cream around here- and I’ll be a billionaire for it….or whatever the billionaire equivalent is.” She shrugged her shoulders softly and started to head back hoping she’d find her last material somewhere along the way home.

Spoiler

ID #: 153545

Roll: 12

 

Edited June 16, 2020 by Lila Bloome

[Lila Bloome 0]

The sun seemed to be brighter and the heat was getting worse as the minutes went on.
Lila: “Geez...I need to get this last material and get back to Zackariah’s workshop before I melt away here like the Wicked Witch from the Wizard of Oz…” Lila began to pant and sweat beneath the heat- even the birds couldn’t seem to fly in this heat. “I should check my parchment list one more time…” Lila pulled out the piece of paper, and the last unchecked material was a white bird feather. “Huh...seems simple enough.” She looked up at the trees, hoping for some type of bird’s nest, and thankfully, she found a dove’s nest stuffed away in the branches. “Alright little buds, I need just...one feather if you don’t mind…” She gently took one of the doves in her hands and lightly plucked one of its feathers from its torso. “Thank you very much!” And with that, she started back for Zackariah’s workshop.

Spoiler

ID#: 153546

Roll: 20 

 

Edited June 16, 2020 by Lila Bloome

[Lila Bloome 0]

Lila strode back up to the little hut that Zackariah called a workshop and knocked on the rotting wooden door. Zackariah promptly opened the door, but a clear look of surprise swept over his face. 

Zackariah: “Oh...it’s you. I must be frank, I didn’t expect you to knock...at all..”

Lila: “Hey! I’m not that inconsiderate…”

Zackariah: “When you first arrived, you barged into my workshop unannounced and began to scream that I was a Plague Doctor as if you owned the place. So excuse me for having the slightest notion that you were not one for politeness.” An embarrassed blush dusted over Lila’s cheeks. 

Lila: “Ehehe….Right...Sorry about that by the way..But! I did find all the items you needed so we can get started with that potion making lesson...Right?” Zackariah sighed and moved out of the doorway to allow her passage in.
Zackariah: “Yes, yes, come in.”

[Lila Bloome 0]

Zackariah: “Now then, this here is where I make my potions, I’ve laid it out so simply that even you should have no trouble making a simple potion. I assume you will need no assistance?”

Lila: “Oh yea, no...Nah, I don't need any...uhm…” The instructions looked to her like some kind of voodoo ritual that she had maybe seen in a horror documentary. “I may- possibly require a slight push in the right direction?”

Zackariah sighs as he had a feeling she would say that.

Zackariah: “Very well then, you have all of the needed materials for the potion already, correct?”

Lila pulls her satchel off to place it on the table. 

Lila: “Yep! Got it all right here!” As she dumps the kelp, feather, berries, mint, and vial onto the workbench. 

Zackariah: “Good. Then all you have to do is mix them all together in some sort of bottle, which I have plenty of, and pray you do not screw this up.” He hands her a bottle and prepares for the worst.

[Lila Bloome 0]

Lila, for the first time in her life, decided to use only fractions of the materials she gathered in the inevitable case that she ends up screwing the potion up entirely. She took the bottle that Zackariah had given her and began to add the ingredients one by one, making sure they were all combined together before adding the next one just as the instructions had laid out so perfectly to her. However, as she continued, she noticed that Zackariah was nowhere to be found, which undoubtedly made her a little uneasy in her abilities at successfully creating this potion. 

Lila: “Zachariah..? Hey, bud, uh, just wanna make sure I’m doing this right. Can ya come out so I don’t royally mess this up?” She turned to try and find him, but didn’t realize she had knocked into one of his hanging plants, and thus a thyme leaf fell into her mixture turning the liquid black as a puff of smoke blew into her face. 

Zackariah: “I knew you were beyond hope...but you might as well try again…”

Spoiler

ID#: 153683

Roll: 2

 

Edited June 17, 2020 by Lila Bloome

[Lila Bloome 0]

At this point, Lila was purely grateful that she had saved some of her ingredients from before the first attempt so she could try this again. She knew that she would never be a potion maker- but it was really important for her to get this right at least once. It might save her life at some point, and she knew it was worth it to learn. She gathered the ingredients together again and wiped the soot from her eyes. She once again started to add each ingredient one by one, and mixed them together well after each addition. With only the mint leaves left, she clutched her eyes shut and let them drop from her fingers. She was entirely prepared for another combustible product to emerge but she felt nothing, heard nothing. She tentatively opened her eyes to see a beautiful green liquid sloshing around in the bottle. 

Lila: “AHA~! I did it! Zackariah look! It’s...It’s like an actual...potion!!”

Spoiler

ID#: 153685

Roll: 5

 

Edited June 17, 2020 by Lila Bloome

[Lila Bloome 0]

Zachariah: “Well...would you look at that. It’s not the best potion I’ve ever seen, but hey, it’ll do in a bind. You’ve done well.” For the first time since they’re meeting, Zackariah smiled at Lila. A fluttering feeling of pride swelled in her chest. 

Lila: “Thanks! Could’ve done it without ya, Mr. PD.” She laughed. 

Zackariah: “I’m never going to escape the notion of being a Plague Doctor, am I?” He laughed softly and took the bottle from her, fastening the lid on tightly to keep the green liquid from splashing out onto the floor. “I must admit, for a moment I didn’t expect you to get very far in this game- but I imagine that you have some hidden talents tucked away behind all that pride. It would serve you well to be careful of what you do and what you say. You could attract the wrong kind of attention and obtain the wrong kind of reputation, young lady.”

[Lila Bloome 0]

Lila: “Aww, c’mon gramps. I got this under control. I’m gonna be the best warrior this entire world has ever seen! I’ll be the greatest fighter ever!” 

Zackariah: “Do not misunderstand. Having a goal and having a dream are not things to shy away from, but if you aren’t careful there could be those who want to take advantage of your gullible and hyperactive nature. Be wary.”
Lila: “I’ll be fine. Cross my heart. Well- thanks for everything!” Lila started for the door, but Zackariah quickly called her back. 

Zackariah: “You know, with your fiery attitude, it could serve you much better in a more combative setting. I have a friend, Lyle Tealeaf, a Blacksmith not too much farther into town who may be able to give you some chance at the combat and fighting you’re looking for. It’s best to start out slow before jumping in and fighting everyone you meet. And while you’re there, could you drop this off with him?” Zackariah handed her a small wrapped package. 

Lila: “Hey, thanks man! I’ll get that right to him!”

[Lila Bloome 0]

Lila grabbed her satchel and carefully stuffed Zackariah’s package into the pouch.

Lila: “Alright, off to the wonderful Blacksmith. Lyle Tealeaf...What kind of a last name is Tealeaf anyway? Like...is that real? Or was the developer just that lazy that couldn’t think of any other name to give his NPCs...Or maybe his parents like...combined their names together in some weird joint way. That was probably an interesting conversation to have with the in-laws.” She laughed to herself as she walked further through town. As she looked around at the other players, she realized how alike everyone was. At least in the metaphorical sense. They were all their own main characters of their own stories- but at the end of the day, they were all just as miniscule as the next. Sure some rose to fame and opportunity, but what was the likelihood of anyone else making it before dying a gruesome death? 

Lila quickly came upon the blacksmith’s shop and gently knocked on the door, in an attempt to take heed of Zackariah’s advice. A tall and robust man opened the door. 

Lila: “Mr. Tealeaf, delivery from your favorite potion-maker!” She smiled, holding the package up to him.

Spoiler

Rewards:

SP: 2 Quest; 1 page; 1 event
Col: 400

- 5 Tier One Health Potions of Rare quality. (+40 HP)
- 1 Tier One Damage Potion of Uncommon quality. (+1 Damage)
- 1 Tier One Over-Health Potion of Special quality. (+50 HP to maximum HP for remainder of thread)