[SP-F1] You’ve Gotta Start Somewhere (The First Few Lessons Are Free) <<Completed>>

[Ferox 0]

Almost Two Years ago...

The warm glow of dusk battered elegantly against the streets and buildings of New Beginnings, and the cacophony of players back from fetch quests and npcs going about their daily business filled the air with idle noise along with the faint lingering smell of fresh rain. One might call it peaceful if it wasn’t for the foreboding knowledge that everyone there is basically wearing a microwave. 

A player walked down the streets, his attention centered on the map in the menu before him. This is Ferox. He has sandy hair and hazel eyes, though they couldn’t be seen behind the closed leather visor he wore. He wore a full set of leather armor with small bits of metal dotting the leather and canvas in a predictable pattern. His sword at his back, wrapped in leather around the base and handle.

“Well, this certainly seems to be the place.” He said to himself as he came to a stop, before him was a building, similar in design to those buildings that covered ground like trees in a forest around him. Though this building was a bit different, it was slightly larger, definitely older, and had a rustic feel to it. The building itself was made of bricks overlapped in clay, which was beginning to crack in the elements, exposing the brick buried beneath. The building also consisted of wooden beams for braces and structure, these beams lined the corners and walls, and would sometimes cross in an “X” shape.  As Ferox drew closer, he began noticing the amount of detail that was put into the building itself, such as the old door with a sign nailed into the front reading “Please come in!”, and how some of the reddish bricks were protruding from the wall a bit, for example. The developers, despite having it be involved with such a tragedy, certainly put a lot of effort into this.

The moment he opened the door a new smell hit him, no longer the petrichor smell of wet grass and mud but rather the smell of unpleasant chemicals that were potent enough to leave a bitter taste on Ferox’s tongue. Inside of the brick house were shelves covered in every assortment of alchemical utilization, potions, beakers, ingredients, tubes, et cetera. Ferox walked in between the shelves in awe, slowly making his way into the main room. Inside this room, was a counter covered in clutter of the synthetic variety, and at this counter stood an old bearded man observing a strange fluid inside of a bottle. Strangely, for an old man, he looks a lot younger than should be expected of one.

“Hellooo~?” Ferox asked skeptically, unsure if he is supposed to go through his menu to get the quest. The old man lowered the container and looked at Ferox. 

“Hello! I am Zachariah, I’m here to teach you the fundamental basics of our world. Would you like to learn?” Zachariah said as a menu popped up in front of Ferox, it read;

Would you like to start the quest “The First Few Lessons Are Free”?

Ferox sighed before tapping a button, and the menu closed, Zachariah resumed:

“Excellent! Before we start I need you to fetch me some materials, don’t worry, these materials can be found pretty much anywhere outside of town. I bet you’ll have all five in no time!” Zachariah said in a tired but enthusiastic tone as the quest updated, displaying the objective. 

‘Collect five Tier 1 Materials (0/5 Collected)’

“Uh-huh.” Ferox murmured, sounding incredibly disinterested, before turning around and going out the way he came.

Edited November 15, 2020 by Ferox

[Ferox 0]

Ferox, now outside, took in a breath of fresh air, his lungs felt relief as the fumes that plagued Zachiriah’s home were no longer tormenting them. He opened his menu and made his way to the map, and set a marker for some field just outside of town, he then closed it and began walking in accordance with his compass. Navigating the monuments of clay and brick, he eventually made it to a large gate indicating the crossing out of town, and with only the slightest trace of hesitation in his mind, he crossed the threshold.

 

He followed the stone tiled roads that weaved and waned until his compass told him that he could no longer stay on the safe and visible path laid before him, instead indicating the thick vegetation at the left of the path was the direction he needed to go. With a sigh, he ventured into the thicket, and began searching for the ever so scarce material. The branches tore at his equipment as he passed, trying to maneuver around his visor to get to his face beneath and he began to notice that the more he went, the darker it seemed to get, as if the tree’s above were trying to swallow the sun, then he emerged at a small ridge. Ferox looked peered over the edge, the drop was only about twelve feet. That’s when he saw a beautiful violet flower growing out of the rock face, he laid down just barely teetering off the edge and reached as far as he could but it still was not enough. He needed something longer.

Spoiler

ID# 177512 results:

Loot: 12 | Failed

 

[Ferox 0]

The flower seemed so close, maybe he could cut it down and reach it with his sword? It was worth a shot. He pulled the large sword out of its scabbard, it was very thin, and only really was damaging if you were to stab with it, but he didn’t want to stab the flower he wanted to cut it down. He looked back over the short ridge at the flower, which waved back in the breeze as if taunting him. He crouched down by the ridge with his arms pulled back like a coiled snake ready to pounce, sword in hand. Ferox swung with all his might, hoping he could make up for the blades dullness with speed, and he missed. Instead, the swords swing threw off his balance, causing him to tumble downward off the small ridge, all while screaming bloody murder. He landed with a somewhat satisfying THUD, his sword clattering on the ground somewhere nearby. Ferox rolled over, looking back up at the flower, and staring at it with a burning hatred. 

 

“Uh-huh, alright. Ok, now this is personal.” He said to the flower, still giving it a cold stare.

Spoiler

ID# 177513 results:

Loot: 11 | Failed

Edited November 12, 2020 by Ferox
Typos

[Ferox 0]

Ferox dusted off his armor a bit before looking around for his sword which dropped nearby, he didn’t have to look very far as the gleam of dusk’s orange light off of the steel blade let him know exactly where it was. He walked over to pick it up, inspecting it for damage, and putting it back in it’s scabbard. He looked around a moment to inspect his new surroundings, he appeared to be on a dirt path up against the base of the ridge, on the other side of the ridge was a small field populated by a few trees. So far, nothing to be worried about, falling was a clumsy move on his part but one that didn’t have any consequences, yet. Turning his attention back to the flower, he noticed the rocky ridge had protrusions he could grip and hopefully climb on, as he realised this a smug and eager look grew across his face. He approached making large deliberate steps while keeping his eyes on the flower in a sort of taunt, anyone watching might just think he has lost it. He began climbing, he managed to make it five feet up before he felt the rock beneath him shift and give way to which made a last second decision to jump to the next one, and it worked, the flower was within a foot of his head, however he couldn’t reach it. He had nothing to stand on, and his hands were gripping the rock face, he was dangling helplessly. He looked down at his useless legs, and looked back up at the flower in front of him.

 

“Why you clever littl- You planned this, didn’t you?” He interrogated, to which the flower responded by fluttering weakly in the breeze.

Spoiler

ID# 177514 results:

 Loot: 7 | Failed

 

[Ferox 0]

Ferox sighed, trying to figure a way out of this situation, with that damned flower. He looked up at it, it was taunting him he just knew it, he was starting to get tired and was losing his grip. Kade maintained his position, he didn’t care if he fell as it wouldn’t kill him, he just needed the material. The material, however, would not be gotten, not now.

 

“This is just perfect isn’t it.” He muttered to himself. “I’ve been outmaneuvered by a plant, how does that even happe-.”

 

His brief monologue was cut even shorter by the sudden weightlessness he felt, that and he was falling. On the way down he hit the bottom of his chin on an exposed stone, then hitting the ground and rolling backwards, finally coming to rest in a sprawled out position in the middle of the dirt path and took a moment to contemplate what just happened.

 

 

Spoiler

ID# 177515 results:

Loot: 5 | Fail

 

[Ferox 0]

Ferox sat up, and stared at the stupid flower and it’s stupid purple petals, now agitated. 

 

“Alright if I can’t get up, I’ll just make you come down.” He told the flower in the absolute sanest way you can talk to a flower. 

 

He pulled his sword back out of it’s scabbard and started running at the rock face, he jumped, kicked off and swung, unfortunately he did not jump high enough. The flower continued to be a flower, and gravity continued to pull Kade back down, as is the way of life. This time Ferox actually managed to land on his feet. He turned back around and tried again, running, jumping, kicking, swinging, and each time with varying the distances to the flower. He went at this for about twenty minutes and eventually tired himself out, slumping down against the rock face while putting his free hand over his chest and panting.

Spoiler

ID# 177516 results:

Loot: 9 | Fail

[Ferox 0]

Kade stood up, turned around and looked at the flower with burning hatred in his hazel eyes, he backed up and tried again, and again, and a few more times for good measure all of which resulted in the same spectacular failures as previously mentioned. He dropped to his knees before the almighty flower and started screaming out of frustration.

 

“WHAT THEY HELL DO YOU WANT FROM ME GAME!?” He shouted at the inanimate purple flower, which as suspected, did not have a rebuttal or comment on Ferox’s protests. He grimaced, looked at his longsword, looked at the flower, looked back at the sword one final time, then wound up and threw it at the stupid plant.

 

The sword hit the flower cutting it at the stem cleanly, Kade watched in complete shock as the sword clattered back to the ground, the flower close behind, it daintily swayed in the breeze right to left as it fell to the ground before him. Still bewildered, he bent over and picked it up in silence, it glowed bright blue for a moment, then disappeared.

 

‘Collect five Tier 1 Materials (1/5 Collected)’

 

He quietly started laughing to himself over how ridiculous this whole encounter was, was he really angry at a flower? I was just a flower, and not even a real one at that. He picked up his sword, put it back in it’s scabbard and continued his search.

Spoiler

 

ID# 177528 results:

Loot: 16 | Success!

[Ferox 0]

Ferox decided that he would follow the dirt path a little more to see where it led and look for materials along the way, it was a very simple plan but very effective. So off he went on the path looking for splendid loot, which would be appreciated in pretty much any form as long as it wasn’t anymore violet purple flowers growing out of cliff edges.

He stopped, there was a large branch in the path. Ferox approached it, and knelt down, ripping one of the smaller branches off the larger one.

“Wood is a material, so… this is a material, right?” He asked no one in particular.

 

The branch he was holding glowed blue, then shattered into crystalline shards that floated around him momentarily.

 

“I’m gonna take that as a hard maybe…” He continued.

 

He started kicking at the large branch, slowly moving it off the path, once it was out of the way he continued.

Spoiler

 

ID# 177538 results:

Loot: 13 | Fail

 

 

[Ferox 0]

The path led over some hills and into a small clearing which had many features including but not limited to; a small pond with lily pads and the like, uneven green grass, and a few sapling oaks that filled the local area. 

 

“This looks promising.” He said softly, nodding ever so slightly. He went to work searching, he decided to start with the pond, partly because sifting through tall grass to get anything useful is tedious and would much rather enjoy kicking a wall for twenty minutes. So, he went to the pond, inside of this pond was slightly murky water with only three lily pads inside, one of these lily pads had a pink flower on it, so Ferox took it.

 

“Please be a material, please be a material…” He said to himself.

 

The flower glowed bright blue and disappeared, his objective updated indicating his success:

 

‘Collect five Tier 1 Materials (2/5 Collected)’

 

“Alright, looks like I’m making some progress…” Ferox commented.

 

Spoiler

 

ID# 177542 results:

Loot: 17

[Ferox 0]

There didn’t appear to be any more flowers on the lily pads, so he moved on, and decided to next search the area around the trees. From what he’s seen in other games, mushrooms like trees and will grow on dead ones or on the bark of living ones. So he investigated with the proficiency of a crazed forensic investigator looking for any trace of blood, and found nothing, the tree’s were perfectly healthy. He looked in the branches for any kind of fruit and found the same thing he had found countless times before, nothing, then he heard it, rustling, he stopped and listened. A squirrel jumped out at him jumping on the leather visor cover his face, which startled him enough to make him stumbled backwards onto the ground. The squirrel left as soon as it came.

 

“Well… that was a bust.” He said getting back to his feet, and looking around one last time.

Spoiler

 

ID# 177567 results:

Loot: 6 | Failed

 

 

[Ferox 0]

He began walking back down the path, a feeling had been gnawing at him from the inside out, he turned back around and looked at the grassy field before letting out a groan.

 

“Fine, I’ll search the grass.” He said, partly to humor himself and partly to reassure himself he didn’t miss anything. 

 

The search was as he had guessed, slow and tedious, which is about as fun as parting blades of grass are. Then he got a brilliant idea. If he cut down the grass it would also cut down whatever material plant is hidden there, so it would be much faster and more efficient. He pulled the sword back out of it’s scabbard, patted himself on the back, and began his improvised lawn mowing session. He must have cut down over half the field before finally there was something that didn’t shatter into shards in the shortened grass. It was a flower, it looked like an white and blue orchid, he picked it up and low and behold it glowed bright blue and vanished, display the updated quest objective;

 

‘Collect five Tier 1 Materials (3/5 Collected)’

 

“Alright, three down, two to go.” He reassured himself, as he believed this was all he needed to do. He just had to pick up alchemical ingredients, and that was all he focused on.

 

Spoiler

ID# 177571 results:

Loot: 16 | Success!

Edited November 15, 2020 by Ferox

[Ferox 0]

Having cut down the rest of the meadow with absolutely zero concern for environmental impact, Kade put his sword back into its scabbard. He went back to the crudely maintained dirt trail and followed it down further into the forest. The trail forked, and Kade decided to take a right, but to take note of the left side for later. The right trail weaved into a rocker part of the terrain, Kade grew cautious, he didn’t notice this area on his map before and had no idea if there were monsters or not. He pulled out his sword and readied it with one hand, leaving one hand free. That’s when he saw something that poked out from a large rock face, a white colored crystal substance, he climbed onto the flat rock face and pulled at the crystal with all his might, it came loose and he tumbled off with the crystal. Fortunately, neither him, nor the crystal were damaged. He looked at it for a moment, inspecting it, it kind of reminded him of salt. The rock began glowing blue and disappeared and once again, the quest objective updated;

 

‘Collect five Tier 1 Materials (4/5 Collected)’

 

He made a smile of approval, and quickly got to his feet looking around for any rocks of a similar color.

 

Spoiler

 

ID# 177572 results:

Loot: 17

 

 

Edited November 12, 2020 by Ferox

[Ferox 0]

Unfortunately, Ferox didn’t find any more of those brittle white rocks nearby, or any other material for that matter. Disappointed, he continued down the path which forked again, he once again went right, making a mental note to explore the neighboring part later. Kade decided to take a short break on the side of the path, just to rest his legs a little, and was distracted by the quickly fading light.

 

“Crap, what time is it?” Kade said, hurriedly opening his menu. The menu read “7:07 PM”.

 

“Dammit, I thought I’d have more time.” He muttered wearily, stretching out his arms before letting them rest beside him. He raised them once more to open his menu, and pull out a small square lantern which he fastened through a loop just above his right leg. The lantern only lit the path ahead, and not very well either as he could only see clearly five feet ahead, anything past that are just shapes and shadows.

 

Spoiler

 

ID# 177573 results:

Loot: 4 | Failed

[Ferox 0]

He got up and began walking down the path, at least until he thought he saw something shimmer off the path, perhaps a valuable material? Kade took his chances and went for it, as he emerged from the bushes he saw that what he was looking at was shimmering all right, but unfortunately for him the shimmering turned out to be the spinning red crystals of red eyed boars. They haven’t seen him yet, so he started backing away, and quickly found he had no idea where the path was anymore, it was a really thin path, maybe he just passed it and didn’t realise it? He turned around, avoiding the ominous red shimmering jewels in the distance, looking for the path. No luck, his lantern was ridiculously crappy, and he couldn’t make out his environment very well. So he did what everyone who has ever played an RPG has done, set a waypoint and followed it as closely as he possibly could. 

Spoiler

 

ID# 177583 results:

Loot: 7 - 1 (Darkness) | Failed

[Ferox 0]

He held out his arm to protect his head from the various branches trying to scrap at him as he marched into the darkness, stumbling ever so often on an exposed root. He strained his eyes on the path through the underground before him, even with the lantern on his belt loop he couldn’t see very far, and it was beginning to show.

 

As he was walking he saw something in his lantern's light, a small fruit growing from a tree, he reached for it knowing it must have some value. As he moved towards it, he felt a tug at his foot, it was caught in a root. He stumbled and rolled, and started tumbling down the slight incline the tree was on until he found himself in a small moonlit field. The moon was full and awfully bright, it lit the meadow in a faint white glow. In the distance, he could see the Town of New Beginnings. It was... majestic, in a strange way.

 

Ferox looked down at his belt fastened lantern, the flame was out and the glass was broken, it glowed a bright blue then shattered into hundreds of small crystalline shapes. There was no way he was going back into that forest to find that fruit, he wouldn’t be able to see anything anyway.

Spoiler

 

ID# 177586 results:

Loot: 1 - 1 (Darkness) | Failed

Edited November 14, 2020 by Ferox

[Ferox 0]

Ferox still needed at least one more material before he could return to Zachariah with his spoils, he didn’t seem to need the lantern with the moon’s bright light present, so he decided to search in the meadow. He recalled his strategy from earlier, where he cut down the grass revealing any material he cut down in the process, and since it was efficient he started swinging away.

 

Almost half an hour later and the entire meadow was cut cleanly, the crystal shards were the only thing that remained of the tall grasses and flowers, but he hadn’t found a single material. Maybe someone had already beat him to this spot? Either way, there was nothing here of value as far as he could tell. He opened his menu, accessed his map, and put a marker on his location with the note “Resource Scarce Area”. It was always better to be informed of things, this way he wouldn’t come back here by mistake.

 

He made his way closer to the Town of New Beginnings, planning on looking for that last material on his way there.

Spoiler

 

ID# 177826 results:

Loot: 8 | Failed

[Ferox 0]

The town was maybe a kilometer away now, according to his map he was approaching from the south side of the city. There was grasslands as far as the eye could see, Kerox was still swinging wildly towards the town, cutting down every blade of grass in his way hoping he’d luck out and happen upon a material. He started going in circles, making a larger and larger area of cut grass, anyone looking at it from above may have called it a crop circle. He didn’t find anything though, nothing but exhaustion. He panted as he fell backwards into the cut grass, spreading out like he was making a snow angel and staring up at the starry night. He then wondered how the developers of such a game will made the sky look so very real, he could feel the depth as he stared into that false infinity as if it truly was real, as if it truly was infinite. He couldn’t make out any constellations that he could recognize, so he tried to connect the shimmering white dots against the twilight. Making them up as he stared, and for a moment he was at peace.

Spoiler

 

ID# 177827 results:

Loot: 7

[Ferox 0]

After a while of staring with blind fascination, he snapped out of it. He sat up, grabbing the sword he placed to his right when he laid down earlier, and looked around to make sure he didn’t miss a spot. After he was satisfied with his little visual survey, he moved on. Walking through the waist high grass, and when he was about thirty meters away from where he was cutting earlier, he began a new. Slashing at the grass left and right, turning the over growing plants into shattered crystals that hung and swayed in the air like falling leaves before disappearing forever. Would he end like that? Just shattering into nothing before he could make something of himself? These somewhat deep thoughts were unfortunately interrupted by a loud clang. His swing was interrupted by something in the grass, it looked like a rock. Irritated, he flipped the sword upside down, holding it by the blade. He swung with all his might, hitting the rock with the reinforced leather wrapped metal handle. The rock began to chip. He swung again and again, until the rock shattered like the grass, but unlike the grass this rock has something to show for it, an ore, it was that same salt substance he encountered earlier. Grabbed it and watched the objective change as it disappeared into his inventory.

 

‘Collect 5 Tier One Materials (5/5 - Completed)

‘Return to Zachariah’

 

Although Ferox didn’t listen to his quest objective, not immediately, as also wanted some for himself, they could prove useful in the future. So he decided to try and get a few more.

Spoiler

 

ID# 177828 results:

Loot: 18 | Success!

 

 

Edited November 15, 2020 by Ferox

[Ferox 0]

He started to swing his way back to the Town of New Beginnings, slashing at any plant that was unfortunate enough to be in his path. He came upon a tree, a single tree in the middle of this vast area just a ways out of town. This struck him as odd. The grass around the tree wasn’t as tall as that of the rest of the fields, so out of sheer curiosity, Ferox approached it and began inspecting it, if it truly was a tree that held a fruit of some kind it was probably picked clean by the many players before him. I mean seriously, this tree’s placing is so abnormal in this field that it would attract anyone with experience in role playing games and the curiosity to match. Fortunately, luck was on his side, as he quickly noticed a magnificent ripe fruit in the middle branches of the tree. Ferox put his sword back into its scabbard which he had been holding it tightly since emerging from the grassy plains that surrounded the tree. He ran directly at the tree, kicked off it’s trunk, and grabbed hold of a branch above and began to climb towards the fruit, rather quickly too. He found himself a branch away, and he reached out and plucked it from it’s branches with one hand, the item disappeared into his inventory.

Spoiler

 

ID# 177829 results:

Loot: 17 | Success!

+1 Tier One Material

Edited November 15, 2020 by Ferox

[Ferox 0]

Ferox hung from the middle branches a moment before dropping to the ground, and managed to stick the landing, although he stumbled slightly and had to lean against the tree for support to rebalance himself although it was more of a ram then a lean. What he didn’t expect of that tree was for it to make a sound when he ran into it. It sounded like it was hollow. Ferox went around the other side of the tree and only now noticed a hole, like the kind where a bird might nest. He looked into it, and faintly saw a reflection of the beautiful glimmering moon in the sky behind him. He reached into the hole and pulled out a small lockbox, he was excited now. Had he found treasure? He opened it immediately, and the excitement on his face was killed in an instant.

 

“...and of course.” Ferox huffed before turning the lockbox upside down, nothing came out.

 

He tossed the small box over his shoulder into the field behind him, frustrated. He was no longer in the mood to search for any more materials, as that little encounter just killed it. 

Spoiler

 

ID# 177830 results:

Loot: 14 | Failed

Edited November 15, 2020 by Ferox