[F01-PP] Getting Out There | <<The First Lesson>>

[Melissa 0]

"A shield would be good for tanking. More equipment to throw mitigation enhancements on to. I suppose an off-tank could work with a two-handed weapon, but I dunno...shields are probably much safer. I'm almost considering it myself, but like I said, I'm not certain on what I want to do yet. Right now, I think I'll just go along with some basic DPS, and if things get a bit too dicey for my tastes, then maybe I'll try to bulk up a little."

Still not having any luck, Melissa shook her head, twintails bouncing slightly. "Still nothing. This is like those quests in MMOs where they ask you to get bear hides, but not every bear drops one. Why is this taking so long?!" She kicked the ground and clicked her tongue once more, before drawing her blade. "Right, how about we break up the monotony with a mob or two? It'll be nice to do something other than try to pick these apparently super-rare flowers. Unless there's something you wanna do first?"

ID# 187935 | LD: 5 | No materials found

Edited April 9, 2021 by Melissa

[Astreya 0]

Treasure Roll:
ID# 187942 results:  Loot: 14 (Fail.  FML)

---

"Speaking of, you'll love the next quest after this one.  We go after boars, and we need to collect a bunch of boar tusks from them.  And not all of them drop a tusk, even though they all very clearly have boar tusks," the girl spoke, shaking her head with some annoyance at the situation.  "But even then that wasn't as bad as hunting these darn flowers.  Maybe because I was able to deal with the boars four at a time so I was getting a lot more done at once?" she asked, mostly just kind of thinking out loud.

Her ally finally gave into her frustration, demanding to fight against a mob to cut through the boredom of just hunting flowers. "Sure!  I'll let you just get some frustrations out and smack them around a bit," the girl offered with a grin.  "If you need help just holler my way and I'll come running.  If I get the last hit on it I'll get the treasure, and with my Thorns, they'll probably die as soon as they hit me," she offered with a laugh.

Edited April 9, 2021 by Astreya

[Melissa 0]

"Ugh, seriously? That's the worst kinda quest. I guess this'll let me get some practice in, though...", she muttered.

With a nod to Astreya, Melissa started moving out, already working on a plan in her head. Looking at the numbers, she could tell that her strongest Sword Art would be a oneshot, but that had a cooldown. Maybe letting them dash themselves against her dark-haired partner's Thorns, and then clean them up afterwards? Yeah, that seemed like it would work! At least, in her head. With the hand-and-a-half sword at the ready, Melissa approached a small pack of particularly stocky boars, with large tusks, and readied herself for her first real fight.

Immediately, she put her plan into action, and triggered her Sword Art. The redhead bent at the knees, sword raised horizontally towards the closest one...and struck, Cardinal carrying her towards the target and sending it flying back! Loot spilled from it and entered her inventory, one of which she saw being quite interesting. Gear and a consumable, nice! This was far better luck than they'd been having so far...

"Uh, hey, reckon you could take their aggro? You tank, right?"

 

Melissa uses [Straight] on Boar 1 for 4*5 = 20 damage. -5 EN

Melissa's stats:
 

Spoiler

 

HP: 20/20 | EN: 16/20 | ACC: 2 | EVA: 0| MIT: 0

Cooldowns: Straight, 1 turn

 

Enemy stats:
 

Spoiler

 

Boar 1: HP 0/20 | DMG 6 | EVA -2 | ACC +2

Boar 2: HP 20/20 | DMG 6 | EVA -2 | ACC +2

Boar 2: HP 20/20 | DMG 6 | EVA -2 | ACC +2

Boar 2: HP 20/20 | DMG 6 | EVA -2 | ACC +2

 

Loot:

Spoiler

140 col, T1 unidentified rare consumable, T1 unidentified rare armour/shield

ID# 187943 | BD: 8 (+2, Hit!)

ID# 187944 | LD: 16 | CD: 8

Edited April 9, 2021 by Melissa

[Astreya 0]

"I know, right?" the woman responded, shaking her head as she moved along beside the girl as they went to go look at picking a fight.  There was a good few options that were available, but it seemed like Melissa was going for the big guns here, choosing a pack of four boars.  "If you're sure about this," Astreya called out with a grin, moving to pull her sword from its holster on her back, readying herself as her partner went in, attacking one of the boars directly.

She scattered it to the winds easily- before calling for help.  Astreya grinned as she activated her Furious Howl ability, looking at the Boars as she pointed her sword out toward them. "C'mon you uglies!  You want to fight, we can fight!" she called out at them, and immediately two of the boars charged right at her.  A dull pair of 'thuds' from colliding with her rang out, both boars squealing from the damage her armor did to them.  The other one hung back, seemingly a bit scared to commit, here.

---

Astreya:
HP: 218/220 | EN: 38/40 | ACC: 1 | MIT: 30 | Regen: 1% | Thorns: 18 | Taunt: 2

Post Action: Furious Howl @ Boar2, Boar3, Boar4 | 2 EN consumed | 4 Hate generated on all targets

Boar2 Attack:
ID# 187945 results:  MOB: 6+2 = 8 (HIT!  Astreya takes 1 damage. 18 Thorns damage returned!)
Boar2:  HP 2/20 | DMG 6 | EVA -2 | ACC +2 | Astreya Hate: 4

Boar3 Attack:
ID# 187946 results:  MOB: 1 (Critical fail!)
Boar3:  HP 20/20 | DMG 6 | EVA -2 | ACC +2 | Astreya Hate: 4

Boar4 Attack:
ID# 187947 results:  MOB: 8+2 = 10 (HIT! Astreya takes 1 Damage.  18 Thorns damage returned!)
Boar4:  HP 2/20 | DMG 6 | EVA -2 | ACC +2 | Astreya Hate: 4

Edited April 9, 2021 by Astreya

[Melissa 0]

Melissa grinned a little to herself as Astreya joined the battle to direct their attention towards herself. That was good, because if she didn't, she was quite sure that those boars would have done quite the number on her. But as it was, she had a reliable tank friend to take the hits for her...and even hurt them in response, apparently, all thanks to those Thorns she'd mentione.

Fortunately, that had softened up the two that had struck for Melissa herself to swoop in and finish them off. She moved to put herself in a position where all three boars were in front, right after two of them had bounced off Astreya, and brought her blade to her side, strong leg forward. Allowing the system to guide her, she first made one horizontal sweep from right to left, then one that came back around. The two that were already hurt shattered into red pieces, depositing more col - as well as quite a few materials - into Melissa's inventory, while the third was on its last legs. The AI would probably end up killing itself against Astreya's thorns, which would mean no loot...but she'd rather that than being dead.

Melissa uses [Blast] on Boars 2, 3 and 4! 24 dmg to Boar 2, 16 dmg to Boar 3, 16 dmg to Boar 4.

Melissa's Stats:
 

Spoiler

 

HP: 20/20 | EN: 7/20 | ACC: 2 | EVA: 0| MIT: 0

Cooldowns: Blast, 2 turns

 

Enemy stats:
 

Spoiler

 

Boar 2: HP 20/20 | DMG 6 | EVA -2 | ACC +2

Boar 2: HP 4/20 | DMG 6 | EVA -2 | ACC +2

Boar 2: HP 20/20 | DMG 6 | EVA -2 | ACC +2

 

 

Rolls:

Spoiler

 

ID# 187948 | BD 10 (+2, Major Critical!)

ID# 187949 | BD 5 (+2, Hit!)

ID# 187950 | BD 7 (+2, Hit!)

ID# 187951 | LD 3 | CD 1

ID# 187952 | LD 1 | CD 2

 

Loot:

Spoiler

160 col, 6 t1 mats

 

Edited April 9, 2021 by Melissa

[Astreya 0]

"Aw yeah!  Nice work!" Astreya called to her ally who had used her attack to cut through both of the boars that had been dealt damage from her Thorns.  The remaining one had been struck as well- but hadn't been softened up at all so it was still kicking on its feet.  But all the same, Astreya had all the Hate on it right now, and the creature gave a snort before it didn't even seem to acknowledge that all of its allies were now little bits of data as it charged to Astreya.

The armored woman was currently looking her nails over, making sure that there was nothing amiss with them as the boar crashed into her with another dull 'thud' before the Thorns took effect, and the creature's last few HP were taken away, the boar vanishing in a burst of light like the others.  "Not too bad out there, Lissa!" Astreya called, grinning, setting her hands on her hips.  "Get anything good?" she asked, curiously.

---

Astreya Regenerates 2 HP from Battle Healing!  Back to 220!

Astreya:
HP: 219/220 | EN: 38/40 | ACC: 1 | MIT: 30 | Regen: 1% | Thorns: 18 | Taunt: 2

Post Action: Give self a manicure

Boar3 Attack:
ID# 187953 results:  MOB: 8 (Hit!  Astreya takes 1 Damage!  18 Thorns Damage!  Dead boar!)
Boar3:  HP 0/20 | DMG 6 | EVA -2 | ACC +2 | Astreya Hate: 4

Edited April 9, 2021 by Astreya

[Melissa 0]

Melissa wiped her forehead and sheathed her sword across her hip, before she placed a hand on her hip. That had worked out quite well, in the end! She'd gotten some col, some materials, and even a pretty lucky drop from that first one. Hopefully she could find an appraiser without much difficulty, so she could see if it was something useful. Huh, what would she do if it wasn't? Did SAO have a way to sell items? It must have, right? Ah, whatever, she could figure that out when they got there.

"Thanks. And yeah, from the first one. A rare consumable, and rare armour or shield. Guess I gotta get them appraised to find out what they are, though. A good start to monster-looting, I'd say."

With that said, she decided to get started on the actual looting they were supposed to be doing...and as luck would have it, this time she was successful! Beneath where the pack had been to start, Melissa found yet another herb that was necessary to complete the quest. "Aha. Maybe there's more around enemies, or something..."

ID# 187954 | LD: 16 | 1 Material found (3/5)

Edited April 9, 2021 by Melissa

[Astreya 0]

Materials Search:
ID# 187955 results:  Loot: 4 (Fail)

---

"That's awesome!" the girl spoke, cheering slightly at the good drops Melissa had gotten.  She'd been attacked by a few goblins early on in her quest to get these and she'd managed to take them all down and get a few nice trinkets off of them.  She tended to keep both of them on her person at all times just in case she needed to switch them out.  One was good for her beating up on monsters, and the other was good for tanking because it increased the amount of Hate she got from the monsters.

At the wondered thought, Astreya shrugged slightly.  "There might be.  It's been completely hit or miss from the folks I helped on this before," she admitted.  "Sometimes we found them all right away, other times it was very different and all over the place.  I think Zakariah just does it all over the place to have a laugh, if I'm being honest," she spoke, the woman frowning. 

Edited April 9, 2021 by Astreya

[Melissa 0]

Melissa stretched, rolling her shoulders as she continued to look around. What'd be after this, she wondered? Tutorial quests usually didn't end after the first one, so it was likely that Zackariah wasn't the debtor. In fact, it was almost guaranteed, since Astreya had just said herself that there was another quest after this. This seemed to be more about gathering materials, and the next was fighting boars...would there be more after that? There was probably another system or two yet to be introduced.

"What, does he put the materials out himself or something? If he weren't an NPC, I'd get angry at him, but they're not sentient enough for that...", she muttered as she continued to search. Fortunately, there was another herb to be found in the vicinity, and with a grin, she placed it into her inventory. "Aha, almost there. Only one more, though knowing the desire sensor, that's going to take the longest of them all..."

ID# 187956 | LD: 13 | 1 material found (4/5)

Edited April 9, 2021 by Melissa

[Astreya 0]

Materials Search:
ID# 187957 results:  Loot: 20 (1 Material Found!)

---

 

Astreya grinned at the other girl at her seeming frustration with Zakariah shared with her own.  "I mean, he might.  There's a lot of free time that he probably has.  It's not like there's a lot of folks that are still doing these quests now, right?  So he probably has all kinds of time.  That or maybe he has a different quest that tells people to come and plant the seeds out here that will grow into the herbs," she mused aloud, thinking to herself before she nearly tripped over something in the dirt.

"What the heck?" she asked, mostly just to herself, before she turned and knelt down.  A little pop up of "1 Material Gained" hovered on her HUD for a moment before she stood back up.  "Well dang.  I guess we're both getting lucky finding things," she spoke, grinning slightly before she made a gesture.  "C'mon- let's get that last one for you so Zakariah can teach you how to make a potion and give you some bonus EXP."

Edited April 9, 2021 by Astreya

[Melissa 0]

Melissa's twintails bobbed as she shook her head in a mixture of disbelief and frustration. Could he even safely come out here, what with the boars aggroing when you got in their radius? She supposed it was possible he just had some sytem-granted immunity to them so he could go about his job. That would make sense. She wished she could yell at him for it, but given that he was just an NPC with no control of his routine or anything like that, it wouldn't exactly accomplish much. Besides, it wouldn't do for the tutorial vendor to have a grudge on her...if NPCs could even hold grudges.

She put that thought out of her mind as she continued searching, and found the fifth and final herb they needed. "Lucky is the word! I guess killing those boars reset the RNG or something, given I just found three of these in a row. Let's start heading back to the town, yeah? The XP will be nice to have. Maybe I'll even jump a few levels."

ID# 187958 | LD: 14 | 1 material found (5/5)

Edited April 9, 2021 by Melissa

[Astreya 0]

"Oh awesome!" Astreya cheered as she saw Melissa holding up the final herb then for a moment.  "That makes five, so let's get going back to Zakariah.  He's going to want to teach you how to make a potion but it's not like it's hard.  At least I didn't think it was very hard," the woman spoke, frowning slightly in thought regarding the situation at hand.

She glanced back toward the Town of Beginnings, before she adjusted the weapon on her shoulder, looking back out to where the various creatures were milling about.  Her gaze flickered over them for a brief moment, before making sure that none of them were going to just rush out at them.  "Anyway, like I said before, this quest is pretty much the worst newbie quest in the history of ever with all of the RNG that's involved with it.  Hopefully the next one isn't gonna be too bad getting those boar tusks," she spoke, nodding.

[Melissa 0]

Potion-crafting, huh? So this quest was an introduction to both gathering and crafting. She supposed that made sense, since...well, you needed to gather to craft. "Well, I hope it isn't hard. And yes, I hope so. Are there any other annoying quests like these? I'm hoping not, but MMOs tend to have a good few of them..."

With her complaining done, Melissa started heading back to the Town of Beginnings. She'd gotten a bit used to sneaking about the edge of the aggro radi, so they managed to escape being accosted on the way back. When they finally returned to Zackariah, it turned out Astreya was right, and he now wanted Melissa to use those materials to craft a potion, with some extra provided by his shop. Fortunately, she didn't have to feel bad about using too much of his stock, because she managed to nail it first try! It was even a rare to boot, which was nice. However, apparently the alchemist wasn't the debtor, and so they were pushed along to the next.

"Well, that went pretty well. Wanna join me in the next one?"

ID# 187977 | CD: 8 | Rare Healing Potion obtained (HP Recovery II)

Edited April 10, 2021 by Melissa

[Astreya 0]

Astreya had helped to make sure that they weren't attacked by anything on the way back to Zakariah's shop, the young woman's gaze flickering to and fro even as the girls chatted about inconsequential things on the way back. She was a happy to have found someone else to chat with- there weren't many it seemed like, these days. 

 

She had helped (or so she claimed) to assist Melissa in crafting the potion with her cheering, a holdover from when she had been a cheerleader in high school- she tended to just have that pep no matter where she went.

 

As the other girl asked if she wanted to come along for the next one, Astreya lifted a hand to her chin in thought. "Actually, someone was waiting for me to come back to do the second one too. If it's okay with you, we can all do it together!" The girl called, decidedly excited for a group event.

[Melissa 0]

Summary:
 

Page Rewards:

Melissa: 200 col, 200xp

Astreya: 200 col, 400xp

Quest Rewards:
Melissa: 450xp, 500 col, 5 T1 Uncommon Health Potions (Heal 5% of max HP), 1 T1 Uncommon Damage Potion (+1 damage for thread), 1 T1 Uncommon Overhealth Potion (Add 5% of maximum HP to max Hp for thread), 1 T1 Rare Health Potion (Heal 10% of max HP)

Loot:

Melissa: 140 col, 1 T1 Rare Unidentified Consumable, 1 T1 Rare Unidentified Armour/Shield

Gathered:

Astreya: 1 T1 Material