[F1-SP] Earning a Living: Gatherer

[Zerix 0]

As scary as it was, a game was still a game. Resources were everything. Zerix knew that. Gathering was an easy enough task, but getting something out of it was pretty RNG-dependent without an associated skill. Luckily, there was a mechanic in this game to help with that: the professions system, specifically the gathering professions. Zerix had heard about them before: you had to go on a little quest. There wasn’t supposed to be any combat involved, although in a world like this there was no real guarantee, but he could always run away if he had to, right? 

A little visit to the local tavern and Zerix was able to get the info he needed. Apparently, the quest giver was always moving around the floor, but she settled in a little forest just outside the Town of Beginnings. No one could tell him exactly where she was at any given time, but with a little searching, he could find her hut. It didn’t sound too bad and it meant he didn’t have to go through the Plains and risk running into any Boar or other monsters that normally spawn there. Sure the road was usually pretty safe, but this made him feel more comfortable. 

Spoiler

 

Zerix | Lv. 1 | HP: 20/20 | EN: 20/20 | DMG: 4 | ACC: 0 | EVA: 0 | LD: 0

Equipped Items: 

Starter Polearm | Vanity 

Battle-Ready Inventory: 

Starter Healing Potion (3) | Heals 50 HP

Skills: 

Polearm | Rank 1

 

 

[Zerix 0]

With the knowledge in mind, the quiet boy now made his way toward the gate at the edge of the Town of Beginnings. He had approached this gate many times before, sometimes crossed it, but usually didn’t. This time, he was determined enough that he did not even paused at the threshold. He just kept right on walking. He had his polearm, basic as it was, in hand, just in case, but didn’t feel like he would be needing it. 

Normally, he would just continue on the road ahead, but instead he turned and faced the forest on the right. It was here that he paused and took a deep breath to steal himself. Looking into the trees, he saw darkness ahead as the canopy created more shadows than it let through light. Instinctively, and for a split second, that screamed danger to him. But he couldn’t keep letting that stop him, even if he was alone. 

After the end of a long exhale, Zerix made himself take that first step, and then the second, and by the third he was already passing in between the first set of trees. From there, he was already into the forest and continuing to walk through the trees felt much easier. 

[Zerix 0]

As he moved through the forest, Zerix realized that his first impression hadn’t been quite correct. The forest wasn’t really all that dark. Perhaps it was merely anxiety influencing his perception, or that part of it happened to be a bit darker. Beams of light pierced the canopy in plenty of places, creating a rather beautiful effect, if he dared to think such a thing of this place. Admittedly, Zerix did allow himself to become slightly distracted, his neck craning as he followed trails of light upward to the dots of blue amidst the greenery above. 

Wait, no, focus. You’re here for a reason. Zerix thought to himself. He had to figure out where this NPC’s camp was. Rather than just aimlessly wandering around, it was probably best to utilize the <Searching> skill. It was still only Rank 0: the most basic level of perception available to anyone, but using the skill itself still had to have something of an effect. For such a basic question, surely you didn’t need more that the basic level abilities. Zerix was counting on that. 

Pulling up his menu, Zerix didn’t even have to scroll down the list to engage <Searching>. Suddenly, the menu disappeared and his world turned sepia for the briefest of moments. It was always a fascinating experience. 

[Zerix 0]

In that moment, Zerix felt attention being pulled toward a very faint smell. At the same time, his gaze was nudged skyward once again. Was that… smoke? Zerix could recognize the smell now. In the air, now he could see the thin wispy white curling up in one of the spots of blue sky he could see through the canopy. That could definitely be a campfire and should signal the NPC’s location. 

“Yes!” Zerix pumped his fist and whispered to himself excitedly. He was on the right trail, at the very least. That was cause for at least a little personal celebration. 

With renewed vigor, Zerix stepped off once again, moving in the direction of the smoke. Moving around the trees and through the brush was especially easy now that he had a concrete direction. His doubts had been pushed away! And sure enough, he thought he saw the flickering of fire and some movement in between some trunks ahead. He picked up his pace and scampered excitedly out into the clearing. 

There it was! He saw it, just as described, a little wooden wagon house on wheels sat in the midst of the clearing. The campfire was blazing and flickering. Perhaps that was the movement he saw, for there was no woman in immediate sight. 

[Zerix 0]

Of course, that changed almost as soon as Zerix slowed to halt in front of the fire. There was a creak and the wooden door on the side of the wagon house opened. Out stepped a rather surly looking woman with incredibly long blonde hair braided with mostly gathered flowers and a few jewels, clothed in a simple brown hooded robe. Her green cursor told him she was safe and the situation told him she was almost certainly the NPC he was looking for. 

Thankfully, Zerix didn’t even have to open her mouth for the NPC to engage him in conversation. Although, she did not seem to realize exactly what he was here for. Perhaps she was a multipurpose NPC, also having a herb shop of her own rather than just being a simple quest giver. That would make sense. 

“Um, I actually wanted to learn to gather herbs myself…” Zerix muttered tentatively in response. In response, her rather bored eyes seemed to lighten up a little, implying she was pleased by this turn of events. Immediately, her demeanor changed and she dug out a small compass to give to him. Zerix took it and turned it over in hand as she explained what exactly it did. 

[Zerix 0]

It was a small circular device, no different looking from any other compass, really. It looked a bit ornate, probably to get that fantasy aesthetic, Zerix was sure, and seemed heavily worn from use. The thing was, the arrow didn’t seem to want to settle down. It drifted this way and that way, spinning all the way around as it built momentum before slowing again. Zerix squinted at it and looked back up at the woman. 

“Uh, how does it work, exactly?” He asked tentatively, giving it a little shake. Surely this wasn’t all there was to it? Well, it was a skill in a video game after all. He probably didn’t actually need to have much practical knowledge. Some probably helped, but mostly it was handled by the system so ultimately, anyone could do it. 

Even so, she just gave an ominous chuckle aside a small smile, “If I told you that, it wouldn’t be a very effective test, now would it?” Of course she wasn’t going to tell him. He supposed even for a tutorial quest, that would just be too easy. 

Zerix shook his head and shrugged, now starting to turn with the compass a little. He began to meander this way and that, changing direction as the compass drifted. How to make it work? 

[Zerix 0]

Zerix watched the arrow moving north to south east, south east to north west, north west all the way around past south and up to north again. He struggled to follow it, wandering away from the wagon. Spinning all the way around, the world in his periphery began to blur and he almost stumbled aside. What the heck was he doing, he felt a bit silly. Looking up from the compass he realized he had almost turned to walk right into a tree! 

Frowning, Zerix realized that this wasn’t working at all. The <<Cursed Compass>> had certainly earned its name. There was probably some kind of trick to it. Following it like this probably wasn’t going to get him anywhere. He had to figure something else out. Right now, it just seemed to be meandering randomly. So, Zerix stopped moving and stood still. 

Instead of moving while following the compass, the quiet boy examined the forest ahead of him. He was at the edge of the clearing, with no idea where to go back in. The trees and bushes didn’t look particularly interesting and there weren’t any peculiar plants to gather. In any other game, there would be some kind of glint or something to give him a clue about what was something he should pick up, but not here. At least, not now. 

 

ID: 198624 | LD: 10 | Searching for Demonic Shard | Failure

Edited September 8, 2021 by Zerix

[Zerix 0]

Glancing down at the <<Cursed Compass>> and back up again at the wild edge, Zerix tried to search where the arrow pointed with his eyes. They darted back and forth. He even tossed his head over his shoulder to see the camp behind him. The NPC was just standing there with her arms folded and shaking her head. She seemed a bit disappointed. That made Zerix go a little red. 

Looking down at the compass face again, Zerix shook his head. Why should he care what an NPC thought of him, anyway? She wasn’t going to help him, so there was no shame in him having a little bit of trouble! Maybe the location was the problem. He hadn’t even left the clearing after all. Surely there wasn’t anything interesting where the quest started. If he found the Demonic Shard right at the edge, it wouldn’t be a very fun quest. 

So, Zerix began walking forward into the woods, once more crossing the threshold of trees. As he moved, he looked down at the compass periodically. He didn’t let it take his full attention like last time as long as it was still moving erratically. He just had to wait for it to figure itself out, but for now he hadn’t found a thing. 

 

ID: 198625 | LD: 6 | Searching for Demonic Shard | Failure

Edited September 8, 2021 by Zerix

[Zerix 0]

A sigh escaped his lips as Zerix was once again wandering aimlessly. It was just like trying to find the camp, but worse. This time he just had a compass that didn’t even work on his side. He moved forward in a straight line, unless he had to move around a tree, keeping watch on the compass as it swayed back and forth, back and forth. He just wanted it to find something, anything at all. 

And suddenly, just like that, the arrow quivered, stopping for a moment as it hadn’t done before. It suddenly turned and pointed very deliberately on the left diagonal. Zerix turned in the direction it was pointing until the arrow met with the N at the top of the face. Finally he had a direction! Zerix did a little silent fist pump and then marched on toward his target!

Just ahead and around a tree, Zerix found a plant that looked a bit out of place in the woods. It was stiff like a reed. But that couldn’t be it, right? It wasn’t a shard, nor did it look particularly demonic. He crouched next to it and looked down at the compass, shuffled around to the side and looked down again. No doubt about it. Touching the plan with one finger, Zerix felt the stiff material just before it shattered into a shower of light and flowed toward him, presumably into his inventory. 

ID: 198626 | LD: 16 | CD: 3 | Searching for Demonic Shard | Partial Success. Material found (1). 

Edited September 8, 2021 by Zerix

[Zerix 0]

Well, he’d found something at least. Zerix looked down at the <<Cursed Compass>> again, wondering what the heck had changed. He supposed he must have just wandered in range of the material. If that was the case, the thing didn’t seem to have a very wide radius. What use was it then? He couldn’t have had to walk more than ten meters or so to find the reed-like Material. 

With another heavy sigh, Zerix began to trudge on again. The arrow kept on meandering as it had when the NPC had first handed it to him. He just had to trust it for now. Move forward and see if he lucked into something, he supposed. He just had to keep on going. 

Look down, look up, look down, look up. The cycle continued on for some time. The arrow wandered this way and that with no sign of a quiver. He was walking a while before he realized things were starting to look real familiar. The trees began to thin out and before he knew it, Zerix was all the way back to where he started, the edge of the forest where he’d first entered. He had to be doing something wrong. 

 

ID: 198627 | LD: 8 | Searching for Demonic Shard | Failure

Edited September 8, 2021 by Zerix

[Zerix 0]

Ugh, this was such a disaster. How had Zerix gotten all the way back to the starting road? Had he really been wandering that far in one direction? Sure, he’d gone out of the clearing the way he’d came in. Maybe that was the problem. There was probably plenty more forest beyond the camp that was ripe with materials. He just was ditzy enough to turn around and go backward rather than forward. 

Grinding his teeth out of frustration, Zerix looked down at the <<Cursed Compass> and gave it a good shake. Of course, this did absolutely nothing but make the arrow spin even faster to the point nowhere. Exasperated, he flung his hands down to his sides, though still keeping a tight grip on the stupid compass. 

Looking up at the sky through the canopy, Zerix stared at the blue and white above for a moment. Wait a second… Maybe the <Searching> skill could help him out again! With his free hand, Zerix did a quick swipe up through the air to bring up the console and activate the skill again. Once more, there was a flash of sepia, but this time… nothing. It didn’t reveal anything at all. 

 

ID: 198628 | LD: 13 | Searching for Demonic Shard | Failure

Edited September 8, 2021 by Zerix

[Zerix 0]

Well, <Searching> was either out of the question, or all it did was extend his range a little and there was just nothing out there. Zerix double checked the <<Cursed Compass>> just in case, but that arrow was still meandering. So, what was left to do, but try something else? 

With his back to the forest’s edge again, Zerix marched forward once more, making sure he wasn’t retracing his steps exactly as he moved. This thing had to lead him somewhere, to something. He knew it wasn’t just a piece of junk. After all, it had led him to that one material. Wait a second… 

Once again, as Zerix looked down, the arrow quivered. He stopped on a dime and held the compass in both hands, until it settled to his right. Once again, he turned so the arrow was pointing straight ahead and followed it. It was just like before, nothing special, nothing different, he just followed it and moved around a tree until… he found another of those reed-like plants! 

Well, something was better than nothing. Once more, Zerix bent down, and poked the reed so that it flowed into his inventory. And with that out of the way, the search began anew!

 

ID: 198629 | LD: 19 | CD: 3 | Searching for Demonic Shard | Partial Success. Material found (1).

Edited September 8, 2021 by Zerix

[Zerix 0]

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