[F1-PP] First Steps in Aincrad <The First Lessons>

[Nicklaus 0]

It was now Nicklaus' turn to try to continue harvesting carrots. He had clearly not been using his own brain as he had forgotten what these orange colour vegetables with a green leaf that were grown in the soil was called. It was carrots. Rebekah had just showed him how to increase the quality of the harvest but taking better care of the harvested carrots instead of him just throwing it into the basket. He will now try that as she was able to get multiple materials from the same harvest.

He wondered if that was even possible, but Rebekah had just shown him it can be done. Because of that, she had leap frogged him in this race to get the most materials. Nicklaus was trying to get to five, but Rebekah was only going for as many as she could before the time was up. This was a fascinating race that was developing. He knew that he needed this to be done as soon as possible so that they could move onto the next field.

For some reason Rebekah wanted to switch up the harvesting and go to as many fields as possible. "Why can't we stay at this field?" Nicklaus asked.

ID 208667 | LD = 12
+ 1 Material

3/5 Materials

Edited April 16, 2022 by Nicklaus

[Rebekah 0]

Rebekah watched as Nicklaus had finally tied up the score three materials each. She knew that the only way to win was to get more than five materials, which means she only need three more. As he asked that question, Rebekah took a second to respond, "As a chef, it is hard to create food with a hundred pounds of carrots. I love picking variety of materials, which is why I would want to harvest a bit from each field. That way, I am able to put different combinations together and experiment a lot more in my cooking." Rebekah explained.

Since they both found something in this field, Rebekah walked over to the next field and started repeating the process. This time they were picking strawberry from the strawberry plant. This time, since the strawberries are above ground, Rebekah began to visual inspect each one before picking it. Unlike the carrots earlier, there was no need to harvest each one. There is no point picking an imperfect strawberry that may ruin the batch, and if it is not ripe enough, then it should not be harvested just yet.

Hopefully, Nicklaus was learning something from her today. She took a strawberry that she collected and gave it to Snowball her owl as a treat. Snowball began to eat it.

ID = 208668 | LD = 6 | CD = 4
Foraging (R3) - 247/299 EXP (+3)
(failed)

3 mat total

Edited April 16, 2022 by Rebekah

[Nicklaus 0]

He followed her sister over to the strawberry field, and began picking. As Nicklaus heard her sister's explanation, it does make sense. He would not want to be those people stuck with a fifty pound box of potatoes trying to think of ways to use it all up before they go bad. That would not be an appealing thing to do. Therefore, it would make sense that chefs want to have freedom, and that involves being able to creative. That all starts with be unrestricted in the choices of ingredients.

For Nicklaus, he was not a chef. All he cared about was trying to get this quest over so he can brew some potions and hopefully gain another level or two. He was not as patient as his younger sister. He was to the point, direct, harsh and in your face. However, he did not mind spending time with his sister. After all, she was the only person he trusted the most in their entire family. Therefore, Nicklaus continued to pick strawberries. He noticed she took a break to feed her wonderful owl. He was not impressed with Snowball, "I do not know how you find time to feed your owl in this race?" Nicklaus asked. It had taunted Snowball more than Rebekah as the owl had a bigger response than she did.

ID 208669 | LD = 3
(failed)

3/5 Materials

Edited April 16, 2022 by Nicklaus

[Rebekah 0]

When Nicklaus spoke those words, Snowball went ballistic once again. Sigh, why can't her owl and her older brother just get along for once? Rebekah was wondering if it was too much to ask. It was at that moment Snowball flew over to Nicklaus and started flying around to make it difficult for him to harvest strawberries. This was similar to what Snowball had done at the ocean last time which was trying to scare fish from being caught when Nicklaus was trying to learn how to fish.

This time, Rebekah was not going to stop them. It would help her out in finding materials so she could beat her older brother. The second thing is this would allow them to work out their issues with each other. After all, they were both typical males. It would not be good for her just to settle this for the two of them because they just get back into another fight behind her back. Even though, now would not be the ideal time, at least this was not happening in battle. She could see Nicklaus willing to be a tank, which would allow her to get him to help her out on a lot of the upcoming quests that she knows will be too difficult to solo all by herself. Therefore, the two of them can work out their differences now.

ID = 208670 | LD = 7 | CD = 1
Foraging (R3) - 250/299 EXP (+3)
(failed)

3 mat total

Edited April 16, 2022 by Rebekah

[Nicklaus 0]

That may have been a mistake saying those words. The moment those words were said, Rebekah ignored them. She had always ignored her taunts and moved on. However, the reaction of Snowball was the worst. He immediately flew over here and began harassing me as I started to collect materials. "Get away from me, you little bird." Nicklaus cursed at the white snowy owl. He looked at her sister for help to get her owl to stop but she was not even watching them.

"What is your problem?" Nicklaus said to the owl. The owl hooted in response but Nicklaus does not speak owl. He wondered if there is anything that he could do to get the bird to stop. It was getting annoying as the owl was hooting right in his face. At least the owl was not pecking him, it could have been a lot worst.

Nicklaus knew that he had to find a way to focus on the remainder of this search for materials. He decided that making bygones be bygones is a good idea by appologising to the owl. "I am sorry." He said. The owl immediately stop flying and looked at him in the eye. It looked like it wanted to say this is your last warning before flying back into the sky. Now, he could finally focus on harvesting strawberries once again.

ID 208671 | LD = 19
+1 Mat

4/5 Materials

Edited April 16, 2022 by Nicklaus

[Rebekah 0]

The moment that Snowball had stop fighting with my older brother was the exact moment he had found a fourth material. This means that he was finally nearing completion of this portion of the quest. Rebekah knew that she would have to up her game now, as it would be embarrassing to lose to someone who was not in the forager profession.

In addition, she was the expert gardener in the family. She knew how to harvest fruits and vegetables in real life, but now she was having trouble replicating the same results in virtual reality. This was a surprise to the pair of them. Rebekah knew that something was happening today, she was usually a lot better at this but for some reason there was something making her struggle with finding what she was looking for.

As Rebekah continued to get closer to filling up an entire basket of strawberries, she knew the end must be near. She was so close to earning a material in her inventory for her hard work of collect fruits in a basket. She knew she had been following the procedures carefully to collect a high quality harvest. She was focusing on quality over quantity. Hopefully this would work out well for Rebekah.

ID = 208672 | LD = 6 | CD = 3
Foraging (R3) - 253/299 EXP (+3)
(failed)

3 mat total

Edited April 16, 2022 by Rebekah

[Nicklaus 0]

It was finally time. Nicklaus only had one more material to look for next. Since they had finished the carrot field and the strawberries, it was now time for them to walk to the next field. This time Nicklaus got to pick, and he decided to pick one of his favourite vegetables. It was going to be kale leaves. The trick to kale was that you only harvest a few leaves at a time from each plant, always taking the oldest leaves, and letting the smaller younger leaves grow.

The plant can keep growing without some of it leaves, and Nicklaus loves to pull leaves off the plant. It also helped that kale chips were a healthy and fun snack to munch on growing up. Therefore, he began to work on the kale leaves, making sure he snap just enough off of each plant. He looked over and saw that Rebekah had given up on the strawberries and joined him right here. This time, Snowball was not around because the owl was not interested in kale.

This was fine for him as he did not have to deal with that owl who would probably make him rage and make matters worst than it actually is.

ID 208674 | LD = 3
(failed)

4/5 Materials

Edited April 16, 2022 by Nicklaus

[Rebekah 0]

Rebekah looked at her basket of strawberries. It was not going anywhere today. Therefore, she decided to follow Nicklaus over to his favourite plant, kale. She enjoyed planting and taking care of kale plants, since they can grow to very be very tall. All that is needed is just enough work taking care of the plants.

Rebekah also knew that Nicklaus was almost at the fifth material mark which would signal it would be end of their day. She was starting to get hungry so it would be amazing if they could finish soon. Rebekah also got to work harvesting kale, after all, these would be amazing to have some fresh kale in her shop, either for some new recipes such as smoothies or kale chips. This was the plant that she was most interested in harvesting today, yet it was her brother who lead them to this field. She got to work pulling leaves off the stems of the kale, and inspecting each leaf to make sure they were still green and had not began to wilt and turn yellow. That would not be a good idea to collect.

Snowball had flown off nearby to look for any monsters nearby. Luckily they were in a safe place where animals would want to avoid them at all costs.

ID = 208675 | LD = 4 | CD = 3
Foraging (R3) - 256/299 EXP (+3)
(failed)

3 mat total

Edited April 16, 2022 by Rebekah

[Nicklaus 0]

After the two of them had failed in their first attempt to harvest to harvest some delicious green kale, it was now Nicklaus' turn. He knew that he could also win this competition between the two of them right away if he can find something. That would be amazing as this will help set him up for success down the road. The ability to know that he can go up against one of the top players in the game and beat them in an individual challenge on finding materials. This would be a huge boost for his confidence if he could make sure and pick the right amount of kale leaves.

As he continued to harvest, he wondered whether or not it was practical to search for materials. He had learned to fish and might as well continue growing by fishing instead in the future. Nicklaus believed that this was the right choice, he hated foraging or searching for materials, he enjoyed the last time he spent with Rebekah a lot more and that was when he was still fishing. This foraging or searching sucks.

Now that he collected all 5 materials, it was time for them to get out of here and return back to the city. He turned to Rebekah, and asked, "I want your advice on how I should level up and become a front line tank? What should I focus in for items and skills."

ID 208712 | LD = 16
+ 1 Mat

5/5 Materials

Edited April 16, 2022 by Nicklaus

[Rebekah 0]

Nicklaus had won their competition of getting to five materials, so now they can finally head back to the alchemist shop so they can finish this quest. However, Nicklaus had asked her for advice. Even though, she was not a tank, she can still provide sage advice to her older brother.

"As a tank, you need to control hate and be able to have more hate than people such as myself. Therefore, there are two skills that I would highly recommend, which are fighting spirit and howl. Battle healing is very important since it allows you to passively heal in battle. In terms of other skills, there are a few other unique skills from quests that can give a small temporary boost to mitigation. I highly recommend going with a shield and a heavy armour. As a tank, you want your mitigation to be very high. With boosts, your mitigation can get close to three hundreds but anywhere in the high two hundreds would be fine." Rebekah explained trying not to overload the information.

"I think you should have a weapon even though you do not use it. It is very helpful as a solo individual to be able to kill things by yourself. You do not have to do it well, you just need to be able to land an odd hit here or there especially when the damage dealers need help. This is why I wear heavy armour and have decent mitigation. I can offtank or tank against a lot of the weaker monsters such as when I party with you until you get stronger." Rebekah explained.

"Also, the tank needs to be the leader since once the tank falls, the whole party will not last very long. But I have confident in you, older brother." Rebekah said.

With those words, they have finally reached back to Zackariah’s shop where Nicklaus can soon make the potions that he was waiting for all day.

[Nicklaus 0]

Nicklaus had finally arrived back at the alchemist's shop. As soon as he entered, he turned to the NPC, "Can you show me how to make potions now?" He asked. He was tired from today's work. As he listened to Rebekah speak, he was confident in his ability to be a tank, and would look into leveling up to get those skills as soon as possible.

Without speaking, Zackariah gave him instructions on a slip of paper. Nicklaus decided it was good enough, and began to mix together the potions following the instructions provided. He was making several batches at once but he was only able to keep the first successful potion. He had hoped the first one would be the one with perfect quality but he knew that he was never really that lucky. Therefore, he decided to follow the instructions as close as he could to the best of his own ability. It would not take too long as the results of the potions would soon be revealed.

Rebekah was in the shop looking on, but she was not saying anything as she cannot help him with this quest. He would have to face it all on his own. All of this work had paid off, Nicklaus ended with a perfect potion and receive the quest completion notification. It was now time for him to leave this shop.

ID 208713 | CD = 11
+ Perfect Potion

Edited April 17, 2022 by Nicklaus

[Rebekah 0]

Now that Nicklaus had finish this quest, it was finally time for Rebekah to go home and get some rest in the afternoon. This foraging work had made her very tired. She decided to say good bye to Nicklaus here, and offer him some day to show him around the fourth floor. She also motioned to her owl, Snowball to save goodbye, before entering the teleportation gate on the first floor. "Bye Nicklaus. See you later." Rebekah said.

Rebekah was finally home. Today had been a long day but it was finally worth it. However, after the latest update she knew she was not earning as much experience as before. It would take a lot longer to reach her targeted paragon level twenty five where the next set of rewards would be unlocked. Maybe she should see if there are any quests that Nicklaus and she both need after all. Given that the new rules, she need to work a lot harder to get the levels to be stronger.

 

Thread Summary:

Words: 7,711 / 10 = 771 7,445 / 10 = 744

 

Rebekah:
771 744 x 5 x 70% = 2,698 2,604 EXP
2,698 2,604 EXP x 15% = 404 390 Col
3 Materials

 

Nicklaus:
771 744 x 1 x 70% = 539 520 + 450 (Quest) = 989 970 EXP
1 Page = 400 Col + 500 Col (Quest) = 900 Col
5 Materials
Quest Reward Potions:
(5) T1 Uncommon Health Potions: Heals 5% of Maximum HP.
(1) T1 Uncommon Damage Potion: +1 DMG for an entire thread.
(1) T1 Uncommon Overhealth Potion: Adds 5% of Maximum HP to users Maximum HP for a thread.
(1) T1 Perfect Health Potion

Adjustments made with love by Nari-Lanreth.