[SP-F1]Earning a Living (Quest-Xaner)

[Xaner Banefist 0]

Xaner was walking through the starter city, aimlessly. He had no idea what to do as he had no job, no creds, and no good weapons or armor. With a sigh, he was trying to figure out where he could go in order to find good loot, like in dungeons. In mid thought, he fell over as someone basically tackled him. Pushing him off of his body, Xaner asks, "What in the hell?"

The player gets up and says, "Sorry mate, but I got to get to see if I can join the weekly Smithing Competition. You know, the contest that awards lots of mats for the person who makes the best item. Anyways, sorry about that. Have a good day!"

And with that, the nameless player runs off and takes a right down the alleyway. And using this information, Xaner decides that it might be a good idea to try and take up Smithing as a profession. Opening his town map in his HUD, he finds the closest blacksmith around, which was just down the street.

[Xaner Banefist 0]

Xaner walks up to the door of the Blacksmith's shop, 'Jackie's Wares.' After thinking to himself that this was a very blunt name for a Smithery, Xaner knocks on the door of the establishment. To his surprise, a tomboyish girl opened the door and looked up at the 6 foot 6 inch tall Xaner, and says to him, "What the hell are you doing here? Are you here to buy some stuff or what?"

"I was wondering," Xaner began, "Would you be willing to take on an apprentice and teach me how to Smith?"

"Oh for the love of!..." The girl says out loud, irritably, "Look, I can't be bothered to teach some noob how to learn how to make priceless items. Now, if you may, let me make weapons for actual customers."

She was about to slam the door shut, but was pushed out of the way as Xaner forced himself into her shop. The place was in total disarray, as Xaner found out. There were good weapons, but it seemed as if she got her good items stolen overnight. The only things left were the cheap, dinky looking weapons. The tall, pale skinned Xaner looked at the girl with silver eyes, and says, "If you teach me how to smith, I will give you all the items you teach me to make to sell to your customers."

Xaner grinned as he realizes that he hit a the smooth spot, as a smile grew on the girl's face at the sound of being able to profit off of other's work. The girl hops her shattered counter and opens the door leading to the basement, saying to Xaner, "Okay, but first, you need to show me if you have the potential to make a weapon. All I need to you to make is quite easy for starting smithers. Make a longsword. Oh, by the way, the name is Jackie Myrah, if you couldn't already tell"

"The name is Xaner Banefist," Xaner replies and then simply follows her down into her basement and starts working on the sword, and in a good five hours, he completes his sword....

[Depending on the crafting roll for the next post, we'll see how good of a weapon Xaner makes]

[Xaner Banefist 0]

The sword Xaner made had a bends in the shaft of the blade, the tip was slightly dented, and the blade was skewed slightly to the right. It was a complete failure. Jackie picked up Xaner's crap sword and threw it against the wall and says, "You need a lot of help. And since you used up some of my materials to make that piece of shite, you'll need to go and get some resources. Luckily, this will teach you what materials are used to make certain items. Anyways, here," She tosses him a handbook, a rucksack bag, and an iron pickaxe, "This book shows you the names and appearances of the ores that you need to mine in caves. Now, all the safe caves are mostly picked clean, but that's because they don't have the balls to explore the dangerous caves that are filled with monsters."

She opens her Floor 1 map and points at a certain area in the middle of the forest. She says to Xaner, "This is the spot I recently spotted out, and it surely has plenty of resources to gather. You go there and grab as many resources you can without dying. Have fun" And with that, she grabs a couple materials out of a chest on her left and starts working on a better quality longsword.

Xaner puts the handbook and pickaxe in the rucksack bag, put the bag over his shoulder, and starts heading over towards the forest. Hopefully he won't run into any monsters, and if he does, well he hopes that he can take them out with the longsword he looted off that violent idiot he knocked out when he first came into SAO.

{For this, I will let Xaner's luck in enemy encounter be determined by the Crafting Dice... And how he deals with them by Combat Dice... and how many resources he finds with Looting Dice...}

[Crafting Dice] |||||||||||| {Combat Dice} |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| (Looting Dice)

[Roll 1-3 ~ 0 Goblin] |||||||| {Roll 1-3 ~ Barely kill one} |||||||||||||||||||(Roll 1-3 ~ Failure)

[Roll 4-6 ~ 1 Goblin] |||||||| {Roll 4-6 ~ Easy kill one, Barely kill two} ||||||| (Roll 4-6 ~ Barely any finds)

[Roll 7-9 ~ 2 Goblin] |||||||| {Roll 7-9 ~ Easy kill two, Barely kill three} ||||||| (Roll 7-9 ~ Decent finds)

[Roll 19-12 ~ 3 Goblin] |||||| {Roll 10-12 ~ Easy kill three} ||||||||||||||||| (Roll 10-12 ~ Great Finds)

[Xaner Banefist 0]

Xaner arrived at the location that Jackie gave him, barely arriving before sunset. He found the cave that she told him about, and she was right about it being dangerous. There was a single goblin there, which led Xaner to believe that there were probably more goblins nearby. Luckily, the goblin in front of the cave was sleeping, so Xaner was able to sneak up on the goblin, and slice it's head off without making too much sound. Xaner looted the goblin and found nothing. Great. But then again, he got all the effort he put in. Absolutely little effort needed to kill that goblin.

Entering the cave, Xaner opened the handbook and look around the cave, seeing that the cave's entrance was full of the basic resources that Jackie circled in the handbook. So, he spent the next hour filling his rucksack with these resources that he mined for the next two hours. He would have mined some more, but he was hearing noises outside the cave. They were probably the other goblins that were supposed to guard the cave, so he left with just a decent amount of materials.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He returned at Jackie's wares, and was about to knock until he heard rustling inside the building, and a scream. Xaner kicked open the door and saw that there was a player there robbing Jackie. Probably the same robber as last time, as he was equipped with a very expensive and shiny new mace. Xaner pulls out his longsword and........

{Will adapt story based on combat roll...}

[Xaner Banefist 0]

Xaner charges the player. However, because the littered weapons on the ground, Xaner trips over a shortsword and accidentally tackles the player to the ground, who let go of a helpless Jackie who ran into the basement.

Xaner lost his grip on his sword as he tripped, so he sat up and resorted to repeatedly punching the guy in the face multiple times. The player pushes Xaner off of him with a swing of his mace, effectively smacking the iron weapon against the side of Xaner's head. Xaner was now on the ground, and the player got up. The attacker raised his mace, to try and swing down and smash Xaner's head, but he staggered as Xaner kicked his knee, making the leg bend farther than it normally should. The pain travelling through the attacker's leg made him fall backward and drop his mace. Xaner then quickly pulls himself up using the empty weapon displays that were barely hanging onto the wall.

Xaner picks up the attacker by the collar and throws him into the wall, but this worked against him as the attacker was close to another weapon. The attacker blindly picked up the weapon and swung at Xaner's arm. Now, Xaner's arm would've been cut off if it wasn't for the fact that the attacker picked up the piece of shite longsword that Xaner crafted earlier that day. So, all that the attacker was able to do with Xaner's crap sword was to break the blade off the hilt. This surprised him, leaving him stunned for a couple of seconds as to realize what just happened. Using these couple of seconds, Xaner picks up the bag full of ores and resources he dropped at the front door due to the surprise of the robbery, and smashes the man over the head with the bag full of hard and dense ores. This final attack managed to knock the attacker unconcious and cause a nasty gash in his head.

Xaner drops the bloody bag of rocks by the basement door and loots the limp body of the attacker, finding a key and a piece of paper. Reading the paper, Xaner finds out that the man had been hired by another blacksmith to rob Jackie, and use the same items she made to sell at a profit for himself. However, the other blacksmith knew that Jackie would notice someone else selling hardware, so the things the robber stole were stored away at a local storage room.

[Xaner Banefist 0]

Opening the basement door, Xaner was met with a Jackie who swung a giant hammer at him, and barely stops the weapon, inches from his face. She pulls back her hammer and says to him, "I didn't think you'd make it... So did you get..?"

Xaner nods his head and says to her with a growing grin, "I also got you more... As this paper and key will lead you back to your stolen property." Jackie quickly swipes the paper and key out of his hands, and skims the paper.

Then Xaner nearly fell to the ground as Jackie surprise tackled-hugged him and kisses him on the cheek multiple times, saying, "OH, THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! If it wasn't for you, I probably would've lost my job and even my life. But now you got me an even better life as this scandal will drive that jackass blacksmith out of town, and you got me my stuff back! Oh thank you so much!"

Jackie releases the pale skinned man and took a couple steps back, and says with a smile, "You know, I'll teach you how to Smith like no other as payment for all you have done for me. So, after cleaning up the mess and transferring my items back to the shop, I'll officially teach you how to correctly Smith weapons and armor and other junk."

[Xaner Banefist 0]

After spending the entirety of the next three hours repairing the shop back to a presentable form until a professional carpenter comes in to make efficient repairs, a tired Jackie and Xaner sat against the wooden walls, in the only corner of the room that miraculously remained untouched by the actions of the robber, who currently hung upside-down, strung by the ankle, and mouth taped shut. The store was still slightly messy, but at least most of the glass and broken-weapon-debris have been cleaned up, showing a mostly clean wooden flooring.

Xaner looks at Jackie, who made Xaner seem like a giant compared to her being a full foot smaller than he, and finally examines the dainty and slightly dirty face under the dirty-blonde bangs of her ponytail haircut. Jackie rose her gaze, her Amethyst eyes meeting his silver ones, then turned away seconds later, Xaner having a glimpse of her tomato-red cheeks. The two emanated heat and sweat from carrying metal weapons and armor back and forth from the opposing blacksmith's hidden storage room on the other side of Starter City.

Xaner wipes the sweat off his forehead with the bottom of his shirt. Then he stood up, walked over to the bag, and lifted the hefty bag over his shoulder. He says to Jackie, "I'm going to start on another attempt at making a decent weapon, so I'll be down there if you need me." And just like that, he exited the room and started grabbing a handful of the ores out of the bag, and tries to follow Jackie's book of smithing as best as he can...

[Dice roll says...]

[Xaner Banefist 0]

(OOC: I hope to god this isn't going to happen every time I try to craft something xD. But, at least this gives me the opportunity to develop his character even more >:3)

[... the object crafted is even worse...]

In the midst of trying to work on the sword, Xaner tripped over a big chunk of copper ore that rolled out of the burlap sack, his face landing on the red-hot form of the mid-crafted shortsword. Xaner meant to take the sword to the water as it was probably completely finished and better than last time, but the sword shattered in two after coming into contact with his mouth, which the two split pieces' ends were sent upwards and then severely burnt his cheeks. What escaped Xaner's severely burn mouth was a cry of anguish that could wake the dead on Floor 10, let alone a living person on the floor above. Jackie came rushing down the stair almost moments after Xaner made that sound. She looked at Xaner's face and sees that the lower part of his face was suffering from a serious case of fourth-degree burns.

(OOC: To the readers, if you want to have a mental visualization of what happened to Xaner's lower face, imagine the messed-up-side's lower face of Two-Face from 'The Dark Knight' movie... NOW, imagine that across the entire lower part of Xaner's face [Only burns the lower face, the part of the face underneath the nose.]... Enjoy that gruesome visualization xD)

[Xaner Banefist 0]

Two painful days have passed, and Xaner finally woke up. It was bright outside, and the blinds weren't entirely closed... So the sunlight flew into the room and, unluckily for him, the sun had to shine directly in his eyes. He lifted his hand over his eyes, brushing against a rough piece of cloth around his face. This wouldn't have set off a huge alarm in his head, if it wasn't for the fact that he didn't feel his hand brush against his cheek. Rising out of the bed in a hurry, he scanned the room and found two doors that exited the room. He bet that the wooden door alongside the right of the wall was the bathroom door, seeing as he can see a glimpse of a light-blue tile floor underneath the crack of the door.

He ran to the door and swings it wide open, and finds Jackie drying off in a towel in there, the two meeting each other's eyes, and awkwardly standing there in shock of what they are seeing.

Five minutes later, Xaner is standing in front of the mirror, examining his pale face which now had a shade of purple underneath his left eye. But that wasn't what he was looking at. The man was looking at the guaze-bandages that wrapped all the way around the lower portion of his face/head, which were stained with light shades of red in some spots of the bandage. Then the memories started coming back to him. The pain from the burning metal that melted and seared his must have sent him into a state of shock, and the red-hot iron of the sword he made its mark.

Jackie was standing in the doorway, leaning against the archway. Her head tilted downwards, her eyes slightly drooping and tears forming at the edge of her eyes, as her sorrowful gaze watched the distraught man in complete shock of what happened.

[Xaner Banefist 0]

Jackie walked up to Xaner, put her hand on the shoulder, and says to him, "I am so sorry this happened... I should've been down there with you... I could've made sure this didn't happen... I-"

She was interrupted by Xaner putting his finger against her lips, silencing Jackie. He tried to move his mouth to make words come out of his mouth, but the instant he tried he felt a surging sense of pain traveling throughout his entire jaw. Jackie must've seen the strained look on his face, as she said in a cautious tone, "Don't try to talk... You burned your mouth two days ago. You should res-." Xaner shook his head no and made a motion of hammering, while feeling like a bloody fool as he tried to act out what he wanted to say. He was acting out his wanting of learning how to be a blacksmith.

Jackie was about to shout at Xaner, but decided against it as his eyes gave a cold, steadfast look in them that said something on the lines of 'If you don't let me/help me, I will do it alone if I have to.' Jackie reluctantly told Xaner in a hushed tone, "Fine, I'll teach you... As long as you take it one step at a time and won't attempt to try this on your own until you get experience..."

Jackie herself knew what it felt like to get burned, but not to the extent that Xaner got burned. She knew that it must've been hell for Xaner to endure all that pain, and also learned that he wasn't normal... Any normal person would steer clear of the Blacksmith work environment if they went through Xaner's experience; however Xaner literally wanted to continue his learning the instant he was able to. She thought that Xaner's determination was so great that he would go at any lengths to learn this, a quality she likes in people...

[Xaner Banefist 0]

... However, that was not the reason why Xaner was continuing. He wanted to continue this as he did not want to come out of this learning experience with only a totally messed up burn across his lower face. He wanted to actually come out of this experience with victory, not failure. He was not going to lose. He was not wanting to let a small hindrance beat him. He was going to succeed.

Xaner softly pushed Jackie out of the way with his hand, his hand practically freezing Jackie's shoulder. Jackie did not realize it, nor did Xaner, but that burn accident broke something inside the already unstable Xaner. Having the hot iron melt the flesh of the lower portion of his face ironically froze-over Xaner's already stone-cold-heart. He was different... He became different... He is different now.

Xaner walks downstairs slowly, followed by Jackie. Once the two reached the basement, Xaner sat down and waited to learn what Jackie had to teach him...

[Xaner Banefist 0]

(OOC: I am using the Loot dice rather than the crafting dice, as the loot will be knowledge... That, and I cannot trust my crafting rolls for jack squat for the entirety of this thread xD...)

Over the past week, Xaner has been learning so many things about how to be a blacksmith. Jackie was able to teach Xaner the correct and most efficient ways to pour the liquified ore into the casts, then immediately cool them down to workable temperatures. Another thing she taught him was how to locate the areas in which the metallurgy-related materials would be located at. Many other techniques, tips, tricks, and many other things were taught in that one week. The entire week, Xaner still had to wear that bandage and was unable to speak. The week went by very slowly to Xaner, as each passing moment felt like an eternity of pain. He hardly slept soundly, barely getting a couple hours of sleep each night. Whenever he couldn't sleep, Xaner would sneak downstairs and read textbooks that outlined the basics and the ins-and-outs of smithing...

After that gruesome week, was the moment of truth... Xaner was ready to take off his bandage. Although he didn't feel much pain anymore, he still couldn't feel anything in the areas where his face got burned in. Xaner was sitting on a stool in the bathroom, staring with silver deadpan eyes at his bandaged visage, showing to sign of visible emotions. Jackie slowly unwrapped Xaner's bandages, with each unwrapping revealing a bloodier layer of gauze covering the injured areas.

After four minutes of unwrapping, both Xaner and Jackie were starting to see what lied under all the bandages. Jackie, averted her gaze and turned her head upwards, only glancing down at his face every so often. Xaner didn't even flinch or react as more and more of the grotesqueness of his lower-face has been revealed. After 7 more unwraps, all the bloody gauze has been taken off of Xaner... Revealing his extremely burned, melted, charred, dead skin. His lower face looked almost exactly like the messed up side's lower face of Two-Face from the movie The Dark Knight, if the messed-up skin was only on the lower half of the face and stretched across his entire face. Jackie, once she took the entire sight of the lower face in, open the lid of the toilet and started puking into it due to this grotesque sight... Xaner just sat there... Unmoving, Unnervered, Unreacting... Just, looking at what he is now...

[Xaner Banefist 0]

As soon as Jackie regains her composure, she tried to face Xaner to speak to him, to express he apologies to him as that was extremely rude. His new-found appearance, however, made Jackie gag as she tried to resist the urge to puke. Quickly, she ran out of the room, shouting at him, "Wait there..." and opened the sliding door to the closet. She reached into a pile of clothing in the corner of the closet, pulling out random articles of clothing and the occasional junk/trash. A few seconds later, she pulled out a mask of a fox by the strap. She throws it into the bathroom and tells him to put it on.

Feeling like a bloody fool, the fox-masked Xaner walked out of the bathroom and says to her, "This is temporary... I need a replacement by the end of the day before I feel even more like a fool."

Nodding, Jackie takes Xaner by the wrist and drags him to the front door. And for the first time in over a week, Xaner left the house and into the sunlight...

[Xaner Banefist 0]

As Jackie dragged the fox-masked man down the streets of starter city, other players gave them weird looks. Well, it is irregular for a situation as this to occur, but better than having someone who looks part skeleton walk down the streets. Xaner's eyes observed each and every person on the street, the people who were able to be normal, to have normal lives, to look normal... Things that Xaner never could and now never would be able to do. Although he really didn't care, some part of him deep inside his soul grew animosity towards those people. While lost in thought, Jackie turned and dragged Xaner through the door of a tailor shop.

The shop was basic at best, albiet most of the clothing was for cosmetic changes. Apparently Jackie had been here before, as she instantly opened a cupboard where masks and face-cloths were kept within. She rummaged around for a couple seconds and managed to pull out an extremely long black scarf and threw it at Xaner. Jackie nodded towards the Xaner, as she headed to the cash register. She made sure the person at the register didn't watch Xaner as he took off the mask, and completely wrapped his face with the scarf. Jackie turned around, and Xaner was gone. She ran out the building in shock, but then bumped into his back as Xaner was barely out the doorway.

"Worried I was gonna run off? I still have a little more to learn," Xaner says, almost coldly. If Jackie didn't have some feelings for Xaner, she would have not shrugged it off like she does now, as she just says, "Heh, yeah. Well, we ought to be heading home." So Xaner followed her all the way home, wanting nothing more than to just be away from everyone ele...