SP: F1- <<Blade of Dreams>> Quest (Complete)

[Nathaniel 0]

Nathaniel strode confidently up to the door of the shop that had been described on the notice board. In the streets of the Town of Beginnings, there were few people at the moment, probably because of the fact that it was still morning, and the pace of living had settled down a bit since the initial shock of being trapped in SAO. People seemed to have accepted the fact that life was gonna be tough and dangerous. That boded well for the community as a whole.

 

Knocking on the door, which said, "Sai's Blades- Best Smith on Floor 1" Nathaniel said, "I'm coming in!" and pushed the door smoothly open. What he saw on the other side of the door surprised him, though.

 

Yes, the name he'd seen was, "Sai" so he was expecting a woman, but he wasn't expecting a woman who looked to be at MOST 16, probably closer to 14. Who probably weighed 90 pounds. 100 pounds max.

[Nathaniel 0]

"What? Got something in your eye?" She snapped, as she saw Nathaniel staring at her.

 

Realizing he'd been surprised to see a pretty girl, and hadn't really spoken to any in SAO at this point, he stopped staring at her, and looked down apologetically.

 

"I didn't mean to be rude. I hope I've not upset you." He said, bowing slightly, and trying to keep his composure, while also hoping he'd not upset the smith too much.

 

"Oh, it's fine. I just get tired of people coming in and being shocked that I'm not a big, burly man is all." She said, clearly hurt, and a little disappointed. As if she'd hoped that this customer would treat her with more respect.

 

Nathaniel shuffled sheepishly up to her, and cleared his throat, "So, I'd heard that if I can bring you the materials, you can make me a really good quality weapon. Is that the offer?" He looked her in the eyes now.

 

She began to look less upset, "Yeah, that's the deal. What kind of weapon do you want made?" She eyed the basic hunk of steel in his scabbard, "A spatha would seem to be a good match for something that length and weight, if you want a similar weapon." She remarked.

 

"Well, YOU'RE the Smith here. I'll trust your judgment." Nathaniel said, smiling, and hoping that she'd be happy with his accepting her thoughts.

 

"Well, if you want it to be good...Hmm...I'd suggest going to the corner of Floor 1 and clearing the skeletons there out of the mine. There should be some ore from the mine in the mine cars, or maybe there'll still be unmined veins...You may also be able to get some from the skeletons. They could have picked some up. That'll be all for the metal, and full-tang construction would be best for a spatha, so...That leaves one animal hide of some sort to be able to make the leather wrapping of the handle with."

 

As she detailed all of that, a Quest menu popped up, describing all the same things she did, and offering the options, "Accept" or "Cancel".

 

Hitting the accept button, Nathaniel said, "Sounds good to me." and smiled at Sai again.

 

"Alright. Go and get all that, and bring it back to me. And don't get yourself killed!" She said, cheerily.

 

"Right...thanks..." Nathaniel replied, stepping out of the shop, and going to leave the town.

[Nathaniel 0]

Walking out to the fields outside of the Town of Beginnings, Nathaniel took a deep breath as the fresh morning breeze blew over him, rustling the grass and mixing with the sunlight to provide a feeling of...joy. He actually felt real joy in this world. Despite all that had happened, despite the insane circumstances, he felt really joyful. And that made him feel a lot better. More reassured.

 

He unsheathed his blade, and strode alongside the road, looking for boars that might wander close to the road he was traveling on. After a good half-hour of walking towards the corner of the floor that had been marked on his map by the Quest, a boar in the fields wandered within dash-and-kill range of the road. Nathaniel immediately capitalized on it, rushing towards the boar, a familiar feeling of...predatory? excitement coming over him.

[Nathaniel 0]

Battle: 3 (Nathaniel misses)

 

Nathaniel rushed towards the boar, his heart almost fluttering, which he found odd. The boar though, at the last moment, turned to catch the blade on its tusk as it swung towards its face. It had blocked the strike, and now throwing the blade off it, it prepared to charge Nathaniel as he took a couple steps back.

[Nathaniel 0]

Mob: 5 (Boar Misses)

 

Nathaniel sidestepped the boar's charge, as it rushed blindly and angrily at him, attempting to gore him in the stomach. Nathaniel recovered quickly from this attack, but the boar came at him again, and again, forcing him to sidestep another couple times. He'd forgotten how fast these pigs could be.

[Nathaniel 0]

Battle: 5 (Nathaniel misses)

 

Nathaniel tried to lash out at the boar as he stepped back again, but brought himself too far out of range as he dodged, leaving his strike to hit empty air as he pulled himself back. Swinging at the boar again, determined to kill it, the beginner blade bounced harmlessly off its hip bone. Nathaniel had also forgotten that boars had pretty thick skin...

[Nathaniel 0]

Mob: 2 (Boar Misses)

 

The boar squealed angrily, furiously attempting to gore Nathaniel, but swinging so madly and blindly that Nathaniel was easily able to evade it. Nathaniel was thankful for how easy it was to dodge it, because the boar's tusks were crotch height on him, and that would be a REALLY unpleasant way to take damage...

[Nathaniel 0]

Battle: 7 (Nathaniel hits for 2 damage, killing the boar)

 

As the boar squealed and thrashed, it threw itself on balance, leaving Nathaniel an easy opening to stab it in the neck. He thrust the blade into the creature's neck, halfway to the hilt, before twisting the blade out, and watching the creature die in a burst of light.

 

Loot: 8

 

Unfortunately, upon searching the boar's inventory, he found it didn't have a hide to take for leather.

 

"Rgh." He groaned, "Am I gonna have to kill like, 10 of you to get some leather?" He complained, sighting down on another boar relatively near to the road, up ahead.

[Nathaniel 0]

Battle: 5 (Nathaniel missed)

 

He silently rushed the boar, blade flashing as he raised it to slice into the beast, but mis-stepped as he got within critical distance, and hit the boar, but it glanced off the animal's thick hide. Squealing in protest, the boar wheeled around to face Nathaniel, who had rushed past it and gotten ready to dodge the boar's charge.

[Nathaniel 0]

Mob: 7 (Boar misses, due to +1 Evasion from Sprint, and +1 Evasion from Brown Leather Vest)

 

The boar charged forward, squealing angrily, but only managed to put a light scratch on the leather vest Nathaniel was wearing, which quickly disappeared as the System's aesthetics protocols fixed the superficial damage. Nathaniel caught himself, dropping into a proper stance with proper footwork in preparation for his attack.

[Nathaniel 0]

Battle: 1 (Nathaniel done goofed)

 

Nathaniel stepped in, swinging down at the boar, but it reared up at just that moment, catching his blade on its tusks and kicking him back, setting him a little off balance. Knowing that the boar would try to rush him while he stumbled, he put his hand out to catch himself in case he'd need to.

[Nathaniel 0]

Mob: 8 (Boar hits Nathaniel for 1 damage)

 

The boar's rush was a little faster than Nathaniel was prepared for, and it managed to gore his right forearm as he caught himself and rolled away with his left hand. It wasn't a BAD injury, but it was still annoying. He rolled up into a standing position, preparing to spring at the boar.

[Nathaniel 0]

Battle: 5 (Nathaniel misses)

 

Nathaniel's attack came too late, he'd given the boar time to prepare as he'd rolled slowly to a stand, and the boar backed off too far for his flurry of strikes to land on anything but its tusks, causing no real damage but an ineffectual chip in its right tusk. Having overextended himself in that assault, Nathaniel prepared to go limp to avoid the boar's gore.

[Nathaniel 0]

Mob: 1 (Boar misses Nathaniel)

 

The boar wasn't expecting Nathaniel to drop prone, completely limp, so when it jumped over him, only clipping his rib with a hoof on accident, it was confused. Nathaniel rolled forwards to his feet as the boar turned to attack him again, and he smacked it in the side of the head with the flat of his blade, knocking it away again.

[Nathaniel 0]

Battle: 3 (Nathaniel missed)

 

Nathaniel swung his blade in a sweeping arc across its neck and spine, but it didn't penetrate the boar's thick skin, leaving it completely unharmed, and even angrier at him than before, Nathaniel took a distancing step back, and sprung a short distance away again, attempting to avoid the flailing tusks he knew were coming.

[Nathaniel 0]

Mob: 10 (Boar hits Nathaniel for 3 damage)

 

The boar sprang further forward than Nathaniel thought it could, and gored him in the gut, lacerating him through his armor, and hurting him pretty severely. Well, for a floor 1 boar, that is. Nathaniel grunted in pain, springing to the side of the boar after that wound, and prepared to strike.

[Nathaniel 0]

Battle: 1 (Nathaniel misses)

 

Nathaniel should have realized that sidestepping in plain view of the boar wasn't going to help him hit it, but he'd grown annoyed with this mob and how evasive it seemed to be. Stepping back to put distance between them, and prepare for its charge, he loosened his body up again, preparing to throw himself whichever way it wouldn't be.

[Nathaniel 0]

Mob: 2 (Boar Misses)

 

The boar lunged at Nathaniel, flailing its tusks around at him, trying to gore him again, but he kept throwing his body in different directions, avoiding whichever way the boar flailed its head. First to the right, then the left, and then stopping as it stopped to get its bearings again.

[Nathaniel 0]

Battle: 2 (Nathaniel misses for the umpteenth time)

 

Nathaniel stepped in to strike at the boar, hacking off the tip of its left tusk, but not doing any significant damage before the boar pressed into his blade, shoving him back and cutting off his assault.

 

"You've got to be F***ING kidding me!" He shouted, "I've been fighting this SAME BOAR for like, 3 minutes! How the hell is it so hard to f***ing hit?!"

[Nathaniel 0]

Mob: 3 (Boar misses)

 

The boar lunged towards Nathaniel, but Nathaniel was getting sick of this.

 

"I am TIRED-" he yelled, kicking the boar's head away, and knocking it dizzy, "of this S**T, and your STUPID F***ING DODGING!"