[SP-F1] «Earning a Living» (COMPLETE)

[Sayre 0]

Sayre darted through the streets of the city, to anyone watching him or taking a second to just catch a glimpse of him, he looked looked like he was on a mission. Perhaps this was the best way to look like he wasn't someone to mess with, the weakest people are always seen standing around, talking, spending money, and just generally wasting time. The hiliarious part of it all, is Sayre had literally no idea what he was doing or where he was darting to. He was simply running in aspiration that he might just find a place to belong to, or better yet some way to get some Col. Something he kept dreading on, is how much time he continued to waste here in Aincrad. Every second he wasn't doing something to obtain his idea of power, is a second lost. Wealth in it self is not important to him, in fact, he couldn't care less if his pocket was any more empty. He did however need Col for a sword, a shield, armor...a home. Col is a great bargain chip of its own. One of the greatest things Sayre ever learned is people will just about do anything for money, this tidbit of information helped him so much IRL, and Sayre knows it will translate just fine into the game. Caught in his own little world, he stumbled into an older gentleman, knocking them both onto the ground. 

 

Sayre reached out his hands, as a basket full of items went up into the air just barely out of grasp of his hands and the older gentlemans. "No!" he exclaimed, as he whipped his head around and watched as a few items smashed right in front of his eyes, the pixels flying into the air. "Oh, crap...just what I need, pay out of pocket to some old fool." He picked him self and the gentleman off of his knees, still hearing some items roll down the staircase into the black abyss. "Sir! I am SO sorry! I didn't see you there!" The older gentleman looked up, his eyes glassed over, a blank expression on his face. In fact, he didn't even look up at Sayre, he was..looking past him? "What is he thinking right now? Am I going to get murdered by some old coot an hour into the game?" The gentleman placed his hand on Sayre's shoulder, a smile began to form on his face as he erupt with laughter. Sayre's eyes blew wide open in confusion. "...Sir?"

 

"No worries, friend. It was merely an accident, and I recognize that. The misfortune of this entire situation is that I can't see, and why I was carrying my life's work through a bustling city is beyond my comprehension. I could not sleep at night if I demanded your help, but if you'd just help me locate some of the items that were lost, and perhaps gather a few of the herbs that were destroyed...you would make this old mans day." He smirked. He was an honest individual, and while turning around and running was a completely possible thing, he knew he couldn't do that to this man. 

 

Sayre rubbed his head in embarrassment, as he typically does. He thrust his hand into the blind man's, and shook it, "My name's Sayre. I'd be more than happy to make up for my wrong doing. Let me know what I'm looking for, and I'll get it all for you."

 

"Great! You really are doing this old man justice. With me, I was carrying a vial, a mortar and pestle combination, and a scroll fulled with my life's work. Those need to be found. If you could just gather some bone dust, and root, I'll be completely satisfied." Sayre smiled and nodded, helped the man take a seat, and ran off down the stairs. He thought the older man was going to run him for his money. "That's it? This'll be a cake walk."

 

[Sayre 0]

As Sayre stumbled down the stairs, it got progressively darker. His breathing intensified, his heart rate doubled, and he began slowly his progression down them as he got more cautious. These were his first steps into uncharted territory, there was no one down here. The moisture of the hallway, the echoes of each one of his footsteps, and the intense silence were all incredibly deafening. He kept an eye at his feet, curious why none of the items that rolled down here were at his feet yet. "There's no way they could have gone this far down...I hope the stuff didn't disappear, or something." The stairs stopped, and broke into a fork. "Is this a maze? What way do I go? I gotta get this old man his stuff back.." He glanced both directions, a faint light could be seen wandering down the left corridor, so he took off in that direction with a quick hustle hoping someone grabbed the stuff, however the light got farther and farther away. Just as he felt he was getting closer, a notification popped up right in front of his face!

 

 

Name: Earning a Living

Profession: Alchemist

Requirements: Locate my 5 items scattered through the dungeon below Aincrad, being mindful of animals or people that could be in possession of them.

 

Accept?

(O)   [X]

(stole your message template, Nikalus. :P )

 

Sayre grinned, although he felt a little cheated. The game felt so real and immersive,  "So this was all a game to this old man? He thinks he can one up me by tricking me into his quests? I'll show him. I'll find all that stuff, and become the best Alchemist Aincrad has ever seen!" He cleared the menu by accepting the quest, a satisfying ding followed. His footsteps picked up, as he knew he had to find this stuff, keeping in the back of his head mind of the danger that might follow with him taking this quest on.

[Sayre 0]

Sayre continued down the corridor, losing hope of finding anything to become an Alchemist, infact, he wondered why he was even wasting time with this if he didn't even intend for it to be a part of his grand scheme to become more powerful. "It's just another notch of many more to come, I've just got to find this stuff so I can start to get more powerful. I need to play smarter than this, obviously this isn't going to be easy. But becoming an alchemist will give me edge on so many of those weaklings stuck sitting around in the city center. I wonder why the old gentleman chose me?" he thought, as he began to shiver from the chilly corridors. Just as he was losing hope, he heard footsteps and scurrying down the hallway, he picked up his pace to a full on sprint. "Hey, I heard you! Stop!" the candle light on the walls began to flicker, as the shadow of a figure down the hallway began to fade farther down the corridor. "..who are you?" he inquired to the figure avoiding him, curious what he was about to stumble upon.

[Sayre 0]

The hallway seemed to get thinner the farther the two pressed on, perhaps this meant good news for Sayre, perhaps he was closing in on the end of a corridor and a chance to confront this mysterious person! As Sayre began closing in on them, they turned around, and for a brief second the two met eyes. Sayre gasped, "A girl? What is she doing with the stuff? None of this really makes any sense.." the girl proceeded to whip her hand back, and a bag went flying back and fell onto the ground. Dashing forward, he had a decision to make, lose what little ground he had and pick up the bag, or perhaps come back to it after he confronted the mysterious figure. He grabbed it and continued running. Shaking it for contents, it seemed promising, but he had to keep up on his adversary as he already lost some progress. The bag felt like it had a substantial weight to it, so he reached his hand in, hopes of finding something of value to his quest to become an alchemist. 

 

PERMA ID: 10330

Loot: 3 (fail)

 

Awesome! The bag had ripped up rags inside. Sayre dropped the contents and the bag onto the ground, and pressed on, picking up his speed. Disappointed by his lack of success with the contents, he had to catch up to this person and put this quest to a conclusion.

[Sayre 0]

Sayre was really closing in on this cloaked figure. A mysterious girl, he didn't even remotely recognize. The worst part of it all, is this chase could just be some sort of diversion. The only thing she was even carrying was a bag, which was thrust into Sayre's hands, and it carried nothing of importance. The girl ripped around a quick corner, and Sayre kept pace and quickly turned a corner. Just as he turned the corner, the girl lay on the ground in front of him, she clearly tripped on the ground beneath her in her intense sprint. "Stop!" he exclaimed, as she attempted to scurry forward. "Why are you running?! I just want to talk!" Her face looked expressionless, and actually filled with fear versus deceit. 

 

"Listen man, take what you want from me, just don't hurt me! I just started this game...please, I don't want to die." She said, sounding hopeless, dramatic, and worse of all...useless. Sayre facepalmed. This girl was a dead-end, she had nothing of value and that was. "Don't worry about it, I'm just looking for some stuff..I thought you had something of a friends. Sorry to scare you, and I'm even more sorry that I'm lost now." The girl looked puzzled. "I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about. I thought you were trying to hurt me. I'll tell you what though, I saw a group of guys go down this corridor, they could be down a bit further with that stuff you're talking about. They looked a little scary, I'd be careful though. Good luck!" And just like that, the girl picked her self up, composed herself, and put this whole situation behind her self. Sayre wishes it was only that easy, as this dead-end put him no closer to anything of value...

 

PERMA ID: 10332

Loot: 13 (fail)

[Sayre 0]

Sayre continued down the hallway, where it opened up with a blinding light into a large room. A huge golden chandelier hang from the middle of the room, there were dozens of tables and supplies scattered all over the room. It looked like an IRL chemistry classroom, except so much more elegant. The walls were lined with what looked like tree roots, the floor was an elegant silver tile. Quite a few people were gathered in this room, talking amongst each other, no one seemed to be of any danger. Had Sayre completely misinterpreted the mood of this dungeon? A large bulk of these men and women in this room seemed to be wearing cloaks, the atmosphere was a world more comfortable, and there looked to be alchemist supplies spread across the room. Sayre walked up to the man closest to the entrance-way, and began inquiring, "Excuse me, sir. Can I grab a minute of your time?" The man nodded, an innocent smile on his face. "Well, you see, I'm helping this elder gentleman find some supplies. The lot of them fell down the stairs into this corridor area, however, I can't really seem to find any of it. The worst part of it all, is it led me here, and I can't seem to find ANYTHING. I'm looking for a vial, a mortar and pestle combination, a scroll, bone dust, and root" The man nodded, listening intently the entire time.

 

"I understand your frustration. I sadly, have not come across any of those belongings. However, I'd be happy to help you in acquiring some of the items that can just be found in the wild. Down here, the lot of us are all helping each other learn Alchemy and toying with the possibilities of the game. Everyone you see here are all quite novices, and don't have much to them selves, let alone to be giving away to just any person that walks through the doors. I myself, can't even really afford to give you anything, but follow me." The man's cloak whisped around, as he turned and walked towards a small tree. "I've....never seen a tree underground before, like this. This whole area is actually really beautiful." The man nodded and smiled. "Here's a shovel you can borrow. Dig away at the ground here gently, be mindful the tree has obviously been apart of this room for a long, long time. Treat it with respect, and you're bound to get the root that you so desire."

 

"Great, another tool that talks in riddles." Sayre nodded, smiling extremely insincerely, and began furiously digging at the ground beneath him, however, nothing really seemed to come of it but dirt.

 

PERMA ID: 10335

Loot: 1 (fail) 

[Sayre 0]

"This old dude has me probably digging holes for him, so he doesn't have to. Is there really going to be the root down here? I guess it -is- a tree, so I probably shouldn't be so stupid. However the game might operate just a little more different than real life." Sayre pressed on, violently digging at the dirt, before he even realized he had formed a pretty large hole at the base of the tree, nothing really showed up around him. He kept up a constant dig with the shovel, in aspiration he may come across a root down here. He lifted it, pushed it into the ground, and hit something solid. Sayre's heart skipped a beat. "A root?!" he exclaimed, excitedly. Even the man from earlier peered over to see what he had hit with his shovel.

 

"My cooking pot! Thank you so much for finding this!! That's where I left it!" The dude rushed over, excited as ever and clutched his pot in perhaps the tightest embrace Sayre had ever seen in his life. "I love this dang thing!" he said, happily. Was that a tear that just fell from his face? Sayre facepalmed, and tried a new spot to dig for some root, still upset he hasn't found anything.

 

PERMA ID: 10337

Loot: 4 (fail)

[Sayre 0]

"You really suck at this...don't you?" the gentleman inquired, peering down at Sayre, as now he had dug the hole so deep that he was actually beneath the floor level now. All that had turned up was a ton of junk, nothing of any significant substance, and definitely nothing that will help him get more powerful. Sayre was actually beginning to lose hope that he would even get anywhere as an Alchemist, it seemed like a really promising profession, but was it worth his time in the grand scheme of things? He was really learning so much more stuff about the game, meeting new acquaintances along the way..but what was it all worth? He took his mighty shovel, and once again shoved it into the ground, jumping on the shovel to propel it further, and digging. To no avail, dirt just flung up in the air, and not even any cooking supplies this time. 

 

PERMA ID: 10339

Loot: 4 (fail)

 

Needless to say, Sayre was disheartened and tired of digging. He doesn't give up easily though, so he climbed up out of his hole, kneeled in front of the tree, and silently whispered to it. "Please, give me some hope that I'll be a great player. I know you can hear this, if that crazy old man is right, and you really are alive, I just need a root from your tree. I'll be on my way. That's it, one root!" A few feet back, you could hear the old man whispering to a colleague, "look at the crazy dude talking to the tree. Ha!"

 

[Sayre 0]

(rolling)

 

Sayre bent over, all the hope in the world put into this crappy shovel, and he dug quicker and quicker. He turned up so much dirt around the tree, it was almost entirely unearthed at this point, which probably posed a danger but he really didn't care. Dirt was flying up in the air everywhere, contents of the underground were splattering all over the tile above, but zero roots were to be found. "I've never felt worse about a quest in my life, this is the most pathetic display of digging anyone has ever seen. I've actually been digging so long, I almost forget what I'm looking for."

 

PERMA ID: 10340

Loot: 10 (fail)

 

The old man jumped down the hole, he actually looked pretty upset, and grabbed Sayre's shoulder. "I don't know how to say this to you, but I'm going to apologize. I took you to the wrong tree. I just checked my Alchemy notes, and come to find out that this tree actually doesn't drop anything, it's just for aesthetic purposes in the bottom of the dungeon, there's another tree I can take you to. Follow me!" And just like that, the man jumped up out of the hole, in just enough time to miss Sayre's face grow a beat red, as he had just wasted an hour digging in the stupid hole. He shoved the shovel into the ground, and flipped a last bit of dirt up at the old man as he headed towards another tree, ironically enough, it was just dirt that was picked up and thrown there as well.

 

PERMA ID: 10341

Loot: 9 (fail)

[Sayre 0]

Sayre jumped out of his hole, and followed the old man to the other room. However, nearby, he saw some alchemists walking away from the table they were working on. He walked over, and his eyes glazed over with dollar signs as he saw a root just laying on the table. All of his hard work will pay off at this very moment, as he slowly walked by the table, reached out his hand and ensured no one was looking and grabbed it - WHAM. The older gentleman smacked Sayre on his head, grabbed him, and dragged him back into the other room. "I'll show you to steal from my colleagues, lazy son-of-a.....how about you work for your stuff like the rest of them?" This led Sayre to sigh heavily, he was almost done with that part of the quest, sadly he was thrust into another room, and he has to start back all over trying to dig away for stuff again. 

 

PERMA ID: 10344

Loot: 6 (fail)

[Sayre 0]

As Sayre was plopped into the other room, a beast came rushing at him violently. Completely unaware of the situation, or what to do, he jumped out of the way. alchemists came running from all their different corners of the room, and were all in extreme awe, as one pushed through and said "Kill it, kill it! None of us are very capable at fight!" This led to another facepalm by Sayre, as he backed up away from the beast, and drew his short sword. "Why do these people have any faith in me? Little do they know, I've never actually been IN a battle...oh well, here goes nothing!" and went running at the tiny boar, yelling, his sword thrust forward as it drew a harsh gash into the boar, sending it rolling on the ground, he sighed, "....sucker."

 

 

[10346] BD: 9 LD: 14 MD: 2

Sayre: 7/7 (-0)

Boar 2/4 (-2)

[Sayre 0]

He watched as the Boar composed it self back up from the ground, it snarled at Sayre, and began dragging it's feet on the ground, looking like it's getting ready to charge at him. He gasped, the combat seemed to intensify from just a small scuffle to perhaps something a little more serious, although Sayre was pretty confident that the last hit he made really hurt the boar, as it was still struggling to even run at him. He smiled, beckoning the boar to begin running at him so he could have another stab at it. "Watch everyone, as I kill this boar, and take what's mine. You're dead!" 

 

And just like that, the beast thrust off the ground and headed directly towards Sayre. He gripped the hilt of his blade, and the two clashed. Everyone around erupted into complete laughter, as the both just kind of fell into each other, tumbled into the ground, and rolled away. Sayre's face grew beat red, and he backed up away from the boar, holding his sword at the height of his head, preparing for another attack. 

 

[10347] BD: 2 LD: 9 MD: 5

Sayre: 7/7 (-0)

Boar: 2/4 (-0)

[Sayre 0]

The boar growled again at him, and ran forward at Sayre. As the boars closed in on him and jumped up at his face, Sayre dashed underneath and took a swift swing at his sword, although the two continued to slide past each other and miss entirely, which was another shame. "My first battle is proving to be pretty insignificant, at least I know what I need to work on. I wish my first battle didn't have to be in front of such a huge audience, it's going to be pretty hard to be taken serious by any of these guys after this. No worries though, I'm going to kill this boar in just a few more moments and lay this entire moment to rest."

 

[10348] BD: 2 LD: 15 MD: 3

Sayre: 7/7 (-0)

Boar: 2/4 (-0)

 

Once again, he charged back at the beast, who was now not even paying attention to the surroundings around it, as it was so weak and stupid. Sayre took a giant swing at the beast, however in a hilarious fail, entirely missed and ended up swinging at the boar too soon, and rolled into it, sending them both tumbling away, and actually rolling into the crowd of Alchemists, who all gasped in fear and began backing up. Some of them actually left the room to resume their work and studies, once they found out that this was just one giant embarrassment of a fight. 

 

[10349] BD: 2 LD: 9 MD: 3

Sayre: 7/7 (-0)

Boar: 2/4 (-0)

 

As the two opponents were now coiled into each other, Sayre took the chance to draw back his sword and thrust it into the beast, who then took it's turn to take a bite at Sayre. The two rolled around on the ground, coiled in each other screaming in agony as both hits actually landed. Not only was Sayre in pain for the first time in the game, but he had confidence he was near done destroying the beast. The old man had not given up on the battle, as he chimed in from a distance: "It's weak! Just one more shot you need to land and you'll destroy it! I'll be excited to see what you get from this exchange! You can do it!" Sayre was able to muster up a laugh out of the motivation, as he rolled off the boar, keeping his weapon ready to deliver another blow as soon as he could. 

 

[10350] BD: 7 LD: 1 MD: 7

Sayre: 6/7 (-1)

Boar: 1/4 (-1)

[Sayre 0]

As Sayre was toying with his sword, in anticipation of killing the boar, it charged at him in a fit of screaming rage. The boar tumbled into him, throwing him onto the ground completely unprepared from the situation. In this exact moment, it taught him an important lesson in actually paying attention in battle and not getting over confident. This bite hurt additionally, but he was able to thrust the boar off of him and give him a second to fall back and try and rest before going at it one more time. "This battle has gone on entirely too long, boar. Time to meet your demise...it's been a good battle!" and it was in that moment that he recalled a move he watched his friend use back in the beta of SAO, a dash and stab technique. He needed to be a little bit more thoughtful in his attacks like his friend, versus swinging and praying for a hit. He gritted his teeth, and under his breath muttered, "Here goes nothing!"

 

[10351] BD: 4 LD: 11 MD: 7

Sayre: 5/7 (-1)

Boar: 1/4 (-0)

[Sayre 0]

As Sayre dashed forward, his blade thrust out like a lance, he stared the angry boar in the eyes. Sayre had a thought, this time he was going to try something different. As the boar, too, started rushing at Sayre, he dashed to the left at just the right time, and watched as the boar continued dashing forward..completely lost in it's own momentum. As Sayre had perspective on the stupid creature from the side, he pounced forward, once again sending the boar tumbling into the crowd (this time alone.) As the crowd all separated like a wave away from the beast, it began to get up, but by the time it was almost fully to its feet, Sayre came crashing down from the sky, his short sword out, and impaled the boar directly in the face. In a brief moment, everyone gasped. Anyone there, at that moment, could hear a pin drop, as none of them had really ever experienced a kill before. The boar evaporated into a blur of pixels that floated into the sky, and just like that, the boar was dead. 

 

Behind it, it didn't drop anything spectacular in Sayre's aspirations of growing stronger. What it did drop was extremely exciting, however. Somehow in its contents was the mortar and pestle that Sayre needed from his quest. Excited that he found at least one item, he trekked back over to the other tree, in aspiration of digging more for the root as well.

 

 

[10352] BD: 7 LD: 3 MD: 3

Sayre: 5/7 (-0)

Boar: 0/4 (-1) *DEAD*

QUEST ITEM DROPPED: Mortar and Pestle

[Sayre 0]

Sayre, shovel in hand, began digging again at the other tree. "I will get this root!" he exclaimed, and as he aggressively dug in anger, he began to accumulate a crowd around him again. People seemed really interested in his quest, and while it took far longer than most to kill the boar, people seemed interest in his ability moving forward. Sadly, the more he dug, the more he flung dirt around with little to nothing of value. More junk, he continued to sift through crap. "It's great all these people are watching, but how about they actually provide something of value to me? I've spent all night down here trying to get stuff for that old man, and guess what, NOTHING! What a sick, sad, waste of my time." Very discouraged and upset, he pressed on, if Sayre were to show up to the old man right now, he would just have a mortar and pestle to show for all of his hard work. It really looks like he was just screwing around the whole time, and Sayre carries him self very seriously, so even if he had to fling dirt into he died, he'd most likely do it.

 

PERMA ID: 10353

Loot: 13 (fail)

[Sayre 0]

Sayre had actually dug him self back into the ground beneath the tree, most people would have felt pretty discouraged at this point but that definitely wasn't the case this time. As time grew, as his muscles weakened, as others lost hope, he was actually excited by the ideas and power that his new profession was going to bring. He felt like he could actually do some serious things with all the skills he was soon to learn, and each moment he was down here digging, fighting, he actually felt his experience growing, which was really amazing. As he thought all this, mid-dig, he hit a rock. He smiled, and reached down and began pulling this huge rock from the ground, "Man, things are really turning up for me. I bet this is one of the things I need, or perhaps a chest full of treasure. Maybe that cooky old man wasn't so bad after all, maybe he actually wanted me to find this stuff." Sayre pulled, and pulled, and before he knew it he fell on his butt, with nothing but a dirt golem laying right on top of him. It's beady red eyes freaked Sayre out, he reached for his blade, and thrust it into the beast, sending it in a flight towards dirt.

 

[10354] BD: 9 LD: 9 MD: 5

Sayre: 5/7 (-0)

Dirt Golem: 2/4 (-2)

[Sayre 0]

Sayre drew back his sword and once again lunged his sword in aspiration that he would strike the beast again. His short blade glowed, the aurora around it excited as ever, struck the beast directly. Taken back by the hit, it fell to the ground, weak, and didn't hit Sayre with a return hit. "This could be the end of you, golem!" He exclaimed, preparing his blade again.

[10374] BD: 8 LD: 5 MD: 4

Sayre: 5/7 (-0)

Dirt Golem: 1/4 (-1)

[Sayre 0]

A shimmer of hope grew in Sayre's eyes, as he began running at the golem with all the hope of killing it. The last time around, he got one of the quest items he needed, and this time around he was hopeful he'd get another. It was imperative this time around for him to land the hit, because he was nearing low health and a couple critical hits could actually eliminate him from the game permanently.

As he ran at the golem, it too, began to run at him with a very irritated look in its face. This struck fear into Sayre, however, once again he struck his short sword out as the two collided in the middle of the dirt hole. To the spectators all that could be seen was a cloud of dirt, and all that could be heard was the pixely sound of elimination. As the cloud began to fade, the crowd that had formed again erupted into cheer, as Sayre lifted a scroll into the sky, the golem no where to be found.

[10352] BD: 9 LD: 5 MD: 9

Sayre: 3/7 (-2)

Golem: 0/4 (-2) *DEAD*

QUEST ITEM DROPPED: Scroll

[Sayre 0]

Sayre, excited about his two new wins as far as battles, and his two wins as far as stuff found for his quest, returned to digging. With all the success he he had fighting monsters it was hard to get back to digging, but there was no way he would risk certain death in one more battle. The sad part of it all, is yet again, dirt continued to fling into the sky. Sayre was convinced at this point that there would never be any success in finding the root, so he dropped his shovel and climbed from the hole.

PERMA ID: 10378

LD: 5 (fail)