[SP - F1] Earning a Living - Quest - COMPLETE!

[Mack 0]

Having spent a not insignificant amount of time wandering around in the grasslands immediately surrounding the starting city, Mack wandered back through the massive gates of the city around lunch time, having extracted one of the little breads from his inventory. As he passed through the gates of the city, he munched on the bread and considered his options. While it was true that he had earned enough experience points to make it to level two, it had been enough of a slogging grind that he was ready to try and find something that might rip off a far more substantial chunk of experience points. There was also the small matter of of his weapon not quite being something that could carry Mack through the game. Of course, no newbie weapon could do that.

Sighing, and muttering dark imprecations under his breath, Mack clomped through the town in search of a blacksmith's shop. The fastest, and likely cheapest in terms of col, way to complete the game would be to become a blacksmith. It stood to reason that any blacksmith in the city would be able to offer up the necessary quest for Mack to get started on that career path. Within a few moments he'd found his way into one of the market districts of the city. Everywhere, NPC vendors could be seen hawking their various low-level wares. Mack groaned. It was going to take some time to dig through this mass of vendors and shops to find a blacksmith. Still, there was nothing for it, so he plunged straight ahead down the street.

Edited August 7, 2015 by Mack

[Mack 0]

Pushing his way through the crowds of shoppers, Mack made his way among the various stalls and shops that made up this particular market district in the city. When it was necessary, he pushed his way through people that were in his way, not terribly caring one way or the other if they were player characters or NPC's. After all, he was in the city right now and the city was a safe zone, so there was nothing to worry about in terms of getting player killed since the only way to fight another player in the city was in an agreed upon duel and, at his level, Mack had no intention of getting into a duel with another player. That was a sure way to commit suicide.

At last, after almost thirty minutes of dealing with the crowds, the tall axe-man spied a sign that had an anvil and two crossed smithy hammers on it. If that wasn't a blacksmith's shop or forge, then nothing was. Pushing his way through the remaining crowd between himself and the shop Mack reached the heavy maple door and, wrapping his right hand around the handle, tugged it open before disappearing into the dark interior of the shop. Mack peered around at the basic goods that were for sale, all of which were outside of his price range for the moment. Even if he were to sell, literally, the clothes off of his back.

"Pretty pathetic looking axe you've got there," the smith said, a wide grin splitting his features. "I'd offer to sell you something better, but you're clearly too poor. Your only hope is to complete a quest for me and craft something better. Do you want to be a smith, or not?"

A window popped up in front of Mack, asking if he wanted to accept a quest called "Earning a Living - Blacksmith". Mack didn't even pause to consider the question, he simply reached out with his hand and tapped the "Yes" button. That done Mack rolled his head around on his shoulders and glared at the smith. ""What do I need to complete the quest," Mack asked in a demanding tone, crossing his bulging arms over his chest.

"You're cocky, this job will fix that problem," the Smith said, nodding in approval. "You need to bring me two ore items, one piece of lumber, and one leather. The leather can be either wolf or boar, it doesn't really matter. Once you have all the items return to me and I'll allow you to use my forge to craft a new weapon." Mack listened to the list of items that he would need to gather and nodded his head once in understanding. It seemed he was going to be headed back out into the wilds beyond the town to gather up the needed materials. Without another word he spun on his heel and exited the blacksmith's shop.

[Mack 0]

Emerging from the dimly lit blacksmith's shop back out into the street proper, near noon no less, Mack was forced to squint his grey eyes for a moment as his eyes readjusted to the noontime brightness, even in an area of the city like the market district that was, naturally, going to be a little bit more shade filled than other places. "Two ore, one lumber, and one leather," he muttered to himself, shrugging his massive shoulders and beginning to push through the mass of unwashed flesh that were the shoppers in the market district. "Should be able to get that done by this evening, with a little bit of luck." It would have been nice if his earlier creature slaughtering would have granted him at least one of the items that he needed for the quest, but Mack wasn't that lucky. All he'd made was a little bit of col and a few odds and ends trinkets.

Within half an hour he was passing back out through the gates of the city and into the surrounding grasslands. Obviously, to retrieve the lumber he needed he would have to head off in the direction of some of the forested regions and, since he assumed that retrieving the ore would probably mean he would have to do a spot of mining, it made the most logical sense to head off in the direction of some of the hills that seemed to be several miles in the distance. Finding a boar, or wolf, to kill along the way wouldn't prove to be all that difficult out here in the grasslands.

Following his own sort of direct line path to his destination, and not caring even slightly when his chosen path led him to deviate from the roadway, it wasn't long before the blonde warrior found the first thing he would need in his quest for a new and improved weapon, a hulking boar. Unsheathing his axe from across his back, Mack readied the weapon and began to stalk his prey.

[Mack 0]

ID: 26496
BD: 8
Mack: 11/11
Boar: 4/6 (-2 Dam.)

As Mack crept up on the boar he was careful to watch his step this time. He had a good chance to ambush the creature and, unlike the very first animal he'd ever faced in the world of SAO, he didn't want to alert this one to his presence simply because he stupidly was talking to himself or happened to step on a twig or small tree branch at an inopportune moment. Creeping a little bit closer to the boar, which still had it's back to him, the axe wielder tightened his grip on his weapon and was just about ready to leap from his place of concealment when the animal suddenly turned its profile to him.

So much for being able to launch a backstabbing sneak attack for the critical hit bonus. Mack exhaled softly through his nose.

Still, even without the advantage of a back stab he wasn't about to simply let this boar wander off. He didn't want to have to take the time to try and find another one when this one was ripe for the taking. Bursting suddenly out of the tall grass into a small dirt floored clearing Mack swung the axe in a vicious sideways cleave, slamming the axe head deep into the boar's side before ripping it free.

[Mack 0]

ID: 26497
MD: 6
Mack: 10/11 (-1 Dam)
Boar: 4/6

Faster than Mack would have thought was possible, the boar wheeled around and sank its teeth into his boot protected calf. Of course, since the boots were the simple newbie starting gear, they really didn't offer that much in the way of protection. The warrior swore loudly and smashed the butt of his axe handle squarely into the boar's head right between the eyes. The blow didn't cause any actual damage to the animal, but it surprised the boar for a split second since it clearly hadn't expected the attack. That was all Mack needed to rip his leg free from the boar's jaws. Raising his axe into a ready position, he backed slowly away from the boar and waited for another opportunity to strike to present itself.

[Mack 0]

ID: 26498
BD: 3
Mack: 10/11
Boar: 4/6

Mack and the boar circled each other warily. To this point in their duel to the death each had managed to land one successful strike on the other and, as far as Mack was concerned, he was winning the battle. After all, he had the higher damage rating of the two of them and the deeper health pool. Therefore, there was no good reason why he should lose this match. On top of that, he had no intention of being killed by a digital boar. What an embarrassing tombstone that would be in the real world.

"Here lies Stephen Mack. He died doing what he loved, right up to the point that a digital boar curb stomped him."

How embarrassing. To say nothing of pathetic. No, the little piggy had to die.

As the boar prepared to dart forward again, Mack launched a side swinging attack at the boar. It didn't connect, but that hadn't really been the point of the attack. All Mack had wanted to do was force the boar to back off a bit while he continued to search for an opening in its defenses, and he had certainly achieved that goal. The pair of combatants resumed circling one another.

[Mack 0]

ID: 26499
MD: 7
Mack: 9/11 (-1 Dam)
Boar: 4/6

Mack narrowed his grey eyes and sized up the boar, both of them stopping momentarily in their circling of one another. The boar snorted and the warrior growled right back at it, launching a wad of spittle that landed at the boar's feet. The message was obvious, though Mack doubted that the boar would be able to comprehend the insult. Nobody programmed a boar with that high of a level of A.I. The two combatants, man and beast, continued to glare daggers at one another, considering their next moves.

"Bring it, scruffy," Mack called in a derisive tone, taunting the beast. The boar, it seemed, was all too willing to oblige. It pawed the ground a couple of times and abruptly charged forward. Mack held out his weapon a little to the side, trying to imitate the bull fighters that everyone was familiar with. All he had to do was ole the boar and then smack it in the back. Unfortunately, the boar wasn't having any of that as it charged straight at him. At the last possible moment the blonde man tried to side step the boar, but he wasn't quite able to completely clear it. The animal clipped him with one of its tusks as it sprinted past and half spun Mack around. Quickly enough, though, he recovered from the attack and readied himself for the next round.
 

[Mack 0]

ID: 26500
BD: 1
Mack: 9/11
Boar: 4/6

This boar was proving to be a major pain in the rear. The first boar had not been nearly this difficult to kill. Why was this second one proving itself to be such a headache inducing pain? It made no logical sense, whatsoever. Growing in frustration the behemoth of a warrior raised his two handed battle axe above his head and, even though he didn't feel a sword skill click into place, he tomahawked the blade in the direction of the boar. Maybe, if he was lucky, it would smack the stupid creature and cause enough damage that it would die.

Apparently, though, the luck gods had completely abandoned him. The bristly brown beast tossed its head in a manner that could only be classified as haughty. It neatly intercepted the weapon and batted it to the side. Now Mack was without his axe and staring down an angry boar. Clearly, the game engine for SAO was not fond of players trying to turn their two-handed weapons into impromptu arrows. Lesson learned, now hopefully it wouldn't prove to be a deadly lesson.

[Mack 0]

ID: 26502 (entered wrong URL)
BD: 10
MD: 4
Mack: 9/11
Boar: 0/6 (-4 Dam)

This was going to take a bit of creativity. Yes, it most certainly was. There was no getting around it. Raising his fists, Mack dropped into a combat fighting stance that he'd learned from his combatives courses in the military. He didn't really think that the game would recognize those skills, since his player character lacked any ranks in a martial arts related skill. Still, it couldn't really hurt, right? Slowly he began to circle away from where his weapon had landed. Apparently, this boar had a smarter than average A.I., he doubted it would let him circle to the axe and simply pick it back up.

The pair of them circled for a few seconds until the weapon was directly behind the boar. Sensing that it had the advantage, the boar chose that moment to charge. "Damn," Mack swore loudly as the boar bore down on him. When it was close the blonde man sprang into the air and did the splits. Or, as close as he could get to the splits. Which was not that close. But, it was good enough. Placing his hands down on the boar's  back he vaulted over the beast in a considerably less than graceful maneuver. Still, it got the job done since the creature missed its attack.

Of course, that didn't mean that Mack landed on his feet. He wasn't exactly a cat, after all. Thudding down on his knees, the warrior scrambled forward and wrapped his hands around the haft of his axe as the boar wheeled around and charged at his exposed back. In an act of desperation, Mack pivoted on his left knee and swung the axe full force across his body. To his shock, the blade slammed into the boar's neck. Mack gave it a rough jerk and heard an audible crack as the boar's neck snapped. The beast toppled over and the warrior rose to his feet.

Problem solved.

Peering around where the animal had dissolved he was disappointed to see that there was no little patch of col. But, at least the rotten beast had dropped a small roll of leather. He snatched it up and added it to his inventory. One item down, now to go and collect the easy stuff.

[Mack 0]

With the leather collected, the only item that would require actual combat to collect, Mack felt fairly confident that the rest of the quest items would prove to be a breeze. Relatively speaking. Head over to the forest. Smack a tree for a bit until some lumber came out of it. Find a mind. Smack some rocks until some ore was collected. Really, how hard could this possibly be? A time consuming grind, sure. Difficult, probably not. 

"Course, now that I'm thinking that this will take three days and get me nearly killed at least twice. Probably there's some kind of boss or mini-boss that will be several levels above me and nearly impossible to kill," the surly warrior grumbled to himself, sheathing his axe. There had to be some nasty twists and turns in this game. So far things were way to straight forward. Eventually there would come a twist and, in a game with a hundred floors, there would almost certainly be a significant number of twists.

Throwing his shoulders back and scanning the horizon and the sky, Mack continued to head off in the direction of the edge of the grasslands where they met the forest. Since there still appeared, at least, to be plenty of time left in the day the blonde would have plenty of time to search around for a tree that he liked. If this was going to be a weapon that he personally crafted and would be using for awhile he wanted it to at least look nice even if it did wind up being barely more functional than his beginning weapon, which seemed probable. Low level players didn't get top of the shelf weapons in any MMORPG and Mack doubted that SAO would be any different in this regard.

[Mack 0]

As he moved through the grasslands, trudging off in the direction of the edge of the woods, Mack couldn't help but to notice and even enjoy the breeze that was whipping across the gently sloping grass covered hills of this area that had been specifically designed for new players. As the well-built blonde fighter crossed the plains he paid a special compliment to the excellent coding in Sword Art Online, noting that the cardinal feather that was tied to haft of his battle axe just under the weapon's blade was fluttering loosely in the breeze as it blew down out of the north. While Mack kept his grey eyes locked on his final destination, the edge of the wood, he was also careful to continue scanning the skies for any potential attacks that might be coming his way. The encounter with the eagle had taught him that, in this game, an unprovoked and unexpected attack could come from anywhere at any time.

[Mack 0]

ID: 26600
LD: 13

Reaching the edge of the forested area that butted up against the edge of the grasslands, and likely denoted a barrier between the truly low-level area of the grasslands and an area of the first floor where slightly higher enemies might be found and challenged, Mack slowed his advance to a more sedate walk and unslung his axe from his back, bringing it into a ready position. Slowly, he began to move along the edge of the forest, looking for just the right tree. What he really wanted was some ebony or teak wood and, while those might be found in a beginning floor forest the blonde man thought it was far more probable that they probably wouldn't truly be available until the higher floors and levels.

Still, a nice mahogany would do.

Slowly, Mack wandered along the edge of the forest looking for just the right tree. It may have taken a bit longer than he would have liked, close to an hour really, but at last he located a tree that seemed like a good candidate to give him the kind of lumber that he wanted. Approaching the tree, his two-handed axe at the ready, Mack swung the axe back and thunked it into the tree. There was a very satisfying, if dull sounding, thud, as the blade bit into the trunk. Unfortunately, nothing happened.

[Mack 0]

ID: 26604
LD: 19

After his first unsuccessful attempt to harvest some lumber from the tree the hefty blonde took a step back from the tree and narrowed his eyes. It couldn't possibly be that difficult to obtain simple crafting materials from a tree. Really, the game creators could not possibly be that evil. The axe man considered, for a moment, his lumbering foe with narrowed grey eyes, distastefully eyeing the tree as if it owed him something. Which, in this case, it did to his way of thinking anyway. He'd spent good time and effort tracking down just the right tree. He was not about to let the tree dictate to him whether or not it would be providing the crafting materials he required. Spitting into his palms, Mack took up his axe and swung the blade back before slamming it into the tree once more. This time, he was rewarded with an item pick up.

"That's more like it," he growled, picking up the mahogany lumber and adding it to his stored inventory. Now, all that was left was to track down the two pieces of ore that he needed.

[Mack 0]

With half of the items he needed to complete the quest, and become a blacksmith, safely in his possession the only items that he still needed to acquire were the ores. After all, an axe would look pretty silly without a blade. There was also the slight matter that an axe handle itself would make a fairly pathetic club. That meant that the metal for the blade was of the utmost necessity. Pulling up his inventory for a moment, after making sure that he was in no apparent immediate danger of being attacked while he did so, Mack considered the map information that he had grabbed in the starting city. Several players had gone public with their map data, which was extremely helpful, since it meant that the blonde man would not now have to potentially spend several days simply looking for for a stupid mine. According to his map, the nearest mine was about a mile west of his current position and, maybe, a quarter mile into the forest proper. That shouldn't prove too difficult to get to.

[Mack 0]

ID: 26615
LD: 13

Mack continued to make his way along the edge of the forest, heading for the entry point that would allow him to reach the entrance of the mine with the shortest possible distance being traversed actually within the forest proper. It wasn’t that he was terribly afraid or concerned about entering the forest and having to deal with any of the creatures that might call it home. He didn’t think anything in the forest was likely to be much above level six or seven. Tough fights, if it came to that, but nothing he shouldn’t be able to handle.

However, since he was on a time deadline, though it was self-imposed, to complete this quest before dark the warrior was concerned with getting everything done as quickly and efficiently as possible. Reaching his entry point into the forest, Mack wasted no time in plunging right in. Moving at a steady jog he covered the short distance to the edge of the mine, which was marked by a slightly rusting sign and a pair of torches at the entrance.

Battle axe in hand, the hulking warrior disappeared into the mouth of the mine and headed directly in. Reaching the first ore deposit, he considered his options. After several minutes of pondering, with nothing else occurring to him, Mack unslung his axe and swung it into the ore vein. Nothing happened. The big man considered the ore vein and his axe for a moment, weighing his options.

[Mack 0]

ID: 26617
LD: 8
Mack: 10/11 (-1 Dam., self inflicted)

Mack considered the problem of how to harvest the ore in the dim light that was afforded to him by an air shaft in the mine. There had to be a way to harvest the mineral ore from the vein. However, what that method was did not seem to be readily apparent. Mack rubbed his chin and considered the options. Perhaps this was another one of those situations like he'd had with the tree earlier where the players were not guaranteed to find an item every single time they made the attempt. That made sense, he supposed. Besides, with the tree it had only taken two tries to be able to harvest the lumber he wanted.

With a grunt, Mack swung his axe into the ore vein again. Nothing happened. That was aggravating. Extremely so. "What do you want from me, game?!?," the soldier bellowed in frustration at the ore vein, one of the arteries in his neck throbbing. "Give me the ore! I need the ore! Are you too good to give me the ore?!?"

He spat on the ore vein and then aimed a sharp kick at the ore vein. That didn't succeed in getting him the item he wanted either, though it did cause him to injure his foot. That only added to the axe-wielders impotent rage. "Give!" He slammed the axe down on the vein. "Me!" He blasted the rock again with the weapon. "The!" Another blow rained down on the vein. "DAMNED ORE!" Several more blows were showered down upon the rock, though nothing happened. Mack then hopped and stomped up and down on the vein several times to no effect.

[Mack 0]

ID: 26620
LD: 17

Once he had cooled off a bit after throwing his tantrum at the game engine for not giving him the ore that he knew, after two tries, must have surely been rightfully his, Mack took a step back from the vein and sheathed his weapon. Boundless rage at the game engine was not going to solve this problem. A problem that was really more of a puzzle and, given that he was a level six player doing a level two quest, it probably wasn't a particularly difficult puzzle to solve. The axe hadn't worked to retrieve the ore, nor had all of his swearing and kicking and stomping. The most logical conclusion was that there had to be some kind of specialized tool for gathering the ore he needed. Given that this mine was the closest to the starting city, that tool was probably in the mine somewhere.

Retracing his steps back to the mine's entrance Mack's grey eyes glared around, slightly dangerously. Sure enough, there standing in a neat rack along the wall, were around a dozen pickaxes. It didn't exactly take a rocket scientist to put one and one together from there. Which was fortunate. Snatching up one of the pickaxes, the Warrior stomped angrily back into the mine and found the same troublesome ore vein. "Give me your bounty!" The warrior slammed the pickaxe into the vein and small chunk of ore splintered off. Greedily, the blonde man snatched up the silver ore and crammed it into his inventory.

One down. One to go.

[Mack 0]

ID: 26623
LD: 18

So, there was a tool in the game for harvesting ore. That really did go a long way towards explaining why it hadn't worked earlier when he had been thumping away at the ore vein with his axe. Or his booted foot. Or his boundless rage. Mack swung the pickaxe into the ore vein a second time. Another chunk of silvery metal separated itself from the vein and landed with a dull thud on the ground at his feet. Quickly, the blonde man scooped it up off of the ground and, this time, he took a few extra seconds to actually look at the ore so he could see whether or not there was anything particularly special about it. It looked like just another piece of rock, perhaps a bit more shiny than other rocks. Mack shrugged and added the item to his inventory and began the short hike back to the mine's entrance.

[Mack 0]

As he made his way to the entrance of the mine once more, Mack returned the pick axe to the rack where he had obtained the tool. There was no point in carrying the item around. Since he was going to select blacksmith for his profession, if he really wanted one later he could always craft one for his personal use. But, as things stood at the moment, there was no point in wasting an inventory slot on something that he knew he could always come back and retrieve later if he really wanted or needed one.

Once the pick axe had been returned Mack moved into the entrance of the mine and surveyed the sun and surrounding forest with his storm grey eyes, taking a moment to stretch his arms out over his head as he did so. As nearly as he could tell, there was nothing in his general vicinity that he needed to be greatly worried about. That was just fine with him. It looked like, if he didn't dawdle, he would still be able to make it back to the blacksmith's shop in the starting city to craft his new weapon and complete the quest before the day was out. It had been a small goal, to complete this quest before the game's day was out, but it looked as if he was going to be able to pull it off. Shouldering his weapon, Mack set out through the forest and, on reaching the grasslands once more, he continued to make a straight bee line for the city.

[Mack 0]

Reaching the gates of the city at a time that he judged to be around four in the afternoon Mack began to retrace his steps back through the town in the direction of the blacksmith's shop he had visited earlier to obtain the quest. Moving along the stone paved streets the massive warrior easily parted the NPC crowds around him, as a paring knife separates one half of an apple from another. Within a few more minutes walking, the blonde man had reached the market district where, as the day was beginning to wind down, the crowds were somewhat smaller than they had been during his earlier visit around lunchtime though, in truth, the area could still hardly be described as deserted.

Making his way through the area, occasionally directing people out of his path with a gentle nudge from his hands, Mack moved through the Market District heading down the avenue in the direction that he knew would bring him to the shop he had earlier visited. After about a quarter hour of pushing through the crush of humanity, or NPC's as the case may have been, Mack finally reached the entrance to the smithy and shoved the heavy front door open. The shop was just as dimly lit in the afternoon as it had been when the axe-man had first visited it earlier in the day.

"Well, it's about time you got back," the surly smith said by way of greeting once he had laid his eyes, again, on Mack. "I assume you've got all the items, so let's get started on teaching you to smith. Just enough time left to do it before I close my shop up for the night." Mack scowled at the smith, but followed him into the back of the shop where the forge was located.