[SP-F1] <<Earning a Living>> The Warmth of a Forge (Complete!)

[Aetharan 0]

Breathe.  It'll be alright, won't it?  Just breathe deeply for a moment.  In through the nose, out through the mouth...  "♫God bless us everyone, we're a broken people living under loaded gun...♫"  Pour the feelings out with the breath and the swing of the arm, whether holding spear, hammer, or pick.  Every beat emphasized with impact was one that, in one way or another, was showing his hatred for Aincrad...  along with his respect.  He'd burn it down, and build a monument to it in that other world.  He'd fly to Japan and throttle the man who'd trapped them all here, then be the first to buy a fellow survivor a drink, if he could find them.  Not that Aetharan'd have any real money back in that world at first, but he'd find a way.

For now, he had to dig up the iron that would let him make the weapon he was going to drive into the next boss's throat.

Near the end of the song, during the echoing "Lift me up, let me go" repetitions, the final piece of iron ore for this quest finally dropped for him.  It brought a smile to his lips that was almost beatific.

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(ID# 29199 results: Battle: 2 Craft: 9 Loot: 15 MOB: 4)

Quest Tracking: Iron Ore 7/7, Stone 3/3

Edited August 28, 2015 by Aetharan

[Aetharan 0]

Finishing the song that he'd been singing when the last of the iron dropped, Aetharan leaned against that wall he'd been digging into for so long.  Forty feet when he'd expected sixty.  He must have been wrong about the odds.  He'd only had to dig four feet for each of the materials the NPC wanted him to fetch.  That was information to tuck away for later study.  A 25% chance of successful gathering was higher than he thought, and that was a good thing.  Search DC was maybe 16, then.  He'd still need to put points into that skill, or these data points were meaningless.

Now that he was done with the hard part-- or, at least, the tedious one-- he switched his inventory over from that mining pick to his trusty, basic spear.  With any luck, he wouldn't be relying on such a simple piece of equipment for very much longer!  Equipment changed, Aetharan began to walk back out of his mine shaft.  It was little surprise when, some five seconds after he'd made it back out into the original tunnel from which he began, all his hard work vanished behind him and became a fresh wall once more.

[Aetharan 0]

On getting back to town, Aetharan again found the NPC who had offered him this training quest to start with.  There were smiles, if artificial ones on both sides and under different definitions of the word, as he handed over the ten gathered materials in exchange for what he would need to set up shop.  Then would come the always-annoying, but bloody useful part of this quest:  It was tutorial time.  There was no other way that Aaron could really think of to describe it.  The NPC was talking in out-of-character, instructive game terms, educating him on what he needed to understand to turn his next piece of iron ore into a sword.  It was disappointing, of course, that he couldn't move straight on to armor, but Aeth could deal with that.

Blades would be more fun, anyway.

[Aetharan 0]

The writing of the NPC's dialogue could have been better, but Aetharan understood it well enough to get the gist of what it was trying to get across to him, and that was the important part.  It did feel, however, far more artificial than the gathering portion of the quest had been.  It seemed that the steps involved in creating anything he wanted were minimal, and he didn't exactly have to be a sculptor in the real world to pull them off.  Dump the ore into the smelter he'd receive to transform it, automagically, into an ingot.  From there, hold the ingot (using tongs, of course) in the forge for a few seconds, and it would click over to the glowing, red-hot level it needed to be for working.  Lay it on the anvil, and concentrate hard on exactly what you were trying to create, then bring the hammer down.  Just once.  That's where the numbers in the system took over again.  Depending on his luck and skill, either he'd ruin the materials at this stage, or he'd succeed to one degree or another.

"Well, that's good to know.  Kind of sad that I won't step out into the other world knowing how to make these things for real, but meh.  It could be worse."  With that information in hand, he prepared himself mentally to walk away as soon as the quest NPC was done yammering on.  He needed to scout out a spot to build his forge, and he'd heard that the fourth floor was utterly beautiful.  He'd even thought of the name he would use.

[Aetharan 0]

Aetharan breathed a sigh of relief when the NPC finally stopped talking and updated his inventory with the items that he'd need.  The materials finally disappeared from his holdings, and were replaced with something listed as 'Basic Blacksmithing Starter Kit', which he assumed included all of the items he's been promised by the NPC.  More importantly, the little window that popped up also showed that he'd gained a new skill: Blacksmithing.  It even came with a title!  Yay.  It was all more than enough for him, and he walked away happily toward the portal that he'd been told could take him to any of the opened floors' main settlements.  That winter wonderland was on his mind.

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Aetharan gained a level.  HP now 19/19.

Edited August 28, 2015 by Aetharan

[Aetharan 0]

Summary Post

Crazy taken for a walk.  Epileptic Trees watered.  10 Materials collected and turned in to NPC, theoretically in exchange for minimum basic tools necessary to function as a blacksmith.

<<Earning a Living>> completed as a blacksmith.

Thread complete rewards:

• 800 Col (45 posts = 2 pages of play.)
• 2 SP (1 for thread, 1 for quest.)
• Title: Beginner Blacksmith
• Right to set up a shop.
• Extra materials, to be rolled by closing GM. ID 29205 LD 9, 9 Materials obtained. Tristan

Edited August 28, 2015 by Tristan Delaney
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