Tchotchke, Trinkets, and Bric a Brac, Oh My! <<Earning a Living>> COMPLETED

[Persephone 0]

Lisa had done it! She’d had reached level two. While many might not find that a feat to be proud of, the young woman was thrilled because it meant that she could finally take on a quest she had been anticipating: <<Earning a Living>>. She had first heard about the quest when she had accidentally stumbled upon it while browsing in a tailor shop one afternoon. It was an option in the player in the playable command list for the NPC she was conversing with. Curiosity had gotten the better of her and of course she clicked it. The shopkeeper then went into its song and dance about how to become a tailor, but how she unfortunately could not accept the quest at this time because she had not yet reached level two. Being a studious person, the pretty brunette had done her homework and came to learn of each of the professions Aincrad had to offer and the various locations one could go to complete said quest line. Of the handful of professions offered only one sounded like something the young woman wanted to be: artisan.

According to the player handbook, there were several artisans on the first floor, but she had been tipped off by another reliable source that there was an artisan whose quest line was particularly easy. She was a bit skeptical, but decided to check it out anyway. The NPC she was looking for was called Laila, and her shop lay at the very heart of town and was called Tchotchke. Lisa followed the map in the player guide lost among the back alleys of the starting town until she eventually found herself in the place she needed to be. Tchotchke was an incredibly cute little shop with a large display window, round top wooden door and the shop sign that hung above was in the shape of a Russian nesting doll. “CUTE!” the woman said as she bounced toward the door and opened it up letting herself inside.

As the door squeaked open, a bell chimed overhead alerting the shop keeper of the presence of a patron. “COME ON IN!” A voice called out, but no one could be seen.

“Hello?” Lisa called out, entering the shop.

“I’ll be out in a moment… please feel free to take a look around!” The voice called out again.

She did just that as she walked through the shop checking out everything the NPC made. Artisans often could make many different items, but this one in particular focused on clay works. There were small clay charms and statues, pottery of all sorts, even cute clay pendants for jewelry.  It seemed like Laila was an NPC after her own heart. This was the very sort of thing that Lisa wanted to make! “My lucky day…” Lisa commented as she peered down into the case marveling over the porcelain doll that sat upon a velvet pillow.

“Is it?” a voice said behind Lisa.

The young woman spun around to find herself face to face with a very young girl, maybe thirteen at most, with long golden hair tied in pigtails.

“But of course… this is exactly what I want to do… did you really make all this?” she asked the little girl assuming she must be Laila.

“Uh huh,” the small girl said as she folded her arms behind her back. “Do you really like my work?”

“I love it!” Lisa replied.

“Really?”

“But of course!”

“YAY!” Laila cheered. “That makes me happy.” The little girl twirled in a circle. “Alright then…”

“What?”

“I’ll teach you what I know!” Laila said with a wide smile.

“But how did you know…”

“Because silly, most everyone who comes here wants me to teach them… you do what to learn don’t you?”

“But of course!” Lisa nodded her head.

“Then accept my quest and away we go!” The young girl said as a request screen popped up.

Lisa stared at the options for a moment before pushing the “yes” button.

“YAY!!!” Laila cheered again. “Okay. I’ve got a pretty easy job for you today. I was working on a music box, but I’ve run out of blue glaze. Can you find me five blue azaleas and I will show you how to complete your first craft.”

“Done deal!” The woman said with a nod. “I’ll be back!” She told the NPC as she headed to the door.

“I look forward to it!” Laila called back.

Edited September 26, 2015 by Persephone

[Persephone 0]

Lisa had run as quickly as she could to the edge of town not even realizing she had no idea where she was running to until she hit the edge of town. “Ugh… I should’ve asked!” Lisa said clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth. It was no matter; she had found that the player guide had proven useful in other endeavors… maybe it would come in handy here too. Opening her inventory, she fished out the small back book and opened it up. She thumbed through the book until she found the page that contained the information she needed.

“So the best spot to look for Azalea bushes is along the edge of the glen near the path that leads to the Secret of the Forest Medicine quest, huh… seems easy enough.” She said as she snapped the book shut and then opened up her map screen putting in the coordinates to where she needed to go. A small red blip showed up on her map screen and Lisa began to follow the path that was marked out toward the dot on her screen.

[Persephone 0]

31978   LD: 8     NOTHING

Lisa didn’t have too far to go, but she walked slowly along the path, in no real rush to get there as she was enjoying the scenery around her. The sky was a perfect shade of Azure as always and the bright lemony yellow sun shone down warmly against her bare skin.  It was a balmy 23°C, and a soft gust the swept through the trees that lines the walk way causing the green leaves that hung in them flutter in the breeze. The perfume of wildflowers and other herbal green notes clung to the air as it swept past, and Lisa inhaled deeply enjoying the bouquet.  The young woman was tempted to find somewhere to crash out in the sunshine for a few hours, but she hadn’t the time. She had a quest line to finish. She sighed heavily as she walked along the path near to reaching the edge of the glen. 

[Persephone 0]

32325   LD: 2     NOTHING

Lisa began to walk through the glen and started looking for the flowers. There were blue flowers e everywhere, but so far she’d not seen any marked as Azaleas. She sighed, figuring this wasn’t going to be a very fast process. The sun was bright and right overhead, so she figured it was sometime around noon which meant that there were still plenty of hours in the day to find what she was looking for. The young woman kept her head down and her eyes open wishing she had invested some energy into the search and detect skill. It might have made her job easier to find what she was looking for. 

[Persephone 0]

32404   LD: 19      MATERIAL OBTAINED

Only a few feet from where she stood, Lisa spotted her first elusive blue azalea. “OH YES!” She squealed a she bounced over to the flower and knelt down.  “Now don’t get too excited.” She told herself. The young woman was quite aware that even though she had found the item, did not mean that she could successfully collect it. The young woman gingerly reached for the stem and gently pulled, softly breaking the stem and carefully collecting the blossom. “That’s one!” She told herself with a wide smile. Maybe, just maybe, this would go a lot quicker than she had anticipated. 

 

+1 Blue Azalea (Material) Obtained

 

1/5 Blue Azalea

[Persephone 0]

32405   LD: 13     NOTHING

As the young woman added the flower to her inventory, she spotted another blue azalea right beside her. “Oh lucky day!” she cheered. The pretty brunette reached for the flower and same as before, gently tried to lift it up and away. But no sooner than she had plucked it, did the flower began to pixlate and disappear. “NO!!!” Lisa cried as the flower crumbled to pieces and vanished from her grip. “Damn it!” She huffed and slammed her fist on the floor. “I guess I spoke too soon.” She said feeling like she had jinxed herself.  Maybe this would take longer than she was secretly hoping for. 

[Persephone 0]

32570    LD: 5     NOTHING

Lisa sighed as she kicked her feet through the grass and the flowers mucking up the blooms around her. Not one of them was a darn Azalea. “That lady gave me the most difficult one on purpose!” Lisa decided as she stamped a blue daisy until it disappeared. Of course it only made sense that she would since quests were supposed to have a little bit of challenge to them. Lisa kept her eyes open; surely she would come upon one sooner than later. Knowing her luck, it would be the other way around. The woman took a deep breath and continued on. 

[Persephone 0]

32572   LD: 6     NOTHING

Still nothing.

This was terribly said because this was going way too slow for her liking. If only the NPC had given her a killing quest. That might have been easier. “Oh who are you kidding Lisa?” she said to herself and sighed, remembering how stupid she looked the first time she set foot on the battlefield. She swung her sword far too wide and failed to connect with anything. Maybe she should’ve picked a dagger like Lownethal. A butter knife had to be easier than the big weapon she was using to fight. 

[Persephone 0]

32474   LD: 6     NOTHING

“Oh my GOD!” Lisa whined as she was now in the middle of the field and still not one damn Azalea to be found. “I thought this place was supposed to be covered in them.” She huffed. “The damn player guide was wrong again!” This was super frustrating. All she wanted to do was find some damn flowers. Nothing terribly difficult!” If it was this hard finding flowers, I wonder how everything else is.” She said with a sigh. If this was only the beginning then SAO was all uphill from here. 

[Persephone 0]

32646   LD: 12     NOTHING

This was starting to suck. Why was it that she had such an easier time digging in the mud, than she was right now? On her first attempt she was able to find all she needed in only half an hour. This time it was seemingly going to take much longer than that. “This sucks!” The young woman said as she flopped back into the flowers and lay there staring up at the sky. All she wanted was to find some damn blue azaleas. Why was that so damn hard to do? Deciding that now would be a good time for a break, the young woman stared up at the sky watching clouds sail by. 

[Persephone 0]

32647   LD: 15     MATERIAL OBTAINED

The clouds were big and fluffy and had taken on a myriad of shapes for Lisa’s entertainment. She saw a turtle, a shark attack complete with wispy clouds as blood spurts… and even a giant flower. “Damn it… “ she huffed realizing that it had the same shape as the damn azaleas she was looking for. “Fine you damn game I get it!” Lisa sat up quickly. “ I’ll go look for your damn flowers!” she  continued as she shook her fist at the sky.  Looking down beside her she realized she was sitting right beside exactly what she was looking for. “Oh well isn’t that stupid!” she said realizing she nearly sat on the damn thing. Plucking it up, she shoved the damn thing straight into her inventory.

+1 Blue Azalea (Material) Obtained

 

2/5 Blue Azalea

 

[Persephone 0]

32648   LD: 14     NOTHING

Pulling herself from the spot that she laid, the young woman gave a heavy sigh. Hunting for materials in this fashion was truly such a tedious chore. There had to be an easier way to find things. “Well of course there is, don’t be silly.” She knew of ways, but things were expensive, and she had to earn her money the old fashioned way, the hard way, until she could get things done and could make items for herself. Once she was done, she knew she could make things that would increase her chances of amassing whatever it was she need it be it material or Col. 

[Persephone 0]

32650   LD: 15     MATERIAL OBTAINED

As she dreamed up all the things she could do once she was an artisan, she found herself nearly stepping on a blue azalea. “Damn…that could have been bad,” she clicked her tongue as she smacked the back of her hand to remind herself to get her head out of the clouds and back to business. She bent down and picked the flower and shoved this one in her inventory with the rest.  She was half way done now. Just a couple more as she could go throw these azaleas in that little snot nosed brat’s face!

+1 Blue Azalea (Material) Obtained

 

3/5 Blue Azalea

[Persephone 0]

32967   LD: 15     MATERIAL OBTAINED

“Oh another one!” Lisa said as she dropped down to the floor and with a quick swipe she confidently pulled the flower, game mechanics be damned! If she was going to lose the flower it would happen no matter how gently she plucked the damn thing. Luckily enough for her the blossom did not disappear and she was able to add it right into the inventory with the rest of them. “Only one more left Lisa, then we can get out of here and I can start making shizz!” she said with a grin. Hopefully she'd find one and quickly. She wanted to scout locations for her shop before dark. 

 

+1 Blue Azalea (Material) Obtained

4/5 Blue Azalea

[Persephone 0]

32968     LD: 5     NOTHING

Once more, there was nothing to be found. It was fine. She was so close she could taste the finish. All she needed to do was wait a little while and the ones she already picked would respawn after some time and she could try picking them again. Once she had enough money one of the first things she was going to buy was some sort of lucky item. She really needed some sort of talisman to increase her game luck so she had an easier time of locating materials.  Lord knows Lisa was the terribly unlucky sort and she needed all the help that she could get. 

Edited September 26, 2015 by Persephone

[Persephone 0]

 32971   LD: 18     MATERIAL OBTAINED

“OH MOTHER OF GOD, HOLY [CENSORED] [CENSORED]!!!”  The woman swore as her assumptions were correct.

All she had to do was sit tight, and sure enough the flowers she needed all grew back and she choose the closest one to pick. She was able to gather the blue azalea no problem! She couldn’t believe it. She finally had the five she needed to finish the damn quest. “Yes, yes, yes!” She shouted as she threw her hands up in the air and then ran her behind back to town. She was going to show that little brat that she was serious about becoming an artisan and then she was going to bomb shizz to sell. Everything was going to her plans and that was pretty freaking awesome.

 

+1 Blue Azalea (Material) Obtained

  

5/5 Blue Azalea

[Persephone 0]

Lisa had run her happy ass all the way back to town, right back into the artisan’s shop. She reached the counter slightly winded but thoroughly satisfied as she slammed all five flowers down on the glass counter. “BOOM!” Lisa said as she slapped the countertop and laughed. “Didn’t think I’d be back so soon did you, you little brat.” She told the NPC.

The girl scoffed. “Took you long enough. Most people are back here faster.”

“Why you little brat!”

“Still, you did it so it looks like I HAVE to teach you then.  Come on!” She said,” Bring your flowers with you.”

[Persephone 0]

Lisa collected her flowers and followed the girl to the back. There she had an entire art studio set up. She walked over to the crafting table and sat down. “Okay first, give me your flowers,” she said. Lisa handed them over. The young girl took one and placed it on the table and then opened the crafting panel. She selected “Blue glaze” and then clicked “start”. It took a few seconds but he girl began to “make” the glaze with the preset game motions in place of crafting. When the job was complete, there sat a lovely pot of blue liquid ready for use.

“Now you try!” the girl told Lisa. 

[Persephone 0]

It was Lisa’s turn. She sat down at the table once the NPC stood and she collected a flower and clicked the panels like the girl had and then began to make the blue glaze. Several motions and moments later, she crafted a pot of her own. “Yes!” she cheered herself.

“That was a lucky start,” the girl huffed.

“Yeah whatever… so now what?”

“Now you make charms. Pull clay from your inventory and set a piece on the crafting table, then select  the option to make a clay charm. You need to think about what it is you want to make and hold a good mental picture of it so that the system can help you to make what it is you’re wanting. ” The girl explained.  

[Persephone 0]

Taking clay from her inventory, she did what she was told, and soon her hands were working the clay like they had known what to do all along. It was fascinating really, like she was on autopilot. She concentrated hard on what she wanted the clay to be. She pinched off small pieces and began to roll them into small balls, and once she had several of them she began to form them into small hearts and stamped holes in the tops of them. When she was done, the system then guided her to the kiln where they were fired and then removed and cooled. The clay hearts were perfect and cute.

“ Now what?” She asked.