[Complete][PP-F1] Earning a Living

[Celestial 0]

The wooden quest board in the center of town was a strange thing. It seemed to fit the architecture perfectly, and yet, it also was a strong reminder that you were only in a game. Walking up to it, you were assaulted with a prompt menu to download quests, as well as receiving updates from the message boards. It quickly became routine for players to check a quest board at-least once a day. Today, the board featured a quest called 'Earning a Living'. This quest was generally available, and would lead a character towards an in-game profession of their choice. Interestingly, it seemed that the game allowed great freedom in profession choice. Celestial quietly thought to himself, 'If only a career choice was so easy in real life.'.

Looking through the different options, Celestial narrowed his choices down to either Alchemist or Cook. He would have to put more thought into these two professions.

Edited November 2, 2015 by Celestial

[Celestial 0]

My next course of action, intelligence gathering, now decided; I can't help but feel a need to hit the cobble-paved streets of The Town of Beginnings. Footing it towards the Player Market; I quickly head off to find a specialist to discuss the merits of each profession with. Not only that, but I'd also have to find an NPC capable of fulfilling the quest requirements at some point. After navigating a series of shops; I finally found an alchemist who would be willing to answer several of my questions, as well as demonstrate the crystal-making process.

The process wasn't much different than any other profession, gather certain materials and attempt to craft an item. There were some caveats to that however. First, the item must be in your skill-level to craft, a tricky thing because the game introduced random chance to all crafting attempts, even ones with previously used combinations of materials. The second obstacle was the materials themselves. This game had a deep crafting system requiring many rare and hard-to-obtain materials, but if you were going to hope to become a master craftsmen, it's likely that is almost all of how you would need to spend your time; you'd have very little time to build your own levels, levels which would be necessary for getting to the deepest dungeons. Certainly this means that craftsmen would need to build a healthy pool of relationships with the players who were taking a more combat-orientated role in the game. These were just some of my initial questions to the alchemist however, the real work began when she went to demonstrate making a real crystal for me.

[Celestial 0]

First, she walked me towards her crafting area. In this small room, was a table off to the side for preparing ingredients, and the middle of the room featured a large witches cauldron. First she took me to her crafting table where she diced up several materials she had, they were herbs of some sort. Not being one to interrupt, I silently sat and watched as she went through the preparation process. After the herbs were sliced up, she pulled a vegetable of some sort from her inventory, and then ground it up into a fine powder. Finally she walked over to the cauldron, where she placed the herbs in the boiling water. Taking out a crystal, she sprinkled it with the powder and then dropped the crystal into the cauldron. Selecting several commands on the a menu system, suddenly the water changed into a deep violet, finally a menu prompt appeared 'Item Crafted'; and the woman added it to her inventory. "See, that simple!"

[Celestial 0]

Later, while walking down the market street, interested in finding other craftsmen who could demonstrate their professions to me, I was placing serious thought into what I had just seen. The entire process seemed so...mystical. The ingredients smelled funny and the room had changed colors when the mixture was activated. Also, looking around the mean streets of the Town of Beginnings, I could see several alchemy shops; it was clearly a popular profession. The fact it was, wasn't surprising, the long list of positive buffs it could provide, as well as instant healing, were extremely beneficial.

Hmmmm, I pondered to myself. I wonder if there are other professions which provide beneficial buffs. Following that thought with a bit of research and people management, I began to realize that a similar skill would be cooking. Cooking being a real life necessity from my boxing career, perhaps that would be a better fit. Curious, I set off to find an NPC who could describe the profession to me.

[Celestial 0]

After quite a bit of searching I found myself walking into the back-room of a Cooking Shoppe. Immediately my senses were flooded with the smell of warm bread, curious spices, and roasting meats. As it was almost lunch time, I found the smells almost intoxicating. Smiling, I couldn't help but ask the NPC woman to describe her skill. She quietly went into a list of the advantages and disadvantages of the buffs given from cooking, and I found the information to be quite enlightening. Next she showed the process of making a simple treat, in this case a Carrot Cake Cupcake! First she sliced up a carrot, and added it to a pot full of dough. The placing it in the oven, the game did the rest; out popped a delicious-smelling cupcake ready-to-eat.

"Ok, I think THIS is what I want to learn! What do I need to do?", I posed my question, and waited for the quest-detail reply from the NPC.

[Celestial 0]

After instructions to familiarize myself with my cooking space, I readily set to work doing just that. First was to gain an understanding of the basic tools. Their was an oven, an old brick-oven, a wooden chopping board, a refrigerator, and several cooking knives of many different sizes. This all said nothing of the many different pots and pans, bowls, and silverware available. Just walking around the kitchen was inspiring and for just a brief moment, the concept of being stuck in a game disappeared and Celestial felt like he was back in his home kitchen-that was until he went to check the inventory of a fridge and did so through the use of a menu prompt. Still, it was good to begin developing an understanding of the many tools he would have available.

Now that he had time to become more familiar...it was time to cook.

[Celestial 0]

The NPC patiently doled out instructions, instructions he would need to fix his dinner. He would need to decide what to eat, gather materials, and then come back to the kitchen and actually cook it. "No problem!", Celestial thought to himself later, as he was walking through the market. Checking his col balance, his spirits dampened..."I forgot...I'm broke!" :(

Well, I guess I have no choice but to head outside of town and try and find the materials I need. Let's see, lunch is going to be spicy ramen and so I need not only some sort of hot spice, but also noodles. Hmmm, I think there was a small farm outside of town where I could pick up noodles; let's try that first.

[Celestial 0]

The gates leaving town were always deeply ominous of the dangers which lay ahead. Outside of town there is no system protection, the in-game protection from the rules that supposedly death in the game would mean death in real life; it made you all the more cognizant of the fact that as large and looming as the gates and walls around the Starting City were, they were very much a symbol of safety. Now several yards outside of town, Celestial was more aware then ever, the farms were close to town, but not so close that you couldn't occasionally stumble across a boar or another starting-level monster. Deciding that it would be best to sneak from here on out, Celestial moved slowly across the fields towards the farm in the distance.

Celestial Base Stealth 10

Edited November 2, 2015 by Celestial

[Celestial 0]

Eyeing a wild boar in front of him, Celestial moved forward slowly yet carefully. He would have to be extra-slow so as to not throw off his stealth, and hopefully allow him to move by undetected. This was the first time he had ever used the stealth function outside of town, and so he hoped he had gotten a strong enough understanding of how the skill worked.

As he did so, Celestial carefully eyed the boar who stopped what it was doing and started sniffing the air. Perhaps it could smell Celestial? Slowly, Celestial continued inching his way past the creature, to his relief, he was soon past it with little trouble. Ahead was the farm, luckily there didn't seem to be any other hostile creatures in the area.

Boar Stealth Check - Failed
ID 37022 LD 1

Edited November 2, 2015 by Celestial

[Celestial 0]

Finally arriving at the farm, the smell of cut grass, the clucking of chickens, and the mooing of cows were all too prominent. The layout of the farm was simple, a small fenced-in area for grazing, a red barn, a chicken-coop, and a small farmhouse was all that occupied the small area. Walking towards the farmhouse, Celestial spotted the old farmer's wife sitting in a rocking chair on the porch. He knew her husband, the old farmer, would be milking the cows right about now, and was a decent quest-giver for basic quests, but the old woman was the one who handled the purchases and sales of the farm. Since he was broke, Celestial decided to go talk to the old farmer and see if he could find out a way to earn his pasta. Taking a hard left, Celestial made his way into the barn.

[Celestial 0]

Walking into the barn, you could smell the hay in the loft above, see the majestic horses to the right-side of the barn, and smell the over-powering stench of cows on the left-side of the barn. Being careful where he stepped, Celestial made his way towards the old man sitting on a stool.

"Howdy, Young Feller!", the NPC cheerfully greeted him.
"Good morning old man!", Celestial replied back, as equally cheerful.
"Shouldn't you be out hunting today?"
"Well, actually, I came here for pasta noodles. Do you think you could help me out?"
"Hmmmm." The old man carefully leaned back on his stool. "Yes, I think I just might have some for you. But, I need you to do something for me first. See my chickens? Well, some of them got out, and now I need help retrieving them. These old bones don't move like they used too."

Celestial had done this before, a random number of chickens, not greater than five, would be placed in random locations around the farm; touching them would send them back to the chicken-coop, it was a simple quest, little more then a time-waster actually, and so Celestial felt comfortable accepting this task. "Ok, old man. In exchange for my noodles, I'll help you find your chickens!"

[Celestial 0]

"Cheep, Cheep!", Celestial's temporary quest log updated to reflect two missing chickens. Setting off to find them, Celestial walked back outside the barn, listening closely. Walking towards the farm-house, he did his best to find the missing birds. Looking high, looking low, he still failed to find any digital chicks around the farm-house. Turning, and heading back down the one-lane road he had traveled up, he carefully walked the fence-line next to the pasture.

"Cheep, Cheep!" - suddenly hearing the chirps of the small creature, Celestial paused. Eyeing the old, wooden fence-post in front of him, he methodically checked it until out of the grass near the base of the post, came a little, yellow chick. Suddenly, the chick darted. But this wasn't unexpected, Celestial had done this quest enough times now to know that the chicks would always dart towards the next un-found chick. So if you waited slightly, you could follow it towards the area of the next chick. Surprisingly though, the chick ran towards the barn and ran itself into a corner near the giant barn doors. Cornering it, Celestial reached out and grabbed the chick, triggering it to run back towards the chicken-coop, and triggering his quest log to update to only one missing chick remaining.

[Celestial 0]

So the next chick must be somewhere in here...

Looking once again at the insides of the barn, Celestial decided the next chick had to be upstairs. Walking over to the ladder, he slowly tested. It seemed stable enough, still, he felt some trepidation climbing it rung after rung. Finally getting to the top, he took a long look around the loft. There was little up here other than hale bales. Still, Celestial wanted to take a closer look. Crouching because of the low ceiling, I crawled around carefully digging through the hay. The chirps growing louder and louder, I knew I was getting close. Suddenly, a bright yellow fluff-ball popped out of no-where and took off running between my legs. Hurriedly, I turned around and started running after it.

BAM! I ran head-first into a ceiling crossbeam. Slightly dizzy, I kept up the chase, scurrying after the speedy creature. Chasing it as fast as I could, I charged after it, suddenly--I was outside. Whaa? Outside?

Behind me, was the 2nd-floor window to the loft; I must have ran out of it during my chase. But wait...wasn't that window on the 2nd floor? That means...

I was now tumbling through the air towards the ground, the chick falling slightly ahead of me..

[Celestial 0]

CRASH!

I landed in the hale bale below me, blue sky filling my eyes. Flipping over, I quickly scampered for the chick. Suddenly, as my hand-moved under several pieces of straw, I heard the sound of the quest triggering. As soon as I drug myself out of the wagon full of hay, I jumped down, thankful to be on solid ground again. Now that this was all complete, I made my way towards the barn, to find the old man and obtain my noodles.

"Ohhohoho, quite a tumble eh! Good job though young man! Here are your noodles, as promised."

Thankful, I made my way back towards town, but first I had one more stop to make out in the fields. I needed a certain spice that only grew on a small river-bank.

[Celestial 0]

After a short hike to the river-bank, I was lucky there weren't many enemies out. It had been relatively easy to navigate around the ones that were out here. Finally coming up on the river-bank, I hoped I could find this spice and get back to town, if I didn't hurry I was going to be cooking this 'dinner' for tomorrow's breakfast. After several moments of stomping through the mud, I found a promising looking set of weeds. Bending down onto my hands and knees, I carefully began sifting through them. After much searching, I found just what I needed; giant red peppers, perfectly fresh! Excitedly I added them to my inventory and started back towards town.

ID 37030 LD 17

Edited November 2, 2015 by Celestial

[Celestial 0]

Once I was back in the kitchen, I set to getting myself ready. The NPC woman opened her inventory to me and gave me an apron to wear. Donning it, I quickly spun around allowing it to billow around me. "Ok, now that that's done, let's get to business.". Moving from one end to the other, I quickly grabbed a pot and filled it with water, navigating to the stove and setting it to 'boil'. With the water boiling, it was time to prep my ingredients, the noodles were ready-to-go, however the spice was going to take more preparation. Moving to a cutting board, I selected a knife and laid out my pepper. Raising my knife to the pepper, a menu appeared, selecting 'dice' my pepper suddenly transformed in a flash of light to a 'diced pepper'. 

Edited November 2, 2015 by Celestial

[Celestial 0]

"Cooking in SAO is so easy." I mused to myself. With nothing to do but wait for the water to boil, I decided to browse several recipes in a nearby book. There were several appetizers, breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu's. A variety of foods from BBQ port (made with real boar's meat!), to bacon and egg recipes. The deserts though, those were the most appealing, a chocolate cake recipe, cheesecake, and even ice cream! Each menu Celestial looked at was added to his 'Cooking Log', a personal log of recipes and ingredient mixtures. Similar to maps, players could trade, or even sell recipes to one another; but for now, Celestial was simply content to grow his personal collection.

[Celestial 0]

Once the water was boiled, it was time to add the noodles. Easy enough, just a few clicks of the menu prompt; and again, adding the diced peppers after the noodles was just as easy, click, click, done! Now that the noodles were cooking, their aroma began to permeate the entire kitchen. Moving to the dining area, Celestial quickly set the table, and thanks to a gift from the NPC, poured himself a large glass of iced tea. Returning to the kitchen, he quickly moved the pot from the stove to the sink, drained the noodles, and then moved them to his dinner bowl. Finally, he moved his dinner bowl to the table and took his seat.

[Celestial 0]

Sitting there, Celestial paused to take stock of the table in front of him. He had a piping hot bowl of ramen, and a large drink of iced tea, things couldn't have possibly been more fitting for his first meal. His pause ended, Celestial took his fork, spun it around gathering a large swathe of noodles on the end, and devoured them.

"This..."

"This...

"THIS IS DELICIOUS!!"

Considering this was his first meal, he couldn't believe at how well it turned out. This was much better than the food sold in the small restaurants populating SAO. And to think, these were only basic-level recipe's; as his cooking skill progressed, and he gained more advanced recipes, the food he'd create would be much, much better. The next ten minutes, were spent eating the best food he'd ever had in SAO.

[Celestial 0]

"Do you think you're done yet? Oh no, you still have much to learn." The NPC woman suddenly spoke-up from her side of the dinner table. "Let me now teach you the many, many things involved in running a shop. First you have selecting a location.."

The next several hours were spent deep in conversation, going over mechanics, increasing his understanding of the cooking profession. Finally, after the sun had gone down and it was much later than he had been expecting, the NPC woman in front of him finally granted him the tile of 'Beginner Cook'. Excitedly, Celestial left and made for his room at the local inn.