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[SP-F1] Taking the First Steps <<The First Few Lessons Are Free>>


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--Journal Entry No. 122 [source]

From now on, I'm going to fight. For myself, and for the people I could have saved had I made this decision earlier.

~ Saige

Inside a small lodging located in the northeastern portion of the Town of Beginnings, a lone girl swung her legs over to the side of her bed and stood up. She stumbled over to the wooden-framed mirror hanging beside the door and steadied herself. She held tightly onto a notebook with both of her hands, the same notebook she had been using as her journal for the past few months. And the same notebook she couldn't look away from right now. I'm going to fight, she had written in her half-asleep state last night. This wasn't the first time she had told herself to stop hiding in her room and do something. Anything to get out of this nightmare. But this was the first time the words she had written actually stuck with her. She slowly looked up from her journal and met her own purple gaze in the mirror. 

Doing so brought a certain memory to her mind. Sometime during middle school, when she was still interested in martial arts. She had gotten completely beaten up in a spar and was crying about it in the bathroom afterwards. Then one of her seniors walked in and comforted her. The girl, two years older, fixed her hair and told her to look at her own reflection after she had stopped crying. "See those eyes? Those are the eyes of a fighter. Just because you lost once doesn't mean you're going to give up forever. You may be a bit behind now, but with enough hard work and determination, you'll catch up! I know you can do it, so just believe in yourself, got it?"

She looked back down at her journal. Pray that I don’t lose this newfound resolve, she had also written last night. Maybe because she had anticipated that she would grow hesitant in the morning. "I promise," she paused and swallowed the fear that was rising up within her. The fear of death, the fear of leaving the room she hadn't left for five months straight (going out to buy food was an exception), and the fear of taking risks. "I'm not going to hesitate anymore." And as an afterthought, she quietly mumbled to herself, "Thanks, Rosalia."

Spoiler

Current Stats

Level 1
20 HP
2 Energy
4 Damage

Equipped

  • Starter Two-Handed Straight Sword (no enhancements)
  • Starter Light Armor (no enhancements)

Battle Ready Inventory

  • 3 Starter Healing Potions (Heals 50 HP)

Skills

  • 2H Straight Sword [Rank 1] -- +3 DMG, Access to Rank 1 Sword Arts

Known Sword Arts

Spoiler

2H Straight Sword

Rank 1

  • [x2 AoE] Blast (4 Energy) - A pair of horizontal sweeping strokes that hits multiple targets.
  • [x2] Straight (2 Energy) - Begins with the player bending their knees before thrusting forward with a singular powerful strike covering the gap between you and your opponent.

 

Edited by Saige
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The late morning found Saige standing in front of a certain NPC's doorstep with a beginner's guide in hand. It was a manual detailing the first five floor bosses (which were of no use to anyone now; the updated version which some of the higher-levels released didn't contain information on the floor bosses anymore, but she hadn't gotten a hold of it yet), along with general information on the mobs found on each floor, and a quest list. It even had a recommended quest order, party size, and everything. "Huhhh, what nice people. I'd like to meet one of them some time," she sighed admiringly.

The silver-haired player looked at the door in front of her, checked her location on the beginner guide, and puffed out her cheeks. The quest she was planning to take was a simple material gathering quest, absolutely no combat involved, and something most players, even those who didn't plan on leveling, had already taken. If only she hadn't been such a coward the first time around, she would be at the frontlines by now, fully utilizing her skills in gaming...  

Saige shook her head gently, banishing the self-depreciating thoughts from her head. She didn't come here to mope around, she came here to do something about it. She rocked back and forth on her heels a few more times, as if internally prepping herself, and knocked three times on the door before going in.

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Saige closed the door behind her and looked around the house she had just entered. It was a small, cluttered place. Shelves filled with books and potions surrounded the room. She noticed a wooden door across the room, probably leading to the NPC's bedroom. And in the center of the room she was currently in was a circular table with brewing pots and empty glass vials placed on top of it. From the other end of the table, the quest NPC looked up from a potions he was brewing and greeted her. "Hello adventurer, how may I help you?"

The 'adventurer' took one look at his appearance: long white hair and beard, alchemist's attire, and a benevolent expression permanently etched onto his face, and decided to labeled him as 'Generic Tutorial Guy'. It was easier to remember than Zackariah, anyway. "Um, hello," she began awkwardly. The beginner guide said that she could say anything, as long as she had the keywords 'help', 'tutorial', 'quest', or other similar terms in her speech. Generic Tutorial Guy would then adjust his response based on how the player spoke. Noticing that she hadn't said anything for too long, she cleared her throat and said, "I came for the quest."

The old NPC smiled. "Ah yes, the request I posted on the town's bulletin board. Since you're here, I presume you've already read all the details, right? In case you've forgotten, I need you to do a few quick errands. In return for your help, I'll give you a few extra potions that I have made. What do you say, adventurer?"

A message prompting Saige to accept or decline the quest appeared in front of her. She wasn't sure if there was an actual request in the town's bulletin board, but she had to admit, this game's AI was impressive. She tapped 'Accept' and said, "So, what should I do first?"

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"Gather five materials," she repeated to herself as she traveled through the starting city. Simple task, no combat, she assured herself. But, just to make sure, she briefly stopped at the town gates and equipped her two-handed sword. The most basic of beginner swords, it had no enhancements whatsoever, but at least it gave her a chance to fight back in case something or someone decides to attack her. Thinking that brought a chill to her spine and she felt fear gripping her chest once again.

But this was the farthest she'd ever got to becoming brave and useful to everyone. She didn't want to back down now, just because there were some risks. "Come on, Saige. It can't be that bad out there," she told herself. She was now a few paces away from the safe zone, and the boars were ignoring her even as she passed between them. She wanted to stop walking and search for materials immediately, but basic video game logic dictated that crafting materials were not normally found near safe zones. She needed to go a bit farther. To keep herself calm, she continued talking, "Level One players go out by themselves all the time and more often than not, they return unscathed. And the player killings have been focused on the higher floors lately."

She stopped after another minute of walking and focused on the area. Materials were always surrounded by a yellow glow, said her beginner's guide. But after looking around the area a few more times, she let out a loud sigh and considered her first search a failure. What a way to set the mood.

Spoiler

ID: 92189 | LD: 1 (fail)

Quest Materials: 0/5

 

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Saige had two options: keep searching for materials or give up since she's still too close to the starting city? Her fear of heading out too far alone won out, so the silver-haired player found herself focusing on the area once again and walking in circles. For a few moments, she almost thought she had found a material, but it turned out to be a small pile of yellow-ish leaves. Squatting down on the ground, she picked one of the leaves up and twirled it in her finger, admiring the littlest details that made the game feel so real. If things had been a bit better (like, no permadeath), she could easily pretend that this was her reality. Escaping her life to live in a game had always been her dream. It was every gamer's dream, probably. She twirled the leaf in her fingers once more, then let it fall to her palm and crushed it. She opened her palm and let the pixelated remains of the leaf fall to the ground and disappear.

The young girl stood up and dusted her skirt. "Failure number two."

Spoiler

ID: 92190 | LD: 3 (fail)

Quest Materials: 0/5

 

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This time, she went a bit farther. She passed a few trees and spent some time searching through them and the surrounding areas. In video games, most stuff are found near trees, right? Already predicting a failure, Saige paused her searching and opened her map. The semi-transparent screen floated in front of her as she looked around. Still, nothing was glowing yellow. There were lots of mob markers though. The player took note of their locations, and looked through her map. If she assumed that materials could most likely be found on trees, then... Her gaze landed on a nearby forest area. 

Saige bit her lip and routinely checked her surroundings for threats. Then she looked back down at her map. If she stayed in this area, she would just be wasting her time since her previous searches had already proved that there weren't any materials nearby, but if she went farther... She shook her head and tried to banish her doubts. Sure, the mobs might be a bit higher-leveled, but she trusted that she wouldn't be insta-killed. She wouldn't be that far from the safe zone. But what about players? "There haven't been any player killings in Floor 1 as of late, so just move already," she scolded herself quietly. After taking a moment to gather her resolve, she started walking towards the forested area she had found on the map.

Spoiler

ID: 92247 | LD: 5 (fail)

Quest Materials: 0/5

 

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"Okay...let's search here." She stopped at the edge of a dense forest and proceeded to search the area for materials. She leaned against a nearby tree, and squinted at her surroundings. She even looked up at the trees, for a good measure. Nothing glowed yellow on the branches above her, and none of the trees looked climbable. "How about...down?" she wondered aloud. She looked down at her feet, and her gaze trailed across the forest floor until it finally landed on a pile of leaves. 

"Aha!" she exclaimed, noticing a small glow of yellow underneath the pile. She ran up to it with a delighted giggle and kicked a few leaves up into the air. Watched them fall back onto the ground while she gathered the material. Then she stood up and dusted her skirt, feeling more confident than before. "One down, four more to go!"

Spoiler

ID: 92248 | LD: 19 (success)

Quest Materials: 1/5

 

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Saige wandered deeper into the forest, carefully stepping out of the mobs' paths and keeping away from other players. Most were in small groups, a few were going solo like her (though she noted down that the solo players had better gear). And there seemed to be a general consensus of minding your own business. The atmosphere wasn't really tense, it was more like they simply ignored each other. Which was good enough for Saige. As much as she liked having companions, she barely knew anyone and she wanted to focus on completing the first quest today. And with the way things were going, she felt like this would take a long, long time.

The player stopped at an area free of threats and resumed her search. Only a few moments after, she successfully located and gathered a material. "Two down!" she exclaimed, depositing the material into her inventory. "And...three more to go. Wow."

Spoiler

ID: 92249 | LD: 17 (success)

Quest Materials: 2/5

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Saige continued aimlessly walking around the forest and searching for materials. The semi-transparent screen of the map still floated in front of her, she hadn't dismissed it 'cause didn't want to wander into the deepest parts of the forest by accident. And she made a point of scattering piles of leaves. Maybe she would get lucky and find another material again, the player thought hopefully.

But a few minutes of searching with no successful results proved otherwise. Her shoulders slumped and she groaned. "I've played lots of RPGs before, but I've never ever ever encountered one with a beginner quest as tedious as this," she grumbled. "Seriously, why can't it be something more interesting?" Then she realized that the 'interesting' she had on her mind involved combat. Or saving a town from rampaging ogres. The silver-haired player frowned. Did she just get her priorities screwed over a small set of failures? She let out a long sigh, something she had been doing a lot today. "...actually, nevermind. I can handle boring."

Spoiler

ID: 92662 | LD: 8 (fail)

Quest Materials: 2/5

 

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"I'm definitely going to find something this time!" she declared. There was no one around, so might as well, right? Inspired by her own vote of confidence, she started searching the area vigorously. Heck, with the amount of rigorousness she put into searching, she was sure she'd turned over all the leaves she'd passed by. It was all for naught though, because once again, she wasn't able to find a material.

"And that makes failure number...four or five? I completely lost track." Saige backtracked to where she first entered the forest with her shoulders slumped. The next time she was going to look for materials, she would be bringing one of those equipment that gave material search bonuses. Because without those, she'd be stuck searching for who knows how long. Like right now, for example. Arriving at her destination, she brought up her menu and checked her quest progress. "And after all that, I've just gathered two materials. Who knew material gathering would be so hard?"

Spoiler

ID: 92699 | LD: 2 (fail)

Quest Materials: 2/5

 

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"Where to next?" Saige asked herself. She had taken a five minute break from material searching. Half of the reason was because she grew tired of the constant material search failures. And the other half of the reason was to let the materials regenerate so there would be more when she comes back, hopefully. Would five minutes be enough, though? Saige considered adding more time, but didn't want to linger outside the safe zone for too long so she stretched her arms and legs and went back to work. "Come to think of it, I haven't searched much of the eastern forest yet."

So to the east she went. There weren't as much players and mobs here, and she hoped that was a good sign. Less players meant less people to compete for materials with, right? And less mobs meant she could focus more on searching than constantly looking out for danger. Leading to higher chances of finding materials. Feeling a bit more confident, she commenced her search. But even with all those factors taken in and even after looking in every direction and walking in circles to make sure she didn't miss anything, she came up with another material search failure.

Spoiler

ID: 92869 | LD: 1 (fail)

Quest Materials: 2/5

 

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A bit disappointed over her previous failures, Saige continued her search with less focus than she had back when she first started the quest. Technically, only an hour had passed, but to her it seemed like she'd been searching for a day. Her feet were starting to complain and the only thing that was driving her forward was the desire to get stronger. Before this she hadn't even left her room, much less walked and searched for one hour, straight. She supposed she should be proud for coming this far in only a few hours, but right now, she was too tired to be proud. Once she finished this beginner quest line, building up her stamina would be her highest priority.

She focused on her surroundings once more, halfway ready to give up, when she noticed a faintly glowing material among a small bush's leaves. Saige blinked and rubbed her eyes. Was that...? She hesitantly stepped closer to the bush and confirmed it. It was a material. She could hardly believe that she actually found a material! Well the whole point of her searching was to find materials, but she had so many failed searches that she was starting to think that she would never find one. She gathered the material and checked her quest progress. "Two more to go."

Spoiler

ID: 92870 | LD: 16 (success)

Quest Materials: 3/5

 

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After a few more minutes of looking around the same area she found the material in, Saige turned up with another success. She didn't even need to check her quest progress for this one. She was just one material short from meeting the quest's first objective! But was finding two materials in a row a good sign or a bad sign? She didn't want to potentially jinx herself by thinking too much about it, so instead, she continued searching the area. She was one material away from finishing this damn quest, and she wanted to finish it quickly.

While searching, she remembered that the quest-giver, Generic Tutorial Guy, mentioned that he had "some errands" for her to do. Errands, as in plural. The beginner's guide only mentioned the material gathering portion, so she wondered what the rest of the quest objectives would be. But she shouldn't be getting ahead of herself. She was only at the first part of the quest, after all.

Spoiler

ID: 92876 | LD: 20 (success)

Quest Materials: 4/5

 

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"Come on, Saige, just one more success and you're good to go," she encouraged herself. Saige ducked underneath a tree branch and searched the new area she had arrived at. Focusing on her surroundings, she slowly walked in a big circle. Her eyes narrowed as she completed the circle. Again. Maybe she just overlooked the material. But halfway through her second search with no materials in sight yet, she already knew where this was going. But she literally just had one material left to look for, and she can't fail now! She started looking harder.

But her efforts were all for nothing. Again. "I can't believe it..." she said to herself, sounding considerably dismayed. But there was only one more material left to find! No matter how bad her luck was, it won't be long before she would find that material. And then the material gathering part of the quest would be over and done with and she'd take a good long nap in her lodging before the sun sets. Hopefully. "Okay. One more time."

Spoiler

ID: 92879 | LD: 2 (fail)

Quest Materials: 4/5

 

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Walking deeper into the forest, she passed a group of players heading in the opposite direction as her. She self-consciously pulled her hood up (something she had grown used to doing whenever she was feeling shy) and avoided their curious gazes. Saige passed by them without any incident. That was, until someone rested their hand on her shoulder.

The silver-haired player whipped around and sprung a few steps backward, widening the distance between herself and the player. The player was a tall dark-skinned man, way older than her, if the stubble on his chin was any indication. Her hand subtly crept up to rest on the hilt of her sword, but the player showed no signs of attacking. He raised both hands up, though he did look a bit tense. "Hey, no threat intended. Just wanted to inform you that if you're searching for materials, me and my group emptied the surrounding areas of materials already. So if I were you, I'd search in a different area." 

"Thanks." Saige replied. She didn't say anything else and consciously tugged her hood lower to obscure more of her face as the man went back to his friends. As soon as they left her field of vision though, she turned around and focused on her surroundings. As the friendly player had said, no materials in the immediate areas. She turned on her heel and traveled to a different part of the forest.

Spoiler

ID: 92880 | LD: 1 (fail)

Quest Materials: 4/5

 

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"Geez, no wonder I couldn't find anything earlier." Saige was now completely alone in the forest (not considering the presence of the mobs), which meant that she could be more vocal about her thoughts since no one was listening. So she went and grumbled about her current situation as much as she liked while still taking care to pay attention to her surroundings.  "Why did I end up gathering materials at the same time as a big group of players? My luck really is the worst."

After a few more minutes of walking, she checked her map and decided she was far enough from the areas the player had mentioned. She stopped and continued her search for materials. It wasn't long before she had to stop and mark this as 'failure number nine' though. (It was an estimate, but she was pretty sure her previous material searches amounted up to that number.)

Spoiler

ID: 92881 | LD: 9 (fail)

Quest Materials: 4/5

 

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"Did they empty out this area, too?" Saige asked herself. Nice and friendly as that one person from the group was, she couldn't help but feel annoyed. They also hadn't mentioned how far they had searched, and she was pretty sure it was the same case with this area. Or maybe she should stop blaming everything on them. They weren't the only players she saw in the forest anyway.

"One last try, then I'll move somewhere else," the silver-haired player decided. Then she went about the same process of slowly walking around the area while looking out for both mobs and materials. She'd repeated the process so many times that she didn't need to think about it anymore. She wondered, while searching, was it a good thing or a bad thing? 

Bad thing, she instantly decided as she drew up another failure. She'd been searching for so long, maybe even too long, without much results to make up for it.

Spoiler

ID: 92882 | LD: 10 (fail)

Quest Materials: 4/5

 

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Having failed her previous material search, Saige walked deeper into the forest. Her material search pattern so far had been fail, fail, fail, success, success, fail, fail, fail, and she was growing really tired of it. But the good part was, she'd seen three consecutive failures already, so that means that her next search should be a success, right?

She stopped walking and almost instantly found a material. If she were a more emotional person, she could've cried tears of joy. Because she was finally [censored] done with the quest objective and once she turned the materials in, she only needed to do a few more things and she would have completed her first ever quest! Grinning widely, she trotted forward and gathered the material. Then she pulled up her quest progress and saw a check mark beside the objective. Saige couldn't help but cheer, "I'm finally done!" 

Spoiler

ID: 92883 | LD: 17 (success)

Quest Materials: 5/5

 

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After a short, uneventful walk back to the Town of Beginnings, Saige knocked on the NPC's door and let herself in. Generic Tutorial Guy was performing the same NPC actions as when she had left him awhile ago: brewing potions, pouring the freshly brewed mixtures into small glass vials, and carefully placing the vials in a crate. Sensing her entry, the quest-giver looked up from his potions and greeted her differently this time. "Hello adventurer, have you finished collecting the materials?"

Yeah, and material gathering was such a complete bitch, I'm never doing it without the right equipment ever again. "Yup. I'm done," Saige moved forward and pulled up her inventory. The five materials which took one and a half hours to gather fell onto the wooden table in front of the NPC. He looked over the materials briefly, picking one up to examine it, and then silently nodded his approval. Saige grinned, feeling a bit proud of herself. First quest objective was officially over and done with! "So, what do I have to do next?"

"If you don't mind, adventurer, help me finish crafting potions for my next delivery," the NPC responded. The phrasing made it sound like she had a choice, but unfortunately, she didn't. "Now, how much do you know about alchemy?" The NPC then proceeded to teach her the steps to crafting a potion. She listened intently, but a part of her started to wish she'd never asked. Alchemy--or rather crafting in general--just wasn't her thing. While she liked having nice equipment in video games, she normally left the crafting to other players and resorted to buying instead. So she wasn't very surprised when her first try turned out to be a failure. Expectantly, Saige looked up at Generic Tutorial Guy. Instead of reprimanding her like she expected though, the NPC smiled and said, "The first tries are always the hardest. Keep that in mind. Let me show you the steps again."

Spoiler

ID: 92896 | CD: 1 (fail)

 

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"Okay...attempt number two," Saige said, looking at the materials laid out in front of her. Generic Tutorial Guy explained the process of crafting a Healing potion again and, at her request, demonstrated the procedure. "Alright, I think I get it." She told the NPC as he carefully placed the completed potion in the crate with the other potions. The NPC began crafting another potion, though he did it slowly enough so Saige could follow along. There was a tense silence as they waited for her mixture to brew, and--

Quote

SYSTEM MESSAGE

Craft successful! Perfect Quality potion crafted.

Saige could hardly believe it. A Perfect Quality item on her second try! Material gathering might not be her thing, but crafting might be. Remembering the quest, she almost reluctantly handed over her first craft to the NPC.

He perused the Healing Potion in his hands for a few moments before giving his approval. "Excellent craft," he commented as he placed the potion in the crate. He cleared the table and, with surprising strength, lifted the crate up onto the table. "Do you have any interest in becoming an alchemist? You certainly have the aptitude for it."

"I'm not really into crafting," Saige answered. Though she couldn't deny that she was starting to consider it. Maybe she could dabble in alchemy once she reached a higher level. And once she had the equipment for it.

"If you ever change your mind, don't hesitate to approach me," the NPC offered. "You see, I also serve as a mentor for future alchemists. I've already taught quite a few adventurers, actually."

"Duly noted."

Spoiler

ID: 92897 | CD: 12 (success)

 

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