[F1-SP]<<Earning a living>> Professional Profession

[Cr0wnS 0]

As per usual, August enjoyed his time roaming around the Town of Beginnings, checking out the stores that he hadn't visited. Exploring such a vibrant community, despite it just being fake and virtual, was calming, as it made him feel less alone, and it broadened the world and made his surroundings feel less suffocating. He also regularly left to explore the forests and plains around the walls of the town, trying to avoid battles as much as possible to keep himself safe. However, this was getting quite boring as the numbers of shops that he hadn't visited were getting narrower and narrower as the days went on. He decided that he needed something to do to fill the time that he wasn't going out leveling up, and luckily for him, he might have heard of a quest that could fulfill that. Through word of mouth, he had heard of a collection of one time only quests that would award the player with the ability to both have and level up a completely separate set of skills, known as professions. However, the player could only complete one of these quests. 

Exploring through the city, August finally came upon the shop that would begin his journey on this quest. <<Cerdic's Smithy>>

He knocked on the front door to begin the quest, however the door was already open so all that happened was the door slowly opened with a creak from the old hinges. From the back of the store he could hear the sound of metal banging heavily on metal, for what he assumed was the man named Cerdic. "He...Hello?" August called out into the back of the shop to see if it would trigger the quest. Luckily, that's exactly what happened.

Edited October 8, 2018 by Cr0wnS
Accidentally posted without finishing :|

[Cr0wnS 0]

From the back of the store, the man stopped what he was crafting and came rushing to the store section of his blacksmith store. "Hello there! Welcome to my store, what can I do for you?" The man gave August a warm greeting, and August replied in kind, "Uh, is there a quest I can get from here?" The mans face lit up, "Yes! Of course, so you want to become a blacksmith eh? Well, you've come to the right place! Before I can teach you however, I'm running a bit low on spare materials. So! Before I can teach you, please go out and collect 5 materials for me! Then return and I will help you through your first craft!" As soon as the man finished his explanation, a small window appeared in front of August, it was a quest accept or deny window. The mans explanation was fairly straight forward, so August thought he could complete it in an afternoon or so. Therefor, as August accepted the quest he heard the familiar ding! that signified a quest had begun. As soon as he accepted the quest, the man begun his next set of dialog "Brilliant! Return to me when you've collected the materials, good luck." With that, Cerdic retreated into the back of his store and it was time for August to set out on his way.

Leaving the store, August once again traced through the maze like streets of the Town of Beginnings , eventually finding his way to the large archway that was the main entry and exit to the town. From now, the plan would be to head to the forest region not far from where he was, and start digging through the dirt to try and find anything that he could that might be helpful for him

[Cr0wnS 0]

The best place that August knew of was only a half an hours journey from the entry gate, well, at least that was what the in-game clock on his HUD told him. It was now just after midday, and he had plenty of time to search for these materials, however knowing his luck it could take well into the night. Since it was a quest and the NPC was scripted he assumed that the place where the npc resided was always open. Unlike a player run store, NPC stores generally only sold basic items for beginning players, with the odd exception of course. As well as this, the NPCs generally had a fixed price for all of their items, and didn't take custom item orders. Out of all the professions, being a blacksmith had the most appeal to August. It would be a neat way to make some extra money, as well as this he could make his own weapons to his specifications and for free on top of that. The only downside to this is that he would have to collect his own materials.

Once he reached the edge of the forest, August took a few steps in towards a clearing where he would start his search. Finding materials through gathering wasn't too hard, nor was it risky, but it got a bit boring, and he had not a clue how to fish, although he was sure someday he would give it a crack. Off to the side of the clearing was a rock that didn't seem to belong in the grove, and upon reaching it, August's suspicions were confirmed. The rock was a marker, and upon lifting it up, there lay a smaller glowing rock of the same shape. "Sweet, one down, five to go!" August congratulated himself and continued on.

Quote

ID# 107123

• Battle: 10
• Craft: 5
• Loot: 16
• Mob: 7

Materials found 1/5

 

[Cr0wnS 0]

The grove where he had entered was fairly spacious. It was a wide dirt circle carved out of the middle of the forest with sparse patches of grass dotting the ground, the roots of the trees formed the edge of the grove as they extended up to the base and roughly fifteen feet upwards to form the green leafy roof of the canopy. It was a nice day, as it usually was on the first floor. Each floor seemed to have its own environment as well as its own seasons, and each change on their own time scale. It was truly fascinating to August the sheer depth of the content that was in this game and the time and care that was put into it. He could see why so many people were so quick to suck up all of the 10,000 copies. From what he could determine before he logged in, the online copies sold out in seconds, and before too long all 10,000 players were logged in. However, what was waiting for them was not a virtual paradise, it was a prison.

For some people however, perhaps this would be somewhat of a paradise, an escape from the real world. Despite everything that had happened since he started in this game, August could fully admit to himself that the environment around him was beautiful, and in another life, perhaps he could have been one of the players who loved it here. Ah! He was getting distracted, August had a habit of drifting off and losing his train of thought. Luckily however, while he was looking up at the trees, he noticed that there was another glowing object sitting up in the branches. With all his strength, he slowly inched up the tree towards the branch where the material was located. However, grabbing onto the material made him lose his grip, and he fell to the ground with an unattractive thud. 

Thinking that it would have hurt, August immediately grabbed his back and started moaning, however, due to the way that the game was programmed, players didn't feel pain. Therefor he was able to stand up and was completely unharmed.

Quote

ID# 107131

• Battle: 3
• Craft: 10
• Loot: 20
• Mob: 9

Materials found 2/5

 

[Cr0wnS 0]

August stood up and dusted himself off. The fall hadn't been enough to damage him but it was a bit scary, so he decided that maybe the canopy wasn't a good place to search for materials. The next place that he decided to search would be the direct opposite, perhaps there would be some materials around the roots, that's usually where some herbs or rocks could be located. However, despite searching all of the trees there wasn't a single material to be found. There was however, several spiders and some small furry animals. The animals could have been used for food, but August couldn't bring himself to kill them, since it was a small family of five. It dawned on him again the sheer scope and attention to detail that was present in this world, and the amount of effort that Kayaba Akihiko must have put into making this into a playable game. For a murderer, August felt that Akihiko had put an exorbitant amount of effort into crafting this death game.

He was thinking about moving on from the grove, further into the forest where there might be a higher density of materials. As August walked further from the grove, the trees got closer and closer together and it started to get slightly darker. Perhaps this would make it easier to spot anything that was out of the ordinary on the floor of the forest.

 

Quote

ID# 107133

• Battle: 9
• Craft: 9
• Loot: 14
• Mob: 1

 

 

 

[Cr0wnS 0]

The trees closed up above August so that only small streams of light shone down onto the shrub covered ground, this was in stark contrast to the very open grove that he had entered the forest through. It was almost slightly claustrophobic, and the amount of room he had to move around in got smaller and smaller as the density of trees increased. He had never actually been this far before, and he was surprised that the system hadn't spawned any mobs for him to fight, but perhaps due to the parameters of the quest, this was intended. Since the quest was designed obviously for low level players, maybe Kayaba didn't just want 10,000 <<Level 1>> players dying immediately from encounters with low level mobs. August continued to scan the ground for anything that he could find as he continued to walk through the forest, however he wasn't having much luck, maybe this quest was meant to be semi hard, at least by beginners standards. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he noticed a gleam from atop one of the trees. Luckily, since they were so clumped together, it was easy to use multiple trees in order to hoist himself up there. However, once he reached the top, there was nothing there, just a birds nest and some eggs, however the mother bird was not home, so maybe August should leave before it comes back and tries to attack him.

Quote

ID# 107206 

• Battle: 7
• Craft: 10
• Loot: 3
• Mob: 2

 

[Cr0wnS 0]

An hour had now passed since August had entered the forest, and he was getting further and further away from the entrance to the town of beginnings. He would have to be mindful of this if he wanted to make it back before dark. If he wasn't careful, August could be walking through the forest blind in the middle of the night, and his risk of dying from a random mob encounter would probably skyrocket. If he didn't collect all the materials he needed today, then he would need to return to the town and rest for the night, not exactly the most efficient option but neither was staying out in the forest past nightfall. Funnily enough, in his time walking around the starting town, he had heard stories of beginning players staying out at night in the forest and seeing ghosts, however, this was definitely fictitious, even if he believed in ghosts in the real world, the possibility of them actually being coded into a game was absurd. Even despite the absurdity, he didn't want to take the risk.

Continuing to scan the ground, he found a plant that seemed to call his attention, it seemed that it was not meant to be there, just based on the contrasting colours to the ground around it. It was an orange flower with blue highlights that was bigger than any of the other shrubbery around it, however as soon as August stepped towards this odd flower, it seemed to make the animation of spurting out some kind of gas, before inevitably exploding into the small diamond shaped pixels that made up all of the assets in this world. August stayed weary of the strange coloured cloud and kept walking deeper into the forest.

Quote

ID# 107250

• Loot: 14

 

[Cr0wnS 0]

August walked slowly around the strange coloured cloud, careful to avoid any status effects that it might entail. If he got paralyzed out here then that might mean his swift demise at the hand of an enemy. He had heard stories of this happening of course, many people in the town of beginnings told stories of people that they had seen slain by level one mobs. In the months following the release of the game, one fifth of the players that started the game had died. Despite this however, the front lines group had managed to clear a quarter of the floors so far. This obviously would have inspired hope in many of the players, including August, who aimed to join the people in the front lines. Once he had seen the sheer ferocity in which people had taken down floor bosses, he wished to be a part of it and join in with them, working towards the end of this prison.

Continuing through the forest nothing had caught his attention. It is very likely that someone had come through here and cleared everything out right before he arrived, because there was simply nothing there for him to collect. With the release of a sigh he sat down to think about his next move.

Quote

ID# 107340 

• Loot: 6 

 

[Cr0wnS 0]

Facing the realisation that maybe a new area was required, August set off through the forest more, hoping to find an area that held more materials. Luckily, before too long that would be the case. Walking for about twenty minutes, according to the in game clock, he came upon a pathway made of dirt, that seemed to lead further into the forest. Not weary of anything that could be waiting for him. Following the path it lead him to what looked like another clearing, except this one had a small lake, probably only about four or five meters across, however the water was flowing from a stream across from August. Luckily for August, sitting at the edge of the lake was a glowing rock, which August knew to be a material. He rushed over to collect it, opening his inventory and de-materialising it as it is added. Just as before, he saw a little pop up in the corner of his screen <<Materials Collected: 3/5>>. "Sweet, almost there!" August announced to himself, however as he turned around, an unaware boar was sitting there, grazing on some nearby shrubs. "Damn, should I leave it be or attack it." Had the game not been so dangerous, he would have instantly fought the boar, but now there was the threat of death, so he had to be careful. Despite the threat, he decided to engage the monster, as he was getting very bored with just collecting materials.

MOB STATS:

• HP: 10
• Damage: 3

CrownS STATS:

• HP: 20
• Damage: 3

Quote

 ID# 107418

• Loot: 16 

Materials collected: 3/5

 

[Cr0wnS 0]

August drew his sword from the holster at his side, the sound of the metal against the leather was a sound he hadn't heard in a very long time, however it was one he instantly recognized and made him feel comfortable. He placed his sword in front of him, setting up the system assist to help him hit the boar. The sword lit up a nice shade of blue, similar to the colour of the sky outside of floor one, as he charged towards the boar. However at the very last second the boar noticed his approach and jumped out of the way, managing to counter attack and headbutt August in his midsection. This threw his centre of balance off and he went flying away from the boar. The HP bar in the top left-hand corner of his screen slid down slightly, not too worrying but not ideal either. As part of the beginning of the game he had health potions however that's all he had and August didn't want to waste it on a simple boar battle. 

Standing up, the boar was now facing him, and it was pissed. Its eyes had changed from a calm green to an angry red and it was stamping the ground ready for the next round of attacking. August picked up his rapier and assumed a fighting stance, showing that he was not going to back down.

MOB STATS:

• HP: 10
• Damage: 3

CrownS STATS

• HP: 17
• Damage: 3

 

Quote

ID# 107432

• Battle: 4 (4+1 Because of ACC, still a miss)
• Mob: 7

 

 

Edited October 14, 2018 by Cr0wnS

[Cr0wnS 0]

August quickly recovered from the hit and was ready to strike again. He took a deep breath and readied his sword in the typical stance that would activate the system assist for rapiers. The sword once again lit up with a blue glow, illuminating his face and in a small circle around him. In response the boar stamped its hooves and charged towards the boar, and upon reaching it performed one of the beginner sword arts, known as <<Rip Ravine>>, which was simply just two attacks one after the other. Two red lines appeared on the boar's body when the sword had pierced it's hide. Turning around he heard the boar let out a little squeal as it was knocked over, the damage done to it preventing it from attacking August further. This meant that he had time to prepare once again as he assumed the stance to fight the Boar once again. He knew that this was all thanks to the <<System Assist>>, and in the real world, August would probably not even be able to hold a sword properly, despite this, the fighting system was still incredibly awesome for August and he loved fighting despite the danger.

DAMAGE DONE: (3 Base+1 Crit) x 2 = 8 Total Damage

MOB STATS:

• HP: 2
• Damage: 3

CrownS STATS:

• HP: 17
• Damage: 3

 

Spoiler

 

Rank 1

[x2] Rip Ravine (2 Energy) - Two quick slashes into a target

 

 

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ID# 107482

• Battle: 9 (10, 9+1 Because of ACC)
• Mob: 5

 

 

Edited October 14, 2018 by Cr0wnS

[Cr0wnS 0]

August only needed one more attack before the boar would go down, as its HP bar was now in the red, this was also clear from the digital animal's demeanour. It was clearly exhausted as it struggled to stand straight and was wobbling slightly, forcing it to correct its footing every slight movement it made. August was not in the clear either however, as he had also received a hit from the boar. The difference being however that due to the way the game was coded, August didn't feel the pain from the hit he had received. This gave him a slight advantage over the AI coded boar. He stared the boar down and charged again, his sword lighting up a powerful sky coloured blue, he was just about to reach the mob when his foot caught one of the outstanding roots, stumbling into the horns of the boar he was fighting. They dug into his abdomen, revealing big red gashes as exit holes where the horns had punctured his side. Rolling away he got up again, and noticed that the bar at the top of his screen went down again, now it was about a quarter empty. This is getting bad August thought to himself as he drew his sword again, ready to attack.

MOB STATS:

• HP: 2
• Damage: 3

CrownS STATS:

• HP: 14
• Damage: 3

 

Quote

ID# 107507

• Battle: 3
• Mob: 7

 

Edited October 15, 2018 by Cr0wnS

[Cr0wnS 0]

This was it, his first battle in months was coming to a close. While it was only a basic, level one mob, August still felt a sense of accomplishment at actually making some progress towards reaching a higher level. For the rest of the day however, August conceded that he wanted to take things slow and he would just collect his materials through gathering and ignoring other mobs. This would not only be safer but would also most likely be faster and more efficient, as not all mobs are guaranteed to drop materials. In fact, this boar might not even drop a material. August prepared his sword as it once again shone with a blue glow. He charged at the mob, a clean, concise stab piercing the mob's hide before it could even react. With a squeal the mob shivered before exploding into dozens of diamond shaped polygons, typical of any object that was destroyed in this world.

A small screen appeared before him reading

<<Congratulations!>>

You receive: 30 Col

August stared blankly at the screen, he had not actually received anything of note from the mob. Letting out a soft sigh, he relented that it was only a low level mob and maybe if he fought something slightly stronger then it would yield better results. However, it was back to gathering for him.

Quote

ID# 107540 

• Battle: 5 (6, 5+1 because of ACC. Therefor successful hit)
• Mob: 9

ID# 107541

• Loot: 1

 

Edited October 15, 2018 by Cr0wnS

[Cr0wnS 0]

August sighed, the nostalgic sound of his sword entering its sheath filled his ears. He opened his inventory and unequipped it, since it would only get in his way while he wasn't using it. In the heat of the moment however, this could be his downfall, as if a mob appeared and surprise attacked him, he would be dead in the water. August felt confident that he would be safe for the rest of the day, as long as he didn't stay out until it got dark. Since the boar was now dead, August decided that it would be prudent to move on before the sounds of battle attracted any other boars in the surrounding area. His main goal was still to collect the five materials for the quest, however, as the day dragged on this seemed like a less and less likely goal. The only saving grace of this whole venture was that the environment around him was superb, and the weather was nice, so its not like he could complain about that. Walking through the forest, he thought that something shiny caught his eye so he walked towards it, leaving the trail. However once he reached the location, all that was there were simple plant models. The only problem now, was that August was hopelessly lost, and he couldn't see the path that he just came from.

Quote

ID# 107589

• Loot: 8

 

Edited October 16, 2018 by Cr0wnS

[Cr0wnS 0]

Despite being lost he wasn't all that phased, there was a map that he had on his HUD that could direct him back towards sanctuary. However it was starting to get late, it seemed like he had only been walking for a bit but in actual fact it had been several hours. He started at midday so if he kept going for a bit then he would eventually hit sundown, which was very dangerous as his field of vision would become limited, leaving him vulnerable to surprise attacks from mobs. Something caught his eye and brought him out of this train of thought, it was the familiar glow of a material that he needed. However, it was high up in a tree, so it would take some effort to retrieve. Approaching the tree it seemed to be taller than he thought, it now appeared to be about four or five times his height, which would mean he'd have to be careful about climbing, least he fall and take a significant amount of damage. 

After 20 minutes of careful climbing he made it to the glowing material, clutching it in his hand it disappeared into his inventory, one step closer to finishing this quest. "Alright, one more to go", he announced to himself. Climbing down was slightly faster than climbing up however it was still an arduous process. Once he reached the ground he was off again on his search.

Quote

ID# 108158

• Loot: 20

Materials found: 4/5

 

Edited October 25, 2018 by Cr0wnS

[Cr0wnS 0]

August's mood had drastically improved, this hunt was almost over and he could return to the overexcited man to being the next stage of the quest. He once again opened up the quest text to see what he would have to do, however it didn't say anything beyond what he already knew. He figured that it would reveal itself after he collected the five materials. August sat at the base of the tree and let out a sigh. The game didn't allow him to feel fatigue however he felt like he would need a second to rest his feet and plan his next move, since he was now much more lost than he was before. The map on his HUD didn't really give him much indication of where he was relative to where he began but he was confident that he could at least find his way back if need be. Scanning around the forest, there wasn't really much that he could see that would help him on his quest, so he resigned to sit at the base of the tree and plan his next move.

 

Quote

ID# 108186

• Loot: 11

 

 

Edited October 26, 2018 by Cr0wnS