[SP-F1] To Protect Others, One Must Protect Themself <Earning A Living>

[Sina Veter 0]

    The line between days had become blurred.  The times that she had spent out of the game were becoming forgotten.  After the announcement that everyone would be stuck in the game until the game was beaten was declared, Sina Veter had found herself stuck inside a shell of flesh.  She wandered from charity to charity and took what she could to have the bare minimum of living in Sword Art Online, which wasn't much.  This amount of time had even caused her to forget her original name, and only know the one that floated above her head.  All Sina could remember was that she came into this game to protect, and she had failed miserably.

    As soon as the announcement had been made, names began to appear on the wall.  The people were already dying.  And while others tried to press on, Sina just sat and mourned every loss.  It wasn't until this day that she would declare to herself that she would protect those that she could for as long as she could.

    It was just like any other day, going around to charities that helped those that couldn't bear being stuck in the game.  At one such charity, there was a bard. And while he was an NPC, he was still able to give the current news of Aincrad, albeit in a bit of a monotone.  He mentioned the heroics of the people fighting at the front lines, which was nothing new, but he then proclaimed that the twentieth floor had just been opened, bringing us closer to our freedom.  It was that news that sparked hope in Sina's heart.

    Like any spark, this one lit a fire, but in Sina's heart.  From that point on, she decided that she wouldn't worry about her situation and only try to help others.  She immediately left the charity house and started to look for a way to protect others, and the inspiration began to flow.  She spotted a smithery and realized that a blacksmith could fashion armor and weapons so that others could protect themselves.  So, she went in to the NPC owned shop and asked to be trained as a blacksmith.

    "I would like to become a blacksmith," Sina shouted as she entered the empty shop. A prompt asked her to confirm her choice and she hit the green yes button.  The shopkeeper then began a prepared dialogue.

[Sina Veter 0]

    "Hello Adventurer, you have decided to become a blacksmith." The NPC was completely deadpan with his delivery, almost in a monotone.  "The path of a blacksmith is ajourney only those with a fiery heart undertake.  To begin your journey down the path of blacksmithing, you need to get some ore to create a weapon of your choice. Please return to me once you have gathered some ore."  A notification sound went off and Sina opened her menu.  She dismissed the notification and continued to listen to the NPC.

    "To gather ore, you must go out into the fields and find ore deposits.  In those deposits you will want to attempt to mine for some ore.  However, it may take a while before you find any material to use for crafting. Good luck!"

    With the NPC done talking, Sina Veter left the smithery, ready to go out and gather some materials.

Edited January 3, 2017 by Sina Veter

[Sina Veter 0]

    Sina left the town in her usual clothes, which was still just the starting cloth armor.  While it wasn't much, she could still call it hers and not just a loaner from one of the many charities that she had attended, which had been very kind to her and given her a bit of food.  As she ventured out into the fields, she realized that she didn't know the way back to the starting city, and ended up spending the first few minutes getting her bearings and figuring out how to pull up the map of the first floor. Upon opening the menu, she was overwhelmed by the amount of options on her screen, there seemed to be an option for everything from checking one's inventory to setting the amount of colorblind compensation.  Once Sina got the bearings of the menu, she decided to resume her search for some suitable ore.

Spoiler

[Roll ID: 73668]

LD: 2

No materials gathered

 

Edited January 6, 2017 by Sina Veter

[Sina Veter 0]

   

 

Sina began her search for materials after finally figuring out the map, but then another problem reared its ugly head.  She didn't know what to look for.  While she knew that she needed ore, she didn't know what a metal deposit looked like, having never seen one before or really paid any attention to the images in the tutorial manual.  The tall grass certainly wasn't helping in revealing where any of the ore could be hiding, unless that ore happened to be over a foot above the ground.  She continued to look, but at this point she knew that the search for ore would be a much more tedious one than expected.  Her search eventually took her away from the city where hopefully more material spawns would occur, though she supposed that all the other beginners probably would have farmed the good areas and be crawling over them by now.

Spoiler

[ID: 73671]

LD: 2

No materials gathered

 

Edited January 6, 2017 by Sina Veter

[Sina Veter 0]

   

The search continued for a few more minutes until Sina finally stumbled upon what looked like a deposit of ore.  She tried to interact with the gleaming rock, and a window popped up asking if she'd like to mine it.  She confirmed the action by pressing the glowing green “yes” button and began to mine the deposit via a filling action bar.  After a few seconds, the action bar filled up and Sina got a pop-up notification saying that one unit of iron ore had been added to her inventory.  She opened the menu and dismissed the notification as she wiped the sweat from her brows.  She had begun to finally feel some progress towards her goal of protecting as many people in the world of Aincrad that she could.  And even if the progress wasn’t a noticeable step, it was just as important as every other step it would take to make it to the front lines.

Spoiler

[ID: 73672]

LD: 18

1 tier one material gathered

 

Edited January 6, 2017 by Sina Veter

[Sina Veter 0]

   

    Sina didn't know too much about the gathering system and decided to try and mine from the deposit again.  She checked around the various menus for any way of interacting with the ore, but didn't find any.  She then tried to make random gestures in the general direction of the deposit.  After failing to get a confirmation screen to pop up again, she decided to give up trying to mine it again, though she was unsure whether it was impossible or just luck that she couldn’t re-mine a deposit. She promptly went back to searching the grasslands for more ore deposits.  As she was searching, she saw some boars and wolves, which she promptly decided to avoid until she was certain that she could take them on without incurring too much risk to her well-being.  If she were truly to protect others, she would need to be alive to do so.

Spoiler

[ID: 73673]

LD: 13

No materials gathered

 

Edited January 6, 2017 by Sina Veter

[Sina Veter 0]

   

    Sina continued her search for ore while making sure to not engage with any of the hostile creatures in the area.  While the quest log now said that she should go back to the NPC merchant, Sina had a good feeling that she would have to successfully craft a piece of equipment, therefore necessitating that she grab several materials.  As she continued her search for ore, the sun continued to climb into the sky, causing the in game temperature to steadily increase.  The increase in temperature caused her to begin to sweat, which also clouded her vision ever so slightly.  Once she had wiped some of the sweat away, she took off her armor in order to get better air flow going through her body.  She made sure that she remembered how to get back to her inventory and put the armor back on, though, in casae a fight did break out.

Spoiler

[ID: 73674]

LD: 13

No materials gathered

 

Edited January 6, 2017 by Sina Veter

[Sina Veter 0]

   

    Sina had begun to grow weary from searching and ended up taking a break from it to rest her sore legs.  As she sat down and rested, she admired the beauty of the landscape for the first time.  The grassy hills were beautifully well rendered and were entirely identical to what slivers of memory Sina had of real grass.  The boars were milling around as if they had an actual animal intelligence, and the wolves almost looked like they were trying to stalk the boars.  Sadly, she didn't see any other players, though she attributed that to both the size of the floor and the most likely solution that all of the loot available on this floor is extremely low quality for much of anyone to use.  Once she felt rested enough, Sina stopped admiring the landscape in front of her, and got up to continue her search for metal.

Spoiler

[ID: 73675]

LD: 11

No materials gathered

 

Edited January 6, 2017 by Sina Veter

[Sina Veter 0]

   

    The day was getting late and Sina had still only managed to find the one piece of iron ore.  She made one more quick pass over the grasslands with her eyes and then decided to finally head back to the NPC’s shop to give an attempt at crafting.  As she walked back towards the starting city, she took the time to admire the colorful sunset that the developers of sword art online had created for the players they trapped inside.  It was a beautiful event, but seemed to be lacking something, which she could not tell.  Her heart began to long for any memory of the real world, if it wasn’t just a figment of her imagination. As the moon began to rise, she made it back to the NPC's shop, which was devoid of any people, most likely because they could find much better merchandise just about anywhere else.

Spoiler

[ID: 73678]

LD: 3

No Materials Gathered

 

Edited January 6, 2017 by Sina Veter

[Sina Veter 0]

   

    As soon as Sina had entered the NPC's shop, the shopkeeper began to speak.

   "Hello again, adventurer. I am glad to see that you have found a piece of ore with which to draft with.  If you will please follow me, I will demonstrate to you how to craft with the materials that you gathered."

   Sina followed the monotone NPC to the public forge, where she saw a couple other players plying their craft.  Once there, she was shown how to initiate a crafting attempt, and watched as the NPC created a simple sword.  After the demonstration, the NPC continued.

   "Please come back to me once you have created something you deem worthy to call your own," the NPC finished as he went back into his shop.  Once he had left Sina’s vicinity, a window popped up saying that she was now a pending blacksmith.  She then went back to the public forge and began her first attempt at crafting

 

Edited January 6, 2017 by Sina Veter

[Sina Veter 0]

   

    As one would expect, Sina's first time trying her hand at the forge did not go that well.  After nearly burning herself with the ore smelter several times before she could get the ore to a decently purified level, she tried to pound out the ore into some sort of weapon shape.  Eventually, the ore was pounded out into the rough shape of a sword, but looked quite a bit more like a broken tree branch.  On top of that, there were still so many impurities and dents in the sword that she wouldn’t dare to call herself proud of it, let alone even want to try and wield it.  Once she put away the loaner gear, Sina went to sleep near one of the warm forges, not having any better place to do so as many of the charities had too many returning guests to spare her a bed to sleep in.

 

Spoiler

[ID: 73679]

CD: 2

Failure:

    Lose Materials

    +1 Blacksmith EXP

Edited January 7, 2017 by Sina Veter

[Sina Veter 0]

    Sina Veter had just woken up for the new day, having slept in an alley in the starting city.  She walked out the front gate of the city and renewed her search for ore deposits.  And while she was alert, she woke up early enough that the sun had yet to rise.  The darkness then ruined any possibility of finding deposits.  Resigning herself for the moment, Sina decided to sit and watch the sunrise, which was beautiful with all the colors of the rainbow.  Once the sun had cleared the horizon, Sina went back to her searching.

Spoiler

[ID: 73714]

LD: 11

No Materials gathered

 

Edited January 3, 2017 by Sina Veter

[Sina Veter 0]

    Sina got up from her makeshift seat of rock and started wandering, refreshed from her sleep the last night.  She looked, but wasn't bothered about needing to find any ore, for she had the whole day ahead of her.  She stayed nearby the city and didn't find any deposits, though whether it be because they didn't respawn or because they only spawned a certain distance from the nearby city she wasn't sure.  She decided to walk some distance away from the city before she began her search anew.

Spoiler

[ID: 73715]

LD: 5

No materials gathered

 

Edited January 3, 2017 by Sina Veter

[Sina Veter 0]

    Sina had put some distance between her and Starting City, and had started searching again.  She almost immediately came across an ore deposit.  Sina interacted with the object and a window popped up asking to confirm the action, and she clicked the green yes button.  A bar appeared in front of her slowly filling.  Once the bar filled, Sina felt a bit tired and a piece of iron ore was added to her inventory. She was joyful that she found ore so quickly and took a quick seat to recover some lost energy.

Spoiler

[ID: 73716]

LD: 16

1 Tier 1 material found

 

Edited January 3, 2017 by Sina Veter

[Sina Veter 0]

    Sina had sat down to take a quick break from mining, and didn't realized how exhausted she was.  Her inactivity had caused the game to label her as out of shape, causing her to tire much more quickly.  Realizing this, she was incapable of doing much for the next few minutes.  After sitting for longer than she would like, Sina got up and tried to interact with the ore deposit again, but couldn't get another piece from it.  She then wandered off to find another deposit.

Spoiler

[ID: 73718]

LD: 9

No materials gathered

 

Edited January 3, 2017 by Sina Veter

[Sina Veter 0]

    Sina had recovered from her tiredness quickly and had just started walking when she found another deposit.  She didn't know what the chances were and was just happy that she could get another material so quickly.  She interacted with the deposit and confirmed the mining action.  The action bar popped again and started to fill up.  Now that she knew that the action would tire her, she could feel the energy slowly leaving her.  When the action finished, Sina felt tired, but a little less than last time.

Spoiler

[ID: 73719]

LD: 17

1 tier 1 material gathered

 

Edited January 4, 2017 by Sina Veter

[Sina Veter 0]

    Sina decided to take a quick rest after mining just to make sure that she would have energy should she find another so quickly.  As she rested underneath the shade of a nearby tree, he looked across the plains.  No doubt someone died fighting one of the milling boars or stalking wolves, and she hadn't done what she intended to do and protect those that couldn't protect themselves.  The thought tugged at her, but then she thought to herself, "That was the me who logged in. Now, I will not let one death stop me from preventing countless others."  With that thought, she got back up and returned to searching yet again.

Spoiler

[ID: 73721]

LD: 7

No materials gathered

 

Edited January 4, 2017 by Sina Veter

[Sina Veter 0]

    Sina looked high and low for more ore, and couldn't find any no matter how hard she tried.  She figured that her luck was just beginning to average out.  Now knowing that she had to use one material per crafting attempt, she decided to look for a little bit longer before she returned to the town.  She had been out for almost the whole day now, and wanted to make sure that she could stay rested to keep up the search if need be.  She picked up the pace as she searched a little bit harder for the materials she required.

Spoiler

[ID: 73726]

LD: 14

No materials gathered

 

Edited January 4, 2017 by Sina Veter

[Sina Veter 0]

    The sun was getting low, and Sina still had found no more materials.  After taking a few more minutes trying to find one last deposit, Sina decided to find a road and head back to Starting City.  The road was desolate of travelers and she walked along in silence, contemplating how to create something out of her ore.  Eventually, she got back to the city gate and navigated her way towards the communal forge.  Once there, she set to work on creating something out of what she had.

Spoiler

[ID: 73727]

LD: 4

No materials gathered

 

Edited January 4, 2017 by Sina Veter

[Sina Veter 0]

    Sina Veter had just gotten to the forge as many were leaving.  The NPCs gave her an automatic welcome speech to help with the mood of the forge.  She quickly got to work on creating a weapon that she would hopefully be able to wield.  As the ore heated up, Sina tucked her blue hair behind her ear, ready to go for a long amount of work, she wanted to take the time to get this right. The impurities melted away in the forge and all that was left was a lump of pure iron.  Sina took the iron and began to pound it into a recognizable shape.  She used the starter rapier that she bought as a model for her craft.  As she neared completion, she wiped the sweat from her brow and dipped the blade into a bucket of water.  She brought out the blade and gave it a couple practice swings.  After being satisfied with the weight of the blade, she slid her finger along the blade, which almost instantly cut her finger.  To confirm its sharpness, she quickly thrusted it in and out of a nearby dummy, doing so with little effort.  This was definitely a blade she could wield, but was she truly proud of it?

Spoiler

[ID: 73728]

CD: 11

Rare Item-

    2 enhancement slots

    1 tier 1 material consumed

    +5 Blacksmith EXP

    Item pending approval (Sanguinem)

 

Edited January 4, 2017 by Sina Veter