[PP-F1] The First Few Lessons Are Free [Quest]

[Tomas 0]

A warm morning sun shone down upon the Town of Beginnings as an ancient and weathered man reclined in a chair outside a shop with an old wooden sign on it carrying the image of potioneer's bottle painted upon it in faded black paint. With his fingers laced over his stomach, Zackariah snored softly in the wooden chair that was precariously tilted backwards on two legs leaning against the shop's wall, as a golden exclamation mark hung in the air above his head. It was to this white haired and bearded man that a shadowy figure clad in black with a simple and small wooden crucifix around his neck approached, his eyes focused on the indicator of a quest. Placing a leather booted foot upon one of the upraised legs of the chair, Tomas applied enough pressure to cause the chair to slam down to the ground before jerking his foot back.

"What the," Zackariah started, coming awake with a jerk and looking around in shock for a moment before his grey eyes came to rest upon the player that was clothed all in black with a deep hood pulled over his head. "Can I help you?" Tomas considered his response for a few seconds before answering.

"I am a traveler from a strange land," the monk began, bowing his head slightly in Zackariah's direction. "I seek a knowledge and understanding of this land's customs and potioneering practices."

"Is that all," the old man asked with a snort. "Head out into the fields and bring me back some crafting materials, then we'll get started." With that, the old timer tilted his chair back again and, promptly, went back to sleep.

[Samriel 0]

Wandering the Town of Beginnings, Samriel stopped into a few shops to pick up things for the orphanage. One of the players running it had mentioned they'd heard something about an easy quest for low level players and asked her to check it out. If it did turn out to be a good one, they might take the kids out to do it. She was fairly sure it was somewhere around...here...

Just as she turned a corner, she saw a wizened man with an exclamation mark floating above his head sitting in a chair as he spoke to a man in black. She stepped close just in time to hear him tell the other man to go retrieve some mats from a field or something before they got started. She was about to introduce herself to the NPC....when he promptly fell back asleep. Eyebrows raising in surprise at the quickness in which that happened, a small noise of disbelief sounded in the back of her throat, no doubt catching the attention of the other player. Awkwardly raising her hand in greeting, the blonde cleared her throat before speaking, "Uh so, would you mind if I tag along?" Now that she was looking the guy over he seemed...weird. In the sense that he just didn't really look the type to play games like Sword Art Online. Perhaps that was just his face. Some people just had 'those faces'.

[Tomas 0]

Tomas turned his head slowly and regarded the woman that had just spoken to him from the relative safety of the shadow cast by the hood of his cloak. He could see her, of course, just fine but the blonde probably would not be able to make out his features all that easily. The monk considered his options, and the woman, for a moment. While there were those, male and female most likely, that would have readily acknowledged the physical attractiveness of the blonde, such things were not of any real interest to a member of the order to which Tomas belonged. Even if that order did not exist in the digital world of Aincrad. He also, briefly, considered leading her out into the wilderness and then releasing her soul to float away from the digital gulag in which they found themselves, likewise that seemed a poor idea.

However, that didn't mean that the blonde had to be completely without merit. At his level, any help was welcome help. A low level player could never hope to accomplish all that was necessary.

 "That should be fine," Tomas allowed in a neutral tone, opening his hands and spreading his arms wide. "All we have to do is gather a few crafting materials. That should be a simple enough thing to do just outside of the gates of the Town of Beginnings." Opening up his player menu, with the swipe of a finger, the black cloaked figure sent a party request to Samriel in short order.

[Samriel 0]

As the seconds ticked by, Samriel felt like they were minutes, beginning to fidget under the man's gaze. At least she assumed he was looking at her. It was kind of hard to tell with the dark and mysterious hood shadowing his features like he was some plot important character. She decided that he'd either be the cool aloof protagonist or anti-hero. Seemed to work the silent type well. Didn't hurt that he was tall either. Her running inner dialogue at least helped her feel a tad less awkward, but when he finally did reply, it caused her to start slightly, eyes wide at the sound of his even voice.

Mind catching up with her ears, the shield maiden smiled at his acquiescence, nodding in acknowledgement to his layout of the quest that she had only half overheard. Lavender eyes flicking to the party invite that popped up in front of her, her finger swiped to accept and glanced at his name as it popped up on her top left under her own before offering her hand to shake. "Tomas, hm? I'm Samriel."  Resting her other hand on her hip, she looked at the slumbering NPC and huffed a breathy laugh. "Well I guess we should head out before he sleep walks away or something." Shrugging, Samriel set off towards said gates.

Before they reached it though, the blonde caught sight of a bright red headed boy that seemed about casually strolling towards the exit of the town's safe zone. At least he was until her voice rang out like the crack of a whip. "TERIK!" The boy flinched, his shoulders hunching as he looked about guiltily. Striding up to the eleven year old, Samriel sighed and prompted, "Heya. Where ya headed there buddy?"

The redhead attempted to shrug casually as he replied without meeting her eyes, "Just running an errand for Sasha..." 
"Uh huh. So if I shoot her a message right now, that's what she'll say?" The boy folded with a groan and changed tactics, "I'm just going right outside the safe zone to fight some boars!" Shaking her head, her long braid waggling behind her, Samriel sighed, "By yourself? And you know that they don't just wait right outside the safe zone. You have to go find them and that means venturing further out and going further away from the safe zone and leaving yourself vulnerable. C'mon kid, I taught you guys better than that."

Glancing at Tomas and realizing that he might be annoyed by the delay she wrapped up, "Go on. Find something else to do. I'm doing a quest right now but if it turns out good, I'll be taking some of you guys out on the same quest soon. Alright?" She got an eyeroll for a reply but she'd take what she could get. Giving the boy a friendly shove in the opposite direction, Samriel said, "Go, get. I'm messaging Sasha to make sure you get home alright or we'll bring the cavalry out." His aggravated whining phased her none, at least not until he was out of earshot. Letting out a sigh, the blonde offered her quest companion an apologetic smile. "Sorry about that. Kids, right? Let's go."