[SP-F1]The Old Man and The Sea <Earning A Living>

[zero_lost04 0]

Zero had been wandering around a bit aimlessly as of late.  He still hadn't gotten around to really starting up the next stage in the beginners quest, for the most part he had really been doing little more than visiting player shops and trying to get himself properly outfitted so that this game didn't have the possibility to kill him outright like it did on his first couple of quests.  He had been thinking about possibly starting the profession quest and opening up his own shop.  It was definitely something to consider, it would help him earn some more Col and possibily some more materials without having to wander the game for the items and nearly get himself killed, but he wasn't sure what he wanted too do.  He didn't want to be a blacksmith, he liked Teion and intended to go back to her for his blacksmithing needs, tailor didn't suit him, alchemy didn't seem like it would mesh well with him, performer was definitely out as was cook.  He was figuring it would probably be merchant but he knew that there were quite a few of those around and he didn't think it would help him stick out much.  As he was wandering through the town of beginnings near where all the profession quest givers were, Zero noticed an old man that seemed a little bit different. He approaches him and listens to the NPC's conversation.

 

"Hello there young man, do you think you could help me just a bit?  You see, I'm just an old fisherman, trying to catch a few prizes, but the fish are, umm, a bit tougher than one would expect and as you can see, I'm not the fisherman that I was in my prime.  If you could help me gather a few materials and then head out on the lake with me to help me subdue a few of the stronger fish, I'd happily teach you all the I know about being a fishermen."  A smile comes across Zero's face as he listens to the old man talk.  He loved fishing in the real world and had done a lot of different types of it in his life and this felt like it just clicked.  When the prompt came up on his screen, he quickly selected the accept option and then scrolled through his quest log.  He didn't really pay much attention to what the fisherman said after that as he read through the quest log.  Smiling to himself, Zero heads out of the safe zone so that he can start collecting a few supplies to start his fishing quest.

[zero_lost04 0]

There were a lot of forests just in the outskirts of the Town of Beginnings.  Aside from the possibility of being attacked by boars, Zero also knew that this should be prime location for fishing basic fishing supplies, in particular bait.  Frogs, worms and other assorted tiny creatures should be easy enough to find in the area, though his only real question about that was whether or not he would be able to find spots where he could get things like that in order to help him move along in the quest for fish.  He was going to take his time and search over the areas as carefully as he could, especially since he wasn't sure what he was looking for just yet.  At the same time, he wanted to make sure that he wasn't ambushed by any monsters, while he should largely be ok, he knew better than to take any thing for granted in this game.  Additionally, there was a good chance that he might actually be fighting some fish later, so he didn't want to burn through any resources he might need later just in case.

 

Roll ID - 83543

Loot Dice - 11 (Failure)

Edited May 1, 2017 by zero_lost04

[zero_lost04 0]

The area's that he was searching through were pretty devoid of monsters, which is thankfully what he wanted right now.  While he was feeling pretty confident in himself with his new armor and weapon, he had other tasks on his mind right now and thought that it would be better to not fight anything at the moment, better to survive and get what he was calling his "Fishing License" today than to hit on the slightly more ridiculous side that could possibly get him killed while he was trying to fish.  While he definitely wasn't afraid of going after some things that were higher level than he should, he also didn't want to die while trying to complete the profession quest, if he was going to die he did want it to be at least slightly cooler than that.

 

Having wandered around a little bit, Zero managed to come across a material gathering point that hadn't been scooped up yet.  He was grateful that he was able to find some fishing supplies with relative ease so far.  He remembered some of the difficulty he had when he was scrounging around for materials during the beginner quest and he knew that finding materials was sometimes harder than it needed to be in this game.  Knowing that he still had a bit to go, he continued on his way looking for more materials.

 

Roll ID - 83545

LD - 20 (Success)

Edited May 1, 2017 by zero_lost04

[zero_lost04 0]

Zero had figured that finding materials for his profession should be relatively easy.  With so few people having chosen to become a fisherman, the materials that he would need for his job should be more plentiful as players weren't hunting for them, at least that was his working theory.  The reality was proving to be quite different.  Materials in this game were extremely valuable, in a lot of ways they were far more valuable than Col, at the very least when it came to player interactions.  This seemed to indicate then that every material, regardless of which profession they were meant for, were highly sought after merely for the fact that they were so valuable as bartering chips between each other.  Zero sighed a little bit as this realization hit him, but in the end it didn't really matter to him.  He could take his time, search areas that were safe from monster attack and gather all the items he needed, regardless of how long it took.  Once he got everything he needed, he should be pretty well set to roll again and get to fishing, it would be a nice break in this death game.

 

Roll ID 83554

Loot Dice - 14 (Failure)

Edited May 1, 2017 by zero_lost04

[zero_lost04 0]

Zero was just taking his time, looking around for any materials that looked like they could be used for fishing.  If this was the real world, he would find himself a rotting tree stump and dig up the soil around it and bust the stump open to get the bugs and worms that would make their home in this locations.  However, since this was a game, he was stuck looking around for areas where he could gather materials.  Considering that he was looking for fishing materials, he figured that it was appropriate for him to start whistling a little tune while he walked along and looked.  Before he knew it, he was whistling the theme song from the "Andy Griffith Show", though once he realized it and thought about the opening he realized just how appropriate the song was for what he was doing.  Continuing his whistling while he walked down the path looking for fishing supplies, he couldn't help but smile as this began to fell so much like the real world to him for a few moments.

 

Roll ID - 83564

Loot Dice - 8 (Failure)

Edited May 1, 2017 by zero_lost04

[zero_lost04 0]

Zero was just continuing to what he had been doing, simply walking down the dirt path whistling the theme song to "The Andy Griffith Show" over and over again while occasionally stopping to look at an area that looked promising for material gathering.  So far he hadn't had any luck, but there was a part of him that felt like a kid again while he was doing this.  While there were quite a few bait shops around where he grew up, many times he and his friends would need to get creative for bait when they wanted to go fishing and in a lot of ways this took him back to that feeling.  He thought about just how much fun it would be to just do this every day in the game and even how much more relaxing it would be if he could have done and still having the ability to log out of the game. While he wasn't having any luck finding anything right now, he was just enjoying himself and letting himself got lost in the simplicity of fishing.

Roll ID - 83566

Loot Dice - 11 (Failure)

Edited May 1, 2017 by zero_lost04

[zero_lost04 0]

There was just something about the relaxing search that just made Zero feel so happy.  In most games, grinding for materials in order to participate in whatever crafting system the game used tended to be laborious and boring. Maybe because of the full dive system of the nerve gear it didn't feel like that and really just reminded him of preparing to go fishing in the real world.  Grinding for stuff like this wasn't something that bothered him, he had played RPGs his entire life and was used to the grind, but there was something special about this.  Just taking his time and enjoying the moment, he managed to find another material that he could use for fishing.  There was a happiness in the simplicity of this right now that Zero was really enjoying and was really glad that he had decided to undertake this quest, fishing seemed like it was the perfect profession for him in this game.

 

Roll ID - 83570

Loot Dice - 19 (Success - 2 Tier 1 Materials Total)

Edited May 2, 2017 by zero_lost04

[zero_lost04 0]

Zero wasn't having much luck finding materials to help him along with the quest.  There wasn't an amount specified for the quest, but he wanted to get at least five fishing materials so that when he completed the quest, hopefully he would have a little bit left over so that he could start fishing on his own and hopefully get some ranks up in the profession quickly.  Still, despite not having much luck, you wouldn't be able to tell any level of frustration or annoyance on his face.  For the first time since he had started seriously playing this game and moving through the ranks, he was available to just forget about everything else and get lost in the fact that he was getting ready to go fishing again and that thought just brightened up his mood and allowed him to completely forget about everything else that was going on in this crazy game around him.

 

Roll ID - 83626

Loot Dice - 7 (Failure)

Edited May 2, 2017 by zero_lost04

[zero_lost04 0]

To the outside observer, Zero had to look absolutely insane right now.  Still wearing all his normal gear for combat and walking down the dirt path while whistling the theme from the Andy Griffith show.  For being trapped in a virtual reality game that, supposedly, could kill him he was extremely relaxed and happy today, just the thoughts of being able to go fishing again had had put him in a really great mood and had allowed him to relax and forget about all the insanity in the world around him.  It really was just like the feelings that he would get in the real world when he was getting ready to go fishing and just let the rest of the world melt away around him.  After a little bit of walking, he found another material gathering spot and managed to get another material for his fishing supplies.  He figured that he was getting close to getting enough materials so that shouldn't be a problem soon for him and he could hopefully start fishing soon.

 

Roll ID - 83628

Loot Dice - 18 (Sucess - 3 Tier 1 Mats Total)

Edited May 2, 2017 by zero_lost04

[zero_lost04 0]

On any other given fetch quest to find crafting materials, this would normally be the time where Zero would start getting really annoyed with the grind, especially without having all the much luck finding the items that he wanted very easily.  There was something different about this quest and this grind though, knowing what it was that he was working towards at the end of this quest made him extremely relaxed during a quest that so far had been nothing but a continuous grind for materials.  Fishing was always a bit off in pretty much every game that he had played that had it in it, but knowing that the game was intercepting and interpreting brain signals for movement gave Zero a lot of hope that fishing in the game would be extremely similar to how it was done in real life.  From what he had seen, there were a lot of shortcuts and simplification done for most of the jobs to make them easier and more manageable for all players, but in theory fishing should be the one job that should be almost identical to its real world counterpart.

 

Roll ID - 83630

Loot Dice - 1 (Failure)

Edited May 2, 2017 by zero_lost04

[zero_lost04 0]

Zero wasn't even really aware that he had largely done a complete loop around the outskirts of the Town of Beginnings already as he continued his look for fishing supply materials.  It wasn't nearly as annoying to him as when he was looking for materials during the first beginning quest or when he was just killing time in the second one.  It was just a nice, peaceful day; the weather was just perfect today and it truly felt like a great day to go fishing in Aincrad, which just helped keep him in such high spirits.  He wondered what kinds of fish the game would have in it.  There was a good likelihood that there would be some typical Japanese fish and probably some created just for this game, but he couldn't help but wonder if there was some fish like Catfish, Spot, Chad, Brim; the types of fish he grew up fishing for would really make his day.  He was enjoying the search for fishing supplies and was really looking forward to finally being able to catch some fish.

 

Roll ID - 83631

Loot Dice - 7 (Failure)

Edited May 2, 2017 by zero_lost04

[zero_lost04 0]

After all the time that he had spent wandering the wooded paths near the town of beginnings, weariness of the search was finally starting to settle in on Zero.  It had been quite some time since he had started his search for fishing supplies and while he had made some good progress, he was very interested in finally getting through the quest so that he could do some fishing for himself and get his own little shop set up.  His levels of annoyance quickly dropped back to near non-existence as he managed to find another gathering point that gained him some more materials for his fishing supplies.  He was nearing his self-imposed goal of five materials before heading back to the quest giver and getting started on the second part of the quest so that he could get his fishing license as he had affectionately taken to calling the end goal of this quest.  Just a bit more and he would be through with this quest and he could move on to getting his shop open and getting to fishing.

Roll ID - 83633

Loot Dice - 16 (Success - 4 Tier 1 Materials Found Total)

Edited May 2, 2017 by zero_lost04

[zero_lost04 0]

Zero had stopped his whistling finally and was just walking along the path, looking for more fishing materials while thinking about a few different things for his, hopefully, soon to be profession.  How would baiting the hook work?  Would different fishing poles give you better odds at catching fish?  At that, would using different rods change the types of fish that you could catch in the same area?  Would the mechanics for fishing be the same if you were using a stick fishing pole, rod and reel or fly fishing rod? There were a lot of mechanical quests that were now popping into his mind about how this would work.  He was kind of hoping that, for the most part, it would work just like it did in real life, but he realized that that could, in theory, be a problem for other players that weren't used to fishing in the real world so there would like be some simplifacitions done to make the profession more accessible.  Then again, it was possible that the reason there were almost no fishermen was because they hadn't made fishing easier than what it was in the real world and the learning curve for it was too steep compared to other jobs.  There was a lot to think about and he did just that as he continued on down the path looking for more fishing supplies.

 

Roll ID - 83643

Loot Dice - 12 (Failure)

Edited May 2, 2017 by zero_lost04

[zero_lost04 0]

The thoughts replaying in his head were distracting him a bit from what he needed to get done.  There were a lot of mechanics that he was trying to figure out in his head, allowing his time doing real world fishing to cloud his mind in regards to how fishing in game might work.  It was a lot more thought than he should have given it, especially since the old man who had given him the quest had told him that he would teach him the basics of the fishing profession so he should be able to learn the mechanics that way and didn't really need to bother himself with thoughts like that at this moment.  As he was lost in thought, there was no telling how many material gathering points he walked past and missed out on because he was too focused on his own thoughts to notice them right by his feet.  The thought didn't even cross his mind that he needed to focus on what was happening right in front of him right now rather than opine on things that he was actually going to learn shortly.  It would have taken even less time to learn it if only he had focused on the task at hand rather than letting his mind wander like it was.

 

Roll ID - 83644

Loot Dice - 3 (Failure)

Edited May 2, 2017 by zero_lost04

[zero_lost04 0]

He was starting to make some headway in his head about how he was thinking the mechanics would work for the game.  Much like cooking, the task of baiting the hook would probably require little more than a button press in the menu or tapping something on the fishing rod that he would be using, much in the same way he saw that cooks only had to touch a knife to the ingredients once in order to have them all chopped perfectly.  Beyond that though, he wasn't sure how the mechanics of the fishing mini game would completely work.  Ultimately he had settled on the idea that once a fish had taken the bait, it would cause the rod to bend and feel a pull as the fish tried to swim away with the bait, once that happened he would need to set the hook and get the fish in, which would probably vary slightly depending on what type of fishing rod you were using.  He could see a possibility for several small variations to the fishing mini game being programmed in and the way that it would work would vary slightly, along with depending on whether or not had some weights or bobbers on the line as well.  It was an interesting thing to think about but once again there was no telling how many material gathering points he passed and missed out on while he was locked in deep thought.

 

Roll ID - 83645

Loot Dice - 9 (Failure)

Edited May 2, 2017 by zero_lost04

[zero_lost04 0]

It had taken him significantly longer than it should have for him to realize that he was wandering around aimlessly, thinking about things that would be easily explained to him and that would likely be even more completely explained in his help menu once he had unlocked the profession.  Trying to shake himself out of his aimless wandering and rambling, Zero knew that he really needed to focus on the task at hand and get finished with this part of the quest so that he could move along and get to the next part.  He wondered briefly if he had missed any material gathering points while he wasn't paying attention but he quickly shook himself out of that funk.  There was no point in dwelling on what had happened and what he had missed, in the real world he would just call it a sunk cost and move on and that was what he was deciding to do right now.  Maybe by focusing a little bit more and keeping his situational awareness a bit higher, he would be able to find what he needed soon enough.

Roll ID - 83648

Loot Dice - 13 (Failure)

Edited May 2, 2017 by zero_lost04

[zero_lost04 0]

Zero was beginning to really curse himself for his lack of awareness earlier.  If he had just been paying attention and doing a more adequate job of searching for material gathering spots, this portion of the quest would probably be done already and he would be almost completely through with this quest and almost be ready to get his fishing license for Aincrad and enjoy some nice down time.  Instead, he was still wandering the woods, looking for another piece of material that he could use as a fishing supply and wasting time.  Granted he didn't really have a quota that he needed to fill to move on with the quest, but he wanted to make sure that he had enough materials so that when he was able to start fishing on his own, he wouldn't have to go off and collect more materials instead of using the time for actually fishing.  Still, he wasn't going to keep going for this much longer, he had a lot of patience because what he was doing was setting him up so that he could get some good fishing done, but he was ready to go fishing and if he had to go out and search for more materials later he would, or if all else failed he would go see if he could buy some from a merchant. 

 

Roll ID - 83648

Loot Dice - 13 (Failure)

Edited May 3, 2017 by zero_lost04

[zero_lost04 0]

After walking around for a bit more, Zero comes to a complete stop and sighs deeply.  There would be some opportunities to search some more as he made his way back to town, but he had just decided to give up for right now.  There must be a skill or something in this game that could make this search go by a lot easier and once he got back into town and finished up this quest he would definitely be looking into that.  Surely there had to be a way to speed this process up, otherwise he couldn't comprehend how so many players had been able to level up their profession ranks so quickly.  Feeling a tiny bit defeated, Zero turns on his heels and beginnings heading back to the Town of Beginnings.  He was going to keep his eyes open as he made his way back to town, but he wasn't really feeling all the confident that he would find anything and had just decided to settle for what he had and be happy with it and finish this quest on up.  He could always gather more materials at some other time, but right now he really wanted to go fishing.

 

Roll ID - 83779

Loot Dice - 10 (Failure)

Edited May 3, 2017 by zero_lost04

[zero_lost04 0]

Zero was starting to close in on the town of beginnings, it wouldn't be much longer until he arrived at the town gates and his opportunity to find any more materials would come to a crashing halt.  Still, he wasn't really upset about that at this point.  He could have stopped at any time and just gone on back to help out the old man and finish up the quest after he found the first material, that was all the quest log was saying that he needed to proceed with the quest.  It was only because he wanted to be prepared for after the quest that he had proceeded in doing what he had done so far.  Still there were other ways that he could get materials and if things worked out, he might even to able to make his fishery a bit more self-sufficient on materials if things went well for him.  It was as he was nearing the gates of the town that he just happened to almost literally trip over another material gathering point.  With a big smile on his face, Zero gathered the last of the materials he needed for his self imposed completion requirement before heading back much more quickly into the town than he was moving before.

 

Roll ID - 83780

Loot Dice - 16 (Success - 5 T1 Materials Found Total)

Edited May 3, 2017 by zero_lost04

[zero_lost04 0]

Zero arrives back into the Town of Beginnings, it didn't take too long after he began moving a bit more quickly after fulfilling his self-imposed quota of 5 fishing supply materials.  It should be more than enough for him to complete the quest and still have a good little bit left over.  That was what he wanted after all, as soon as he finished this quest, he wanted to go buy a new fishing rod that would hopefully improve his odds of catching fish, then start fishing and relax.  Having moved quickly through the town, he made his way back to the NPC who started the quest.

 

"Ah, good to see that you've made it back.  I see you've gotten a hold of a few supplies, that is wonderful.  I have some materials myself, so you can hold on to those for the time being in case I need them.  We will be heading to the river behind my shop.  There is a pretty tough swordfish that lives in there that I've been trying to catch for years, but I'm just not as capable as I used to be.  Once I hook it, it will start attacking, I will need you to fight back for me so that I can reel it in."  The old man responded to Zero and started the next part of the quest, though he was a bit surprised that the old man allowed him to keep all the materials right now.  Maybe the quest was designed so that you collected some materials first so that when you finished and started your shop you had a nice base of materials to work with right from the start.

 

It wasn't long before the two of them were in the new instance and the old man started fishing.  It took almost no time before the sword fish was hooked and was jumping out of the water and attacking, trying to get free from the old man's fishing rod.  Zero needed to focus and time his attack just right, slashing out with his Straight Sword Art and dealing a significant amount of damage when he hit.  That drew the swordfish's ire and it began to attack him instead of the old man, which was what Zero wanted all along.

 

 

Roll ID - 83793

Battle Dice - 9 + 2 = 11 (Critical Hit +1 DMG)

6 DMG + 1 Crit = 7 DMG X 2 = 14 DMG Total

Zero - 100/100 HP | 8/10 EP | 21 MIT | 2 ACC | 9 RGN | 6 DMG

Swordfish - 36/50 HP | 15 DMG

Edited May 5, 2017 by zero_lost04