[SP-F01] <The Second Lesson, is also free> Let's get this over with

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

Benjamin had waited for a few weeks to try and get some of his friends to help with this quest, since company was always helpful with these easy quests.  But, today he was alone once more.  He figured that he could just hurry his way through the quest and grab the experience that it was worth before moving on to the more interesting ones.  Or at least that was the plan.  Who knows how long it could take trying to finish some of these quests.  Some of the tutorial stuff in games he has played before had been really long and grind-ish.  Still worth good xp at the end though. 

With those thoughts running through his mind, Ben made his way once again to Lyle Tealeaf's workshop.  It was the same long road from the town of Beginnings that he went down before, and found the smithy just up ahead.  It was time to start his next quest. 

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

Benjamin pulled up his quest menu from his HUD, checking to see if there was anything he needed before he started on the quest.  It looked like he just had to hop in and start though, so he pushed open the door to the workshop and strolled in.  Lyle was working on one of the tables in the back.  He looked up as Ben entered the front door and called out. Ah, you again.  Prefect timing, I was just about to put up a notice for some help today.  He said as he ambled over, searching around on one of the nearby tables for a bit for a list to reference, pulling it up to his face to read once he found the correct sheet.  Here we go... I have a few items that I'm short of in my shop.  I was hoping to get some young ones like you to go find me another couple of loads to keep my forges hot.  Would you be willing to help out with this?

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

A simple enough request, Ben thought as he went over the quest in his mind.  There had to be a catch, since that was way too similar to the previous quest in this line.  Still... All right, I'm in.  What kinds of materials do you need, and where am I going to go to find them?  Might as well start looking now... he asked, popping his quest log open to see what came.  In another second, the description popped as Lyle started to speak. 

Yes, good then.  I have need of some of the local boars hunted... of course it's freaking boars, classic noob monsters... not the full adults, mind you, just some of the smaller boar pups.  I can show you on the map where you can find a couple of nests that they breed at, and you should be able to get plenty of hunting done.  As long as you get me at least 3 of their tusks, that will be sufficient.

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

And it's a quest to kill a bunch of small animals in the beginner areas.  At least it will be worth a good amount of xp when he finished, thought as he pulled up the map.  The area indicated by the marker was just a minute down the road, of course, and should be clear of any random encounters before he got there.  No problem, I'll have them found and done in just a few shakes.  Anything else I have to know about these pups?  Maybe some big boss boar ready to pounce on me as soon as I'm done? 

No, it should be just the pups in that area nothing else to worry about.  *Sigh*  Well, if there were any surprises coming up he wouldn't find out about them here.  So, it was time to head out and start a few fights with defenseless forest animals.  How heroic this would be. 

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

Ben started on his way off to the forested area, moving at a good pace to get there quickly.  Without anything on the path to slow him down, he found himself at the spot he needed to get to in no time at all.  There were boar pups around here as the quest giver said- most wandering around on their own near a bunch of nests.  Or at least what looked vaguely nest-like piles of leaves and sticks that were meant to be nests.  He actually had no idea what actual boar nests looked like, so maybe they were actually accurate. 

What he did have to think about was how he was going to take the boars- he could easily pull them away one at a time, but at his level he could probably take a few at once.  Except that he didn't have any good AOE attacks to handle them with.  It might actually be faster to pull them one at a time then... not like he had to worry about resting between each fight anyway.

Edited February 3, 2018 by Benjamin Bookworm
posts got auto-merged

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

Ben came upon the first boar pup for him to hunt.  With his level, he didn't even grab aggro as he approached the darn thing.  Should be easy enough to kill.  He grabbed his daggers into his hands, and swung at the boar pup on the ground.  Activating his sword art, he slashed into the pup several times before it even registered that a battle had started, and it burst into a pile of pixels before it could do anything about it.  A quick update on his quest log showed he had gotten lucky, and that pup had one tusk on him that was added to his inventory.  Which was lucky, since there was always a chance it was one of those boar pups with no tusks that video games had all over.  Seriously, having to kill lots of animals for something that they should all have was just weird.  Shouldn't all the pups have two tusks each?  Geez...

Battle Stats:

Spoiler

Level - 8
HP - 160 / 160
ENG - 16 / 16
DMG - 3 (1 base + 1 skills + 1 equipment)
MIT - 0
ACC - +1 (1 equipment)
EVA - 0

Battle Ready Inventory:
(3) Starter Healing Potions (Heals 50 HP)
(2) Magic Armor Potions (Safeguard)
(8) Basic Healing salve (Heals 40 HP)
(4) Burning Edge Potion (+1 damage)
(2) Lesser Antivenom Balm (Antidote (1))

Combat:

Spoiler

Roll ID 95229

Battle die 8+1=9 (hit)  Monster die - 6 (It's already dead)

Ben uses Round Accel sword art (-2 EN)
Deals 3*2 = 6 damage

Players -

Benjamin 160/160 HP 14/16 EN

Enemies -

Boar Pup 0/5 HP (Dead)

Loot die 19 - boar pup drops 1 Boar tusk

 

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

Ben walked over to the next boar pup in the area, intent on finishing them all off the same way.  Unfortunately, the pups were backing away from him now, taking up aggressive stances.  Now it wouldn't be as easy to sneak up on them and take them out. Oh well. 

So he charged at the next boar pup, ready to take it out with a single sword art.  And he would have, if the darn thing hadn't started to run around like a crazy animal the second he moved.  The pup started jumping around, dodging from side to side and making it impossible for him to hit it.  As he ran by, taking a few swipes and being careful not to aggro any of the other pups as he did, the pup took a leap at him, making a cute (but futile) attempt to strike him. 

He then jumped back, hoping that getting some distance would make the thing stay a bit more still for his next attack. 

Combat:

Spoiler

Roll ID 95241

+1 EN at start of round

Battle die 2+1=3 (Miss)  Monster die - 2 (Miss)

Ben misses (-2 EN)

Players -

Benjamin 160/160 HP 13/16 EN

Enemies -

Boar Pup #2 5/5 HP

 

Edited February 4, 2018 by Benjamin Bookworm
mistyped stuff

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

The boar pup hopped around some more as it advanced towards him, still moving too fast to get his sights on, before dropping down into a charging stance and running straight at him.  Ben didn't expect this, and barely managed to jump to the side in time to avoid getting clobbered.  He took a quick swipe with his weapon as the boar ran by, but was unable to get anywhere near the pup as it ran on by. 

He grumbled a few curses as the pup skidded to a stop and turned around- It was already hard enough to hit a small target like these things were, but to have it move around so much as well was just not fair.  He had to figure out some sort of way to hit the fast moving target, and hopefully reliably.  He probably had a bunch more of these things to kill before he was done with the quest. 

Combat:

Spoiler

Roll ID 95243

+1 EN at start of round

Battle die 1 (Miss)  Monster die - 4 (Miss)

Ben Misses (-2 EN)

Players -

Benjamin 160/160 HP 12/16 EN

Enemies -

Boar Pup #2 5/5 HP

 

Edited February 4, 2018 by Benjamin Bookworm

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

The boar pup started out making another run at Benjamin, but this time he was ready for it.  This time, Ben had a plan for dealing with the bouncy little pest.  Once the pup got down into a stance to charge, Ben ran forward while it couldn't dodge out of the way.  His sword art activated, Ben was able to land his first shot on the pup to knock it's charge off course, and the follow up split the enemy in two.  Finally, a successful hit!  If he kept taking these guys down with one hit each, it would be an easy quest to do.  And with that, he had... still only one boar tusk.  This one didn't drop a thing.  I guess it was one of those tuskless boars he was worried about. 

Well, at least he had a chance to take a quick breath before he went after the next one. 

Combat:

Spoiler

Roll ID 95244

+1 EN at start of round

Battle die 6+1=7 (Hit)  Monster die - 6 (Already defeated)

Ben uses Round Accel (-2 EN)
Deals (3*2)= 6 damage
Boar pup is defeated!

Players -

Benjamin 160/160 HP 11/16 EN

Enemies -

Boar Pup #2 0/5 HP (Defeated)

Loot die 9, no drop.

 

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

Ben had a few more tusks to find, and there wasn't much he could do by resting right now.  So he approached the next group of pups, aiming to charge at the one that was the furthest from the rest of them, hopefully only having to deal with the one, and not a whole group of pups at once. 

He charged at the boar, trying to take him down like the others.  And, once more, the little ball of fluffy annoyance hopped out of the way, trying to stab him with it's tusks.  Ben spun as it did, making several swipes at the enemy to try and get anything to hit- which didn't work.  He almost fell down trying to keep up with the darn thing. 

The boar then backed off a bit, readying itself for another charge at him.  Hopefully, Ben could take it down the same as the last boar, when it is unable to dodge attacks. 

Combat:

Spoiler

Roll ID 95247

+1 EN at start of round

Battle die 1 (Miss)  Monster die - 4 (Miss)

Ben Misses (-2 EN)

Players -

Benjamin 160/160 HP 10/16 EN

Enemies -

Boar Pup #3 5/5 HP

 

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

Ben knew what to do this time - he waited for the boar to stop jumping around and get into a stance that showed he (was it a he or she?  or did that not matter?) was about to charge.  Then, as it came across the field at him, Ben leapt forward and activated his sword art, smashing the boar pup into the air with several well placed slices, and letting it turn into a pile of destroyed pixels before it hit the ground.  He was beginning to get the hang of taking out these enemies. 

After taking care of it, Ben checked his inventory- the second tusk was there, as he had hoped.  Now he just needed one more to go.  And his energy bar hadn't quite fallen to half yet, so he was probably good to keep going with his attacks.  He could finish this up before he needed to take an extended rest. 

Combat:

Spoiler

Roll ID 95248

+1 EN at start of round

Battle die 10 (Miss)  Monster die - 5 (Already Defeated)

Ben uses Round Accel (-2 EN)
Deals ([3+2]*2)= 10 damage

Players -

Benjamin 160/160 HP 9/16 EN

Enemies -

Boar Pup #3 0/5 HP (defeated)

Loot die - 16, found 2nd boar tusk

 

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

Ben walked up to the next pack of boar pups, and got himself ready to ambush one of them.  Hopefully, he could take it out before it started jumping around and dodging.  As he approached the enemy, however, he found that he had miscalculated how far away the pup would spot him from.  Which meant that as he made his approach, the pup got the jump on him, leaping up and smacking him in the chest.  It only took a few hit points off of him, but it still hurt a lot.  Ben tried to swing back, stabbing at the pup, but it was back to bouncing around again.  And it jumped back out of his reach right afterwards, getting itself ready for another run.  Ben was going to make sure that little pup didn't get another chance though.  He had enough trouble with this quest without a bunch of little bites from these things. 

Combat:

Spoiler

Roll ID 95266

+1 EN at start of round

Battle die 4+1= 5 (Miss)  Monster die - 6 (Hit)

Boar pup hit for 3 damage

Ben misses (-2 EN)

Players -

Benjamin 157/160 HP 8/16 EN

Enemies -

Boar Pup #4  5/5 HP

 

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

Ben got ready for the boar pup to charge again, setting his feet and preparing for the boar pup's move.  And, just like the last three that came after him, the pup stopped it's dodging for a second as it got ready to charge, running at him in a straight line.  Ben pulled off his favorite sword art, smacking the boar pup into the air as it's health dropped down to nothing.  The pup fell apart into another pile of data bits.  Ben checked his inventory, pleasantly surprised to find that the third tusk he needed for his quest was in his inventory. 

That would take care of all that he needed for the quest- and he got them all with just four boar pups too.  He must have had a good run of luck today.  Now he just had to back out of here without accidentally aggroing any of the other monsters in the area, small as they were. 

Combat:

Spoiler

Roll ID 95269

+1 EN at start of round

Battle die 7+1= 8 (Hit)  Monster die - 8 (Already defeated)

Ben uses Round Accel (-2 EN)

Players -

Benjamin 157/160 HP 7/16 EN

Enemies -

Boar Pup #4  0/5 HP  (defeated)

Loot die - 14, found boar pup tusk

 

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

Luckily, the boar pups didn't seem interested in following him.  They probably didn't leave the area they spawned in, being beginner quest enemies who weren't needed in any other places. Which meant that he could get a breather before going too far.  While he hadn't taken much damage, making so many attacks in a row left him tired and needing to sit down for a minute.  If he had thought to bring a water bottle, that would have helped.  Net time he would. 

So he sat down by one of the trees, catching his breath and taking stock on the next step he had to do.  His quest log, which he pulled up on his HUD, showed that he had gotten the first part of the quest done, but still needed to return the boar tusks.  There was probably something else after that which would lead him to the next part of the quest, as was with the previous part. 

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

Ben made his way back to the blacksmith shop, having all the materials ready to turn in and finish up the quest.  Once again wishing he had a drink for on the way home, still breathing a bit hard from the last battle.  It had taken a long time to go through that fight, and now it was getting late enough in the day that he would probably need to pick up some lunch after this.  Well, at least there wasn't anything else to do but to head back and give the items to Lyle.  And with his workshop coming up, that was just about to be done. 

As he approached, he saw that Lyle was hard at work on his forge inside, with smoke coming out the vents up top.  Since he didn't want to interrupt anything, Ben opened the door slowly, trying not to surprise Lyle when he got in there.

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

Lyle was working at his forge when Ben came in, and didn't look up at all.  He probably didn't notice Ben's arrival.  Ben cleared his throat to try and get his attention.  Then he did it again, but louder this time.  The third time he did this, Lyle finally noticed his presence.  He put down the tools he was working with, making sure to set them aside so that they could be picked up later, along with the project he was working on, and cleaned off his hands before walking over to where Ben was standing to greet him.  Ah, splendid, splendid!  You're back!  I presume you have what I sent you out to get, or you would scarcely behere again would you?  Unless you enjoy my company all that much, do you? he asked with a sly chuckle.  But in seriousness, I assume you have the boar tusks that I asked for, do you not?

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

Ben nodded in the affirmative.  Yes, I have them right here.  They were a bit of a pain to gather, with those little boar pups being so quick and hard to hit, they kept me out there for a while trying to tag them.  It was almost enough to go get someone else to help stab the darn things for me. he said with a hint of irritation.  Fighting these things was both boring and annoying, as he was high enough level that they couldn't do much to him while he just one shotted them.  That is, he one shotted them whenever he could actually get a hit on them.  Why they used these things for the beginner quest was beyond his understanding.  Anyways, here they are. he said as he opened his HUD and pulled the boar tusks out of his inventory.  Do you want me to just put them on the table there?

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

Yes, yes just put them right there. he said as he walked over to one of the tables that he had cleared off before.  Just put them down on the table here and I'll take care of making something for your troubles.  It shouldn't take too long with these parts.  Ben headed up to the table and placed the boar pup tusks there, careful not to damage them.  Here you go- hope this will be enough to last you for a while, because I do not want to have to go back out there and harvest anything more.  Killing those pups was tedious.

Lyle then took some time to go over the parts, studying each of them for any damage or flaws and such.  Apparently NPCs couldn't just use their HUD to see the data about each of the materials right away.  Or just took their time to make it look more like the real world. 

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

Now... these look good.  So, I can make you either a weapon or armor out of one of these.  Which would you like? he asked, continuing to inspect the goods.  Ben thought about that for a minute- he had already gotten a good weapon, and an armor with mitigation on it, so he didn't really need either.  He might be switching to a 2 handed weapon in the future though, for the damage, so he might as well get one of those for later.  OK... give me a 2 handed assault spear.  That will work for me. 

Of course, Lyle said as he swept the materials up I'll have that done for you in just a giffy... Lyle said as he got to work on making the weapon, firing up his forge to start on the newest project, and packing away the rest of the materials for later use in his crafting.

[Benjamin Bookworm 0]

Lyle fired up the forge, beginning his work on the new weapon.  The materials on the forge slowly were changing into the proper shape.  Within a few minutes, the spear had been finished up, and Lyle put it off to the side to cool down.  It looked nice- a solid brown shaft with a dark gray sharpened head.  Here you go- all finished up.  Is there anything else you need with it? he asked.  Oh, and before I forget, you can also take this for your help. he added, handing Ben a potion for his assistance.

Ben picked up the weapon, spinning it about in his hands as he tried it out.  It had good balance, and seemed strong enough.  There was just something missing, he thought.  An idea came to him- Ben opened up his inventory, and grabbed a spare scarf out of it.  He then ripped a small strip of material off of it, and tied it around the shaft, just below the head.  He spun it around once more, and liked how the material fluttered in the breeze as he did so.  This looks like it would work.