F17 - SP <<Challenge Of Olympus: Merchant>>

[Shield 0]

Spoiler

Floor 17
<<Challenge Of Olympus: Merchant>>
Recommended Level: Any | Party Limit: 1 (Solo Only)
Must be Rank 2+ Merchant | Non-Repeatable

Rewards:

• 1 Additional SP
• (+1) CD Tool, Hermes' Scale

Objectives:

• Roleplay The Challenge:
  • Meet with the satyr on Floor 17.
  • Meet with Hermes outside of Mt. Olympia and accept his challenge.
  • Describe the details of the challenge, face-off with Hermes and roleplay out how you best the Emissary of the Gods.

Summary:
Disclaimer:  The God(s) in this quest are NPCs for RP flavor only and cannot engage in combat nor affect the world in any way other than what’s described.

Merchants who have reached rank 2 in their profession receive a notification stating that a rare quest is available to them on floor seventeen. Upon arriving to the floor, a satyr's sudden appearance will easily startle nearby NPCs, and he promptly inform you that you have been invited to the gates of Mt. Olympia. It seems that Hermes himself would like to challenge you to a Battle of Crafts.

Players must RP meeting with Hermes, and they are free to describe the details of the challenge that is issued however they like as long as it pertains to merchants. They must RP the challenge out appropriately, encouraged to make the crafting battle very difficult, though not impossible. 

Requirements:

• At least one [1] Page (20 or more posts)
• All crafting done in this quest is RP only--no rolls required, and items cannot be given stats or submitted for evaluation.

It had been some time since Shield had encountered a very particular 'bug' in Aincrad. A benevolent old man who showed him the ropes of his profession, revealed who he was in the real world - or rather who he had been encoded to represent - and then vanished as quickly as he had appeared. Since then, he had worn the title of 'Merchant' proudly and strove to equip the people of Aincrad with discounted goods to protect themselves, things that other players had abandoned in their haste to climb the ranks of their combat builds, but that could prove useful to others. Now, as a merchant whose skill tree was entirely fleshed out, he had stagnated.

Only a handful of others had achieved what he had. He was proud. At the same time, though, he did not feel as if his shop had much of anything to offer that he had not offered for time out of mind. 

[Shield 0]

Months and months prior, he had put out a notice to the brokers - asking for tips on anything he might do to improve his craft. It was what had led him to get his house, and to complete the Wicked Witch of the West quest lines before the mechanics of each had been changed. Merchantdom had fallen into obscurity, with only a handful of lower leveled players keeping his shop afloat. All of his channels with brokers had fallen silent on the subject of his craft.

Then, one day, as he sat in his shop, watching his old familiar Norbert swim lazily about in his massive water tank, his message indicator chimed lightly. He opened his messages, and saw that he had received a message from Hikoru. At first, given the Paladin-turned-broker's recent abdication of his guild and rank, Shield wondered if this might be related. Instead, he found something that caught him off-guard.

[Shield 0]

Quote

"Shield,

I'm a bit busy so I have to cut it short, but I heard news about something you may want to look into - there's a quest that came with the new update, and it's about crafting. Go to the seventeenth floor and ask for a guy named Phil. You can thank me later.

-Hik"

Shield had not expected anything of the like, but he did not waste any time lingering on the suddenness of the matter. He vaulted the counter and closed the door of his empty shop, locking it tightly and making for the back exit. Lilith, his little bush viper familiar, poked her head out of his sleeve and flicked her tongue disapprovingly at all of the sudden commotion.

"Oh, complain more," Shield griped back. "This could be the break I'd all but given up hope on. I didn't think there was anywhere left to go, but I think that's changed. It's about time we breathed some new life into the shop!"

Spoiler

[Posted with @Hikoru's approval]

 

Edited February 22, 2018 by Shield

[Shield 0]

He made for Taft, keeping at a steady jog and avoiding the places that were most likely to spawn enemies that might slow him down. It was impossible to make anything of the message. Either Hikoru had wanted to be cryptic merely because he hadn't asked for any money, which would have been completely fair to ask for given his new profession, or there simply wasn't much information readily available yet.

Shield stepped into the teleportation plaza, making for the warp pad. He took his place in the center, actually having to stifle a bit of a grin as he called out his destination. "Floor Seventeen!" When he arrived, he immediately made for the nearest fountain. This was a floor inspired by the ancient Mediterranean, after all. They were hardly going to make the bath house into the gathering place for NPC's, so the next best things were the fountains.

[Shield 0]

"Excuse me," he said, tapping a toga-clad NPC woman on the shoulder. "Have you heard of someone named 'Phil?' I was told he was on this floor."

The woman stared blankly back at him and shook her head. Shield tried a man on the other side of the fountain to much the same result. When he had exhausted all of his options in the square, he made off further into the settlement to find another. Despite his persistence, he could not find anyone who knew what he was talking about. Finally, as he was turning to find yet another square where he might pester more NPC's, one of the young men he had asked called out after him.

"Wait, do you mean Philoctetes?" tittered the fair voice of the Grecian youth. Shield whipped around, his mouth open as he sought to find the words to answer the question. In all honesty, he did not know. If 'Phil' was short for something else, he hadn't been told. Still, this was the closest thing to a lead he had found so far.

"Perhaps?"

[Shield 0]

"You'll want to head South," answered the young man, pointing to the opposite end of the square. "He's rumored to spend his time hunting dryads in the woods there."

Shield nodded and thanked the man before heading to the edge of town and out into the wilderness. It had been a long time since he and Beatbox had ventured out of the town on this floor, then in search of the Nemean Lions of Herculean legend. He had traded the armor he got to Hikoru in exchange for a different set that had locked and refused to be further identified. It was the only time he had really quested with the now fallen swordsman. Coming back felt ominous and strange, like he wasn't supposed to be there, but the longer he walked, the more that feeling passed.

There were a number of groves to be found in the woods, with dotted clearings along the way. For the most part, with the exception of an occasional wolf, there was very little stirring in the woods besides a few birds and the trees themselves.

Edited February 22, 2018 by Shield

[Shield 0]

Eventually, Shield had grown tired of searching. He was nowhere near ready to give up, but he had not stopped walking since leaving his home several hours prior. He slumped against a tree, sliding down to its base and leaning his head back against the trunk. Taking a deep breath, he let his eyes drift closed for a moment. Then, he heard a giggle. It was not a loud one, but it sounded as if it had come from nearby. Very nearby. He sat up, glancing around the glade in front of him.

"Hello?" he called out into the woods around him. There came another giggle, this time, he was aware that it was much closer than he had first thought. It was so close, in fact, that he was almost sure that whoever had let out the muffled mirth was mere feet away. He darted around the other side of the tree to find...

[Shield 0]

Nothing.

There was absolutely nobody there. He whipped back around and walked a quick circle the other direction around the trunk. Still nobody. He looked up into the branches. They appeared to be empty. He Turned to look out across the clearing. Then, from just beside his ear, someone blew a very loud, and for that matter, very wet raspberry. Shield turned around and hit his face smack against the tree. He toppled backwards, falling onto his backside and looking up at the solid trunk before him. Then, suddenly, there was not a trunk. There was not a tree. There was a slender, lovely young woman with pale green skin and wild brown hair. She fell onto her back laughing, kicking her bare feet as she failed to keep her breathing in check.

Shield sat up taller and was just about to protest, but before he could get the words together to do so, he heard a galloping behind him. The woman stopped laughing and quickly sprang up onto her feet, lighter than air, and began bounding like a sprightly fawn out of the clearing and out of sight.

[Shield 0]

Before Shield had a chance to call out or ask what was going on, a squat little man with a large, ruddy nose emerged from the scrub on the opposite side of the clearing. Or rather, the top half of a man emerged. What emerged below that was not human in the least, but rather the lower half of a goat.

A satyr?

"Baby, wait!" croaked the loud, gravely voice of the satyr. "Come back, let's talk! I promise I won- WHOOP!"

The hoof of one of the satyr's legs caught on Shield's foot and the odd little creature tumbled forward, somersaulting end over end until coming to a crashing halt against another tree. This tree puckered a knot-hole at its base and blew a loud raspberry not unlike the one Shield had had blown at him, and then promptly vanished in a puff of leaves and twigs.

"And there they both go!" grumbled the hoofed man, standing and dusting off his pot belly. "Ain't that just like a dame! Been stal- er... tracking them down all morning, and then in a flash, they're gone again."

[Shield 0]

"Wait a minute-" Shield began, suddenly recalling a similar face and voice from a cartoon his children had watched a long, long time ago. However, before he could go on, a stubby little finger was jabbing hard into his nose.

"Wait?" fumed the satyr who was now standing with his face uncomfortably near. "Wait!? They're half way across the forest by now, and this bozo wants me to wait!"

Shield pushed the creature's hand aside. "Are you Philoctetes? I was looking for a quest-"

"It's Phil, bucko," growled the satyr. "And if you're another one o' them two-bit wannabe's who's on some big, grandiose quest, tryin' to become a hero, I got two words for you, kid - Not gonna happen!"

"Actually, I was told you could help me with my merchant profession," Shield said, as loudly as he could without being rude as to at least be heard over the grouchy Phil.

[Shield 0]

"Oh boy, another one of these," grumbled Phil with a heavy sigh. "You're about the third one, kid, though the first Merchant. I tell ya, I can't get rid of you punks quick enough to get any serious work done."

Shield quirked an eyebrow and looked off in the direction that they dryad had vanished. "...work."

"Watch it, you," warned Phil, closing one eye and shaking a finger at Shield. "You want to find where you're going or not?"

Shield rolled his eyes, but otherwise remained silent, sitting up properly now and crossing his legs as Phil paced back and forth with a steady thudding of hard feet on soil. With his hand, the satyr stroked his little curled beard, thinking aloud.

"Lemme see... merchant... merchant... Who would a merchant want to see..." he pondered, pausing to tap his hoof for a moment. "Atlas? Nah, that guy's got enough on his shoulders. Hades? Nah, that'd be more for lawyers."

[Shield 0]

"Hmmm... Wait a second," the scruffy countenance of the satyr brightened as something dawned on him. "That might just be right up Hermes' alley! Yeah! Go talk to Hermes. Tell him Phil sent you, now if you'll excuse me..." there came a tittering of feminine laughter from the edge of the clearing and Phil licked his palm, smoothing back his hair. "Oh, ladieeeeees..." he called out, snorting a puff of air out of his nostrils and charging off into the woods once again.

"Hermes?" Shield wondered aloud. He was grateful for the tip, but he couldn't quite make sense of why Hermes, the swift messenger of the gods, would be an equivalent to a merchant. Then again, he had a feeling that Phil was running out of ideas and just wanted to be rid of him. Either way, he pushed back onto his feet and pulled up a map. "I suppose I'm off to Mt. Olympus. Looks like that's off this way," he thought aloud, setting off into the woods once again.

[Shield 0]

The great mountain of the gods loomed ever closer, its peak lost in the billowing clouds. It was a little exciting to be able to touch a piece of mythology, even if only with his virtual self. Still, he was having a difficult time not rushing his gait. Higher and higher the mountain rose, and the nearer he came to the forest's edge, the fewer obstructions blocked his way. Finally, as he broke the tree line, he came to the foot of the mountain.

Immediately, he saw a problem. The grade of the incline was impossible. One would actually need to climb with climbing gear in order to scale the mountain. Were he a god with a flying chariot, he knew this wouldn't be an issue, but with just his arms and legs to carry him, the climb seemed a daunting task indeed.

"How am I supposed to go any further?"

[Shield 0]

"Daunting, isn't it?" quipped a little voice in Shield's ear. He whirled around just in time to see a winged heel retreat beyond the edge of his vision.

"What the... is that-?" he began, but as he continued to turn, he found himself nose to nose with a very thin man with dark, round glasses that hid his eyes entirely from view.

"Not really sure where that word came from, 'daunt,' or even how one would 'daunt' someone else, but you know, looking up at that climb without wings on your feet would make one feel quite daunted, I expect," the man went on, holding out his sandal-shod feet which indeed had wings at the ankles, fluttering madly and buzzing with the sound of a humming bird. "Name's Hermes, kid. Nice to meetcha."

The man, or rather the god, held out his wan hand, which Shield hesitantly reached out to shake. Before he could grasp it, however, Hermes rolled over in midair, propping his elbow on Shield's head. "Too slow, kid. One doesn't become the messenger of the gods by being slow like that. Not to mention the god of sleep, language, trade, and animal husbandry - and before you ask, no, that last part doesn't mean I had anything to do with making that Phil guy who steered you this way."

Edited February 22, 2018 by Shield

[Shield 0]

Shield brushed off the hand, standing to properly face the first wholly deific being he had encountered thus far in SAO. He had fought with Cerberus once, and that had been a dangerous task in and of itself back then. Despite the god's jovial attitude, Shield was sure that anything godlike programmed into the game would have unbelievably powerful stats. He had best not antagonize him.

"Well, well met, Hermes," Shield answered. "You may call me-"

"Shield," Hermes interrupted, turning over again in midair and lacing his fingers behind his head as he did a sort of lazy, midair backstroke in circles around him. "Tank Sentinel of the Celestial Ascendants - which by the way, our lawyers will probably be contacting you folks about that name. Not sure whether it's copyright infringement or false advertising, but either way, it needs some attention - and also... one of the foremost merchants in Aincrad."

[Shield 0]

Hermes rolled so that he was parallel with the ground, once again nose to nose with Shield. "It's quite a list of accomplishments you've begun to rack up. Care to put your job where your mouth is?"

That was not a sentiment that Shield had expected. He had been anticipating some big quest of go-find-it or a combat that he would have to prepare for. This did not sound like any of those things. He crossed his arms.

"Go on," Shield said, cocking his head slightly to the side to watch Hermes out of one eye.

"Of course," Hermes drawled, waving his hand lazily in the air as he resumed his slow midair circuit around the player's head. "Ever the one to focus on details, aren't you? Well, what I propose is this. If you can prove to me and a panel of judges that you've got the stuff, then you'll get back one of those bonuses you lost."

[Shield 0]

"And if I fail your test?" Shield asked, following Hermes carefully with his eyes.

"Do you expect to?" Hermes asked right back without skipping a beat.

"Not in the slightest."

"So what are you worried about?" chided the god. "Do you accept?" Shield gave a short nod, and Hermes righted himself. "Then away we go!"

The god clapped his hands twice in rapid succession and clouds burst out of midair between them, filling Shield's vision and then quickly dissipating. The foot of the mountain was replaced by a great colosseum, the stands of which were empty, save a small assortment of men in long beards in the front most row. These Shield assumed to be the judge. Along the walls were a number of weapons, or rather a number of swords. Each was identical to the others, down to the most precise detail as best Shield could tell.

"The challenge is on!" cheered Hermes. "All you have to do is pick out the right weapons when asked to do so."

[Shield 0]

"Understood," Shield growled, his eyes stern and determined.

"Come on, loosen up a little, kid!" Hermes teased. "It's just a game, albeit one where all of your Mercantile Experience is hanging in the balance, but a game none the less!"

Shield hesitated. This could easily have just been a bluff to make him nervous, but if losing truly meant starting over at rank 1, he needed to focus. Regardless, Shield walked over to the first of the swords, its simple leather-wrapped handle pointing upward above the pegs where it rested.

"Your first task is to find the sword with the Bleed enhancement," Hermes called. Shield nodded and reached out for the sword in front of him, reaching out to tap the magnifying glass icon in the item's menu. "Oh, I forgot to mention..." he continued, waving his hand. As he did so, the icon vanished. "You're not going to get to use your identification skill. Hope you've gotten in plenty of practice."

Now Shield was really beginning to worry. He paced up and down in front of the swords, of which there were easily a dozen. He couldn't just throw out a wild guess. One at a time, he would stop, pick the nearest sword up, swing it a few times, then put it back. Each time, he felt more uncertain than the time before.

Edited February 22, 2018 by Shield

[Shield 0]

"Is the removal of the skill my only restriction?" Shield asked Hermes, keeping his head cool despite the seemingly impossible task.

"It is," Hermes said, giving Shield a nod and a smirk. "Whatever else you do is fair game. Make your guesses with each enhancement. At the end, if you got all of them right, you win."

With that, Shield's shoulders relaxed. He quickly swiped through his menus, unequipped his armor and shield, and took the sword in his hand. With its sharpened edge, he cut through his arm, repeating the attack multiple times. Hermes' mouth fell open. Sure enough, tiny pieces of Shield's health bar would disappear, and he took careful note of the results before moving on to the next. One by one, he went down the whole line until finally, he turned back to Hermes.

"Game over," he said, giving the god a smirk of his own. "It's a ruse. None of these swords have any enhancements on them."

Hermes flipped back in midair, rolling with laughter as the collosseum and the judges all disappeared. They stood once more at the foot of Olympus, Hermes on laid out sideways in the air and Shield, now empty handed with the disappearance of the last of the swords that he had held.

"And here I thought I was the quick one," Hermes sighed, regaining himself after his fit of laughter. "Alright, hot shot, you win."

[Shield 0]

Hermes waved his hand, and a set of winged golden scales appeared in front of Shield, who reached out and took hold of them. They were easily large enough to accommodate a full suit of armor, which Shield assumed was the point. "Those will do the trick for you," Hermes assured him. "If there's anything that's rare or difficult to identify, those scales will tip. Otherwise, they don't move an inch. Doesn't matter how much weight you put on it."

Shield inspected them, pressing down on one side. Sure enough, they did not respond to the pressure of his hand. He tapped the item and stored it away in his inventory, turning to face Hermes, but he was nowhere to be found. The only things Shield could see were the foot of the mountain ahead of him and the forest behind him. He shrugged, swiping back through his menus and equipping his defensive gear in case of a rogue minotaur.

"I suppose that's that then," he said with a nod, and he turned back towards town. It felt odd to be progressing once again. Or rather, it felt as though he had never stopped. This was the natural state of things. He was proud of his profession. "I feel good. I should go an get in some training in my slime farm. I'm overdue for a good workout. Gotta stay at the top of my game. As I should be."

Quote

[Quest Rewards]

+4 SP [1 page, +1 quest SP, +2 Mega Slime Farm]

+200 Col [1 page]

+1 CD Tool - Hermes' Scale