[PP-F1] Contacts and Cooking {Earning a Living: Cooking} (Mari)

[Adeux 0]

Adeux's face flushed slightly at the comment she made. Okay yeah maybe I wasn't doing the best. It has been a while since I've tried to win over a client, I should expect to be a little rusty. He could tell that luckily she wasn't upset or angry with him, so he was going to take that as a good sign.

He frowned a bit when she said the economy was fucked. He wasn't super surprised when someone could make 100K in one outing, but it still sucked to think that he would have a long way to go before he started to make a name for himself. When she mentioned her level Adeux's eyes got wide once again. "Holy... holy [censored] that is very, very high up there. You've put a lot of work into getting to where you are now." He said with honesty. He was impressed with what she was able to do for herself.

When she answered the question about hobbies, he thought for a moment on what his hobbies would consist of. Do I even have hobbies? I played instruments when I was younger, but that doesn't really mean much. My parents pushed those on me.... I guess I did like mountain climbing the one time I went when my parents took a trip out west... "For me I guess my main hobby was mountain climbing and bouldering... Haven't been in a while obviously. I learned the violin a little. But my parents didn't really think that was beneficial to me. So instead I did piano and hard."

ID: 153487 LD: 2

Mats: 3

@Mari

Edited June 15, 2020 by Adeux

[Mari 1]

"Work....mmm....You know I've only just recently started doing the quests? I guess I got most of my experience from events and floor boss raids." Mari didn't feel like she had put that much work into her build. She definitely didn't put that much thought into it. People like Shield and Beat, and even Yuki - all had their builds more or less planned out. But Mari? She just grabbed skills as she needed them, and tossed them as she no longer needed them. "I mean, it is high up there. Level wise, I'm probably...gosh I Dunno, top 20 maybe? It's not something I really pay that much attention to. I may be high level wise, but I'm sure someone with better strategy, skill and build would kick my ass." Mari said as she waved her hand dismissively. "I've only recently really started to care about pushing harder - beyond that I just kinda...." She gestured between himself and her. "Do this."

Bouldering? "So you...." Mari tried to word it in a way that wouldn't upset him. "Climb rocks and hang upside down for err, fun?" Mari shrugged her shoulders. "To each their own.
 So - how's your material huntin' going?"

@Adeux

[Adeux 0]

"Well it's still impressive to do all the things that you are doing. Don't need to sell yourself short just because your quality doesn't meet your self-imposed expectations. Greatness is a virtue that everyone can have, but most can not see." He blinked, not really sure why he said that. "Sorry... I over stepped my boundaries on what I should probably say." He blushed, a rare moment in his life, and rubbed the back of his head.

"Anyways... As for bouldering and hiking. I just enjoyed the freedom of it I suppose. No set path, no clear choosing. Just go with what you have at the moment and take the next step. My entire life in the real world has been plans and statistics. Need a refresh every-once in a while." He never put much thought into why he liked it or why that vacation stuck with him so much.

"As for the material gathering.... I think I have honestly gotten a tad distracted by the conversation to really put lots of effort into it. I apologize, this is not like me." He looked down at the ground and messed with the flowers. He had been plucking them randomly and didn't know which was a material or not. "How long ago did you do this quest would you say?"

ID: 153702 LD: 7

Mats: 3

@Mari

Edited June 17, 2020 by Adeux

[Mari 1]

Mari wasn't expecting the slew of compliments that came from the man, she cleared her throat and shifted her gaze to the ground - trying not to think anything of it. Subconsciously, her hand tugged at her hair, wrapping orange tendrils around her index finger. "I -uh. Okay. It's okay I mean." She shot him a tooth filled grin before immediately throwing her attention straight back down to the ground. "Your life sounds a lot like my ex husband - bastard of a man. That he is."

Mari pushed herself up off the ground, dusting blades of grass off her bare legs. "Well, let's go check somewhere else then." Mari placed her hands on her hips, still holding onto the string of threaded flowers as she scouted the area, "Mmm, there's a small lake not too far from here, we could make our way to there...but...I feel like we'd probably get the required materials on the way..." Mari mumbled to herself. 

"Eh?" She turned her attention back to Adeux. "Oh...err - I've never actually completed it myself. I was like level 30 when it came out, so I didn't need to do them - but the last time I helped someone with it, maybe a week ago?"

@Adeux

[Adeux 0]

She was married? That is surprising. Nothing against the lady, she just looks rather... young to be married. Hmm. He thought for a moment on what to say. He was happy that is compliments were evening the mood that would randomly spike into tension. However, it was not in his personality to continue to do things like that. This conversation has strayed beyond the game. However, I don't think it is the right time to try and drag it back.

"Oh, for some reason I assumed you had a profession already. You remind me of a..... Hmmm. An alchemist. I'm not sure why though." He knew why, just didn't think her bubbly strange behavior was a compliment to explain to her.

The two made their way towards the water, the sun shining bright in the sky. This is actually quite pleasant. I don't have to go to a meeting after this. No business deal to worry about.... I actually miss those now that I think about it. He inwardly chuckled to himself. "If I may ask, how old are you? Either the game takes away years or you were rather young when you got married..."

ID: 153825 LD: 12

Mats: 3

@Mari

Edited June 17, 2020 by Adeux

[Mari 1]

"Oh... Oh sh*t f**K." Mari said as she slapped her forehead. "I completely forgot that was the quest we were doing. I thought it was the ...what is it? That first lesson is free sorta quest thing. Yeh....Yeh...." Mari coughed, crap. what a faux paux. "I'm...an alchemist, although I don't really have a store anymore. I do but - I don't really sell to others, they don't buy from me. I only craft when I need to." She shifted her gaze off to the distance, Mari had essentially imprisoned himself in her store, so she rarely liked the idea of going into her store...bothered her. Mari knew it was all just in her mind but, wasn't everything around her right now? 

"I'm...28 I think? 29? Sh*t...I don't really know how long we've been in here - I was 26 when I first logged on. And I think a few years have passed." Mari tilted her head curiously. It was...such an odd question, normally people didn't ask about life outside. "Yeh, I was - I married my highschool sweetheart." She spat out the last words with a venomous tone. "Not many ask about life outside here, yanno."

@Adeux

[Adeux 0]

"Oh yeah, I don't blame you for forgetting." He felt a tiny bit offended. She offered to help him but she could not even remember what the two of them were doing. Well in her defense I haven't gotten another material in a long time. I don't blame her for spacing out. But still, she is the 'teacher' here. He mentally sighed and pushed it away, trying to focus on the conversation and the task at hand.

"Ah high-school sweethearts. I hate how America created such a romanticized version of dating someone in high school. You are barely even an adult when you graduate high school, how would anyone know what they would want for the rest of their life. People change so fast, don't make kids think they have to stick through it." He shook his head in slight irritation with that idea.

"Also, I think someone came through and grabbed EVERY material that this game has produced. I can't seem to find a single one."

ID: 153828 LD: 6

Mats: 3

@Mari

Edited June 17, 2020 by Adeux

[Mari 1]

"A-America?" Mari blinked. Did this guy think? "Honestly, surprised you didn't pick up my accent." Mari said with a laugh as she reached out and gave him a hearty slap across his back. "Thought you were smarter than that." She joked before taking a step back. "No, no - I get what you're saying. But, I'm Australian." When was the last time she said where she was from? Then again, when did anyone even talk about it, or ask her?

Mari shrugged as she fiddled with her threaded flower chain, finally finishing it off and making a crown. Mari placed one on her own head and passed one to Adeux. "It ain't a gold star but hey, at least you can have a crown." 

Without telling him why, Mari began to walk away, if he said there were no more materials there, then there was little reason to stay. She glanced over her shoulder at the man. "C'mon then, let's just see if we can find any along the path. Maybe there's some shiny rocks or mushrooms."

@Adeux

[Adeux 0]

He had to bite his tongue YET AGAIN as the woman talked down to him ever so slightly, just how a teacher would. "No, that wasn't what I meant. I'm from America so I was commenting on that, not so much your experiences. Also I'm not really the best with accents. Anyone I've worked with usually had a variety of an American accent." He shrugged and looked at the flowers some more.

The touching and the flower crown from Mari made him a tiny bit uncomfortable. As she started to walk away he quickly took it off and adjusted himself before walking again. She does not have personal space issues, that is for sure. He rolled his eyes while her back as turned towards him. "Thank you, you can definitely tell that you are a teacher." He motions to the flower crown.

"What did you teach? In the real world that is. Obviously here you teach low lever players how to look for materials and not- well actually find one!" He picked up a stray leaf, his screen confirming it is a material.

ID: 153853 LD: 20 {1 Mat}

Mats: 4

@Mari

Edited June 17, 2020 by Adeux

[Mari 1]

"The not finding them says more about your skills than it does mine." Mari teased. As he made a rather pointed comment about his material hunt. Mari understood, it was rather...frustrating without buffs. "I get it though..." She said with a sigh. "Honestly without the buffs that food provides; finding materials is a real b**tch." Mari paused in their steps as she waited for him to inspect a leaf. He didn't complain about it, so assumed he was successful. 

Mari's eyes flicked up to his head; where the absence of the crown was. Right. Right. He was a stranger. Was probably a stupid idea to give him a crown. Was Mari pushing this whole overly friendly thing too much? Maybe. She reached up to her own and pulled it off her head. Crinkling it in her hands. "I taught English overseas in Japan. I was on my way home when I kinda got...trapped here." She lifted her gaze back up to Adeux. "You know how sometimes the fancier airports have like f**king butterfly rooms and spas and sh*t? Yeh I was in one like that - I was on my second layover - cheaper flights that way - and had a few hours to kill. So wanted to try one of those -" Mari paused, she was overly chatty today wasn't she? Mari waved it off. "Look, doesn't matter how we all got here. Short answer, I taught English. Overseas, but am a - was  Primary teacher back home."

@Adeux

[Adeux 0]

"F**k skill here we go!" He held up the final material. It was.. a shiny rock. But a shiny rock will do! He quickly put it into his inventory and saw the marker now drew him towards the quest giver to being his crafting. This should be fun. He grumbled mentally and listened to the rest of what Mari was saying.

She explained why she was in the game and what she did for teaching. He couldn't help but smile when she was describing the airport and all the fancy things that you can get into. Oh yeah... Had some really good food and massages in some airports... God I miss flying. He frowned but quickly pushed it away. He noted that she kept pushing away the real world and not discussing herself before the game. Maybe I shouldn't ask questions about it, don't want to bother her. "Well, is there anything you really specialize in here? Of course you taught in the real world, but what is your fighting style in this world?" He smiled and cocked his head a little, genuinely curious about her answer. Find out if she has a similar build to what I want, and maybe copy it a bit? Make sure it's good at least.

ID: 153871 LD: 20 {1 Mat}

Mats: 5

@Mari

Edited June 17, 2020 by Adeux

[Mari 1]

"Congratulations, you completed the easiest quest in the game." Mari said with a lop-sided grin when he picked up the last material he needed. Mari held out her hand to the side - and materialized her weapon in it. "I call it, dagger duct-taped to a large stick' "  That of course, wasn't what the weapon was. The weapon was a two handed assault spear made of a polished dark wood, and its tip was akin to a large hydrophilic needle. "I focus on DoT damage." Mari said simply as she spun her weapon around, and dug it, pointed end into the ground and started using it as a makeshift walking stick. Almost comical, since the thing was about as tall as she was.  "If anything so much as flicks me, my armour -" Mari pointed to the leather harness she wore - and her finger tapped the cracks in it, ones that looked like literal lava flowed beneath the worn leather straps. "Will inflict burn damage on them. My spear is a bleed/burn build. I guess..." Mari shifted her gaze to her weapon. "I guess I just kinda started focusing on burning things." Both her armour and weapon held unique slots - but they weren't entirely impossible to get.

"Why do ya ask?" Mari questioned, her tone being a little more pointed than she had meant. "What kinda build are you wanting to go for?" 

@Adeux

[Adeux 0]

Adeux listened to Mari talk and he nodded, taking notes on her build. Reminds me of someone I knew from an MMO back in the real world... wonder what she is up to. He ignored the thoughts and looked at her equipment, nodding and very impressed by the gear she has. "That gear is actually really cool. I know this is an MMO so things don't always make sense. But magma in what seems to be light armor? Come on SAO." He chuckled and looked back to her face.

He looked a bit sour at her tone when she asked him why he wanted to know. D*mn lady it was just a question. He shrugged it off and thought about his build for a moment. "I want to get whatever I can that deals with looting. But I think I might want to build a scout-esque build after that? Evasive and can activate debuffs like bleed or paralyze on enemies. Hence my starting sword." He summons his basic rapier. "It has bleed and paralyze on it." He said all of this while walking towards the town, wanting to get his craft down so he can finally have his shop.

@Mari

[Mari 1]

"Looting..eh?" Mari snorted, covering her amused grin with her hand. "Right - right reminds me of someone. He literally breaks his neck looking for loot. The way I see it snap around...but yeh, so you're going for a gatherer build?" Mari asked, they were heading back toward the city now - and Mari had to be mindful of how close they would get to the safe zone. She didn't want the guards to chase her and whilst her reputation was improving - it was never a good thing to have a Pker around the Town of Beginings.

"So you would want the gatherer skill, that essentially increases your chances for finding materials, even doubling or tripling your yield. Then you'd hmm..." Mari tapped her lip. What was the skill that Shield suggested to her? "Hiding would be good - it has a lot of mods for it too. Then, if you like chests you want lock-picking. You'd be basically turning yourself into a support build, but honestly we need more of them around." Mari gave him a side ward smirk. "Sides ya got people like me to help ya out in the battling front."  Mari just had to keep telling herself to be good, be nice. Don't let her crabby mood or attitude scare away potential new players.  "Hell, I'd even be able to help with looting - ya want a sh*t tonne of col, right?"

Mari paused her step abruptly as he drew his rapier - "Ahh.." Rapiers, slightly better than a dagger, still - not quite the best when it came to AoE but, he wouldn't need it with his build. "That's useful." Mari said. "I may have something in my reserves... let's see..."  Mari opened her inventory - scrolling through. Her face soured when she remembered.

She had given her Unique demonic rapier to Mephisto - on good will, only for him to f**k off and disappear. "Nevermind." Mari muttered bitterly. "Some other asshole has it."

@Adeux

[Adeux 0]

"I'm honestly surprised there are not more gatherers/support builds in this game. Fighting terrifies some people and if you are not trained in it then there is a real chance they would die. I know my own limits, combat will be reserved for quests only until I'm actually strong enough to take on monsters." He shrugged, knowing that made him sound weak. It's not weak it's practical. I know my limits as of this moment and they are definitely not encompassing fighting digital creatures for money and experience. I can definitely create a fortune beyond that. 

He listened to the skill list that Mari started to mention, and he began making a mental note of different skills he should look into in order to create a better build. Gathering and Hiding... Hmm. The scout part of my build will probably take a lot longer in order to fully come about. But that will be a more late-game idea. I have to worry about profits first. 

His face perked up when Mari mentioned having items in her inventory. Then is quickly drooped when he realized that she did not have the item in her inventory. "It's fine, I never expected you to give me anything. It's a nice thought though." He smiled a little and approached the entrance to town. "Is this where we part ways? Considering the color above your head I don't want to cause any issues in town."

@Mari

[Mari 1]

"People are too invested in the 'glory' of the final kill, the thrill or the rush and the might of the frontlines." Mari scoffed. Clearly bitter about the entire thing. "It's idiotic, its f**king stupid." Mari threw her hands up, exasperated. "You know, this one time I saw this entitled brat trip another player in a fight- because she wanted claim to the boss. And guess what, it did nothing she didn't get the final hit, she didn't do anything but make herself look like a brat and inconvenience another player." Mari didn't get it. She didn't like the idea of it all. There was no point to the glory of it. There was none there. People were selfish. She hated it.

"Oh. Yeh." Mari said, blinking when he bought up that they'd have to part ways here. "Can't do much more on my end, all I really did was follow you around and teach you how to pick materials." Mari gave Adeux a small wave. "You weren't completely bad to hang around. If you need more help sing out, yeh?"

@Adeux

[Adeux 0]

"She... She really messed up someone else to not get the final items... when SHE didn't even get it? I'm so proud." He said the last bit with as much sarcasm as he could muster. Luckily I don't need to be on the front lines to do a lot of good. Slightly worrying that many people on the front lines are well known, but there aren't always a lot of people who are well known without the front liner 'tag'. He mentally sighed and stopped walking at the gates.

"You gave decent company for the task at hand. Thank you for showing me around and giving me information about the game. I will contact you if I have anything I may need help with. Or possibly when I'm a cook and have something for trade." He flashed a smile and walked into the town. "Good luck on your travels Mari. You are a good teacher, despite the flaws." He calls to her with his back turned, entering the city.

@Mari

[Mari 1]

"That's the thing.." Mari muttered. "The thing wasn't even at half health she just..." Mari shook her head and sighed. "I'm not surprised honestly, people go nuts over sh*t like that. Honestly, if I don't need it I just throw it into guild storage so whoever wants it can take it." Mari said with a small shrug. If items weren't useful to her, why bother using them? Or hoarding them. Let others have them. It left a sour taste in her mouth as it reminded her of the Azure Brigade and how they handled things. 

"Huh?" Mari blinked, realizing Adeux was wishing her the best, in a form of a goodbye. Sh*t. She hadn't been paying attention to what he said? What would he have talked about? Mari cleared her throat, making an assumption at best. "No worries. Just let me know if you need more help." She called out to him with a wave. That sounded right, right?

Yeh. That'll do Mari, that'll do.

@Adeux

[Adeux 0]

He cocked his head in confusion at the 'no worries' Her speech patterns are so confusing... It's like multiple people talk for her... Oh well, something to worry about later. He smiles and waves to her as she walks away. "Okay, now to finally get this profession." He sighed and turned, heading towards the city. He arrives at the bakery in which he accept the quest and he walks in, briefly enjoying the smell of cooking and the warmth of the kitchen. I'm glad I chose this profession. He sighed for a moment before heading for where the woman was that he accepted the quest from.

He approached the cooking station, and she began explaining how to use it. He got out the 5 materials that he gathered as he listened to her discuss what to do/make. He nodded along with her and when she was done, he went about making his first item. Please be easy... Please....

After almost using up all of his materials, he was finally able to create his first food item. "There we go.. Definitely not going to sell this one." He muttered to himself. He finished the quest, walked out of the shop, and went about claiming his first winery. I wonder if you can have multiple shops. Hmmm

ID: 154695 CD: 7 LD: 15 (Salvage)
ID: 154696 CD: 1 (Fail)
ID: 154697 CD: 9 LD: 6 (Fail)
ID: 154698 CD: 4
ID: 154699 CD: 11 [Rare: Slots: -Loot Die- -Loot Die- -N/A-] (The roll says Material Gathering but I by accident put the wrong explanation of the craft)

Mats Remaining: 1

@Mari

Edited June 22, 2020 by Adeux

[Mari 1]

"OH SH*T!" Mari exclaimed as she stopped in the middle of the grassy knoll. She had completely forgotten to get his contact details. SHe was too busy trying not to mess things up and trying to not snap at him for being a total idiot. But that was the thing...wasn't it....Mari glanced back at the Town of Beginnings, it sat along the horizon of the expansive floor. He wasn't an idiot. Rather...the man seemed to know exactly what he was doing. But that begged the question, just what exactly did he have to gain from playing dumb? Information? Col? Items?

Mari would have given these things freely if he had simply asked. Or was he the one testing her? Mari pursed her lips.

Adeux was an odd man. Not completely insufferable either, if Mari saw him again she wouldn't complain. She could count her acquaintances on her fingers - and her friends - on one hand.

Mari sighed as she pushed her hair back. Oh well, what were the chances she'd see him again.

THREAD REWARDS

Mari:  3, SP, 400 Col
Adeux:  4SP,  400 Col,  6 T1 Materials