[SP - F01] Gathering More Than Wits - Earning a Living

[Shield 0]

Quest

Spoiler

Floor 1
<<Earning a Living: Gatherer>>
Party Limit: 2 | 20+ Posts
Repeatable only if changing professions or escorting another player.
Escorting another player will only yield standard thread rewards.

Quest Rewards: 

• 300 Experience Points
• <<Gatherer>> Profession
• A Demonic Shard
  • May only be acquired once. Players are ineligible for this reward if they have already completed the Fisher quest.
• All Gathered Materials

Requirements:

• Roleplay the following:
  • Talking to Giovanna.
  • Receiving Giovanna's <<Cursed Compass>>.
  • Using the compass to locate and acquire a Demonic Shard.
  • Bringing it back to Giovanna, and return the compass.
• Search for a demonic shard.
  • The shard is located on material rolls of LD: 15+ CD: 6+.
  • You may keep all non-shard materials that you find (LD: 14+). 
  • Specify in the Roll Purpose that you are searching for materials.

Summary:
As you approach the cozy campsite, a woman in green emerges from the wagon. "So, it appears you've found me," she comments, though not unkindly. "I tend to move around quite a lot, but someone always finds me. I suppose you are looking for some herbs?" When you explain that you are interested in learning more about gathering, Giovanna's emerald eyes widen. "Most simply expect me to gather their materials for them, but few truly care about the process itself. You surprise me." Digging into the pocket of her dress, Giovanna draws out a small compass, then offers it to you. "You may borrow my compass. Dark magic has made it capable of locating an incredibly rare item called a Demonic Shard. Should you find one, and bring it back to me, you will prove yourself worthy of my teachings. Take care, and may good  fortune travel with you."

NPCs:

<<Giovanna Tarragon>>
Prefers plants to people, which no one can really blame her for.

 

---

Epilogue:

  Hide contents

"So you've found a Demonic Shard! You continue to impress me. I'll confess, you've learned all that I could teach you through this single quest. Trial by fire has always been my preferred style." Grinning now, the pretty blonde holds out her hand. "As payment for your troubles, why don't you keep the Shard? I will be needing the compass back, however. Next time you hunt for a Shard, you will have to earn it the hard way - with your own skill!"

Congratulations!

You have now acquired the <<Gatherer>> profession.

Shield

Spoiler

» Shield	The Immovable Object
Modified HP:	860
Modified EN:	128
Modified MIT:	133
Modified ACC:	0
Modified DMG:	1
Modified EVA:	0
Battle Heal:	43
Loot Die:	1
Temp Buff:
Temp Buff:
Temp Buff:
» Base Stats
Base HP:	1100
Base EN:	128
Base MIT:	133
Base ACC:	0
Base DMG:	1
Base EVA:	0
Battle Heal:	43
Loot Die:	1
» Items Equipped:
Shield	Manticore Mask - T4 Demonic Shield [Thorns / Thorns / Antifreeze / Flame Aura]
Armor	Blessed Greaves - T4 Demonic Heavy Armor [Mitigation / Mitigation / Holy Blessing / Holy Blessing]
Armor	Naudia's Allure - T4 Demonic Heavy Armor [Mitigation / Holy Blessing / Vampiric (Defensive) / Taunt]
Extra	Dimensional Backpack - Battle Ready Inventory Slots [+1]
Extra	Wedding Ring - Mitigation [+18]
Extra	Hammerspace Backpack - Inventory Slot Capacity [+2]
Extra
Extra
» Combat Mastery:	Mitigation | Rank 3
» Familiar:	Lilith | Bush Viper | Scouting
» Totem:	Yamata no Orochi (LD +1)
» Battle-Ready Inventory:
Slot 1	Gungnir's Shard [Instant Song of Healing] x7
Slot 2
Slot 3
Slot 4
Slot 5
Dimensional Backpack
Storage Closet
» Skills:
	Heavy Armor | Rank 5
	Fighting Spirit | No Ranks
	Battle Healing | Rank 5
	Howl | No Ranks
	Lock Picking | Rank 3
» Extra Skills:
	Block | Rank 5
	Leadership | Rank 5
» Mods:
1	Focused Howl
2	Inspiring Speech
3	Press the Attack
4	Dismantling
5	Rampart

Search

Quote

Searching for Materials: ID# 190457 - Loot: 1 [No Materials Found]

Although currently inactive, players had begun speaking about new features that had been released. While on the one hand Shield felt it was sick that somewhere, Kayaba was releasing more content, on the other hand, the specifics had caught his attention. New menu options for shops had appeared, allowing crafters to combine existing items. While before, Shield had been limited to simply what was decent and had unique qualities that might give a slight edge, it seemed that with time and resources, one could theory craft and then construct their ideal equipment.

All it takes is time and patience, putting the ball squarely in my court.

That was what led him to the campsite on the outer rim of the first floor, close to the world border. As Shield approach the cozy campsite, and a woman in green emerged from the wagon. "So, it appears you've found me," she commented, though not unkindly. "I tend to move around quite a lot, but someone always finds me. I suppose you are looking for some herbs?" Shield cut her off.

"Just give me the compass so I can get this started." There was a hitch in her demeanor as Cardinal struggled to get the script back on track, but in doing so, she unwittingly held out the compass. Shield snatched it, hit the button on the quest prompt to accept, and then turned on his heels to strike out into the wilderness once again. Watching the compass, it seemed to spin helplessly at first. He looked around, hoping this meant he was somehow right on top of his quarry, but no such luck.

Edited April 26, 2021 by Shield

[Shield 0]

Quote

Searching for Materials: ID# 190458 - Loot: 3 [No Materials Found]

"Well, I mean that would have been too easy," he sighed, slowly making progress away from the campsite. "Maybe the NPC has stuff stored in her wares that's throwing this off..." He was glad nobody else was present. Not only did he look like a bit of a goober squinting at a compass and ignoring the landscape, but he didn't like people to see him abusing the NPCs like he had done. He knew how crass and inconsiderate he looked barking at lonesome women and old merchants, and he knew that getting all grabby with quest items was rude, but he had stopped caring a long time ago whether or not NPCs liked him.

His search so far was no luckier, the compass merely continuing to spin. "Maybe it doesn't activate until the NPC would have finished her spiel. Guess that would be karma for acting like that, huh? Or maybe Cardinal has more of a personality than I thought and doesn't like me getting away with cheating the system."

Edited April 26, 2021 by Shield

[Shield 0]

Quote

Searching for Materials: ID# 190459 - Loot: 6 [No Materials Found]

As the compass continued to throw little circular temper tantrums, Shield continued to mill forward aimlessly. As he did so, he continued to draw up plans in his head.

"This process is going to be expensive," he thought aloud. "However... given enough time, I can fully maximize both my offense and my defense. Maybe even have multiple sets of gear that can fit different scenarios." He brought up his notes and flicked his eyes back and forth between them and the uncooperative compass.

"I'm currently sitting on full Holy Blessing, full Thorns, and full Mitigation," he thought to himself. "However, I have the gear to also combine and overwrite old Mitigation slots with more Vampiric to cap that enhancement, as well as now both Frost and Flame Auras." It was an attractive prospect to say the least. He didn't want to think of the resources he would need to burn. Currently, he doubted if he could do more than a single combination of existing items with the few materials that had been gifted him by the new leveling system.

Edited April 26, 2021 by Shield

[Shield 0]

Quote

Searching for Materials: ID# 190460 - Loot: 4 [No Materials Found]

"Couldn't hurt, as long as SOME compass continues to be petulant," he said, irritated, "to start coming up with wish lists." He made new tabs on his notes, sketching outlines of nonexistent items. "If I wanted to go full porcupine... Since Blessed Greaves will be receiving extra Auras, I have to keep that. That would leave Naudia's Allure as the expendable item. Of those twelve slots, four on Manticore Mask will be thorns and auras, two on the Greaves will be Auras, still maxing thorns and auras entirely."

Glancing over at the compass, it twitched, but then continued to sweep in lazy circles. It was calming down, but still was not behaving like a compass. "So if I were to construct another armor with nothing but Flame and Frost Thorns on it..." He crunched some quick numbers.

"That would mean that with an Immolation Potion, I would be packing 166 damage on a regular hit, and even if someone crits me, that's still going to be 64 damage."

Edited April 26, 2021 by Shield

[Shield 0]

Quote

Searching for Materials: ID# 190461 - Loot: 10 [No Materials Found]

With that ludicrous milestone entered in his notes, Shield capped his proverbial pen. While it had been a fun thought exercise, he knew that the alternate set of armor was a pipe dream, at least in the mean time. "My home base is in survivability. It just so happens that I plan to be in the line of fire, and if I'm hit in the process, it makes sense to capitalize."

His eyes flitted to the still spinning needle and his eyes rolled in a similarly circular manner. At the moment, his notes and musings were proving to be much more pleasant company, so he returned to both. "There has been quite a rise in the dodge tank design on the front lines," he thought aloud. "Both Chase and Freyd seem to have gone that route. While high accuracy enemies pose real risk, it is attractive to be able to weather any attack simply by avoiding it. However..." He frowned as he looked over descriptions of his skills. "Both armor skills and shield skills negate practically any bonus from Evasion. It would severely reduce my defenses for situations where I'm going to be hit no matter what."

Edited April 26, 2021 by Shield

[Shield 0]

Quote

Searching for Materials: ID# 190462 - Loot: 4 [No Materials Found]

 It was around this time that Shield was beginning to wonder if the quest was actually going go start properly or if his workaround to hamstring the quest dialog was going to finally glitch the quest and make it impossible to complete. He stopped, holding the instrument closer to his eyes. There were no buttons or switches. Nothing indicated that it somehow needed to be activated. After all, that's not how compasses work. Then again, this compass didn't seem to be working at all, so he kinda had to throw all previous assumptions out the window.

Bringing his eyes closer, he turned it over, inspecting it both top and bottom. His search, however, war quickly proving useless. Looking both ways, he took the compass by its sides and slammed the base down into his palm. The needle of the compass wobbled, drifted lazily in one direction, and then returned to spinning. With one more slam, the little device rattled and then snapped to the side, pointing with focused attention. He turned the compass a little, but the needle continued to shift, trained in the same cardinal direction.

"That's better."

Edited April 26, 2021 by Shield

[Shield 0]

Quote

Searching for Materials: ID# 190463 - Craft: 1 + Loot: 16 [1 Material Found!]

With the compass finally en-compassing, Shield began following the direction of the needle. For the first time, he looked up from his notes and faulty instruments to take note of his surroundings. The plains were vast, but throughout there were little islands of activity. Rock formations, ravines, small stands of twisted trees, and a few other clusters further out that were too indistinct to make out.

The nearest seemed to be a red sandstone formation, composed of a central boulder and smaller chunks of red, sedimentary stone scattered at its base. Shield approached, reading the direction of the compass as best he could. He moved it from side to side, but the needle barely moved. This told him that whatever it was pointing to was likely not nearby, but he kept his eyes peeled none the less. Sitting at the base of one of the smaller stones was a chunk of bright green copper-like ore. Shield collected it, storing it in his inventory as he continued to move on past the structure.

Edited April 26, 2021 by Shield

[Shield 0]

Quote

Searching for Materials: ID# 190464 - Craft: 10 + Loot: 19 [Demonic Material Found!]

The next formation along the path of the needle was a small ravine. The sides were steep, but the grass helped Shield to keep his footing as he made his way to the bottom. The ravine floor itself was stony and mostly bare, though there wasn't an actual path to speak of. As he glanced down once again at the compass, Shield could see that the needle had deflected considerably, now pointing down the length of the ravine itself.

Shield picked up his pace, watching his step along the stony ground. The nearer he came to the other side of the ravine, the more that he thought he could see something at the end. It was almost as if there was an animal den or small cave in the hillside where it ended. He glanced down once again at the compass and moved it from side to side. Unlike before, the more he moved it, the more that the needle deflected, swiveling to point in the direction he was walking.

As Shield arrived, he knelt down, looking into the low entrance. It only went back into the hill a few feet, but there at the end, sitting on a small, flat stone, was a smooth, black stone. Its surface was glassy, almost like a volcanic obsidian, but its edges were tinged in a blood red haze. "If ever I have seen a 'demonic shard,' I think this is it."

Edited April 26, 2021 by Shield

[Shield 0]

Quote

Searching for Materials: ID# 190465 - Loot: 10 [No Material Found]

Shield picked up the small object, inspecting it closely as he worked his way back through the ravine. It was a very pretty piece of stone. Its edges were sweeping and elegant despite their unpredictable angles and points. If he wanted to, he felt like he could use it to slice straight through his own armor and perhaps poison himself, but it was merely the aesthetics of the thing, he was sure. It was, after all, a crafting material, not an actual weapon. It had no enhancements on its own, despite its elegance.

He pocketed it and started making his way up the embankment. His eyes cast about absently as he did for more finds, but there was very little to see, and besides, Shield had accomplished his main objective. "A little anticlimactic, but there's nothing wrong with poking around for a while and picking up what I find. Now that crafting materials are no longer tiered, any material is useful."

 

Edited April 26, 2021 by Shield

[Shield 0]

Quote

Searching for Materials: ID# 190466 - Loot: 3 [No Material Found]

 The grasslands between landmarks was hardly thrilling, to say the least. Shield kept his eye down at the ground, trying to see if he could spot any interesting plant life at the very least. There were herbs that could be used in alchemy or cooking, after all. Still, either there was nothing of note, or Shield did not yet know what items to look for in this large and vague jumble of 'untiered materials.'

In the absence of anything interesting, Shield once again opened his notes and began making marks here and there, tallying the benefits of different armors to determine which would be most useful to upgrade and in what order. For now, as best he could figure, he had enough resources to make one ideal piece of demonic equipment. Although he wished he could put the auras from the armor he had just recently traded for onto his greaves, but since that would result in an item with four unique enhancements, it would require a fourth scale. At present, he had three scales and four shards. "Looks like I need to make a trade, or else be forced to focus on Vampiric."

Edited April 26, 2021 by Shield

[Shield 0]

Quote

Searching for Materials: ID# 190468 - Loot: 4 [No Material Found]

 The terrain continued to yield no real interesting materials to gather, but Shield wasn't paying much attention, if he were to be honest about it. He was continuing to play with the items in his inventory. "Now the one drawback to the things I have is that they are largely different tiered items. Nandor's Strength is third tier while Naudia's Allure is fourth. To combine them, I would need to spend one of my tier-up tickets on the former. While Elder's Grace, on the other hand, is tier four, as are the Blessed Greaves."

He scratched his chin. No matter what, he was going to have to burn a lot of resources. "Even if I go with the shield option, the long-winded shield I lent to Yuki will require being tiered up as well before it can be added onto Manticore Mask." He glanced around at the ground, but seeing nothing, he continued aloud. "However, while both aura options add to my mitigation and thorns, I always love prioritizing healing, since it covers even the damage caused through nonmitigatable means."

Edited April 26, 2021 by Shield

[Shield 0]

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Searching for Materials: ID# 190469 - Loot: 16 [1 Material Found!]

Shield practically found himself stumbling into a stand of trees, realizing that he had stopped paying attention entirely to what was happening around him and where he was going. He glanced around, taking note of the odd and gnarled limbs of the trees, their bark having a dead, grey color to them. He looked up into their branches to see what the tops of such unusual trees would look like. There, among the branches and the deep green leaves, Shield could see several pieces of large, bright orange fruits.

With a shrug, he grabbed a limb and hoisted himself higher, working his way up towards the oblong fruits where they grew. Seating himself in the Y of two major branches, he examined the odd fruit. It was long and unevenly thick like a pear, but it seemed to have a thick rind to it. Shield almost wondered if such a thing would even be edible or whether its fruit would be used by crafters of different professions. Regardless, it had a material tag and so he collected it.

Edited April 26, 2021 by Shield

[Shield 0]

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Searching for Materials: ID# 190470 - Loot: 19 [1 Material Found!]

Most of the fruits were a little too small to be treated as full items. Either that or like some outdated games, some things were just intended to be background while others were not, and it was up to the player and a lot of button mashing to figure out which was which. In any case, he managed to find one more piece that would allow him to collect it before deciding that was probably good enough before he lowered himself to the ground.

Now that he was back on the ground, he realized that he had completely lost the campsite from which he had initially borrowed the compass. This was a problem, to say the least. It had been enough of a pain to track it down in the first place, especially considering that it had moved around quite a bit between different player encounters, so a part of him was afraid that in the time he had spent searching that it might have reshuffled its position once again.

Edited April 26, 2021 by Shield

[Shield 0]

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Searching for Materials: ID# 190471 - Loot: 8 [No Material Found]

With the odd little wild orchard behind him, Shield's eyes cast about for any signs of civilization or human life, assuming an NPC could be called either human or alive. Both of those were doubtful, but regardless, he needed to find something human-like in design or else just wander around with an incomplete quest and no secondary profession. Neither of those was acceptable in his mind.

He doubled his pace, trying to cover more ground as he retraced his steps as best he could. "At some point, I must have veered off course while coming back from the ravine." He squinted, cursing the changes for limiting his skill points and keeping him from putting more points into scouting abilities. "At this point, it's going to be years before I can get my next skill..." He kept his eyes out for any materials, hoping to make the wandering worth his while. At the moment though, it was just more grassland.

Edited April 26, 2021 by Shield

[Shield 0]

Quote

Searching for Materials: ID# 190472 - Loot: 12 [No Material Found]

Slowly, the ravine came back into view. It wasn't exactly in the right direction, but it was at least a familiar landmark. "It's something," he sighed to himself, finally slowing his pace a little now that he was on some trail, however cold it may feel at this point. "If there's one place I don't want to get lost, it's a place that's flat and has very few landmarks." He had a momentary image of his face wrinkled and overgrown with white, wispy hair, while he continued to wander the savannah, but he dismissed the silly notion.

He came to the top of the ravine and did a quick visual sweep to make sure he wasn't missing out on any hidden nooks or crannies where he might find more materials, but for now, he seemed to still be out of luck. "Let's see if I can find the spot where I entered the ravine and work backwards from there." Scouting along the edge, he found a spot where he recognized the terrain as the place where he had entered. "That's it! This is my way back!"

Edited April 26, 2021 by Shield

[Shield 0]

Quote

Searching for Materials: ID# 190473 - Loot: 15 [1 Material Found!]

Taking up a position at roughly the point from which he entered the gully, he scoured the horizon for the landmark he had stumbled upon first. "It was red sandstone... a larger boulder with some smaller bits of rubble around it, all a deep red." He swept back and forth across the horizon, eventually settling on the reddest looking thing he could pick out in the distance. "Let's hope for the best, Lilith." The snake he spoke to was still and silent in his sleeve. Most likely, sleeping. He made a note of how unhelpful she was being. "I'll have to give her a piece of my mind later on."

Not wanting to waste more time, Shield took off at a jog, closing the distance quickly. The closer he came, the more relieved he felt. At the edge of the little stone oddity, Shield spotted another chunk of the same green ore that he had found earlier. Collecting it, he added it to his growing stash and continued.

Edited April 26, 2021 by Shield

[Shield 0]

Quote

Searching for Materials: ID# 190474 - Loot: 6 [No Material Found]

"Should be a cake walk from here," Shield said triumphantly. He gave the sandstone formation another once-over just to make sure he hadn't missed anything. However, he was stoked to keep moving. It had been a straight line from the camp to the ravine, so as long as he kept going the direction he had been walking, he would be finished in no time. He struck out and kept up a quick pace, leaning forward on the balls of his feet as he strutted through the plains.

The further he walked, however, the less sure of himself he became. He put more and more grassland behind him, and still no camp site. "It doesn't pack up and move while you have the compass checked out, does it?" he thought nervously aloud. "I thought I was just being paranoid before, but if it doesn't do that, why isn't it here right now? I made a straight line from the camp to the ravine."

Edited April 26, 2021 by Shield

[Shield 0]

Quote

Searching for Materials: ID# 190475 - Loot: 3 [No Material Found]

It was only then that Shield remembered the rocky start to the quest. "The compass.... I didn't follow a straight path. I wandered until the compass started working!" He stopped in his tracks, trying to remember the specifics of which direction he had turned when the compass had started working for him again, as well as recalling exactly how long he had been walking before he had finally convinced it to start functioning properly.

He closed his eye, picturing the events that had occurred while the compass was malfunctioning. "Think, man, think..." He had a vague recollection of what direction he had turned, though he wasn't entirely sure if he had overshot his turning point or not. He looked around, making note of the direction he was facing. "Of course it couldn't be that simple... There just had to be more complications..." He took one last breath, trying to clear his head so he could try to recall more clearly. He even looked around on the ground, making a quick check for additional materials, though admittedly he was a little too distracted to expect to find anything even if it was right in front of him.

Edited April 26, 2021 by Shield

[Shield 0]

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Searching for Materials: ID# 190476 - Loot: 8 [No Material Found]

Finally, after a good five minutes of recounting events and trying to estimate how long he had spent walking in each direction, he made his best guess and he started walking again. It was nerve wracking to once again essentially be lost in the middle of an open wilderness. Still, he had done the best he could. All that was left was to walk and see if that had been enough. Under his breath, he simultaneously counted paces and let loose and endless stream of curse words, almost using it to keep time and count as he repeated phrases of blasphemy and vulgarity. On occasion, he would look around at the ground, but he had all but given up collecting anything else.

With one last curse as a punctuation to his elegy of profanity, he spotted something through the thick grasses of the plains. There appeared to be a small while canvas structure, though at most the size of a small shed. "The wagon!" Once again, Shield's pace quickened, though this time to an even greater degree than before, his feet pounding against the hard ground as the knee-high grasses parted for his passage.

Edited April 26, 2021 by Shield

[Shield 0]

Quote

Searching for Materials: ID# 190477 - Loot: 9 [No Material Found]

He burst into the ring of the camp site, where the grass had been trodden down to lie flat on the ground. The woman whose name tag had read Giovanna crossed over to him, preparing to address him, but he cut her off before she could speak. "Here's the compass," he said, shoving it into her hand. "Here's the material," he went on, holding it out to see if she planned to take it, which she did not seem to intend, so he retracted it. "Are we done here? We're done here, right?" She opened her mouth, but Shield did not bother to let her finish. "Great. Fantastic. Wonderful. Lovely place you have here. I'm out!"

With that, he took one last look around for stray materials, took out a teleportation crystal and shattered it. "Taft!" he cried out and was quickly transported up a number of floors. "If I never have to go to those rotten plains again, it will be too soon!"

 

Quote

[Quest Rewards]

1,133 EXP [(800 for 1 page + 300 Quest EXP) x 3%]
513 Col [400 for 1 page + (1,133 EXP x 10%)]
<<Gatherer>> Profession
1 Demonic Shard
4 Crafting Materials

Unique Skill Attempt-
ID: 190931   LD: 3   CD: 10   LD: 12   MOB: 4 | No US found.