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[PP - F1] Shards of Hope [Nature's Treasure]


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Quest

Spoiler

Any Floor
<<Nature’s Treasures: Little Eden>>
Party Limit: 4 | 20+ Posts
Repeatable

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Quest Rewards:

  • Any materials and loot that you find/gather.

Requirements:

  • Speak with Nemo about a special dungeon near the edge of the floor.
  • Roleplay travelling to Little Eden (minimum of four posts) with Nemo.
  • Optional: Defeat rare monsters for loot.
  • Optional: Go fishing in the river for treasure.
  • Optional: Search for chests.
  • Optional: Search for materials throughout the garden.
  • Defeat  <<Nemo, Wind of Gaia>> (only available for the first time clearing this quest).

Summary:

A rumor has begun to spread far and wide across Aincrad. Players and NPCs alike speak of a special dungeon that offers great wealth and riches for those that can defeat its guardian. Players speak of a lonely NPC that cares for the garden held within its depths, and guides anyone who requests to enter it. However, NPCs warn of a powerful monster that lurks within, attacking players who dare to “steal” from the garden, leaving them gravely injured, or simply killing them outright. You search out the NPC, seeking to enter the garden, and gather materials and loot. Eventually, you come across the NPC introducing himself as Nemo. He guides you to Little Eden, showing the way to the garden within the depths of the dungeon.

As you begin to gather materials, loot chests, fish in the river, and defeat monsters, you notice that Nemo seems to be growing more and more agitated with your  actions. When you make ready to leave, Nemo forcibly stops you, demanding that you return what you have taken. Your eyes focus on his name and health bar, and, much to your horror, you see that somehow his health pool has grown significantly larger, and his name has changed. It seems that the boss was really Nemo in disguise.

After defeating Nemo, he concedes to your strength, and gifts you a special crystal that activates a warp panel at the center of the garden, allowing you to leave the Garden.

Outline: 

After accepting the quest, you travel alongside Nemo to Little Eden, and make your way into the depths of Little Eden, reaching the garden at its very core. You have the option of fighting rare mobs, each of them offering their own challenges and granting increased rewards upon their defeat. <<Gilded hands>>, which are rare mobs not spawned by usual means, grant a bonus 1000*Tier col and 3*Tier Materials upon their defeat.

Upon trying to leave the dungeon, you will be unable to find the way that you came in, and will have your way blocked by Nemo, who transforms into the dungeon boss.

The following bonuses are applied when performing the following actions in Little Eden:

  • Gathering | LD rolls of 11-14 give 1 material.  LD rolls of 15+ give 2 materials. For players with the Gatherer Profession, this works alongside their profession's material-gathering chart. CD thresholds are also reduced by 1.
  • Fishing | A natural CD roll of 1-3 fishes up a <<Gilded Hand>> mob. For players with the Fishing Profession, CD thresholds for the Fishing Skill are reduced by 1.
  • Treasure Chests | A natural LD of 1-3 results in two <<Gilded Hand>> mobs.
  • Looting Mobs | Mobs that satisfy the loot minimum always drop (HP * 4) col and 1 Material as default drops, before other upgrades and aspects of the loot table are taken into account.
     

NPCs:

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<<Nemo>>
A kind gardener that cares for and tends to the many plants and mobs that live in Little Eden. He happily guides players there, though he gives them a warning about “stealing” from the garden. Nemo will greet the player as a friend on repeat visits. However, he does not seem to remember fighting the player, and will react in a confused manner if questioned about it, brushing aside any questions of the sort. Gets upset with the player if they kill mobs while he is nearby, expressing pain at their actions towards the creatures of the garden.


Enemies:

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<<Orchid Nymph>>
A large flower-like creature that resembles a cross between a preying mantis, a spider, and an orchid blossom. Attacks are swift and painful, and can cause swift paralysis if players are not careful while fighting them

HP: Loot Standard (Any tier)
DMG: Loot Standard (Any tier)

Abilities:

  • Venomous Claws | Crits cause paralysis and inflict Toxic Venom matching the player's tier for 2 turns.

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<<Snapdragon>>
A small dragon that pretends to be a flower until an unsuspecting traveler tries to pull it out of the ground, causing it to reveal its true nature. Don’t let its small size fool you, the fangs of this small dragon can pierce through even the toughest steel

HP: Loot Standard (Any tier)
DMG: Loot Standard (Any tier)

Abilities:

  • Piercing Crunch Gains <<Phase>> on a natural MD of 9 or 10.

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<<Mossy Wolf>>
A direwolf formed from the earth of the floor, attacks in packs, and is able to drain the life of players away in order to heal itself.

HP: Loot Standard (Any tier)
DMG: Loot Standard (Any tier)

Abilities:

  • Leeching Fang On a natural MD of 9 or 10, this mob heals for 10% of the final damage dealt to its target.

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<<Knight of Gaia>>
A large, silvery creature with razor-sharp blades on its hands, it attacks with vicious precision, aiming to slow them down, and drain away their health at a steady rate.

HP: Loot Standard (Any tier)
DMG: Loot Standard (Any tier)
ACC: 3

Abilities:

  • Debilitate | On a natural MD of 9 or 10, the mob strikes the player with a heavy blow, inflicting Bleed matching the Player's Tier for two turns, and applying a -2 evasion debuff to the player hit.

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<<Gilded Hand>>
A strange glove that has developed a head, and glimmers with a faint golden sheen. It aims to debilitate or severely weaken players so that it can flee from them. Only encountered through fishing and through opening chests.

HP: Loot Standard (Any tier)
DMG: Loot Standard (Any tier)
ACC: 2
EVA: 2

Abilities:

  • Knockdown Pro | On a natural 10, Gilded Hand applies a stun to their target, and attacks a second time.  This effect can only occur once per turn.
  • Anxious This mob only attacks every other turn, unless attacking multiple times in a row due to <<Knockdown Pro>>.
  • Coward Gilded Hand attempts to flee automatically when their health falls below half. Successfully escapes on a CD 12. <<Gilded Hands>> automatically flee if all players in the party are stunned.

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<<Nemo, the Wind of Gaia>>
The true form of Nemo. A ferocious green dragon that is as nimble and swift as the flowing wind. Attacks swiftly and powerfully, attempting to kill the player for trespassing and desecrating his home

HP: Loot Standard + 25*Tier
DMG: Loot Standard + 10*Tier
EVA: 2
MIT: 25*Tier
This mob uses its own BD roll when attacking.

Abilities:

  • Twin Fangs On a natural BD of 9 with a CD of 8+, the boss tears into the player with razor sharp fangs, inflicting 35*Tier unmitigatable damage.
  • Nature’s Roar On a natural BD of 10, Nemo unleashes a gust of wind on the player, inflicting 65*Tier mitigatable damage.
  • Gaia’s Protection Nemo cannot be reduced below 10 HP, and the fight ends once the player reduces his health to this level.

Shield

Spoiler
Shield - HP:920/920 | EN:128/128 | DMG:1 | ACC:0 | MIT:167 | THN:88 | EVA:0 | BH:50 | LD:8 | V.D.:50 | HB:60 | TNT | ANT.FZ | GS:151 [17/17]
   
» Shield The Immovable Object
Modified HP: 920
Modified EN: 128
Modified MIT: 167
Modified ACC: 0
Modified DMG: 1
Modified EVA: 0
Battle Heal: 50
Loot Die: 8
Temp Buff: Good Luck Chuck - T1 Perfect LD Food + "Filling" [+3+1 Loot Die]
Temp Buff:  
Temp Buff:  
» Base Stats  
Base HP: 920
Base EN: 128
Base MIT: 167
Base ACC: 0
Base DMG: 1
Base EVA: 0
Battle Heal: 46
Loot Die: 0
» Items Equipped:  
Trinket Seeking Aura - T1 Perfect Trinket [Loot Die / Loot Die / Loot Die] 
Armor Blessed Greaves - T4 Demonic Heavy Armor [Mitigation / Mitigation / Holy Blessing / Holy Blessing]
Armor Naudia's Allure - T4 Demonic Heavy Armor [Holy Blessing / Mitigation / 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 | Protector
» Totem: Yamata no Orochi (LD +1)    
» Battle-Ready Inventory:  
Slot 1 Gungnir's Shard [Instant Song of Healing] x17
Slot 2
Manticore Mask - T4 Demonic Shield [Thorns / Thorns / Frost Aura / Frost Aura]
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
  Extended Weight Limit | No Ranks
  Extended Mod Limit | No Ranks
   
   
   
   
   
» Extra Skills:  
  Block | Rank 5
  Survival
  Parry
   
   
» Mods:  
1 Focused Howl
2 Iron Skin
3 Shield Bash
4 Large Pockets
5 Rampart
  Justified Riposte
  Vengeful Riposte

Post Action

Quote

Gathering - ID#: 192980 - Loot: 13+8= 21 - Material Found +2 Bonus
EXP Gained: 3
Total Materials: 3
Total EXP: 55/200

Shield held out his arms, watching as the army of slimes that continually refreshed around him continued to throw themselves fruitlessly at his body. Then again, since it accomplished the task of providing minute amounts of experience, Shield did not consider their sacrifice fruitless at all. Finally, the spawner ran dry, and Shield nodded, stepping back into his home and into his kitchen. Picking up a piece of lucky grilled chuck, he began chewing the coarse meat and made his way down the mountain to Taft. He had a date with a garden.

-

There was a weight settling in Shield's chest as Nemo led him into the garden on Aincrad's lowest floor. Since Shadow's defeat and the complete upending of the mechanics of SAO, Shield's growth had stagnated, almost coming to a complete standstill. While he had continued to raise the bar of his gear, there were only a couple of remaining changes he could make before his ideal build plateaued. For now, all he could do was to continue to push forward in his Gathering skills.

"If and when I hit that peak, the next step is to create those niche other items to push my success in extenuating circumstances," he though aloud, causing Nemo to cast him an odd, sidelong glance. "Sorry. Thinking out loud."

As he was led once again into the garden that Nemo guarded, Shield spotted and picked up a bundle of glistening scales. It was not one of the prized Gleaming Scales that Shield so desperately required to complete his builds, but it was important to collect none the less.

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Gathering - ID#: 192984 - Loot: 1+8=9 - No Material Found
EXP Gained: 1
Total Materials: 3
Total EXP: 56/200

Shield gave a stiff nod to the NPC who seemed relieved to step away from him and his mumbling. With a stretch of his shoulders and a crack of his neck, Shield struck out into the garden to search. He made his way toward the hedge that last time had been so profitable, but somehow it seemed to have been replaced with a stone wall. He blinked, checked his location, and judged his location off of the pools that were dispersed throughout the garden. He seemed to be in much the same place, but indeed, the hedge was gone.

"Does this place constantly change? Perhaps it presents itself differently depending on who is present... I did rank up in my Gathering profession... could that be the difference?" The thought seemed unlikely, but he couldn't entirely rule it out. In any case, he did not find any fruit in the stone wall, which was hardly surprising.

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Gathering - ID#: 192985 - Loot: 6+8=14 - Material Found +1 Bonus
EXP Gained: 3
Total Materials: 5
Total EXP: 59/200

Making his way along the hedge, Shield continued to keep his eyes peeled for promising areas to farm. There were the pools, of course, which as he looked more carefully, seemed to be the only things that had remained the same. The willow tree where he had sat once was gone. The vegetable patches had been replaced by thorny shrubs. It was as if someone had superimposed a completely different garden over the top of the one he had seen before.

"Such an odd garden," he thought aloud. He walked closer, inspecting the thorny bushes more closely. While they did indeed have small leaves, the most prominent features were the thorns. Some had even taken on a bright orange hue and were considerably longer than the others, some even as long as his hand. He harvested a few, and sure enough, they were indeed craftable items. "Most likely for alchemy."

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Gathering - ID#: 192986 - Loot: 5+8=13 - Material Found +1 Bonus
EXP Gained: 3
Total Materials: 7
Total EXP: 62/200

Although interesting, the harvestable thorns were difficult to pick out from those who were merely long and ornate. Best Shield could figure, there was a slight difference in color or texture that at his level of skill was much harder to detect. Hopefully, that would not remain the case as he ranked up further, but for now it was his reality. Having broken off a handful more, he found two that were viable items and discarded the others.

Typically, he did not spend much time investigating craftable items in the field, but these particular ones intrigued him. Tapping the middle, he summoned its item menu and read the entry. "Dead Nettle. A plant whose thorns contain toxic qualities. When properly prepared through alchemy, they can be used to create potent toxins to apply to weapons."

"That sounds an awful lot like Toxic Venom," he concluded, and decided that if the world of DoT building was as lucrative as it seemed, that these might be able to be sold at a premium.

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Gathering - ID#: 192987 - Loot: 2+8=10 - No Material Found
EXP Gained: 1
Total Materials: 7
Total EXP: 63/200

Shield made one more glance around the bush, but as he broke off the remaining colorful thorns, none of them seemed to be properly mature. Try as he might, he could not find any distinguishing features between the mature and immature thorns. He wondered if there would suddenly be a visual change that would appear upon his next rank, but for now it was a moot point. His time would be better spent elsewhere, and he was going to have to move on.

Stepping back from the shrubs, he took a moment to assess his options. There was of course the nearest of the pools. They had always been at least somewhat productive for him though, and he wanted to leave them as a last resort. Off to the side, he spotted what seemed to be a row of bonsai trees that had been carefully cultivated, wired into new twisting formations. "Works for me!"

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Gathering - ID#: 192988 - Loot: 15+8=23 - Material Found +2 Bonus
EXP Gained: 3
Total Materials: 10
Total EXP: 66/200

He ambled over to the nearest of the small trees, and kneeled down beside it. This one was a conifer - almost like a blue spruce. He ran his fingers along the small needles, parting them to peer deeper into the plant. He wasn't exactly sure what he was looking for. Perhaps like in so many of the other plants there would be some sort of hidden fruit or pine cone, though they would have to be incredibly small.

As he moved his hands back and forth, he accidentally summoned an item menu, and strangely it was for the entire plant. "Dwarf pines, valuable for their sap..." He didn't read through the entirety of the entry, but he didn't need to. He gave a tug to uproot the, apparently, fully grown dwarf tree, and moved down the row. These, unlike the thorns, were relatively quick to check given he didn't have to search through the haystack to find the needles.

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Gathering - ID#: 192989 - Loot: 2+8=10 - No Material Found
EXP Gained: 1
Total Materials: 10
Total EXP: 67/200

Shield continued down the line, though as he checked the next bed, they seemed to all be more immature than the last. They were smaller in size and less robust, which was saying something, and they did not seem to have as many needles. Not surprisingly, they were missing an item menu, which meant harvesting them would be incredibly pointless. He tapped one, waited a moment for a menu, and then moved on to the next. By the time he had made it all the way to the end of that bed, he had found no new plants to harvest.

This, he supposed, was not a huge loss. Although this did put a dent in his productivity, the simplicity of the task compared to some of the other options was still more appealing than going back to the thorn bushes. He at least wanted to find a few more before moving on.

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Gathering - ID#: 192990 - Loot: 13+8=21 - Material Found +2 Bonus
EXP Gained: 3
Total Materials: 13
Total EXP: 70/200

The unproductive bed behind him, he moved on to the next, and almost immediately it proved more bountiful than the last. Within his first few plants, he had found two different plants that could be harvested. He quickly uprooted them and stored them in his inventory before moving further down the row. Before the end of that section, he had managed to even find a third harvestable tree. "Much better," he said triumphantly.

Glancing down at his HUD, he opened the section for his occupation, navigating to his stats for gathering. Under the section for ranks and experience, he saw that he had just hit seventy experience. He also saw that his next rank would only be attained upon reaching 200 experience. He sighed, rolling his eyes. "There has got to be a better way to gain experience." This seemed to strike a chord with Sheild's memory. "Maybe there is..."

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Gathering - ID#: 192992 - Loot: 16+8=24 - Material Found +2 Bonus
EXP Gained: 3
Total Materials: 16
Total EXP: 73/200

Opening up his notes on various game mechanics, he scrolled down until he found the section on gathering. The notes were scant, but he searched through them regardless, trying to remember what it was he had seen that would be relevant. His eyes stopped on the section regarding how to gather experience, reading aloud to himself. "While the garden can sometimes provide materials outside of otherwise successful searches, a successful search is the only way to properly increase experience at a decent rate. Bonuses to searching can help, but other bonuses can apply as well. For example, items that increase searching ability, the corresponding totem from the Scents of the Wild quest series, as well as the Herbalist's Hut and its upgraded form, Green House-"

Shield paused, realizing he had not been searching and hurried down the row, picking out a few choice trees to harvest before returning to his notes.

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Gathering - ID#: 192993 - Loot: 11+8=19 - Material Found +2 Bonus
EXP Gained: 3
Total Materials: 19
Total EXP: 76/200

"Well, it looks as though getting a Green House is going to be my best bet for stepping up my searching skill." He took one more glance at his notes, spotting another something he had scribbled in the margins. "Limited data hints that the upgrade from Herbalist Hut to Green House may also slightly increase the odds of finding Demonic Shards." This was unexpected but welcome news. He didn't fully know the inner workings of the profession's mechanics, but that seemed like an incredibly lucrative bonus, if it turned out to be true.

Having exhausted his notes, Shield turned in the mean time to searching through dwarf trees. The current row thus far seemed to have been planted much earlier than the previous two, and its ratio of mature to immature trees reflected this. One after another, Shield managed to quickly find and harvest another handful of fully mature plants.

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Gathering - ID#: 192994 - Loot: 5+8=13 - Material Found +1 Bonus
EXP Gained: 3
Total Materials: 21
Total EXP: 79/200

Having gathered up his finds, he continued to harvest with one hand and searching through his housing menu, checking the prices of the upgrades he sought. "Looks like it's ten thousand Col for the basic hut and another fifteen thousand on top of that to upgrade to the deluxe." Shield snorted air out of his nose, realizing how dumb he'd been not to review his notes sooner. After all, this one transaction was going to almost double his experience, both through the bonus experience itself as well as the bonuses to his searching ability. He selected the hut and went to make the purchase, but an error message flashed. He finished harvesting the tree he had found and turned his full attention to the error message.

"'Must manually select outdoor building plot to request construction...'" he read. "But... I only have one outdoor plot available. If there isn't an alternative...." He rolled his eyes and closed his menu. "Guess I can wait till I get home."

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Gathering - ID#: 192995 - Loot: 16+8=24 - Material Found +2 Bonus
EXP Gained: 3
Total Materials: 24
Total EXP: 82/200

With the rather irritating matter of his housing upgrade settled, at least for the time being, Shield returned to his search. He paced back and forth along the row of bonsai like trees tapped each, waiting to see which ones bore item tags and which did not. To his surprise, the section where he searched continued to yield fruitful results, and his stash of would-be saplings continued to mount. He was so pleased with it, as a matter of fact, that he even rewarded himself with a short minutes to have a seat in the grass.

There was a lot to do, and unfortunately, very little progress to be made going forward. He wondered if other players were having similar problems to what he was seeing. So far, Freyd had seemed to be doing just fine, but then again he mostly only talked shop. That meant personal feelings might be hidden, but also that any such frustrations should have come u[p by now.

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Gathering - ID#: 192996 - Loot: 3+8=11 - No Material Found +1 Bonus
EXP Gained: 1
Total Materials: 25
Total EXP: 83/200

Before long, the supplies of harvestable trees began to diminish. Shield managed to find one more in the current row before the rest of the supply dried up completely. He went on to the next row, but either he was very unlucky or the entire row was too young to be useful. He decided to cut his losses on the current portion of the garden and move on to, hopefully, greener pastures.

He made his way over to the lake, and took a moment to inspect the water. The surface was a deep, pond swill green, which limited visibility into the murky depths to essentially nothing. This meant that unless a creature very much wanted to be seen, it would likely remain invisible. Shield was not worried about this, as it was not a creature he was looking for. However, he had a feeling most of the items he might find around that spot would have been dropped by creatures.

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Gathering - ID#: 192997 - Loot: 15+8=23 - Material Found +2 Bonus
EXP Gained: 3
Total Materials: 28
Total EXP: 86/200

His suspicions were quickly answered. As he strolled along the shore by the water, a handful of the same luminous scales crossed his path. he knelt and collected them. As a sun ray bounced off of its surface, it sparkled with a brilliance he had seen somewhere before. Picking them up one by one, he searched his memory of what he may or may not have seen that matched this description.

A combat flashed into his memory. It was not a particularly profound combat, but it was one he had fought in this very area not terribly long ago. There was a dragon that he had faced not too terribly long ago whose scales had shone with this same light. Turning back to face towards the entrance, Shield spotted Nemo decidedly avoiding his gaze. "Well, I'll be. Looks like I've been picking up someone's scale sheddings this whole time, huh?"

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Gathering - ID#: 192998 - Loot: 3+8=11 - No Material Found +1 Bonus
EXP Gained: 1
Total Materials: 29
Total EXP: 87/200

Nemo either didn't hear or chose to pretend not to hear Shield's words, and busied himself with inspecting the tops of the distant trees. "So we're just going to pretend that you're not secretly a dragon in disguise then?" Again, Nemo pretended not to hear, despite Shield calling out to him more than loudly enough for him to hear. Shield took the hint, returning to his searching and his experience grind.

He continued combing the shore, picking his way along the stony beach until more light caught his eye. It was nowhere near the find that he had hoped, but there between two small white stones sat a single shining scale. Bending down, Shield picked it up and sent it to join all of the other items he'd picked up so far. He took a look at hit HUD, checking his accrued experience. This, as it turned out, was a mistake. He sighed.

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Gathering - ID#: 192999 - Loot: 6+8=14 - Material Found +1 Bonus
EXP Gained: 3
Total Materials: 31
Total EXP: 90/200

By this point, Shield found himself rounding the far end of the pond from where he began, and thus far it had not proved nearly as reliable as it had on earlier trips. "Of course, as soon as I start counting on the stupid scales, they start to dry up. Seems like someone hasn't been swimming as much, eh Nemo?" Again, although the guide continued to hover twenty or so feet from Shield, apparently moving with him whenever he would walk around, he continued to act as though he couldn't hear anything that the player said.

Shield's eyes drifted back down to the ground, where they should have arguably been in the first place, and there before him he spotted a small bundle of scales. It was better than just the single one. He had hoped to find larger clusters than this, but given how slow things had become, he couldn't complain.

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Gathering - ID#: 193000 - Loot: 6+8=14 - Material Found +1 Bonus
EXP Gained: 3
Total Materials: 33
Total EXP: 93/200

As he straightened up, Shield immediately saw another small deposit of scales - just a couple, once again. It wasn't much, but every little bit helped. In particular every little success and every little bit of experience helped. Shield jogged over to them, careful to watch his step on the uneven stones. There were only a couple, but again, he didn't complain.

With his gains gathered, Shield ventured a glance out across the water. It was a peaceful sight to say the least. Although peaceful wasn't exactly what he was looking for, he could see why it would be appealing to those who needed it. "There I go again, being the workaholic. I'd say that this game is going to be the death of me, but that's just a little too on the nose." He turned his focus back to the task of searching, though he slowed down just a little.

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Gathering - ID#: 193001 - Loot: 3+8=11 - No Material Found +1 Bonus
EXP Gained: 1
Total Materials: 34
Total EXP: 94/200

For one, he recognized the dangers of overworking. Although he ignored them a vast, vast majority of the time, this was one of those times where he had stumbled into that thought a little too directly, and the guilt alone was enough to slow his gait. Secondly, if the scales - and for that matter all of the items he had found so far - were really so spread out and tricky to spot, then rushing wasn't going to cut it.

As he slowed down, his eyes immediately fell on a single scale at his feet. He doubted it was worthy of the extra experience, but it proved the theory none the less that going too quickly would harm his results, not help them. He bent down to collect the scale, letting the artificial sunlight of Aincrad glint on its surface before storing it with the other such items he had found.

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Gathering - ID#: 193002 - Loot: 17+8=25 - Material Found +2 Bonus
EXP Gained: 3
Total Materials: 37
Total EXP: 97/200

Shield continued his slowed down strategy, and strangely, as we did so, his gains sped up. Peering down between stones, he began to spot more and more glimmering scales (not to be confused with Gleaming Scales, of course - he should be so lucky). A fairly generous cluster of them winked up at him from the crevice between two stones. With a small amount of triumph, Shield bent down to recover them and stashed them happily away. He made a mental note that perhaps smelling the roses might be a more effective gathering method. That could especially be true if there were materials to be gathered that lived in rose bushes, but he set that rather obvious parallel aside for the time being.

He continued picking his way among the rocks, narrowing his eyes and shading his eyes from the sun to see if things might be hiding in less obvious places.

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Gathering - ID#: 193003 - Loot: 20+8=28 - Material Found +2 Bonus
EXP Gained: 3
Total Materials: 40
Total EXP: 100/200

Shield managed to spot another sizable cluster and happily scooped the scales up in their entirety. He ventured another glance at his HUD and very sadly realized that, not only was he not near his next rank, but he had only just reached the middle point between zero and his goal, including the experience that had gotten him to rank two. With that, Shield decided it was much wiser to no longer continue unless he had his Green Thumb bonus from the greenhouse he would be installing the very instant he arrived back home.

He turned on his heels, marching quickly back over towards the entrance. Nemo saw the way he was headed and caught up with him.

"Leaving so soon?"

"I am," Shield replued. "But I'll be back soon enough, and with bigger and better bonuses. I refuse to do things this inefficiently anymore. It's time for a change."

Edited by Shield
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