[F01-SP] The Whose Who of The Loan Past Due <<The First Few Lessons>>

[Alathazal 0]

Spoiler

 

HP: [20/20]	Alathazal [Lv 1]		EN: [20/20]
ACC: [0]	DMG: [5]	EVA: [1]	MIT: [0]
Equipment		Battle-Ready Inventory
"Kaminoikari" 1H Straight Sword		Starter Healing Potion (5)
[Tier 1, Enhancement: +3 DMG]		[Heals 50 HP]
Ninpo-Yoroi (Light Armour)
[Tier 1, Enhancement: +1 EVA]
Skills
Rank 1	1H Straight Sword		+3 DMG
Sword Art Skills
[x4] ST-I: A single-target sword art (EN: 4)
[x3] AOE-I: A sword art that strikes multiple targets at once (EN: 1 + [2 * number of targets])
[x4] TECH-A: A single-target sword art that stuns an enemy (EN: 5)

It had been nearly a week since the announcement, since they had all become trapped in this digital fantasy, since the names began to be crossed off the list.  The list, it's a joke really, The Monument of Life, a sick monolithic stone scorecard the game was keeping as a joke at players' expense.  First went those who had been beta-testers, they had experience on their side, they knew where they were going.  With them went the foolhardy and headstrong, becoming the first names to leave the list.  Then came the floods, hundreds upon hundreds of scared players, not knowing what else to do without course or thought they left the sanctuary of the game's initial spawn area, the unprepared defeated by starting mobs, the unwary betrayed but other players.  But the swells have eased, there shouldn't be that fight for resources anymore.  It's now that Al decides that it's his time to leave the Town of Beginnings, it's time for his life in this game of death to begin, determined to survive, determined to escape.

Al didn't expected the journey to Tolbana to be a long or particularly dangerous journey, but nothing could prepare him for boredom he encountered.  Mobs were being systematically farmed, resource nodes were being harvested within moments of respawning, the game had been flooded with players all trying to head for the same places, and these players?  The ones that had fallen behind, were doing what they could to earn experience, either unknowingly or ignorantly at the expense of the other players around them.

As the sun began to set, Al finally stood at the gates of Tolbana, the sun sinking beneath the horizon, he made it.  He made it, the town was sleeping at the moment but come morning the streets would be bustling with people going about their business. "Till then, it's time to sleep"

WC: 312

[Alathazal 0]

As the morning's light touched his face, Al opened his eyes to the welcoming sight of a market that had been set up in the middle of the town square, standing up he took in his surroundings.  Thank goodness that don't have vagrancy laws in the game, he thought to himself, as his thought wandered to memories of sleeping in a bed, maybe soon he'll have one again he resolved.  As he began to walk into the market her heard a man's voice calling out.

"You there! Stop, please!"

Al spots a tall distinguished man, making his way towards him in great strides, he stands nearly as tall as Al, is an older man with short grey hair, moustache and brandishing a sophisticated monocle.

"Mr. Moneybags?", Al questions himself, comparing the man to the Monopoly mascot.

"Pardon me, but I am in need of some assistance, and you appear quite capable."

Al stops and turns to the man, examining him with curiosity, while his clothes are still old and worn they're style was more becoming of the upper class, guessing that he held some form of position within the town.  The man gives out a quick sigh of relief as he catches his breath, adjusting his jacket and the monocle over his right eye.

"I'll help if I can, what is it?"

"Oh Thank you!  My name is Dorian, and I am the mayor of this town. As part of those mayoral duties, I issued a small loan to a member of the community a few months ago. Well, the time to collect has come around and I-"

Flustered, Dorian twiddles the ends of his perfectly groomed moustache, bringing the ends to fine pointed tips.

"You see, I've forgotten who it was I loaned the money to. It's terribly embarrassing for a man of my position you see, but you must know I am a very busy man, and I cannot keep track of everything that happens. I'm sure you understand." With a wave of his hand, Dorian continues, "Should you be willing to track down the loan recipient for me, and collect the col, I would be eternally grateful. Just, maybe don't let anyone else know I forgot who the loan went to?"

With Dorian's request made a window popped up hovering in mid-air just before Al's.

Alert

Accept the quest? <<The First Few Lessons>>

X              O

Al's hands trembled with trepidation, "My first quest!", the adrenaline was flowing and he could feel his quickening heart beat, through every vein in his body.  This was it, there was no going back after this, he thought of the danger ahead, then  of his Uncle and the adventures they had played.  He took a deep breath and without hesitation, "Yes!", he reached out touching the small blue circle icon on the pop-up, confirming his acceptance of the quest.

"Excellent, I knew I could count on you! You might start with Zackariah, the alchemist. He's often doing projects for the town, so it may have been him that borrowed the money."

WC: 509

Edited Wednesday at 09:19 AM by Alathazal

[Alathazal 0]

As Al walked through the busy streets of Tolbana, he kept looking up at the shop signs, looking for the Alchemist, the first step in his quest.  Blacksmiths, Inns, Fish and Tackle, after nearly 20 minutes he was beginning to think that he was looking in the wrong place, but then he saw it, a sign, the familiar elongated shape of a potion bottle.

Stepping inside the shop, it reminded Al of those old sweet shops he'd seen in movies with rows upon rows of colourful potions lining shelves, themselves running floor to ceiling behind a counter that ran around three sides of the single room shop.  In an area behind the counter, that looked more like a high school chemistry lab than a shop, an old man with a long, snow-white beard was mixing vials of different coloured liquids.

"Excuse me?  Are you Zackariah?"

“Oh, hello," the man glances up from a bubbling cup of sweet-smelling purple liquid, half distracted by his own activities. "I'm Zackariah.  Are you here to order something? I’m sorry, but I am currently swamped with orders, and I’m running out of supplies.”

As he's about to dismiss you, a light comes to his dark eyes, like a lightbulb going off to signify a brilliant idea. “If you could just gather a few materials for me? Flowers, herbs, rare woods, whatever you can find outside the city walls. I promise I’ll help you fill your order as soon as you return. In fact, I would even be willing to show you how to do it yourself, so what do you say?”

"Sure"

Another pop-up appearing before him.

Alert

You have new objectives for the quest <<The First Few Lessons>> The First Lesson - Attempt to gather materials for Zackariah (0/3) -

O

Dismissing the notification, Al turned to leave, ready to begin full steam ahead, when Zackariah chimed in.

"Eager one aren't you!  But before you go, try my Everbright Luck Fondue, it might give you an advantage in your efforts."

"Umm... Okay..."

Al looks at the pot of bubbling cheese on the counter, it almost glows with an emerald sheen.  Zackariah scoops some into a small cup and hands it to him.  Al examining it, contemplates the idea of consuming such a thing in the real world, the thought alone making him feel bloated.

Al sings to himself, "Zack's Lucky Charm's...", he swallows hard, "...I hope their magically delicious!", with that he drinks down the fondue, a warm feeling rise up in him as for just a moment he is encased in that same emerald glow. "Oh wow!  Thanks man!"

Spoiler

Status Update:
Everbright Luck Fondue: LD +3

WC: 435

Edited Wednesday at 01:04 PM by Alathazal

[Alathazal 0]

After getting Zackariah's request for materials, Al found himself half way out of the town before he realised he didn't really know what he was doing, would he be prompted to perform a search, did he have to try and physically try and pick things up?  As unprepared as he was he'd find out sooner or later.  As her neared the city gates, the guards held him for a moment checking his player tag against a list, he guessed was of players that had done things that while the game allowed them, the community wasn't.

Outside the walls, Al took a moment to take in the surroundings, the world was vast and beautiful, the luscious green fields that made up most of the first floor was littered with paths and forests in the distance, he could even see a couple of boars wandering not to far from him, but his task was fixed, Zackariah needed materials.

"Hi-ho, Hi-ho, it's off to work I go, find that random stuff, that the old guy needs, Hi-ho, Hi-ho, Hi-ho, Hi-ho" Al sang to himself as he made his way towards a nearby forest. As he neared the edge he spotted a bush, covered in red berries, he decided to try to collect them.

Spoiler

ID: 25211 | LD: 5 (2+3) | Material Search (failed)

As he reached into the bush, he felt a tingling sensation in his fingers as the berries on the bush shattered into hundreds of small shared before evaporating in to the air.  "Damn!"

WC: 243

[Alathazal 0]

Was he too quick? Too rough?  Did either even matter?  It was his only first attempt, but it was disheartening to fail.  Al looked around, there were lots of other bushes and plenty of berries, so availability was going to be an issue at least.

He thought back on other players talking about skills, specifically the forager skill, a gathering profession that increased the chance to successfully find materials and giving the chance to find some special items too.  "Man, that would've been nice to have about now".

Making his way over to the next bush, Al closed his eyes, reaching out towards the bush, "come on".  The same discouraging sound sang out from the bush as the berries once again shattered and vanished.

Spoiler

ID: 252269 | LD: 6 (3+3) | Material Search (failed)

"Okay Kyo, you're alright, this may take a while, but we've grinded millions of items, far more difficult that touching a bush." Looking up, surveying the remaining bushes, they seemed to have multiplied, "hopefully, we won't need to try all of them!"

WC: 239

Edited Thursday at 07:46 AM by Alathazal

[Alathazal 0]

"Attempt number three, my Lucky Charms must have been faulty!" Al, shook his head, still looking across the other bushes that lined the forests edge.  He pondered moving into the forest to see if gathering different things would provide better results, "But there's no difficulty related to gathering, it shouldn't make a difference!".  Al began to walk along the line of bushes, contemplating which to try next, red berries, blue, even the occasional bush of yellow ones.  That's when he saw it a single bush heaving with white berries, Al thought to himself - resources like these are just converted to non-descript materials right?  So colour's really won't make a difference and yet the develops put in the effort to still add that level of variety, "Crazy good!".

Al took a deep breath reaching into the bush, his fingers tinged as once again the berries shattered, leaving nothing in their place. Al stared at the now empty bush, his hand fell to his side, "You have got to be kidding me", his shoulders felt heavy with the weight of failure.

Alert

You have completed an objective for the quest <<The First Few Lessons>> The First Lesson - Attempt to gather materials for Zackariah (3/3) -

O

The pop-up left little to be desired, his fists clenched at his sides, his eye's filled with determination, "I'm not returning empty handed!"

Spoiler

ID: 252632 | LD: 7 (4+3) | Material Search (failed)

WC: 227

Edited 2 hours ago by Alathazal

[Alathazal 0]

Al looked around the plains of grass field around him.  The small group of boars had moved along and were now just grey blobs in the distance.  Al's hand fell to the pommel of his sword, it's blade hadn't been unsheathed since it's purchase in the town of beginning and it was yet to be seen any form of combat other than the training dummy's that had been set up next to the weapon vendor, for new player to test out their new wares.

"I can't wait, this is going to be so good!"

The realisation that he was trapped had momentarily been forgotten, with the adrenaline rush of finally getting a chance of getting into some real combat, his grip tightening on his sword, a smile forming across his lips, "Yeah!".

Without any hesitation he plunged his hand into the next bush, the berries vanishing once again.  The smile still on his face, he walked to the next bush, nothing was going to stop him, not even these berries!

Spoiler

ID: 252633 | LD: 13 (10+3) | Material Search (failed)

WC: 170

Edited 1 hour ago by Alathazal

[Alathazal 0]

Something was different about that last attempt, he thought about the previous attempts.  This last time rather than just a tingling sensation at the tips of his fingers, he could almost feel the berries in his hand, his fingers wrapping around their spherical form, before vanishing in that now all to familiar storm of prism shards.  Al quickly moved to the bush beside him.  One more bush and then into the forest, if he was going to keep going at this, he had to find a way to keep it fresh, so that it didn't become tedious.  Al wondered just what it was that Zackariah was going to teach him to make, he had been hoping for something that would be beneficial in combat as that what he had originally planned to focus on, but at this point a potion that would improve his ability to collect materials certainly would go a miss.

Al looked around making sure no one else was around, before winding up as though he was about to throw a baseball, letting rip he shouted, "Blueberries, I choose you!", his hand delving into the bush, only for the elusive materials to once against shatter.

Spoiler

ID: 252634 | LD: 11 (8+3) | Materials Search (failed)

WC: 198

Edited 55 minutes ago by Alathazal