SP: F3 & F1 <<Worn Out Welcome>> Quest (Complete)

[Nathaniel 0]

Looking at the Blacksmith's shop, Nathaniel looked at his menu, rereading the note he'd made himself. Yup, this was the place, alright. He strode up to the door, pushing it gently open and stepping over the threshold.

 

Looking around, it seemed a rather...hearty? place. It was warmly lit by the coals of the forge and the sunlight that streamed in through the windows. Taking in the scene, Nathaniel's staring was cut off by a gruff-

 

"ErrHREEM," as the burly old blacksmith NPC cleared his throat, "Can I HELP you, sonny?"

 

"Erm...yeah," Nathaniel said, walking up to the blacksmith, who currently sat on a bench beside his forge. He opened the NPC's menu and accepted the Quest he was offering.

 

The blacksmith turned and spat into the forge, "Hmnf. Wanting armor just the same as everyone else, eh? Could use some, doesn't look like you've got any substance to yer. But that's what good ol' Griswold is for!"

 

"Erm...right. So, I'll need my armor to be leather, so what do I need to go get?" Nathaniel said, feeling rather confused about having been insulted by a block of computer code.

 

A matronly old woman walked in from the back room, "Oh, that'll require some wolf pelts from floor one. You should be able to find them easily, they're all over the place down there! I'll be able to put a good vest together for you if you can bring me back 4 of their pelts."

 

Nathaniel looked back to Griswold, who helpfully spat into the forge, and nodded.

 

"Well, thank you!" Nathaniel said, "I'll be back when I have them." And then he turned and strode out of the shop.

[Nathaniel 0]

"Jeez...Does the NPC transportation NEED to take forever?" Nathaniel said, as he hobbled away from the last carriage ride between Floor 3 and Floor 1.

 

"This wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't so sore now..." He groaned, as he tried to massage the muscles in the base of his back. This attempt to appease them didn't really do anything, except make him feel inadequate.

 

Groaning in pain and frustration, Nathaniel continued walking from the town, muttering, "Man, if I can be crippled by a bunch of carriage rides, I can't say I feel too confident in my ability to kill four wolves..."

 

As he continued walking out to the fields, away from the Town of Beginnings, he saw a lot of Boars, but no wolves yet. He began debating with himself whether it'd be a bad idea to fight a Boar or two on the way to the wolves.

 

"Well, I could use the money...but I don't do much damage per swing...I might end up dragging it out too long and getting hurt, and then I'd have to go rest before fighting the wolves...But they're also JUST Boars..."

 

All in all, after considering it for a while, he had started thinking that it might be worth it, but that's when he looked out over the fields, and saw that the fields had hit a treeline. Around that treeline, lo and behold, there were wolves all over the place.

 

"Ah, there we go. Well, no point in it now." Unsheathing the blade at his side, he strode out to the field to meet the first wolf.

[Nathaniel 0]

When Nathaniel got JUST close enough to the Wolf, he broke into a sprint, rushing the wolf. Being as fast as he was, he was on top of the wolf before it could retaliate. (Sprint Skill)

 

Battle: 6 (Nathaniel hits, deals 1 damage)

 

Slashing the wolf across the ribs as he rushed by, Nathaniel turned and pivoted on his right foot, dropping into a defensive stance as the wolf turned to attack him, howling in anger.

 

Nathaniel was seriously hoping the wolves weren't too much more dangerous than the boars...

[Nathaniel 0]

The wolf charged across the open plain between it and Nathaniel, gnashing its teeth and snarling.

 

Mob: 10

 

Nathaniel attempted to cross-block it, and punch its head away from him, but instead blocked too low, allowing the wolf to jump over him, and land a bite on his shoulder, near the base of his neck.

 

(Nathaniel took 3 damage)

[Nathaniel 0]

Throwing the wolf off of himself, and yelling in pain, Nathaniel went to drop into a stance again, and swing at the wolf, clutching his left shoulder, where he was bitten, with his hand on the same side.

 

Battle: 2 (Nathaniel misses)

 

The wolf easily evaded Nathaniel's downstroke, dodging away and springing off of where he dodged to to jump back at Nathaniel.

[Nathaniel 0]

The wolf saw that Nathaniel was injured, and now he seemed fairly off-balance, so it did the natural thing, and lunged at his left knee, which was so prominently exposed.

 

Mob: 6 (Miss, due to Nathaniel's Evasion boost from the Sprint skill)

 

Nathaniel saw what the wolf was doing, and dropped to the ground, rolling to the side as he did so, meaning that the wolf lunged over him, and he rolled up from his prone position in time to attack the confused wolf.

[Nathaniel 0]

Nathaniel thought this might be his best chance to kill the wolf, so he brought the tip of his blade down in a thrust as hard as he could manage.

 

Battle: 1 (Nathaniel misses. Badly)

 

He took too long in setting up for the stab, however, and the wolf got over its surprise before he could land his blow, dodging away, and circling for a moment, as Nathaniel panted. The wolf, digital though it may have been, seemed to have a real wolf's sense of fear...and Nathaniel was starting to get a little nervous about how hard it was to kill a Floor 1 Wolf.

[Nathaniel 0]

Capitalizing when Nathaniel let out too deep a breath, and his shoulders sagged accordingly, the wolf lunged in, biting again at his left knee.

 

Mob: 9 (Hit for 2 damage)

 

This time, the wolf's jaws closed around Nathaniel's knee, savaging it, and inflicting significant damage. It knew that Nathaniel was starting to really feel defeated, and it was moving in for the kill.

[Nathaniel 0]

"NO!" Nathaniel shouted, kicking the wolf off his his knee with his right foot, "NOT LIKE THIS!" As he drove his blade down into the wolf's snout.

 

Battle: 9 (Nathaniel hits for 2 damage, killing the wolf)

Loot: 14 (Wolf Pelt)

 

Panting, hurting, and with his blood thundering through his head, Nathaniel shakily used the loot menu to pick up the wolf pelt.

 

He stood there for a moment, watching the other mobs mill around. He felt hopeless, having had such difficulty with even the weakest of creatures in SAO, what hope did he have of CLEARING the game?

 

Tears began streaming down his face as he turned back to the Town of Beginnings, to rest before going out to try again.

[Nathaniel 0]

The next day, he woke up, feeling depressed still, but more ready to go take on the quest. Hopefully he'd have better luck. Or at least, not WORSE luck...That'd probably get him killed. He walked out to the edge of town, and then to the edge of the forest, along the road. His steps sagged, his arms hung limp at his sides, and he really didn't have any life to him. He was just going through the motions of the game, aware that he'd likely die today, given his track record.

 

As he came to the wolves, he walked up to being near enough to them to get the first swing in if he charged, but not close enough to Aggro the wolf he was after before he was ready.

 

He took a deep breath, unsheathed his blade, and dropped into a two-handed stance, not really because he was going to stay in that stance, but because it felt comfortable for a moment.

 

And then he rushed the wolf. "This better go differently from yesterday..." he thought to himself.

[Nathaniel 0]

This time, he didn't shout. Perhaps staying quiet during his initial rush would help him avoid setting the wolf on defense. He hoped so as he rushed to the wolf, going for a stab to the ribs.

 

Battle: 2 (Nathaniel missed)

 

The wolf perked up and looked at Nathaniel at the last second, jumping away from the stab as Nathaniel sped by, carried away from the wolf by his momentum.

 

Nathaniel sighed deeply, not trying to raise any kind of stance or defense. "And so it begins." he said, sadly. Maybe he could just try to dodge away instead of blocking the attack, and that'd go better...he'd try that this time.

[Nathaniel 0]

The wolf snarled hungrily as it charged Nathaniel, trying to jump at him at about chest height.

 

Mob: 2 (The wolf missed Nathaniel)

 

Nathaniel easily sidestepped the mob's lunge.

 

"Wait...have I just been fighting WRONG this whole time? I just need to use my natural agility to avoid them? And maybe to strike back..." He thought, eyeing the flank of the wolf, as it now had its back to him, though it was trying to bring its head back around.

[Nathaniel 0]

Battle: 7 (Nathaniel hits, dealing 1 damage)

 

Nathaniel stepped up in proper form, using his hips, and gravity, as he dropped his hips lower with the twist, to swing harder and faster. He struck the wolf across the back and a little bit into its right flank. It backed away a little after having been wounded, whimpering slightly.

 

Nathaniel had regained his composure, he felt confident in his ability to fight again.

 

"Now things are gonna start changing." He said to himself with a smirk.

[Nathaniel 0]

Mob: 1 (Wolf misses REALLY badly)

 

After standing off for a moment, and looking for a weakness in Nathaniel's guard, the wolf went to bite at his face.

 

Nathaniel casually sidestepped, backhanding the wolf in the head as he did so, to bring the wolf further off-line, and set him up for a counterstrike.

 

Now Nathaniel was grinning, and the wolf was the one that needed to be worried.

[Nathaniel 0]

Nathaniel swung his blade down towards the wolf, popping his elbow to the side at the last second, making the swing into a stab instead.

 

Battle: 5 (Nathaniel misses)

 

That slash-to-stab trick slowed his swing down too much, allowing the wolf the fraction of a second it needed to avoid the attack. Apparently he'd need to reserve that for humanoids that actually blocked strikes.

 

The wolf was now starting to regain its composure, and it snarled at Nathaniel, right before it lunged.

[Nathaniel 0]

Mob: 3 (The wolf misses)

 

It lunged at Nathaniel's left knee but Nathaniel had figured that an attack against his unguarded leg might be coming, and he pivoted off his right foot to avoid the attack.

 

And, again, the wolf had its back open to attack, and little way to avoid it...Hopefully this time Nathaniel could finally land his swing...

[Nathaniel 0]

Battle: 6 (Nathaniel hits for 1 damage, killing the wolf)

Loot: 3 (Nothing)

 

As Nathaniel turned on his foot, avoiding the wolf's lunge yet again, he swung his blade down into the wolf's ribs and slashed up into its spine, killing it.

 

When he went to the loot menu, and found that it said, "empty" though, he did get somewhat frustrated.

 

"Well...at least I got a kill." He said to himself, and looking out at a wolf that was a little ways into the forest, he spoke again, "Hopefully the first of many!"

[Nathaniel 0]

Eyeing that wolf just inside the edge of the forest, he took a deep breath, and breathed it all out as he sprung towards it, rushing with his blade held firmly in hand.

 

Battle: 5 (Nathaniel misses the wolf)

 

The wolf in the forest was perceptive, though, and it saw him coming in, leaving it the time it needed to jump away and avoid being hit. And now the wolf was angry.

[Nathaniel 0]

Mob: 10 (Wolf hits for 3 damage)

 

The wolf rushed Nathaniel, who realized too late that he'd not set up his footwork properly to be able to evade, as the wolf tackled him to the ground and bit at his right shoulder.

 

"Why is it always the shoulder with you stupid wolves?" Nathaniel grunted as he tried to free himself from the wolf.

[Nathaniel 0]

Battle: 9 (Nathaniel hits for 2 damage, killing the wolf)

 

Roaring in anguish, Nathaniel stopped even bothering to get the wolf off of him, and just stabbed it through the side of the neck, killing it. It exploded in his face in a burst of brilliant color.

 

He stood, and brushing himself off, he opened the loot menu, to find that this one also said, "empty".

 

Loot: 2

 

"C'mon! Why don't you guys have any pelts today? It sure looked like that last one had skin!" He groaned in annoyance, before settling in his mind that he just needed to keep making kills till he got what he needed, and that's all there was to it.