SP-F2: Feeding the Enemy (Quest) (COMPLETE)

[Mack 0]

Standing on the second floor of the Aincrad Tower, Mack regarded the quest board that was tacked up near the town of Urbus' public portal, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. There were several quests that looked promising but, as he was by himself at the moment he thought it would probably be prudent to select something that was scaled a little bit further down towards the easy end of the spectrum. Finding that this meant he would need to reject several of the posted quests, for the time being, the blonde man was considering his limited options. Finally, after several minutes of consideration, he tapped the quest titled "Feeding the Enemy". According to the quest it would, possibly, grant a familiar upon completion and it didn't sound overly difficult. Buy a food item, go feed critters, get a pet, get some skill points. How hard could it possibly be? Tapping the "accept" button, the big blonde set off for the gates of Urbus and the forested country beyond.

Edited August 12, 2015 by Mack

[Mack 0]

Reaching the gates of the city of Urbus, Mack wound his way further and further from the stone walls of the fortress that separated it from the surrounding forested countryside. As he passed through the heavy wrought iron gates of what was, generously, called the main city on the second floor of the tower, the enormous blonde warrior quickly disappeared into the forest in search of game trails that would take him off towards animals that would be infinitely preferable to try and tame. He could always just sit by the quest board and toss out bread crumbs until a sparrow or pigeon or blue jay decided that he was worthy of being its master. But, honestly, who wanted a familiar like that?

[Mack 0]

After several minutes of searching Mack succeeded in either finding, or stumbling upon depending on your point of view, a few game trails and he began to follow them. From the tracks along the trail, and the scat, that was plainly visible near it he knew that he had to have found a trail that was in at least moderate use by the digital wildlife of Sword Art Online. When his ears picked up the sound of low woofing grunts and growls nearby, Mack dropped into a crouch and advanced, slowly peeking his head out into a clearing where his grey eyes spotted a mother grizzly bear playing with her cub. A bear cub would make a wonderful familiar and, given the size of the blacksmith, it would also be quite appropriate. Standing up, the big warrior unslung Guillotine from his back and marched straight out into the clearing.

 

[Mack 0]

As the blonde warrior emerged into the clearing, the glimmering blade of Guillotine swinging free and loose at the ready, the mother bear bawled a warning to her cub. The baby bear when scampering, pell mell, for the nearest tree before shimmying up it and into its lowest hanging branches. Meanwhile, the adult grizzly turned and bellowed out a bearish challenge before it set off across the clearing to confront Mack and deal with the interloper who had interrupted grizzly bear play time. As the creature came barreling across the small clearing at a dead sprint, Mack stopped his own advance and readied his weapon to strike when the bear was close enough.

Edited August 11, 2015 by Mack

[Mack 0]

ID: 27259
BD: 5 (+1 Concentration)
Mack: 25/25
Momma Bear: 15/20 (-5 Dam.)

As the grizzly came rumbling in like a brown and cream colored freight train with a full head of steam Mack nimbly side-stepped it at the last moment. The gleaming polished blade of Guillotine whistled through the air and found a temporary home in the side of the bear as it went rambling past. The strike, paired with the momentum of the bear, tore a long gash in the creature's side and Mack quickly turned to face the angry bear as it completed its charge and wheeled around to face him, raising up on its hind legs to tower over the axe-man and bellow another challenge at the man that had intruded on its clearing.

[Mack 0]

ID: 27260
MD: 4
Mack: 25/25
Momma Bear: 15/20

As the bear bellowed its challenge from its hind legs, giving it a height that allowed it to tower over even someone the size of Mack, the blonde warrior resisted the urge to fan the air in front of him to clear away the smell. Whatever the bear had been eating lately had certainly given the beast fairly rancid breath. However, there really wasn't much time to dwell on the oral hygiene habits of large woodland omnivores, as the bear launched the equivalent of a two punch jab with its front paws. Mack ducked the first swing and leaned back far enough as he backed away that the seconds swing caught nothing but air. With another bellow, the bear dropped down onto all fours once more.

[Mack 0]

ID: 27262
BD: 9
Mack: 25/25
Momma Bear: 9/20 (-6 Dam)

As the hulking mass of fur, muscle, and anger slammed down onto the ground on all four of its enormous feet again the furry creature did leave itself it a momentary opening. It was an opening that Mack fully intended to exploit. Pivoting on his left foot to one side, the brawny warrior brought the blade of Guilltine down on the neck of the mother bear with a dull thud. The blade bit deep into the bear's neck, though it didn't decapitate the creature, and the animal bellowed with rage as it scooted forward to get away from the axe and its wielder. As the bear moved off, once more, Mack tugged his bearded axe free from the grizzly's neck and continued to circle on the spot, careful to keep the hefty creature in front of him at all times.

[Mack 0]

ID: 27264
MD: 3
BD: 9
Mack: 25/25
Momma Bear: 1/20 (-2 Bleed, -6 Dam)

With a mighty bellow, the grizzly bear took a shuffling step forward and broke into a sprint. As the roiling mass of fur came barreling down on Mack the smith pivoted to the side again and allowed the bear to continue the charge unabated. He would have thought that the creature might have learned by now that those particular tactics weren't going to work. But, at least the creature's blind rage led to it being stupid which, in turn, would make it easier to kill. Feeling a bit over confident about his chances of winning the fight, the burly smith let go of his grip on Guillotine with one hand and grabbed a massive handful of shaggy, matted, brown fur as the bear rumbled past.

Then he swung himself onto the creature's back and, holding on to the bear's massive back with his thighs he took a two handed grip on the mahogany handle of Guillotine once more and plunged the weapon into the top of the bear's skull with a powerful overhanded swing.

[Mack 0]

ID: 27267
MD: 9
LD: 16
Mack: 21/25 (-4 Dam)
Momma Bear: -3/20 (-4 Bleed from back to back crits.)

With a mighty roar, the grizzly bucked as hard as it could. Even though Guillotine was still lodged in what was very nearly the dead center of the top of its skull. Unable to maintain his grip on the bear's back, Mack was flung off. As he sailed through the pristine blue sky of the late morning the blonde man was given a second to reflect on what was, in hindsight, perhaps not the best life decision to have tried to take a full grown grizzly bear as his faithful steed. Especially one that he had stabbed with his axe. Three times.

With a dull thud, he sailed head first into the same tree that the baby bear had taken as its refuge. The momma bear managed another few faltering steps, but it was clear that the supreme effort it had just put in to dislodge its rider had represented the last of its strength. With a woofling gurgling snort, it collapsed to the ground and keeled over dead, done in by the bleeding damage caused by Guillotine.

[Mack 0]

ID: 27268
LD: 5 (for Mat gathering attempt from tree)

Picking himself up off of the ground, and rubbing the knot that was forming on his head, Mack made his way back over to the bear. As it had already dissolved back into the nothingness of the game, Guillotine was simply laying upon the forested ground. Stooping, Mack retrieved the weapon as the bear cub in the tree began to make noises. Rooting around on the ground a bit more, the blonde man found a bear skin crafting material that had dropped, and he added it to his inventory. There was also the biggest bag of col he had yet seen, judging by the weight there had to be at least one hundred col in the bag. He added that to his inventory as well.

That done, he wandered back over to the tree that the grizzly cub was, temporarily, calling home. He swung Guillotine in a flat arc and buried the blade in the tree. While he was here, he may as well try to gather some more crafting materials, after all. However, the tree wasn't ready to yield up its bounty and nothing happened.

[Mack 0]

ID: 27269
LD: 15

The bear cub made some very unhappy noises as the blade of Guillotine bit into the wood of the tree that it had shimmied up earlier. Mack, on the other hand, was not terribly worried. The grizzly cub would get over it and come down out of the tree. There was also the simple matter that the smith wasn't completely sure that the game engine would permit trees to be chopped down. A dull thunk tried, and failed, to echo around the clearing as the blade bit into the tree again. There was the tell tale spray of wood chips and a piece of lumber chipped off for Mack to add to his supply of crafting materials. Two crafting materials and a hundred col, not a bad haul from the quest so far.

[Mack 0]

ID: 27270
LD: 6

After adding the first piece of lumber to his inventory, the hulking blonde man was feeling pretty good about his chances of being able to add more. Crafting supplies, after all, were ever in need of being added to. Pulling the blade of his axe back, Mack swung it into the tree for a third time. Not surprisingly, there was no sign of any lumber chipping off of the tree. Mack signed and leaned on the tree for a few moments as the grizzly cub continued to raise quite a ruckus in the tree. Really, the little fuzzball was quite the talker. Oh well, the warrior was sure that part of the reason for the racket was because the animal thought that Mack was trying to chop down its tree.

Edited August 12, 2015 by Mack

[Mack 0]

ID: 27271
LD: 7

There was a resounding thunk as Guilltine bit into the tree yet again. Another failed attempt to grab crafting materials through simple farming. Hunting really was the best and most effective way to gain crafting materials. As the bear cub continued to carrying on, Mack stopped and sheathed Guillotine across his back. He had hoped that fear would drive the bear down and out of the tree, where he could catch and cage the creature. Then, given enough time, he'd be able to tame it. Clearly, that was not the case. So, it was time to change strategy and try something new. He wanted a bear for his familiar and so he needed to figure out how to catch this little one, because taming an adult bear was probably out of the question.

[Mack 0]

Pulling up his inventory menu, Mack scrolled through the list of items until he found the one he was looking for. A simple loaf of bread that had been part of his new player pack. Surely that qualified as a common item. Retrieving the item from his inventory he tore a hunk from it and plopped that into his mouth. Then he tore off another hunk and held it up so that the grizzly cub would be able to reach it in the lower branches of the tree. "Come here, fur ball, get some bread. It's," Mack scowled and made a face, "slightly stale, but still edible." He waved the morsel around invitingly for the bear and the cub sniffed inquiringly in the direction of the food, stopping with the racket it was making.

[Mack 0]

ID: 27272
LD: 14

Little by little, the grizzly cub wound its way down through the tree branches, coming closer and closer to the piece of bread that was being held up in the air to tempt it. Like many animals, the offer of food was something that was too tempting of an offer to pass up. It was taking plenty well its sweet time coming down the tree. Not that the blonde warrior could really blame the bear for hesitating. After all, he had just killed the cub's mother. Finally, the bear was low enough in the tree to be able to reach out and grab the bread. Holding on to the tree branch it was on, the animal scooted out and leaned down and snatched up the bread. That should be all that's required, the bear devoured the bread and looked around for more.

[Mack 0]

Greedily, the little bear cub looked around for more bread. Mack tore another hunk out of it for himself and plopped it into his mouth. Then, he held up the rest of the loaf for the bear. The little animal eyed the loaf greedily through its chocolate brown eyes. It wrinkled up its snout in concentration, clearly trying to work out how it could take the hunk of offered food without having to let go of the tree branch. Holding out the bread, Mack continued to tempt the bear by slowly bringing the loaf farther and farther away as the bear snuffled at it. One way, or another, he'd get the little bear out of the tree. As he worked on the problem of de-treeing the bear he thought on a name for the creature.

Edited August 12, 2015 by Mack

[Mack 0]

Slowly, the blonde man inched the bread farther and farther away from the bear. Then, changing tactics, he held up what remained of the loaf so that it would be within easy reach of the animal. With a growling call of delight the grizzly cub sank its teeth into the bread, nearly taking off a few of the axe-man's fingers in the process. It scampered back along its branch with the bread held tightly in its jaws until it had reached a safer perch. Once the animal was feeling secure enough it reached up to hold onto the loaf of bread in its front paws as it began to devour all that remained of the loaf of bread. On the whole, not a bad investment of a beginning item. A beginning item that was starting to go stale anyway.

[Mack 0]

As the little bear cub finished devouring the rest of the bread Mack noticed that a second health bar appeared on his head's up display beneath his name. This bar was considerably smaller than his own and, when he squinted his grey eyes at it he could just make out that the health bar belonged to his new companion. Or was familiar the right term. Regardless, simply calling the creature "Bear" as the Sword Art Online engine had done was never going to do. The bear would require a proper name and that would take some thinking. As he considered names, a bit more, the bear cub sat hunkered down on its branch with its back against the tree trunk.

Edited August 12, 2015 by Mack

[Mack 0]

After a few more moments consideration, with plenty of names filtering through his mind and being summarily rejected for one reason or another, Mack finally settled on a good and proper name for the young grizzly bear. Reaching out with the beefy index finger of his right hand and tapped the green health bar of the bear cub. The bar highlighted and Mack entered the options menu to change the bear's name. Quickly, his finger pecked through the keyboard that appeared in the air before him and when he was done, and had clicked accept on the name change the bear's health bar flashed once to confirm that the change had been accepted and that the cub had now become a unique thing within the world of Sword Art Online.

[Mack 0]

"Chewie," the blonde axe-man said sharply, patting his leg twice. "Chewie, get out of that tree we're heading back to Urbus now." The hefty man patted his leg a few more times. Sensing the command, and understanding it, the bear cub dutifully shimmied the rest of the way down and out of the tree as Mack turned and began to head in the direction of town. Within a few moments the little grizzly came ambling over to walk next to the feet of its Master as the pair of them headed off in the direction of town. Return to town, turn in quest, get rewards. Maybe stop in at the Mortar & Pestle to see if there were any new potions for sale that he could trade a shield or something else from his stock to obtain.