Chapter 005

Still Level 1 but so what?

The morning after the wolf incident Ren went through his usual morning routine of exercises and private tutoring before, the nurses had given him hell, teasing him over how cute he looked as he ran from the wolves in the clip that was posted on the Flow BBS. Eventually he managed to shoo them away with a glare that made with squeal and comment how cute he looked angry as well before they darted out of the room and down the corridor giggling to themselves.

Finishing his lunch Ren flopped down onto his bed with a sigh “I get the feeling that if I didn’t have these health issues those nurses would never let me rest…” He blushed at the thought as he slipped his custom V.R helmet on. “Not that I’d complain about it…”

“Flow login Start.”

Blinking a few times as his eyes adjusted to the now familiar sight of the main street in the artisan district “Right!” He did some stretches quickly as he thought about what he should do today when suddenly a ripping sound from his shirt caught his attention. Looking down he saw his rather tattered shirt now barely hanging on after his narrow escape from the wolves the day before “Right… better go see the old lady to borrow a needle and thread..” He made a line for the Seamstress’s workshop, the door making a light jingle as he entered.

“Hello dear how may I help yo… my goodness Ren, what in the world happened to your clothes?”

Ren blushed lightly “Yeah.. i kinda got chased by wolves when I was gathering herbs yesterday, I was hoping I could borrow a needle and maybe a few bits of scrap cloth to patch it up with?”

“Dear me, of course you can dear, come and take a seat I’ll fetch some off cuts that should do the trick.” She rummaged in a bag that looked to be filled with cloth scraps and pulled out a dozen decent size pieces that could be used to patch holes and set them on a table for Ren to use.

As he understood it if he had the proper repair tool and skill he could repair items such as his shirt without much manual handling, but since he had neither it was all hands on work required “If I do a good enough job I can probably generate the repair skill though if I’m lucky…” he set to work, slipping his shirt off to work on it, patching the large holes and stitching back together the tares where he could, by the time he finished his shirt looked more like the shirt of a begger with all the patches and stitch lines. Luckily he was able to borrow a blanket from the old lady to wrap around his waist as he patched his pants, but again the result left him looking very much the begger “heh, maybe I should sit in the main street with a hat on the ground see what happens.” He bet he could probably get a few coins at least but he had no intention of lowering himself to such a level.

“Not a bad job fixing those tattered clothes up, I admit even I thought they would be beyond hope, but they still won’t last long so you really should try to get a new set?”

Ren nodded his agreement “Yeah, unfortunately I haven’t been able to earn much coin for such things yet, what I’d really like is to learn how to make clothes myself, that would save me a lot of trouble I think.”

The seamstress’s eyes seemed to light up at this comment “My! Why didn’t you say so earlier Ren dear, come come, take a seat we’ll begin your lessons right away.”

Quest!

You’re affinity with the old seamstress has risen and with your words of interest in her area of work she now sees you as a potential apprentice

Dificulty – E

Requirements

Spend the entire day learning all you can from the old seamstress’s lessons

The more attentive you are the greater your skill will rise from her lessons

Rewards

100xp

New skill

Extra gain in ‘Tailoring’ skill

Affinity gain with artisan district npc’s

Ren smiled brightly at the old women and eagerly hopped up onto the offered chair. “Yes please.” The old women gave a grin of her own at her now new student.

“First of all when making clothes the placement of the stitching is important, depending on where you stitch the strength of the clothes can increase or decrease, more often than not though the snitching is done in places where it will have the least contact with skin to prevent irritation, comfort is one of the most important things to keep in mind when making clothes….”

His sewing lessons continued until well after the sun set, he’d been paying close attention to every word she spoke, a lot of the things he already knew from his real life experience but he enjoyed watching how excited the old seamstress was as she took him through her lessons.

“Dear me, it’s already dark out.” She blinked as she looked out the window “You should have told me dear, I’ve probably bored you to pieces with my ramblings.”

Ran shook his head “Not at all, you’ve shown me a lot of stitching techniques I never knew, I only hope I can get as good as you one day.” He smiled up at her brightly only to receive just as bright a smile back.

“Dear me, such a sweet talker.” She chuckled softly and set some items out on the table before Ren “Well then lets have a quick little test before I let you go, I think you’ll be familiar with this item” She smiled at Ren as he looked down at what she had placed before him, a circular piece of cloth, a leather cord and a needle and thread.

“A coin pouch.” He smiled and picked up the needle and cloth. The needle flowed so much more easily this time and his stitching felt stronger somehow as he fed the needle through the cloth to create the loop hole for the leather cord. Stringing the cord through the hole and pulling it tight a small message appeared before him.

High Quality!

You’ve created a high quality item

Coin Pouch

This coin pouch was made by an up and coming talented tailor, while it’s still only just a coin pouch the stitching is flawless, the pouch will likely never break a thread by natural means.

Ren blinked and handed the pouch over to the seamstress who looked it over carefully for a minute before setting it down and smiling to him “Well done Ren, this stitching is high class work, no matter what area you try to work in the basics are always of paramount importance, just think of what would happen if a princess at a ball suddenly had the stitching of her dress come loose, dear me it would be quite the uproar, or if a merchants coin pouch.” She held up the small pouch Ren had made “Was to come loose in the middle of the market square, certainly the quality of the material you use is important, but without perfecting the basics to hold it together even the highest grade of clothes made from the finest materials would be rendered useless.”

She reached down and picked up several items from under the counter and placed them before Ren “Take these with you, I’m sure you’ll find them helpful.”

Quest Complete!

You spent the full day learning from the seamstress and then some!

Rewards

100xp

Boost to ‘Tailoring’ skill

Affinity gain with the artisan district npc’s

Due to your extra efforts and passing the seamstress’s test with flying colours you’ve gained Sub Skill ‘Stitching level 1 (Intermediate 0%)

Rens eyes bulged out of his head, Intermediate rank straight away from completing a quest! But he didn’t have time to celebrate just yet as more windows still appeared before him

New Skill

Thanks to the seamstress’s lessons and your practice you’ve gained the sub skill

‘Cloth Repair level 5 (Beginner 0%)’

Level 5 in cloth repair as well! Ren was over the moon as he closed the windows and saw that on the table sat a couple items still that the old women was giving him, picking them up he examined them.

Portable Tailors Kit

This small portable kit contains the basic tools needed to perform tailoring and repairs while travelling out in the world New Recipe!

You’ve obtained the recipe for a full set of basic traveller’s clothes (cape included!)

“Wow.. I don’t know what to say, thank you!” He hopped from his chair and gave the old Seamstress a hug which seemed to delight her to no end.

“It’s been my pleasure Ren, but you should probably run along home now and get some rest, come see me again any time you wish.”

Stepping out into the street he decided to check his status to have a look at his gains so far. “Show Status.”

Status Name Ren Level 1 Gender Male Class Artificer Race Elfling Fame/Infamy 0 (Neutral) Health 110 Mana 105 Strength 13 Dexterity 15 Vitality 11 Agility 12 Endurance 11 Intelligence 11 Luck 10 Wisdom 10 Title None

“Wow…” He made quite a few gains since he’d started a total of 13 extra points in all, the strength from when he used his arms nonstop with the mortar and pestle making potions, his dexterity was from nimbly using his fingers while stitching, the extra 2 points in agility he’d gained when running from the wolves with all his might, the vitality and endurance had popped up from times when he pricked his finger with the needle and the point in intelligence came up as he listened intently to the old seamstress’s lessons.

“If I keep this up I’ll end up double my stats before I even reach level 2, hehe still only level 1 but so what I’m in no rush, I’m gonna make sure I enjoy this world the way I want!” He grins as he cries out a little too loudly, quickly covering his mouth as he gets a few stares from some idle npc’s and couple of passing players.

“Right!” He heads off down the street “I need to think about how to make some coin with my skills!” There was only one thing he could think of that he would be mostly self sufficient with and so he headed out the gate to the western plains for herb collecting. “I can either sell the herbs on their own but I’ll try and see if I can head the apothecary to borrow a mortar and pestle and maybe buy some potion bottles.”

Normally at night stronger monsters would come out but the beginner area stayed the same with only the non aggressive rabbits and foxes, and being night he was about to spot the herb aura’s a lot more easily as he went about collecting them up, making sure to identify each one as he picked it, he didn’t want to fill his bag with plain weeds again.

By the time the sun arose in the game world Ren had picked almost every herb he could have in the open plains and they now wouldn’t regrow for a about one real time hour so he headed back into the city, ignoring the glances from players that seemed to recognise him from the clip on the BBS and giggle as he passed, that or it could be because of his now begger like clothes he thought.

Entering the apothecary he was greeted by the old man “hoo, if it isn’t young Ren, what can this old man do for you today?”

“I went out gathering herbs today and I was wondering if I could borrow one of your workbenches to make some potions?”

The old man smiled “Of course my boy, do you need bottles as well or did you bring your own?”

“Ah.. no if I can I’d like to buy some off you.”

The man nodded “Of course, for you my boy I’ll sell them at the same price I get them at, five copper a bottle, and I’ll even buy back any potions you make for ten copper if you wish.”

Ren’s eyes sparkled “Really? Thank you so much!” Hopping up onto the chair at the workbench he set about making potions right away “Right, well I’ve got 60 copper currently so I’ll make ten potions first and sell them.”

As he worked every now and then he spied the old man peaking over his shoulder to watch him work only to walk away with a satisfied nod, and even on occasion he would point out ways Ren could move his wrist to grind the herbs better resulting in a small boost to his skill gain and also speeding up his potion making. Once he was done making the ten weak health potions he immediately sold them to the old man and received his first silver in return, he looked over the silver with a smile before handing it back to him with a grin, buying twenty more bottles and sitting back at his bench.

He repeated this act of buying bottles and selling potions for several days, making the potions during the day then heading out at night to gather herbs when it was easier to spot them. At first he was afraid the old man would tell him to stop due to overstocking his potions but it seemed he sent them off fairly regularly to be sold by the merchants in the other districts, the price they sold for at market was 20 copper 5 of which was kept by the merchant as sales commission so in the end the old man was making a five copper profit while not really doing anything other than supplying bottles to Ren.

Ren didn’t limit himself to making only healing potions though, even though he didn’t have the recipe for them he figured mana potions would be made the same by just swapping the heal weed with the mana weed and combining it with the potency berry.

New Recipe!

Using your ingenuity you’ve figured out how to make weak mana potions

Ren grinned at this and quickly swaped out the mana weed for the poision and anti toxen berry as well.

New Recipe!

Using your ingenuity you’ve figured out how to make weak poison potions New Recipie!

Using your ingenuity you’ve figured out how to make weak antidote potions

This was starting to excited Ren, this ment he didn’t need to actually learn how to make an item from an npc or a book, he could actually experiment and see what happens himself!

Curiously he threw in a heal weed and a mana weed with a potency berry and ground them together, pouring it into a bottle and shaking it, the bottle shook for a moment then shattered “Ack!”

A chuckle came from behind Ren “Tried to make something new and it blew up on you didn’t it Ren.” The old man grins “Well, your not to far off the right idea think about it for a moment and think on what it might have been missing.” The old man grinned and turned back to his work.

Ren pondered his words “He said to think about what I was missing… that means what I’d put in already was right but I need something more still…” he looked over the two of potions he’d already made and picked up a health and mana potion, looking them over “I’m trying to combine two potions into one but I missed something? Each potion needs a weed and a berry to make… berry! I only used one berry, it’s probably one berry per weed used!”

He excitedly threw the herbs into his mortar and begin grinding them, this time adding two potency berries “Using two weeds and only one berry means the potion was to weak because one berry can’t rise the potency of two herbs.”

Stat Gain!

Due to logical thinking and problem solving you’ve become a little smarter and wiser

+1 Intelligence

+1 Wisdom

“Yes!” Ren poured the mixture into a bottle and shook the bottle gently to mix it into the water.

New Recipe

Using your ingenuity you’ve figured out how to make a weak elixir

“I did it!” Ren whooped with glee and showed the old man the weak elixir excitedly.

“Well done my boy, you’ve defiantly a talent for alchemy, how about a little challenge?” the old man grins “See if you can come up with one more different kind of potion from the herbs you’ve gathered, if you can I’ll give you a little prize.”

Quest!

The old man running the apothecary has given you a challenge!

Fails if you run out of herbs before creating a new potion

Difficulty - ??? (This challenge depends on your own ingenuity and cannot be ranked)

Rewards

100xp

???

Affinity gain with artisan district npc’s

“Hehe, I’ll take that challenge!” Ren quickly sat down and looked over his collection of herbs. “ok I’ve made so far a heal, mana, poison, antidote and elixir potions, I’ve used one of each herb in combination with the potency berry so the only choice that’s left is another potion combining two or more herbs…”

His first thought was to combine healing with the antidote weed, but it seems they weren’t compatible herbs, he then tried the mana and antidote with the same result. He then tried putting two heal weeds together to make a stronger heal potion, he was able to make a slightly stronger healing potion but it only healed an extra 2% health and was still called a ‘weak healing potion’ he figured he’d get the same result with the mana, poison and antidote if he tried to compile more multiple herbs.

Though it made no sense to do so he decided to mix the poison and antidote herbs.

New Recipe!

For some strange reason you decided to mix poison and antidote herbs to create a ‘weak fake poison potion’

This potion gives you the ‘poisoned’ status without the health loss

“Okay….” Ren looked back to the old man curiously who just chuckled and nodded.

“That’s the one my boy, seems pretty useless no?” He grins “But this is a lesson for you, even by combining ingredients you think wont mix you may still get a result, sometimes it will be useless but sometimes you might find something special as well.”

Quest Complete!

You successfully created the useless ‘weak fake poison potion’

Rewards

100xp

Affinity gain with artisan district npcs

???

“Here then my boy, a promising alchemist needs his own alchemy kit I should think.” The old man smiled as he handed a small box to Ren.

Opening it he found inside a mortar and pestle and several other measuring implements used when mixing potions. “Wow, thank you!”

The old man chuckled “Never thought I’d find a young lad that would get so excited over an alchemy kit.”

At the end of the day Ren had made a tidy sum of 10 silver and 30 copper, as well as keeping ten heal and mana potions for himself, five poison and antidote potions and he also kept the elixir and fake poison potion.

Exiting the apothecary with a wave he stepped out into the street and let out a yawn “Mmm, time to sleep, show status.”

Status Name Ren level 1 Gender Male Class Artificer Race Elfling Fame/Infamy 0 (Neutral) Health 110 Mana 115 Strength 15 Dexerity 15 Vitality 11 Agility 13 Endurance 11 Intelligence 12 Luck 10 Wisdom 11 Title None

From his constant grinding with the mortar he managed to gain another couple points in strength and one more in agility.

“Hehe, at this rate I’ll be the strongest level 1 character around.” Still level 1 but he didn’t care, he was having fun and making progress with his class slowly but surely. “Tomorrow I’m gonna go bug that smith again!”

“Logout.”