Hey guys. I decided to make yet another minor change to my map. I added a trading port. If you want to see it, here it is.
Spoiler :
http%3a%2f%2fi1379.photobucket.com%2falbums%2fah12...9c08bb.png [http://i1379.photobucket.com/albums/ah127/pikachu5670/omgomgomg_zpsb59c08bb.png]
And thanks for the positive comments. I'm a slow worker, but I'm not planning on quitting anytime soon.
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"A fantastic work Alice has done, as always. Thank you for delivering the robe, Arika." said Nancy, smiling.
Quest Completed!
You have delivered the robe to Nancy. Find Alice to receive your rewards.
"I'm sorry to leave even though we've just met, but I have business to attend to. After working in the castle, I’ve been given few breaks." she sighed.
"That's okay. I'll just be going my own way, then."
"May fate let us meet again," she waved her hand and walked away towards the opposite direction. After completing the quest I decided to go back to the inn and continue reading. Collecting Alice's reward could be done another time.
Before going up to my room, I see the innkeeper once again.
"Oh?! If it isn't my favorite little kitty! Alice told me you delivered the book, so here's 35 copper." He takes out the copper and hands it to me, which I receive.
"Well, I'll be staying a few more days, so you can take 20 of it back."
"20? Just 16 will do."
What? He notices my surprised expression, and gives an explanation in return, "I like you, so from now on you only need to pay 8 copper a night."
"Oh... thank you."
"No need, I should be the one thanking you. My name's Peter. I'm the owner of this tiny inn, but as much as I would love to abandon it, I love this place too much." he tells me. Now that I think about it, we never introduced ourselves to each other, did we?
"My name's Arika. As for what I am... that's still undecided."
"Hahaha! Is that so? Well, there's no rush so you should just take it slow."
He has a few quirks of his own, but I quite like this guy. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a party of three walk into the inn.
"It seems you're quite busy so I'll be leaving you now." I told him as I handed him 16 copper.
"Alright Arika, I'll talk to you again soon! Hello dear customer, what room would you like?" As he attends to his incoming customers, I walk to my room and start to read the last book I checked out on history.
*****
One day, a party of individuals were on a quest to defeat a few monsters in the sea. After a few weeks into the quest, they noticed they were a bit off track from their original route and found a huge island in front of them. The group scoured the land, but found that most of the monsters there were weak. The party consisted of bloodthirsty adventurers, so to the action-loving adventurers, this place was obsolete.
There was one lone blacksmith in the party, and he noticed that many of the items in this new found continent would be considered rare finds to artisans. He decided to keep this piece of information to himself because he did not get along very well with the rest of them; he was only forced to come along as a repair guy.
When they completed the quest and went back to their kingdom, the man decided to tell only his friends about the continent. If he told the king, they would only scrape the island empty and force the artisans to make items for them. The artisans decided to take their families to live there. As the years went by, years turned into decades and soon after, kingdoms started to form. They formed where there was a myriad supply of items for their respective classes.
People from the other continents didn't discover them until they had a big enough population not to be messed with. Not only did a voyage to the continent take a week, but every artisan there was strong in their own right, and their top-class items only served to make them stronger. Instead of forcing them to make items for their kingdom and suffering losses, they decided to form good relations with them. Now, the artisan continent gets along with virtually everyone and people frequently come to the trading port to make exchanges there.
That's the strange thing about the history of the Artisan continent... It's that no matter how many years or centuries go by, the Artisan continent is always peaceful. There are no fights between themselves or from outside forces. If anyone decides or tries to take over an artisan kingdom, they would probably be warded off and even worse, the kingdoms from the Magic and Warrior continent would most likely decimate them.
*****
13 days later; December 15, 2014
My Winter Holiday finally started, which means that I'll be able to focus on playing the game without worrying about going to school. I also have some Winter Break homework, but I'll deal with that later.
For the past 2 weeks I've been doing various odd jobs for Alice. I've also managed to become good friends with the innkeeper of the One-Night Stand inn, Peter, who seems to have taken a liking to me.
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I walk into Alice's Courtier to see if she has any new jobs for me today.
"Hey, Alice! Got anything for me to do today?"
"Hello, Arika. Actually, I have no jobs for you today... but I was getting a little bored, so how about you keep me company?" she says as she gestures me to sit down in a chair next to her.
I respond to her by sitting down and obverse her sewing together a piece of cloth effortlessly, the stitches close together and her hands moving fast like some kind of magic trick. As expected, seeing this also makes me want to try it.
Alice seems to notice my fidgeting, and snickers, "Do you want to try sewing?"
"Hmm?! Can I?" I ask her effervescently.
"Of course. How about you try stitching these together?" she tells me as she hands over two pieces of cloth, along with a needle and thread.
First, I take some thread and try put it through the needle, but the thread keeps missing the tiny hole and chooses to go the other way. If I had to describe it, it's like a rebellious child that won't listen to his hardworking mother.
C'mon, Ari, you can do this! Almost there... almost there... Shit! It missed again! Dammit thread, why won't you listen to me?! But I won't give up! Since the thread looked fuzzy after messing up a few times, I licked it to try again but my results ended in vain. Urghhhh! I've never been so mad over a piece of thread before!
Alice watches over me, with hopeless eyes that seem to say, 'This girl's no good'. It's not my fault the thread is disobedient!
Seeing this going nowhere, Alice suggests, "Umm, want me to do it for you?"
".... Yes, please." I hand over the thread and needle, defeated. I'll get you next time, you rebel! Mark my words!
After handing it over to Alice, she puts the thread through the needle easily, making my past failures seem like I'm some kind of mentally retarded child.
"Here you go." She hands over the thread and needle to me.
"Thanks." Not wanting to be so hung up over something in the past, I start to try harder, hoping to redeem myself.
At first, I take a couple of seconds to just pull the needle through the cloth, but after a few minutes, my stitch work starts to form closer together and my hands start to move a bit faster, albeit slowly. Hmm... after you get used to it, it's kind of like a pattern! Nihahaha! I'm so fast, it's not too long after I'll become a master seamstress!
"Ow!" My finger! It hurts! I take a look at my finger and see blood dripping down my index finger.
"Oh my. It seems you've pricked yourself. I'll go get a band-aid." She walks into a room through the back counter.
I guess this is karma, huh. It also seems like I got some blood on the cloth. Well, I'm almost done anyway, so I might as well keep working.
"Hey! Why are you still working on that cloth?"
"Hmm?" I look up for a second and see Alice come back after what seems like a minute with a small band-aid in hand.
“Ow!” Because I looked up at Alice for a second, I unknowingly put the needle close to my hand and pricked my finger again, this time my middle one.
"Sigh, now I have to get another band-aid." she says as she walks back into her room. Oops. Hey, well, I finished the stitching! By sight, you can obviously see that the work is amateurish, and it looks kinda bloody, but who wouldn't be proud over their first work of art? See, if you tie the two ends together, it becomes a cute bracelet!
You've gained a skill!
Sewing Level 1 Beginner
After completing your first bracelet, you've understood the basic patterns of sewing and can now make the simplest things.
You've completed Noob's "Bracelet".
Is this really a bracelet? It seems to have been crafted by a noob with crappy sewing skills. It also seems to have a few blood spots on it... what could it be from?
The hell kind of description is this?! Is the system trying to make fun of me?
As I think that, Alice comes back, now with 2 band-aids in hand, and wraps them around my middle finger and index finger, respectively.
"Next time you prick yourself, you should wait until I come back with a band-aid! How could you do that twice!?!"
"Sorry Alice, but my stitching was almost done so I wanted to finish it quickly..."
"It's okay to try something new, but just take your time, okay?" Although she’s a little slow in a few areas, Alice seems to be the type of person who cares for others more than herself. It wouldn't feel wrong for me to call her my second mother.
"Okay. Thank you, Alice. But more importantly, I finished my work and made a bracelet! Look!" I show her my newly completed 'bracelet' which I am so proud of.
After taking a look at the bracelet, she was at a loss on what to say.
“It-it’s okay Arika. Sewing is something that gets better with practice.”
What exactly are you implying?!?
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