"Crafting? Seriously? I didn't pack a pair of scissors and some glue. And the last time I checked the shops they were clean out out of wax crayons and finger paints." Karla said sarcastically. I pursed my lips and raised my eyebrows at her. "It's not at all like that, and you know it." I huffed. She stared at me for a minute with a stunned look "You're serious aren't you?" she asked. "What better way to get our minds off our troubles than to occupy them with something else?" I said.
"C'mon, let's go take a walk and see what shows up." I said as I stood up and offered my hand to her. She slapped it away gently and got up. We left the inn and headed towards the market area. NPCs had their shops in that area and most players set up shop nearby. I hadn't really taken in the sights of this town and what it had to offer. I was surprised and pleased to see how many crafting options there were in such a small area: food, clothes, furniture, jewelry, armour, weapons, books, to name a few.
We browsed the shops looking at the wares offered and what was being crafted. Karla spent a long time looking at an older gent working leather into a vest. "Hello miss, can I help you with something?" the man said. Karla jumped a little "You're not a NPC? Here I was expecting a popup." she said. The man laughed jovially. "That's a good one." he said, he then looked down at his clothes. "But I can understand why you might make the mistake. I don't look like most players." he laughed again.
"You do any crafting?" he asked her. Karla shook her head "No? You interested in leather work?" he leaned closer "Say 'yes'. " he whispered loudly. "uh, yes?" she replied. "Oh good! I can help you get going faster than the NPCs can. That is of course if you can do a little something for me. You see I'm a little short of leather today. You could gather some hides and I could help you make them into leather for me. That way you get the skill up and I renew my supplies. I won't charge you for using my equipment, which is more than what you'd get from a NPC." he said.
"Ok, I'll take you up on your offer. I'll come and see you when I get the hides." Karla said, and left the player's shop. "So while I'm crafting some leather. What are you going to do? I'm assuming you're going to craft something different than me." she asked. "Yeah. I was thinking of doing some cooking." I said. Karla turned her head towards me. "Really? You're full of surprises. You don't strike me as the chef type." she teased "It's just practical. I found we were getting a fair number of cook-able drops. It could be a nice change to make our own food." I said as we headed to the edge of town.
"I've got to get those hides before I can do anything else. The cows will probably supply me with everything I need. I guess we'll be hunting after all today. You will be coming with me right?" Karla asked. "Of course, I probably need to gather some wheat. It's the most basic food ingredient. It's all in the same area. Also I'll take any meat the cows drop." I explained. So we headed to the farm areas just out of town to hunt the least threatening creatures we've ever encountered : cows.
Killing cows in a farmers field is way too easy; it's just tediously long. Karla set her goal at forty hides, which meant at least eighty cows to fight as the cows only dropped a hide half the time. It dropped meat only a quarter of the time. We had to wait often for the cows to re-spawn in the area we were in. I got Karla to help me gather the wheat form the neighboring field while we would wait for the cows to re-spawn. We switched from cows to wheat all morning.
A few other creatures were found here but they were hardly a threat. We did have a rabbit-like creature hop near by. "Get the rabbit!" I called excitedly to Karla as she was closer to it than I was. It was fast, but Karla was faster. A swift swing with that katana of hers and it was all over: the rabbit had no chance. "Nice. Did you get something?" I asked "I got a rabbit skin. So what?" Karla said. I smiled shrewdly "When you're done crafting the regular hides, and you've fulfilled your commitment to the leather worker, show him the rabbit skin. It might be worth your while." I said.
It took us a couple of hours to get what we needed. "I'm done, I've got forty two hides. What about you?" Karla said satisfied with her haul. "I just need some more wheat. You can go do the leather. We'll meet up in the market place when you're done." I explained. Karla nodded and headed back. I gathered another dozen bunches of wheat before I also headed back to the market area. Now I just had to learn how to cook the stuff.
Back at the market place, I picked a bakery shop and went in. "Welcome to my bakery. How may I help you." Typical greeting for a NPC. I wasn't going to get personal help like Karla was. No matter, I'd probably get just as much crafting done it was just going to cost me more. "I'd like to learn to cook." I told the shop keeper. "Very well, would you like the tutorial?" the shop keeper asked as a pop-up window appeared offering me a quest. I accepted it and the shop keeper explained what I needed to do.
The quest gave me access to the back room where the cooking area was. It looked like a restaurant's kitchen with six cooking stations. Four players were already using the facilities. They looked up from their activities when I came in but otherwise ignored me. I set myself in front of a cooking station with my starting recipe. I was supposed to make five breads for the shop keeper. The quest came with the salt and yeast necessary, but I had to supply the wheat.
Once I had the required fives loaves, I went back to the shop keeper to turn in the quest. I had managed to burn thirteen breads before getting the five I needed. I hoped Karla was getting better luck. I got xp from the quest and a recipe to grill meat. "You will acquire more advanced cooking skills as you progress. In the mean time I have a few basic recipes for sale." the shopkeeper said as a trade window appeared. I bought a simple cookie recipe recipe and the ingredients I was missing to make it. Then went back to the cooking station and made what I could with my remaining materials.
Karla was waiting for me as I came out of the bakery. "There you are! I just finished a few minutes ago." Karla exclaimed. "How did it go?" I asked joyfully. "Great. And I'll tell you all about it over the dinner you've prepared Chef." Karla teased. I sighed and rolled my eyes. "I saw a nice little patch of grass outside the town wall with a large tree. We can have a picnic there." she said as she led me away from the market.
The spot was nice and quiet and was still within the city's safe zone. I took out what I had prepared and a few extras I bought as I gave a run down of my cooking experience. "... no I didn't make the wine, just the bread and the meat. Oh and don't ask what's for desert." I said. Karla looked at me inquisitively. "I burnt the cookies." I announced in mock embarrassment. She laughed , then quickly caught herself and looked at me. I smiled and let her laugh at it a little more.
"So tell me, how was the crafting? Did it go well? Did you have fun?" I prompted. "It was tedious. It took me a good ten ruined hides before I managed to make my first piece of leather. I only managed to do a dozen all in all and he claimed them as payment in our deal." Karla rolled her eyes as she said this. "But I did like you said and showed him the rabbit skin after he'd agreed I'd done my part of the deal." she said smiling smugly "You should have seen his expression change when I mentioned that I would keep it and craft it later. He was ready to offer me anything I wanted. So I asked him to teach me to craft something useful in exchange for the skin. He gave me a design and some leather to work. And I successfully crafted a belt purse." She turned her hip to show me a basic but well crafted pouch attached to her belt. "He said I could go see him anytime I wanted to craft something. He probably hopes I bring him more rabbit skins." Karla laughed.
After our meal we sat against the tree letting time pass by. Karla nudged me with her shoulder "I had a good time today. I hate to say it, but you were bang on. I needed to keep busy. I feel refreshed and ready to take on what this game throws at me." she admitted. We both seemed content to just sit there. And that's probably what we have done if we hadn't been startle by a gruff voice.
"Found you!"