13. Solo Questing is Hard

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." — Confucius

Looking at the ring in her inventory and seeing what a Gilded Achievement was, Claire suddenly felt that the game was making fun of her, and that was before seeing what the effect of the ring was.

Despite how she felt targeted, the reward was pretty handy; it was common for most players to sometimes lose their way or not understand where they were supposed to go and waste time. 

Getting more detailed information was a helpful passive for anyone at the end of the day.

Now that she was alone and could do anything she wanted, it was time to find some quests to do. 

It was easy to understand that getting as far into the game as possible before the two-week mark would mean she could have more valuable items to sell for more money, so leveling up was necessary.

With that in mind, she decided to walk around and try to find an NPC with a quest, opting to level at least level 5 before getting away from the starting area and the crowds.

After walking for a minute, she found the crafting area and found a plump woman with a quest.

"Hello, madam. Are you interested in learning woodworking?"

"Yes, I am."

"To become a certified woodworker, you must craft a yew bow. You can find yew wood to craft your bow. Yew wood suitable for a bow can be found if you continue down this road out of the village where the stream and forest meet."

Hearing the "enhanced" directions from the NPC, Claire smiled before following them. After a two-minute walk, she found herself in a small forest.

Looking at the yew trees before her, she decided to try to find a branch that seemed like it would be suitable for a bow. 

After only a few seconds, she quickly realized that although leaves fell from the trees, there didn't seem to be a single tree branch on the ground.

Deciding to climb a tree to get a branch, I quickly saw a harvesting prompt. 

Felling Unavailable: axe missing Trimming Unavailable: hatchet missing

Seeing that she wanted to burn the entire forest down, there was no indication you needed any tool from the quest!

Angrily stomping back to the town, she went to the tool store to try to find a hatchet.

Basic iron hatchet: A simple iron tool with various survivalist uses.

Price: 100 thalor

Looking at her assets, she quickly realized she was too poor. She had only around 40 thalor, which the frogs had dropped for her in the starting mission.

Instead of getting angry this time, she kept calm, deciding to return to the quest later. 

Walking around once again, she found a skinny man offering a quest.

"Greetings, my lady. Are you interested in becoming a tailor?"

Learning from her past experience, Claire decided to ask for more details.

"Do I need any other tools to become a tailor?"

"Oh no, you simply need to head down this road until you leave the city and head towards the large field to the right where you can find the required wild cotton to sew the cotton shirt you need to pass the initial tailor certification."

"Then I will try my best."

Following his instructions like last time, she found herself in an enormous open plain filled with natural splendor brimming with flowers and grass.

Looking around, she soon realized that finding cotton was more complicated than it sounded. Not only had she seen cotton in a picture and needed more confidence in her ability to identify it, but there were also too many different plants in the area.

After another ten minutes, she finally found a small area with what she was confident was cotton; walking over and trying to pick it up, she was again met with a prompt.

Harvest Cotton: Yes No

Ecstatic, she quickly picked the area clear, ending up with 20 raw cottons in her inventory.

Heading back to the NPC who gave her the quest, John, she eagerly showed him the cotton.

"Excellent job, Holly; now process the cotton inside to make your shirt to get certified."

Entering the building behind him, she saw various gadgets around the room; seeing a glowing mark above one, she went over and interacted with it. 

Use Cotton Gin: Yes No

Choosing yes opened up an inventory panel where she input the raw cotton.

Soon, she spun the cotton gin to separate the fibers from the seeds.

After a short time, she soon received 18 cleaned cotton, supposedly losing 2 in the cleaning process.

After that, she went to the next machine.

Use spinning wheel: Yes No

Once again, she interacted with the wheel and used it to turn the cotton into yarn.

After that was done, she had nine yarns.

Inspecting it in her inventory, she read about its uses.

Yarn: Basic crafting material for clothing levels 2-5

Seeing that, she went over to the table; there was soon a prompt.

Craft Clothing: Yes No

Accepting the prompt, she was soon on a menu where she could pick the materials. As soon as she picked the yarn, there were options she could craft with the materials. 

There were various other options, such as armor traits and style, but there were no other options, so she left them blank.

Picking the cotton shirt, she entered a top-down view of the table with her yarn laid out on the table.

After messing around, she quickly realized it was a mini-game where you had to lay out the yarn properly. After a few tries, she finally got it, and the crafting was complete.

After checking her inventory, she discovered she had a new item.

Ordinary Cloth Shirt Level 2:

Defense: 4

Trait: None

Enchantment: None

With excitement, she quickly went out and handed the shirt to John.

"Excellent work, Holly. It is great to have another tailor in Tu'Dor. Here is your reward; don't spend it all in one place." 

Watching as her XP bar went up was exhilarating, and visible progress was very satisfying until the bar stopped only 10% into level 2. 

Although the quest was not challenging, it was still very disappointing; looking at John, she asked somewhat timidly.

"Is the reward for all the professional certifications the same?"

"Of course, it is a standardized policy."