![Novice [250]](https://i.imgur.com/lrYlde6.png)
- Job Info:
- Job Title: Investigating the Growth
Rank: D
Player Requirements: 500 Word count. Must have completed The Sickness first.
Job Requirements: Must bring samples and data of all the plants, as well as kill the different animals. It takes a post action to study and harvest one plant.
Job Location: Beanstalk Village (forest nearby)
Job Description: After the incident, you receive word from the scientist and go to meet him. He informs you that the plants are somehow connected to magic and that he requires samples, as well as some data from them in the field. However his magic is for research and not studying so you'll be doing the field work. He gives you several devices meant to scan for magic essence. Determine whether the magic is dark, light, or neutral. And another that detects if it is harmful or harmless. If you wish to add any devices you are free to do so.
You must then venture into the forest, killing infected animals that will attack you, and harvest data from the plants before bringing them back for further research. At the same time you feel like something is very wrong with the forest. Not like your being watched, or that some evil creeps here. It almost feels as if it were welcoming you, drawing you in. In addition to the change of the environment, this could unnerve most.- Details on Individual Plants:
- Tainted Weed. Harvestable. No magic essence. A purple plant that grows up to knee height maximum. These plants seem to break down and loosen the material they grow through, spreading more of these weeds. You wonder if these are what started all of this. Due to the roots, you may have to cut the roots to pull them out successfully.
Tainted Growth: Not Harvestable. Magic essence: Corruption magic. Something that appears to be vines, but not. Wherever the growth is, the air and ground appear darker, the ground itself appearing gray. Stepping on it for too long begins to burn you, almost like acid will. By cutting some of it off from the rest of the growth, it turns gray and dies, breaking down into ash. No changes to the land it effected however.
Tainted Crust: Harvestable. No magic essence. It appears that wherever the growth is, the bark on the trees begin to puff up, turning into a sort of crust over the tree. It seems that the crust itself is not alive, or infused with magic, however the more there is, the more the tree suffocates.
Tainted Moss: Not Harvestable. No magic essence. One or two trees have already been covered in the crust and the growth appears to have entered the tree. These trees have some sort of moss replacing the leaves. The purple moss is slimy and stings the hand. If broken off from the others, it also turns to ash.
Tainted Algae: Harvestable. Some magic essence: mana. Any water nearby the growth appears to have a sort of very dark purple algae. You can tell the algae itself isn’t magical, but appears to soak in any type of mana. Direct contact with it drains mana, in a role play sense, not enough to effect combat or spell activation.
Upon bringing the information and harvestable samples back to the herbalist and scientist, they both thank you and pay you. The scientist mentions how it will take some time to gather the data and he will send for you once the data is completed.
Enemies: Players can choose one of these difficulties, or more to fight in the thread
Weak: Infected pigs that will attempt to knock you over and proceed to stomp or bite you. They can deal half your rank in damage each successful attack. It takes 4 rank D attacks to kill them. There are x4 pigs.
Normal: Infected wolves that are agile and quick to strike, able to detect weak points. They deal your rank in damage each attack. It takes five rank D attacks to kill them. There are x7 wolves.
Strong: Infected bear that is very durable and possesses strong attacks. They deal x2 your rank in damage. They take seven rank D attacks to kill them. There are x4 bears.
Reward 1,500 jewel
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As predicted, another week had gone by before receiving word of another Beanstalk Village incident. By this point the people there were becoming frequent clients. Maybe she should start charging a small fee just to read the letters… At any rate, the current one was from the scientist friend of the herbalist she had dealt with before. The one that was supposedly a wizard and yet she was the one that seemed to be doing anything that was wizard related. The meeting place was back where the village was, but instead of going inside the village she was to report to a forest that was nearby. Well, it wouldn’t be the first forest she had to travel through. She arrived at the meeting place, and the first thing she did when she saw the scientist was smack him on the face. ”That’s for being a useless wizard. Seriously, that woman tracked me down all over Fiore last time when you could have cleared out those crazy animals yourself!” The man had fallen to the ground and was holding his face in shock from the sudden use of violence. Really he was lucky she didn’t all out punch him, but she was in a good mood.
After he had stood up, he explained his magic was more research based and that there wasn’t really anything he could have done in regards to the attacks. ”Right, so useless then. Gotcha! What brings me out here this time?” The scientist ignored her rather offensive comment and moved on to explaining what she would be doing. More collection samples. ”Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!” The job even a child could do and yet he couldn’t? The blonde was now annoyed as she crossed her arms over her chest and glared her blue eyes at him, obviously ticked that she was called all the way out there for a mission that was of the difficulty of the first one she took. Whatever. At least she had some weird tech device to play around with while she scanned different plants. After taking the devices and some other weed cutting tools, she gave him one last glare, huffed in annoyance, and then turned to head into the forest.
The first plant was easy to find. It was waiting there just as she entered the forest. She ignored the weird creepy vibes she was getting from the changed forest and focused on what she was supposed to be doing. The scanning device was aimed at the plant and the results were that it was no magic essence whatsoever. It was purple though like everything else so maybe it had some sort of connection. Using some of the tools she was given, she cut it from its roots and added it as a first to her sample collection. The second plant had magic essence but proved to not be harvestable at all. In fact, it was dangerous to even get near it. The part of it she was actually able to cut off without getting some weird acid burns had turned to ash the moment she did. Bummer. Next was a tree that had some sort of weird crust-like covering on it. The scan showed it didn’t have any magic properties but to her it seemed like it was something abnormal. As she begun to scrap some of it off, she heard howling, which made her sigh. Wolves really weren’t much of an issue but their appearance still was a pain in the ass. She set her turrets up and went back to work scraping the crust off as a sample, ignoring the action of turrets attacking wolves that was going on around her.
Further on in her travels she had ran into some infected pigs but they were of little significance. No one said she couldn’t do some damage to the forest on accident. One fire turret and flame grenade later they would have been good for breakfast if they had not been infected. As soon as the pigs were smoldering corpses, Aliarey noticed another crust covered tree but it looked…well it looked even more disgusting. Some sort of moss had replaced the leaves. She was so not touching it so she used one of the tools to scrap a bit off. It turned to ash like the weird growth had done from earlier. Upon scanning it, it turned out it held no magical properties, but it was still odd and likely connected to the rest of the infection going around. Continuing her search and investigation, Aliarey found a nearby river. Some sort of algae was growing in it. That could have been common, but since it was purple in color it became questionable. A scan later told her it was magical. She didn’t touch it, but for some reason she still felt that her magical energy was being drained slightly just from being near it. Into the sample bags it went.
On the way back an infected bear was charging for her from off in the distance, causing the young woman to sigh in annoyance. She just wanted the pretend scientist job to be over with already. She could come up with only one quick and easy way to handle this beast. Well actually two. One was to just stun it with her stun turret and move on, but that was no fun. With a smirk, Aliarey equipped her rocket launcher. All that can be said a second later is boom. No more bear to worry about.
She returned to the village, successful with her mission. Jewels were given as well as thanks from both the scientist and the herbalist. The one thing that made her eye twitch was the mention of sending for her again once the data research of the samples was complete. ”Can’t. Wait.”
(WC: 972)
