All number in this quest are adjustable.

A Salty Situation

Requirements:
A Miner's Request
Level 20 Fishing

Quest Summary:
A poor and unfortunate widow needs help preparing enough food to survive harsher months and feed her children. She was hoping to have a lot of salted herring ready, but her husband, who slays monsters for a living and provides for the family, was killed in battle. She is unable to go mine the salt and fish for herring, so she asks you to help her. In exchange, she'll teach you how to purify salt and salt fish.

Basic steps in the quest:
1. Accept quest from the woman. She tells you that salt can be mined in the pit. You were unaware of this. She says that you could probably ask around where to find the tunnel and bring back 40 salt piles.
2. You go to the shaft and ask where salt can be mined. A person there (maybe the same woman from A Miner's Request?) shows you the shaft. You mine 40 salt piles and bring  them back to the woman.
3. She tells you that this salt is impure and isn't very good for preserving food. She teaches you how to purify the salt (if it is even worth purifying), and tells you to bring back 10 piles of purified salt.
4. Your character purifies the salt through the cooking skill. You may need to mine more salt if unlucky.
5. You bring the purified salt back. The woman asks you to catch 10 herring for her.
6. You bring the herring back. The woman then teaches you how to salt fish, and asks you to salt the herring.
7. You salt the herring and bring it back.
8. The quest is completed, and you gain access to the rewards below.

Quest Rewards:
Access to a new mining item: Salt
Access to new cooking abilities: Salting fish and purifying salt
Whatever number of quest points you think is appropriate

How salting works:
You, the player, go to the mine and mine salt. It can be mined at level 1 (but only after starting the quest). Dunno about what the exp on it would be. The reward for a successful attempt is impure salt. The player is taught how to purify the salt (which can also be done at level 1, again with exp to be determined and tweaked). I would say that the success rate is flat and unaffected by skill levels or luck, on the basis that the process is simple, but the salt the player mined may have so many contaminants that it just can't be purified enough (perhaps 25%-33% success). After acquiring purified salt, the player can salt any fish for 25% of the regular cooking exp (this number can be adjusted, of course). The fish only heals 25% (again, adjustable) of what it normally would, however.

If this is something worth developing further, message me back and I can get a script going.