Getting started with lua

OK so I'm looking to get into scripting and lua was the recommended language. I took a look around the site with getting started and I guess all I have to learn is the Lua language however I feel it'll take a while for me to do such even though I'm told it's easy to learn. My main project that I want to work on is writing a questing script that automates questing within my mud while I work on something else while having a manual "maintenance" per say as in if an imm asks if i'm a bot. I'm not looking to leave this script running for over night while I sleep or something. I just want to be able to get some work done while I do something as mundane as questing. Anyways i'm not really sure if I should just dive right in and try to figure it out by looking at Lua references or learning the language and then try it. I'm currently learning C++ and Java and I think learning a third language would just confuse my brain. So please any advice on how I should get started would be helpful. I want to be able to do much more than just simple questing eventually but this is just my main goal right now.

I'm not sure I want to encourage bots, but it is always useful to learn more about Lua. Try searching this forum for "autohunt" - that has similar sorts of things.

If I may suggest, start off with something a bit simpler to get the hang of scripting. You need to experiment with detecting events (with triggers), reacting (with a script), checking the reaction worked, etc.

I don't really want a bot as it was never my goal to just let the script run and me just leave the room for a couple of hours. Anyways are there any suggestions you would have as to starting out small? Some specific situations I could try and solve with scripting.