MOAR WURDS! Yay! I'm pretty sure this is my most popular Fic so far, so I'm especially motivated to work on it!

I hope you enjoy!


After saying goodnight to Asuna, I descend the steps into the barracks. Still as dingy as ever. I slump into my cot and stare at the ceiling. It's kind of worn, but at least it keeps the rain off.

Not that it ever rains on this floor. It's lush and green, but all the water to sustain the plant life is underground.

"Well... I guess I should get some sleep."

Three hours later, I had memorized the cracks in the ceiling. My clock was ticking up slower than ever.

To stave off boredom, I start to flip through my menus-

Oh, that's right. I forgot to find out what log out does. At least, in here I'm not likely to get arrested for losing my pants.

I press the button, and press confirm.

The world fades away, and I slowly come to realize what happened as things drift into focus.

I was back in the blue goop.

Outside, the warning sound comes again.

I can hear the buzzing of voices again, and this time I strain to hear the words.

"... of his own accord! It's not supposed to happen!"

"Relax, it's just a bug. We'll put him back under and-"

"He's allergic! It almost killed him last time!"

Wait, I haven't been anywhere close to death! ...Maybe they aren't talking about me?

"Then what are we going to do?"

Silence.

"Let's just let him sit in there for a while. As long as he doesn't mess around with his life support again, we can patch his client and let him back into the simulation."

They lost me at life support.

I try to open my menu again, but it still doesn't want to open. The men have stopped talking, so I let my mind wander.

Huh, several other things are missing aside from my menu. No health bar, no XP bar, no markers, no clock... Nothing that's not physical. Nothing magical.

Not having a health bar is seriously starting to freak me out.

What if I'm dead? That would suck. I promised Asuna... Um, why am I thinking about her? Anyway, being dead would suck.

"Aaahhhughughuh." Oops. Forgot about the goop.

A shape appears, casting a shadow on the haze of blue.

"I don't know if you can hear me, but we're working to send you back. I don't know what happened to eject you, but it's gonna be fixed. Don't mess around with your life support, OK?"

"Glah"

The shadow starts. "Oh, uh, good. No movement."

I return to my thoughts, a lot more bored than when I entered this hell. Nothing special, just random, bored out of your mind thoughts. Seriously. I couldn't even compare weapon stats, since my menu seems to be malfunctioning,

It feels like an eternity before my vision goes blank and I open my eyes to the cracked ceiling of the wall barracks.

I look around. Nobody else is in the room, and it doesn't look like I've been gone more than a few hours.

"What the hell? Was that a dream?"

I check my menu. Yeah, there's still a log out command. This time though, it's got a red circle next to it.

In the upper corner of my vision, a purple icon starts flashing. It looks an awful lot like a message icon, but doesn't have the sound attached to it.

I open it without getting up. A wall of text opens up, and I unconsciously start to read it out loud.

"Admin: Sorry for any inconvenience in your adventures. We are working to resolve your issue as fast as possible.

"Cardinal 2.0 is not supposed to allow logging out as a design feature. While the mechanic is still enabled for admins, players shouldn't be able to do so.

"Please refrain from accessing this option while we work on removing it."

A little below that extremely formal and confusing message, a second message is displayed.

"If you log out again, we might be forced to lock you out of your avatar for a while, and you can spend lots of time in a tub full of gel."

It is signed "Kayaba Akihiko."

Someone who uses their given name to send messages? That's...

That's a pretty good way to stay anonymous, actually. I wouldn't know who this guy is, even if I passed him on the street. It could even be someone I know, like Klein.

OK, maybe not Klein. But still!

I yawn and get out of bed. My clock reads three AM. Not a lot of people are awake at this time.

I walk up the stairs to the wall and sit with my legs dangling off the side. It's nice not to have someone's eyes on you all the time, just for moments like this.

"Heh. It's almost like I'm back on the tenth floor." I flop backwards and stare up at the roof of floor 12, which is the floor of level 13. It used to be inhabited, but the monsters drove everyone out... Three years ago? It might be four now. The official abandonment order was issued some time before my twelfth birthday...

From below me, the guard yells.

"Ah! H-Help!"

I peek over the edge to see-

Holy shit! Two of those death scorpions!

I leap off the wall ignoring the twenty foot drop, opening my menu midair and drawing both Black Ice and the sword I got from the last Death Scorp, Stinger. Stinger looks almost like it's made of wood, tapering off into a point. It takes me a second to recognize it as a withered version of the poison sack from the scorpion.

A window opens up on my left. Blah blah blah paralysis blah-

Paralysis? I got a sword that causes paralysis?

Awesome!

All of this occurred in the three seconds I was in the air. I close the side menu and focus on the two enemies below me. I point both swords downwards and rear them back, both glowing with a blue light as I activate a sword skill.

The two blades go straight through the scorpion, and an unearthly screech comes out of the creature.

Out of the corner of my eye, I can see the late shift guy cowering on his little ledge, his pathetic excuse for a sword held in front of him.

The scorpion I have landed on has its first health bar retreat to zero and it's second to halfway down towards zero. The real good part though is that a small zigzag appears on the health bar. That means that it's paralyzed.

I yank my swords out of the twitching creature and leap off of its back. It remains where it is, twitching and hissing. Its tail still moves though, so I take the time to swing my swords through it, lopping the large appendage off as I scream by towards the other scorpion.

The night guardsman, to his credit, has made contact with his sword. However, the scorpion's armor is thick enough and its level high enough that he was doing exactly nothing to it. I'm just glad negative damage doesn't heal.

I'm pretty fast, probably one of the fastest people out there because of my power leveling. I'm still not fast enough, though.

The tail stabs downwards and gets the guard through the chest. He is slowly raised into the air, impaled on the end of the stinger. His health immediately drops into the red and he drops his sword.

These scorpions, their tails are their strong points. Cut them off, and their difficulty drops significantly. I make a small adjustment to my aim and swing at the tail with my sword skill. The first blade, Black Ice, makes contact and slices a large gouge in the appendage. The second strike, much to my horror, never comes. The sword Stinger breaks into a million shards as it comes into contact with the armor on the tail. The shattering sound is quickly accompanied by the sound of me tumbling through the low brush. The sudden lack of resistance had thrown off my balance.

By the time I got to my feet again, the scorpion was turning around to face my position, the guard still impaled on the end of the stinger. His health bar is almost completely empty, and I notice that he has a paralyzed symbol on the bar.

"Damn scorpion. I'm not going to let you kill him!" I pull another blade out of my inventory as fast as I can. Huh. Another sting.

"One shot, then." I sink back into my charge stance, and both of my swords glow blue.

With a feral yell, I charge the creature.

It attempts to grab me with its claws, but I duck under the massive chitin arms and stab both swords straight up through its stomach. It gives off a pitiful wail as it collapses into a shower of sparkling pieces.

The guard collapses on the ground and I rush over to him, already pulling out a healing crystal. His health is... I can see a tiny little dot in the corner, and that's it. I jam the crystal against his chest and watch as the bar fills up well into the green zone.

I huff out a sigh of relief.

The guard is still paralyzed, but he'll live.

"Aauuuuuuhgghhh!"

My ribs make a snapping sound as a powerful chitin claw closes around my torso. I turn my head around to see the first scorpion with just a little health left, leaking blue liquid. I'm not sure if scorpions feel emotion, but this one is angry. Paralyze doesn't last long against them, I'll give them that.

It's claw clamps tighter and my health starts to drain. My battle healing isn't keeping up with the sheer pressure of the edges of the claw.

The guard's eyes widen, but he isn't able to move. I can see his hand twitching as he struggles to do something.

I reach into my pouch, which was thankfully just below the claw. I draw a green crystal from it and toss it to the guard on the ground.

The pressure on my chest- it might cut me in half before it drains my health!

The guard struggles to his feet as the effects of the crystal reverse the poison.

My health bar slips below half, putting my in the yellow zone.

I look back at the guard. "Please... Help..."

The guard turns and scales the ladder up the wall in record time.

My world flips upside down. He... Abandoned me to die. After I saved him.

The claw increases its pressure again, and I can feel the serrated edges through my light armor. I slash Black Ice at the limb connecting the claw to the body, but I can't get a good angle on it from my position. My health shrinks down even lower. Even with all of my might, the claw won't budge.

I look back up at the ceiling of this floor. There's supposed to be a hundred floors. I wanted to explore new places, see the rest of this world.

Instead, I was dying to a stupid bug on floor twelve, seeing no farther than the average person.

My health slips down into the red, signifying that only ten percent of my health is left. The strength leaves my arms and the claws sink even deeper into my flesh. My vision starts to blur out and sounds become distant.

"Uhg, I didn't think... I didn't think I would die so easily..." I watch with a weird detachment as my health bar drops closer and closer to empty.

Wait, I have a ring... I pinch my fingers together and swipe downwards, opening the menu. I press the items button... Where is it, where is it...

I press the equip button right as my health hits the end of the bar.

My world fades out-

"Warhgh!"

I'm... Back in the blue goop! What the hell!

Outside, there's more activity. "Geez, back already?" one voice says.

"Yeah, this time it's a resurrection ring. Idiot got himself killed."

"How?"

"He fought two freaking death scorps at once, at level 19."

"What? That's suicide!"

"Thus, the need for the regeneration ring. He did kill one of them and almost killed the other. There was another player in the area, but he ran off."

"Jeez, that's harsh."

"No kidding. Alright, let's hit the dive button. It's been ten seconds by now."

The world slowly shifts away from blue and back to the pitch black of night. I watch as my health fills back up to around 25% full. I remain completely still as a check to see what's going on.

From above me, there is a hiss. A drop of something blue hits my face.

I'm under the scorpion, aren't I?

I clutch Black Ice and slowly point it towards the creature's stomach. No sudden movements. Thrust.

The wail as the creature dies is quickly replaced by shattering. The shards slowly float down and pop when the hit my body. I lay there, suddenly unable to move. My health bar is still above the red, and there is no paralysis marker... I'm just that tired. The little triangles are kinda pretty though.

Shouts, lots of them, faintly reach my ears. As far as I can tell, they're still pretty far away.

Well, I survived. Kind of. I open my menu and look at Black Ice. Its durability is down to about 13%. The second stinger, after only two strikes, is down to only 4%. Weak-ass weapon.

I didn't get another resurrection ring either. The drop rate was something like 1 in 100,000, so I wasn't really expecting one.

I take a deep breath and sit up. The world swims around for a second before my eyes refocus enough to try standing up.

Once the world is steady enough that I can orient myself towards the wall, I pack all but a weak sword into my inventory and start trudging the hundred or so yards back to the wall. In my exhausted state, it felt more like a mile.

It was only once I got to the foot of the wall I realized that I wasn't going to be able to climb the rope. I lean against the wall and slide down it, landing in a sitting position next to the rope.

The yelling was getting both louder and less distinct. It sounds like someone is speaking through the blue goop, but it's not the same voices... I think.

My eyes drift shut and the noises gradually fade into nothing.


I was surprised to open my eyes. I have no recollection of getting up from that side of the wall, and it was supposed to be at least another ten minutes before the next watch was supposed to show-

Actually, according to my clock, the 4 AM to noon shift has already been going on for six hours. Huh. Really passed out then.

I don't move but scan the room with my eyes. It looks very nice, like what the Clearers could afford. Intricate wood-laying, carvings, and even a fireplace. Opulent, that's the word.

I turn my head to the left. There's a few pictures, but I can't see them very well.

Hmm. Need to improve my night sight skill. Recognizing details in the dark could be very import-

The light comes on with a small chime.

I almost jump out of my skin and scramble to draw my sword, but it's not there. I vaguely recall tucking it away so it wouldn't deteriorate further, but didn't I draw a lamer sword as a temporary solution?

A person walks up to me. "Kirito? Are you awake?"

"Yeah." I look at the person, but for some reason, I can't see their face. "Where am I?"

"You're at my house."

Real helpful. "Mmm. Where's my sword?"

"Lizbeth has it, she's repairing it." The person pauses. "She was furious at you for using it so much." I get the impression the person smiles, but I can't... see... a mouth... "I'm just glad you were there to save Ghengis."

"Who's Ghengis?"

"The guard that has the watch after yours. You saved his life."

Oh, right. That coward.

"Mmm." I attempt to sit up, but my ab muscles don't seem to want to respond. "So... What happened after I passed out?"

"I don't know what happened right after you passed out, but we found you when the guard changed. I'm told that Ghengis found a fellow guard that was better equipped and came back for you."

"That's great."

I lapse into silence. Well, if I could figure out who this is, I might understand a bit more. I make a significant effort to focus on the person's face, but I can't make out any details. Their face might as well have been a blank slate. I look to the side. The dresser is a nice dresser, one with fine inlays... I look back at my host. Why can't I focus on them? I can see the tiny details in the pictures now that the lights are on?

"Can you help me sit up?" I ask.

The person nods and pulls me upright. I watch their face as they lean down and pull me upright.

They notice my staring. "Um, is there something on my face?"

More like the exact opposite. As far as I can tell, this person has a completely white face, not features at all.

If that's not disturbing, I don't know what is.

"No, not that. Sorry."

I struggle to swing my legs to the side. It's an effort, but once I untangle myself from the covers, I manage to stand up without further assistance.

The person watches me move around- or, I assume they do. Their face remains pointed in my direction, in any case. The body type is completely ambiguous, with only a standard set of light armor as clothes.

Huh, maybe this is the Kayaba guy who sent me that message. It makes a weird sort of sense.

"I need to get going." I announce. "Thanks for taking care of me, but I need to go cancel an appointment."

The person tilts their head to the side. "Really? I didn't know that you had today off."

Uh... What?

"Yeah, sure. Oh, do I owe you anything?"

They shake their head. "Are you sure you're alright? You're acting kind of-"

"I'm fine." I say. "Anyway, thanks for helping me." I walk to the front door and pull it open. I take three steps outside and find myself in a nightmare.

It being ten in the morning, people had already started to do business. That was expected. What wasn't...

Why does everyone have blank faces and light armor? Everyone looks exactly the same!

The blank behind me grabs my shoulder and turns me slightly. "Are you alright?"

"Y-Yeah. Fine." Gotta calm down. Let's see, I need to tell Asuna that I'm not going to be able to make it to the wall, along with my superior. Mom and dad need to know, and... Hmm, Klein? No, he doesn't need to know. I'll tell him next time I see him. Wait, they'll be able to see, or worse have become these faceless-

I navigate to the friend menus and select Asuna. A marker pops up to indicate he position-

Which is right behind me. I turn around and still only see a blank. "Asuna?"

"Yes?"

Oh, shit.

"I think I have a major problem."


It takes another three hours before I can gather my parents, Lizbeth, and Klein to Asuna's house. Of course, it could also just be impostors, seeing as they all look exactly the freaking same!

I look between the blanks, and look for differences. I can see that one of them keeps twiddling with his sword, and I guess that would be Klein. I focus on the next one over and find them fiddling with four swords.

...Maybe that one is Klein? No, probably Lizbeth.

"So, Kirito, what's going on?" Someone in the opposite corner asks. I focus on the speaker. They continue. "I was told this was urgent?"

"Yeah. I... There's something wrong with me. Everybody looks weird."

Face turn to each other and back to me. "Um, is that it?"

"Well, I can't tell any of you apart. Everyone looks exactly the same and blank."

Silence. I look from one face to another. They also look around at each other.

One in the middle points to themself. "So, who am I?"

"Uh..." I point to the two on the end that I'd previously identified. "I think those two are Klein and Lizbeth, judging by the swords. Lizbeth is the one juggling four of the swords." I point to the two in the middle. "I think you two are my parents, since you two are very close to each other." I point to the last one in the line. "Which leaves this person to be Asuna."

"Right... You know, that didn't prove anything to us, right? Since your guesses were all accurate?"

Oh. Duh. "Well, I still don't know which of my parents is which."

Those two look at each other. I'm really starting to miss facial expressions.

"So, when you woke up, you didn't know it was me?" Asuna says.

"I still don't know that it's you. You all could be impostors and I wouldn't know until you said the wrong thing." I frown. "Well, my tracker says that you all are who you say you are, so I'm going to trust you for now."

Klein's head moves slightly. I get the distinct impression he's grinning. "So, I could order one of my guys to come and pretend to be your boss, and since you can't tell the difference, you'd have to obey?"

"Eh..."

"No."

I turn my head to see which of them had spoken. They all have the same voice, which is really annoying as well.

It seems to be Asuna, who continues. "I'll follow him and tell him who everyone is, so he doesn't get in trouble."

Klein says "Even to the bathroom?" and everyone falls silent. I look from blank face to blank face attempting to discern whether he was joking or not, but... You get the picture, I'm sure.

"Ok, so, I need to figure out how to fix my sight. Until then, the less people I have to see, the better. Any suggestions?"

Everyone starts talking at once. Five sets of the same voice fill the room, and I immediately lose track of each line of thought.

"Okay! Nevermind that. We'll blame it on the Death scorps' poison and move on."

The voices quiet down. I watch as everyone settles down into (hopefully) the same positions.

"How about this, I'll go back to the shop, and stay in the back until the problem is fixed?"

One of my parents shakes their head. "You're still orange."

I look at my indicator, and sure enough, still a mix of red and yellow.

Lizbeth (I think) speaks. "He could come with me, I've got plenty of space."

"He could, but then your shop would be suspected of supplying orange players."

"He could stay here." Asuna injects. "He's already here, and once he gets his sight back, he can go right back to the wall."

"It's not like I'm blind, I just can't see you guys' faces." I grumble. "and you all look the same too."

One of my parents gets up. "Well, try to figure it out soon. I don't want you calling me mom all the time."

...I'm going to assume that's dad.

"Better than calling you Klein, right?" I smirk.

"Hey!"

Soon, the most awkward goodbyes of my life are over (I wasn't willing to hug Klein, but I usually hug my parents goodbye. It took me a bit to sort them out. I did hug Lizbeth though) and I'm left alone with Asuna. A quick location tag confirms it as well.

"So, you really can't tell who I am?"

"Not without a location tag or you telling me, no."

She turns to face me and makes a "mehhhhh" sound.

I continue to look blankly at her. Hey, at least my blank looks still have features! "I'm going to assume you made a face at me and ignore that."

Her face turns away and she mumbles something.

We throw around potential solutions and try a few of them, but to no avail. Darkness descends before we come up with a solution. We use the same sleeping arrangements as before, with me lounging on her couch.

Thankfully, I don't get woken by blunt trauma this time.


The next morning, Asuna makes breakfast. It's delicious, but I couldn't enjoy her face while I ate-

What the-?

I'm going to fire my brain unless it fixes itself right now!

I suddenly get an idea. I look through my messages and find the special one from Kabaya and press respond.

"Dear Kayaba. I would like to inform you that I'm currently unable to see anyone's face. From your message, you seem to know a lot about magic and other weird stuff, so I thought I'd ask you about it."

I send the message off.

Asuna's head tilts. "Who did you just message?"

I shrug. "Just some guy who sent me a weird message when-" Oh, maybe I shouldn't tell her about that.

"When what?"

"When I... Tried the log out button?" Wait, did I just tell her? What the hell, brain!

"You tried it? What happened?"

"I ended up in the same place as I did when I updated."

She covers her mouth area with her hands. "You got trapped in the blue goop?"

I blink. "Yeah. It's weird. There's definitely people there too. One of them was talking to me. They throw around weird words a lot though-"

A chime announces that a message had just come through. I abort my conversation and open the message.

"Really? I guess this might be our fault. I guess you're going to have to log out again. Give me three minutes to get some people ready to put you back in immediately and then log out.

"Geez, you're a pain in the ass.

"Kayaba Akihiko"

I blink. "He says to log out again in three minutes."

"So, you need to go back to the blue goop?"

I shrug. "Seems like it."

"I wonder if it has magical powers. It seems like visiting there fixes things."

I think back to the conversations I overheard. "No, I think the people there think we are nuisances. They seemed pretty irritated when I used the log out button before."

"Oh. Maybe those are angels?"

I hope not. I look at my clock in the corner on my eye. "Three minutes is up. See you in a bit."

I navigate the menus and press the indicated button. A now familiar sensation as my vision blurs and turns blue, but this time I immediately reverse and wake up to see Asuna looking at me with fear in her eyes.

"Good, it really was you."

Her face softens. "You can see me again?"

"Yup."

She sighs. "Good. I'll message your parents."

I get up as a chime sounds for another message.

"Never contact me again. I'm a busy guy. By rights, we should never have talked, but since you managed to get a bugged client, I've had to intervene twice. Now stop doing stupid things.

"Oh yeah, I also cleared your orange status. It'll keep you off the front lines, so less work for me. Now leave me alone."

This one is unsigned, but I'm pretty sure it's the same guy. Asuna raises an eyebrow at my expression. Ah, it's nice to read expressions.

"What happened to your cursor? It's green!"

I shrug. "I guess I'll message Lizbeth." I pull open another window and select her name.

"Lizbeth, got my sight back. Long story. Coming to pick up swords. See you soon."

I sign it and send it. "Asuna, I'm going to Lizbeth's to get my sword back. If the commander comes by, tell him that I don't have any weapons and went to purchase new ones."

She pouts, her lips sticking out.

I check my inventory. "I guess I need to visit mom and dad to drop off some of my loot. I'm going to need it to pay off Lizbeth."

Asuna puts a hand in her hip and leans to the side. "How much does she charge you for repairs?"

I shrug. "I just gave her a lump sum to cover the ten or so times that I sent those swords in. I'm not even sure it was enough." I wince. "Maybe she'll give me a discount."

Asuna rolls her eyes. "I'm sure she will. Anyway, see you tomorrow?"

I nod. "Probably."

We shake hands and I leave the nice house behind and walk through the city towards the portal. Funny how little attention the same face attracts when the marker is green instead of orange.

The journey back is uneventful. It's a nice change of pace to not have people pointing and edging away from me. I walk into my parents shop without even a single person pointing me out.

"Hey, mom! How's business?"

She starts and turns around. "Kirito! What are you doing here? I thought..." Her eyes flick up to my health bar. "You're back to green!"

"Yeah. I need to trade some things so I can pay off Lizbeth."

Mom narrows her eyes. "How much do you owe her?"

I shrug. "How much did she say repairs were?"

"She didn't. I just handed her the bag of money you gave me."

"Ahg. Ok, I need at least a tenth of that, so..."

Mom is an expert haggler, but I was raised by her. It takes us a good half an hour to make the trade, mostly because we couldn't agree on a price for one pound of scorpion meat.

"I can't believe she thought it wasn't worth anything! I had to kill some really hard things to get it. It's rare!" I grumble to nobody as I walk down the street. It shouldn't matter that it's c-quality!"

Lizbeth's shop is surrounded by hilly terrain, and seeing it in the day, I can pick out where Asuna was ambushed and even see where the best ambush spots would be. This road is kind of set up for thieves, to be honest. Lots of hiding spots, corners, and... What is that?

I lean over to pick up a needle. Tapping it brings up a menu.

"Throwing needle, poisoned." I look over its stats. It could be useful in a pinch, but without the poison on it, it won't do much at all.

I glance around, but I don't see anyone around who could be attempting to spring a trap on me.

"OK, on to Lizbeth's."

It only takes a few more minutes to arrive at Lizbeth's shop. I open the door and some bells sound. "Hey, Lizbeth! What's goingGAH"

My breath leaves my body as one of the fiercest tackles I've ever faced slams into me. The world spins as we tumble backwards, and I count five dizzy rotations before I end up on my back staring up at Lizbeth. "Hi."

From her position on top of me, she responds. "Hi! I didn't know you'd be back so soon."

I continue to stare up at her. "Uh, get off of me, please?"

She blushes. "Right. Sorry, sorry." She pulls herself to her feet.

"So," I cough and get to my feet. "I came to get my swords and pay of my debt."

Her eyebrow quirks. "What debt?"

"I've been sending in my weapons for regular maintenance. Isn't that expensive?"

She shake her head. "No additional materials are involved unless it's really damaged, so most of the time it's just paying for my time." She turns and winks at me. "I still normally charge customers full price either way. Easy way to turn a few col."

I roll my eyes. "Right. So, did I overpay you, then?"

She hesitates. "...Yeah. By about a hundred times."

My jaw almost hits the floor. "What?"

"Since you so generously provided me with the funds to buy better equipment, I was able to make this beauty!" She proudly holds up a clear blade with a black handle. "It's the best sword I've ever made. It's powerful, and has a concealment bonus when drawn!"

My mouth starts to water. "Please tell me you're planning to sell that."

"Of course not!"

My stomach sinks. "Oh. Well, in that case-"

"I'm just going to give it to you, dummy!" She smacks me in the back of my head. Huh, no warning. I must be a lot higher level than her. I didn't really feel it that much, either...

"Really? I could still pay you for your efforts-"

"Nope. Just come back when you need your sword sharpened."

I blink. That sounded... Double entendre-ish. "Sure." I look down at the bag of money in my inventory. "Could I, I don't know, buy more swords like this one? I seem to be going through them like crazy."

She nods and ducks under the divider between the front and back of the shop. I pull out my bag of money and place it in the trade menu.

Lizbeth walks out a few seconds later with a bundle of swords in her arms.

"Okay, so here's Black Ice, like brand new. These three are generic swords like your backup I made you. This one has a spot for an elemental stone, if you happen to find one, and this one-" She hefts a buster sword up to the counter, causing something to go crunch. "Is something I'm not going to be able to sell to anyone without a strength of at least ten times what you can get at level five." She sighs. "Kirito, I'm hitting a dead end."

I look up from the menus detailing the specs of each sword with a question splashed across my face.

She nods. "You're a swordsman, so you understand the importance of leveling. Well, for a smith, unless you go out there and fight, you eventually reach a point where you can't improve your skills. This is true of all trades, but I'm at my limit. That sword-" she points the clear bladed sword in my hands "is the limit to my skill unless I start leveling."

I go back to measuring out funds. 1000 col for the elemental sword, 750 for the three backup swords, 2500 for the buster sword... Which I wouldn't even be able to use effectively...

"Alright, I'm buying all of these." I place the bag of coins on the counter.

She looks vaguely surprised for a second before unlocking the items from her inventory so I can take them. I put all but Black Ice into my inventory. I'll look at their names later.

"Kirito?" Lizbeth shuffles her feet. "Can I ask you something?"

"Uh... You just did."

She rolls her eyes and huffs. "I mean... Can I go with you to the wall? I can probably get some levels on me, and then I can make even better weapons!" She gets an excited glint in her eyes.

"Actually, I don't think that's a good idea. Recently, some pretty difficult monsters have shown up. I wouldn't want to put you in too much danger-"

She frowns. "But, I can't keep up with you if I don't level up! I mean, even now, I don't know what level you are, but I bet it's at least into the teens!"

I smirk. "With those two Death Scorps, I got to level 20."

He eyes widen. "Level 20? But... then you shouldn't have any trouble protecting me at all!" Her cheeks puff out into a pout.

That's not the point. "Fine, I'll take you, but I refuse to take responsibility for your death."

She nods. "Got it. See you tomorrow then?"

I smile. "Yeah. My shift starts at noon, on the southeast wall."

She nods again. "Got it! And Kirito?"

"Hmm?"

She plants a kiss on my cheek. "Try not to get killed before then."

I freeze up and barely react as she retreats behind the door of her shop.

What the crap was that about?