Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online (or the works of H.P. Lovecraft).
Chapter 3: Strange Metal
Suguha was awakened by the ever-unpleasant sound of her alarm clock. Though she knew she had to get up, Suguha found that she wanted at least another hour of sleep. It seemed that she was paying the price for staying up late to explore the realm of K'n-yan in ALO. After managing to pull herself out of bed to start another day, Suguha got dressed for school and headed downstairs. When she arrived in the kitchen, Suguha saw that her brother, Kazuto was already sitting at the table eating breakfast. For a moment as Suguha greeted her brother, she couldn't help but think she was looking at Donis. The resemblance between him and Kazuto really was uncanny.
"You okay Sugu?" Kazuto asked, noticing the odd look she was giving him.
"Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm good." Suguha assured him before sitting down at the table. "I'm just a little tired from staying up a little too late last night."
"Well I know you weren't staying up late to do homework, so you must've been in ALO." Kazuto deduced.
"Yeah. I went to go check out that new underground dungeon with Liz and Sinon." Suguha replied. "You know, the one that appeared in imp territory a little while ago."
"Oh yeah. I've heard that place is pretty tough." Kazuto recalled. "A lot of the players who've tried going in to explore it have ended up getting pretty thrashed. Some are even starting to say that the place is just as difficult as one of the upper levels of New Aincrad. How'd you guys do in there?"
"Pretty well, actually." Suguha answered. "We met and teamed up with this player called Donis. He's actually pretty strong. We probably wouldn't have made it very far into the place if it wasn't for his help."
"What's this Donis guy like?" Kazuto asked.
It was here that Suguha hesitated. She wasn't sure if it would be a good idea to tell her brother that Donis was his in-game twin. In fact there was much about Donis that Suguha found she didn't want to share. One of the last things Suguha wanted to deal with was Kazuto overreacting and doing the whole overprotective big brother routine, which she was pretty she would happen.
"Um… he's actually kinda like you." Suguha finally answered. "In fact, he actually uses two swords in battle just like you do most of the time."
"I think I'd be interested in meeting this new friend of yours sometime." Kazuto replied.
"Yeah…" Suguha responded; thinking at that moment that such a meeting would be a very bad idea. "Say, here's kind of a strange and totally unrelated question. Let's say someone made a new avatar for a game and set their appearance to random. What do you think the chances are of that person's avatar looking exactly like someone else's?"
"Hmm… well, I suppose something like that's possible. Seems like it would be very unlikely though." Kazuto answered. "Why do you ask, anyway?"
"Oh, no reason." Suguha replied with a somewhat nervous smile. "It was just some random thing Sinon thought about as we were making our way into the dungeon last night. So, um… how are things going with getting ready to raid the boss room of Floor 75 in New Aincrad?"
"The training's coming a long pretty well, but it's going to be a rough battle no matter how much we prepare for it." Kazuto answered. "Some scouting parties have already tried raiding the room to get information on the boss, and every one of them has been wiped out in seconds. It's probably going to take every top player in ALO to clear that floor. My best guess is that the raid won't be for a couple weeks at least."
"I'm sure you and Asuna will be able to take that boss down." Suguha told him. "I'm just sorry I won't be there to help you out."
"It's okay. I know you've been kinda busy lately." Kazuto replied. "Besides, it seems like you've got a dungeon of your own to explore now."
"I guess so." Suguha responded. "We'll we should probably be getting to school here pretty soon."
With that, the two of them quickly finished eating their breakfast and went their separate ways for school. As Suguha headed out, she wondered if hiding the little detail of what Donis looked like from Kazuto. After all, with the way things were it seemed like Kazuto and Donis would meet one another eventually. It would make things awkward if they met and Kazuto asked her why she didn't tell him about the rather large detail about Donis's avatar. In the end though, Suguha decided to keep Donis's appearance a secret for at least a little while.
As soon as school had let out and she had gotten home, Lisbeth had logged back into ALO and returned to her shop to begin working with the strange metal objects she had collected down in K'n-yan. With the exception of the peculiar metal box that contained the strange geometric crystal, all of the metal objects she had collected were made of a material called tok'l-metal. This included the sword Lisbeth had obtained when she defeated the headless woman that had attacked her when she and the others had entered the library-like building they explored. The first thing that Lisbeth did with most of the various statues and seemingly useless metal trinkets she had collected into metal ingots. This allowed her to use the metal to make armor and weapons.
Once the items had been converted into ingots, Lisbeth was able to see a description of the metal when examining them. From what the blacksmith found out, the tok'l-metal was mined from a place called Yuggoth and had unknown properties. Lisbeth wondered if the metal and the place it was mined from had any connection to the works of H.P. Lovecraft. It made sense to her that they might, as K'n-yan itself was based on one of the horror writer's stories. Lisbeth made a mental note to ask Sinon if she knew anything about Yuggoth and the tok'l-metal later, as she seemed to be more familiar with Lovecraft's work than any of them.
Lisbeth's first experiment with the tok'l-metal was to make a new mace and shield for her personal use. The weight of both items seemed to be practically non-existent, as if they were pieces of metal without actual substance. Yet at the same time, both objects seemed to be extremely dense. Lisbeth was very interested to see how her new weapons would perform in battle the next time they ventured into K'n-yan. She doubted that the new mace would be more powerful than Mjolnir, but she had the feeling that the armor and weapons she could forge from the tok'l-metal could give them on their next trip.
Noticing that it was almost 5:00, Lisbeth decided to take a break from her work for a few minutes and have some tea. Virtual tea wasn't exactly the same thing as real tea, but it tasted just as good. As Lisbeth drank her tea at the counter of her shop, her thoughts suddenly went back to Donis. Whether or not it was simply because Donis looked so much like Kirito in the game, the pink-haired blacksmith couldn't deny that she felt a strong attraction to him. Having Kirito's face helped of course, yet the gold swordsman also had a certain kind of charm that Kirito didn't possess.
Lisbeth thought back to how she and Donis fought so well together down in K'n-yan. They seemed to make the perfect team when they fought against that black blob. Lisbeth wondered if perhaps that teamwork could maybe blossom into something more. That seemed to be the case with Kirito and her friend Asuna back in the days of SAO. In that death game, Kirito and Asuna were both top players who fought on the frontlines. With all the life and death battles those two had fought together back then, it was only natural that a very close bond would form between them. Lisbeth on the other hand had only been a supporting player, working on the sidelines and forging weapons for the players who were actually strong enough for the frontlines. It was little wonder to Lisbeth that Asuna had snatched Kirito away from her.
Realizing that she was starting to feel sorry for herself, Lisbeth quickly finished her tea and went back to work. The next order of business was to work on a new katana for Leafa, and Lisbeth decided that she would make that sword one of her experiments with the tok'l-metal. Taking the sword she had gotten from the headless woman and a piece of rare metal known for having mystical qualities when mixed with another metal, Lisbeth forged a single metal ingot. Using that ingot, the blacksmith forged a new katana. The end result of the forging was rather unexpected.
The blade of the newly forged sword was black with small pine-green flecks. The mace and shield Lisbeth had forged for her personal use were also black, but lacked any additional coloration. The new sword's also somehow seemed to give of a very slight vibration. Lisbeth worried that perhaps mixing the two metals together had produced a weapon that was unstable, not unlike how mixing certain chemicals can produce a very volatile explosion. After a few more moments of examination though, the pink-haired blacksmith concluded that the sword was probably safe and put the finishing touches on it. As Lisbeth put the finished sword aside to give to Leafa at a later time, she heard the door to her shop open.
Lisbeth turned her head and saw that it was Donis who had walked in. The gold swordsman waved to her in greeting with a charming smile on his face.
"So this is the shop of the great Lisbeth the blacksmith." Donis spoke as he walked down the stairs. "It's rather quaint, if you don't mind me saying so."
"I know I invited you to come by my shop, but I wasn't expecting you to come by so soon." Lisbeth told him, unable to hide the large smile on her face.
"Well I had little else to do this afternoon, so I thought I'd go ahead and take you up on your invitation." Donis replied. "I do hope I'm not interrupting anything important."
"No. In fact you kind of made my day." Lisbeth admitted.
"So what have you been working on?" Donis asked. "Forging any new weapons for use on our next expedition into K'n-yan?"
"More or less." Lisbeth confirmed. "More than anything though, I've been experimenting with forging stuff from all those weird metal items from K'n-yan."
"Any success?" Donis asked.
"I'm not really sure yet, to be honest." Lisbeth answered, picking up Leafa's new sword to show him an example. "I forged this for Leafa from an alloy I made using the metal from the K'n-yan stuff I found and another rare metal that produces different kinds of elemental magic depending on the other metal it's mixed with. I'm kind of afraid that this sword might be a bad mix; like it might explode the second Leafa tries to use it. Of course we won't know anything for sure until she tries it out in battle."
"I suppose there is a lot of trial and error involved when working with a new material." Donis observed. He then glanced over at another one of the worktables and noticed the odd box containing the crystal. "What's that item over there?"
Lisbeth looked at what Donis was pointing at as she put down the sword. "Oh, that's something else I found in K'n-yan last night. I'm not really sure what it is, but I don't think I can forge any new weapons from it."
"Why did you take it with you then?" Donis asked.
"I sort of took it by accident, to be honest." Lisbeth admitted. "When Sinon and I were leaving to go meet back up with you and Leafa, I ran across whatever this thing is and sort of took it with me without thinking. It has kind of a hypnotic effect."
"May I see it?" Donis requested.
"Sure." Lisbeth agreed before picking the box up off the table and taking it back over.
The blacksmith set the metal box back down on the table that was in front of her and Donis and opened it up. Lisbeth's eyes quickly became transfixed on the crystal again as they had done last night. In the peculiar light the crystal seemed to be giving off, Lisbeth thought she could almost see pictures of some kind within it. They were images of faraway lands that were wondrous and terrifying at the same time. The kind of landscapes that looked as though they were pulled from the wildest dreams and most horrifying nightmares.
Donis seemed to be transfixed on the crystal as well, though not as strongly as Lisbeth was. He glanced over at the blacksmith and put his arm around her waist. Soon after, he began lightly kissing the side of Lisbeth's neck. Lisbeth seemed only half aware of what was going on, but responded with soft moans of pleasure all the same. After another moment, Donis took Lisbeth's chin gently and turned her face towards him. Lisbeth's eyes had become locked with Donis's just as they had been locked on the crystal a second before. Before either of them knew it, they had become locked in a very passionate kiss.
As their mouths opened to allow their tongues to explore each other, Donis turned Lisbeth and backed her against the worktable. After an uncertain amount of time, the two of them were forced to break apart for air. Donis returned to kissing Lisbeth's neck more passionately than before. Lisbeth let out a deep moan in response and began running her fingers through Donis's blonde hair. Lisbeth's heart was pounding as though it might burst out of her chest, and her whole body felt as if it was on fire. As things got more heated though, a bell went off in Lisbeth's mind and the part of her brain in charge of rational thought clicked back on. She pushed Donis away and quickly closed the box with the crystal without looking at it.
"I… I'm terribly sorry." Donis told her. "I have no idea what came over me just now."
"Neither do I." Lisbeth replied, her face heavily flushed. "That… that got a little intense there."
Suddenly the door to the shop opened, causing them both to jump. Lisbeth and Donis looked and saw that it was Leafa.
"Oh! Hi Donis." Leafa greeted as she came down the steps. "I wasn't expecting you here."
"Hello Leafa." Donis nervously responded. "I, um… I had just come by to say hello to Lisbeth and see her shop. Well, uh… I'm afraid I must be off. I just remembered another somewhat urgent matter I need to attend to. Leafa, I apologize for having to leave you so soon."
"Don't worry about it. Go do what you need to do." Leafa told him.
With that, Donis said his goodbyes to Lisbeth and left the shop at a fast pace. Lisbeth breathed a little sigh as soon as he was gone.
"So what were you two talking about when I came in?" Leafa asked.
"Nothing! Nothing at all." Lisbeth answered in a higher pitch than intended.
"Is something wrong?" Leafa asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Of course not. Why would anything be wrong?" Lisbeth answered with a nervous laugh. "Oh! I just finished a new sword for you. That is why you came down here, right?"
"Great! I was hoping it'd be done by now." Leafa replied.
"This sword is kind of an experiment using that weird metal from K'n-yan." Lisbeth informed the blonde fairy as she handed her the black and green blade. "To be honest, I'm not really sure if it's any good."
"I'll go try it out." Leafa replied as she took the blade. "So, are you going to get back to work?"
"Uh, actually I have this thing that I need to take care of for school." Lisbeth lied as an excuse to get out of there. "I'll get back to it tomorrow though. By the time I'm done, we'll be ready to take on K'n-yan again."
"Great. Well in that case, I'll see you later." Leafa replied. "I'll let you know how the new sword works out."
With that, Leafa waved goodbye and left shop. Lisbeth breathed a sigh of relief as soon as the blonde was gone and logged out of the game as fast as she could.
Rika opened her eyes after passing through the tunnel of light to look at the ceiling of her bedroom, still very much turned on by what she and Donis had been doing a few moments earlier. She could still feel the gold swordsman's hot breath on her neck. Rika decided that a very cold shower was in order and got up to undress. As she removed her shirt, Rika couldn't help but wonder if what she had just been feeling in the game was real. It wasn't the sensations she was thinking of but the feelings behind them. Was what had just happened merely because Donis looked like Kirito, or was there something else that drove her to almost get into the gold swordsman's pants. The only thing Rika knew for sure was that she had probably almost gotten in over her head.
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