I hope you're all enjoying the story. It honestly takes quite a bit out of me to keep writing this though. Best wishes to you all, and thanks for supporting me.
Floor One Hundred and Beyond
By: Kirisaki Kyouko
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Chapter 3: The Legendary Trifecta
Today marked the strategy assembly for the fifty-sixth boss. Warriors of all shapes and sizes filled the small stone cave with the leaders standing behind a makeshift rock table. The leader of the Knights of Blood guild, Heathcliff hid partially in the shadows, letting the subordinates handle the finer details of explaining the boss fight.
"There!" Asuna shouted, pointing to a place on the far right side of the map. The rapier at her side made a clacking sound as it bounced off the side of the table. "This is how we'll attack. Send half of the soldiers to this side, letting the Knights of Blood and Kirito take the front line." She ducked her head down for only a moment. I thought I saw her blush as she said my name. Murmurs passed through the crowd. This was a daring move to have such a small force of specialized attackers to try to take on a boss while having another division play the decoy. It was risky, daring, but ultimately, it was definitely a strategy worth thinking about.
The Knights of Blood guild held almost all of the most powerful players in the game. Almost. I was still one of the few solo players in the game, refraining from joining any guild. Almost a half a year ago, I received an anonymous invitation to join a small guild called the Black Cats of the Full Moon, but I turned it down. It was so small, it was almost as if it would be wiped of the face of the world in any moment. The average level of the guild was also only thirty-six. Even then, we were still on the thirty-seventh floor, but they were too weak. It wasn't the time to be settling down.
"Now, now, Asuna," Egil rebutted. "This is quite a rash decision you've come up with. Never underestimate the abilities of the bosses in this game. There's always the possibility that it will be able to wipe out the entire defense in a single blow." Egil's massive frame would have intimidated any lesser man or woman, but Asuna loved to fight. In fact, we had fought each other for strategy before every single boss floor from eight on. She turned her sharp facial features up and stared Egil down.
"Perhaps, perhaps!" She smiled. "But this isn't the time to be worrying. With the mysterious 'Black Swordsman' how could we possibly lose?" Everyone in the room looked towards me. I took a step back, waving my arms in front of me.
"H-Hey, Asuna, don't look at me. You're just as good with a single sword as I am."
She blushed. "Is that so?" She retorted. She really hated to lose. "Well then tell me, oh humble swordsman. How have you managed to beat me out of twenty of the total fifty-five boss monster drops if I'm so much of your equal? I've only managed to take ten for myself. You even took the magnificent Elucidator sword after Heathcliff held off the fiftieth floor boss for ten minutes by himself." She huffed and crossed her arms. "You're such a prick, you know that?"
I chuckled. "You know, Asuna. I would rather be a prick than a stuck up rapier user who still wears a school uniform in an online game." Laughs came from the crowd; Asuna pouted, blushing furiously.
"D-don't bring my fashion into this. It was my choice to join this guild," she hissed. More laughter came, but Egil stood up, silencing the crowd.
"Come on, you two," he said. The full rich tone of his voice could even calm down the fiery tempered Asuna. "Let us finish up this strategy meeting so that we can rest before the fight tomorrow." He rested each of his hands on mine and Asuna's shoulders, pushing hard enough that we had to sit down. "Now then," he gestured out to the crowd. "The monster we'll be facing is called The Geocrawler…"
"Kazuto onii-chan!" Someone called from the other side of my bedroom door. The door opened, and Suguha walked into my room. Come on, dinner's ready. You can't stay up here all day and play games. I gave her a passive look, reaching back for the nerve gear, ready to put it back on. Suguha frowned at me and pulled out her kendo shinai from behind her back and charged at me. I rolled out of bed and jumped back to avoid her. She continued to chase me until I left my room.
"Jeeze, onii-chan, why are you so hard to get to come spend time with me? I haven't seen you for twenty years after that game claimed you and all of those other people." I walked into the kitchen, Suguha following closely behind. Inside I saw a strange man and a couple children.
"Hey! Kirigaya, long time no see." I looked at the man addressing me, but I couldn't put a name to his face. I couldn't recognize any one sitting in the room in front of me. I looked behind me to find an older woman. It wasn't Suguha.
"Onii-chan? Is there something wrong?" The woman in front of me was addressing me as 'onii-chan.' What was going on?
"S-Suguha?" I couldn't believe it. I recalled our conversation as we were coming down the stairs. "Was it really twenty years? What all have I missed?" Everything came to me then. The man in front of me, the children – it all made sense. After I got myself stuck within the world of Sword Art Online, Suguha had managed to move on with her life. She'd found a husband and had children already.
"Sugu… No… This can't be happening!" My hands clasped the sides of my head. I started tearing out my hair. "I had so much to live for!" I shouted.
A sharp impact with the ground aroused me from my sleep. Immediately I checked my HP bar in the top of my interface. Only a small fraction of my HP had been whittled away. Using my self-healing ability, I wouldn't even need to use a potion to restore it. Most of the members of the boss raid party had left already, leaving only Asuna and me in the cave.
"Jeeze, it took you long enough to come to your senses. Egil even offered to smack you around with his giant hammer for me," she said, waving a taunting finger at me. She giggled, relaxing the stern features she always wore during the strategy meetings. This was some of the most enjoyable time for me, the time when Asuna was happy.
"Well excuse me for taking a nap, miss," I said, bowing almost to the ground. "If I do remember correctly, you napped for an hour once, forcing poor old me to have to watch over your limp form until you woke up." She huffed, pouted, and refused to reply. "Come on, Asuna. Let's head back to the city and get something to eat. You sure worked up a storm trying to defend your strategy."
I walked out of the cave into the setting sun. Brilliant hues of orange and pink layered across the sky. A flock of birds flew overhead, black in the shadow of the sun. The rocky ground crunched beneath us as we walked back to the town in silence. About halfway there, Asuna started to hum. She closed her eyes as she walked, carefully placing each foot in front of the other. The breeze blew her long locks of red hair back from in front of her face. I traced her delicate features with my eyes.
Asuna stopped humming and took a deep breath. She opened her emerald green eyes and stared through mine towards my soul. For just a moment, she was acting like a normal girl. She wasn't like the girl that was trapped in an online virtual world. She pouted her lips and ran a hand through her long hair. Our pace slowed as the sun started to set. The pink and orange slowly faded away to indigo and violet. The game Kayaba Akihiko created, this world of Sword Art Online, captured all of the best aspects of the real world and integrated them into this 'game.' The mood created by the lightening was suffocating, though. Asuna kept fidgeting beside me. She couldn't stop twirling her hair around her finger.
"Say, Kirito? Would you mind partying with me for a while?" I saw a message appear in my menu requesting a party. I hesitated for a moment. As a solo player, partying with someone from a guild wasn't something I really wanted to do. Her green eyes sparkled in the moonlight. Her dark pupils replaced by the pure white of the moon. I longed to run my hand over her elegant features, but clearing the game was more important. I reluctantly hit the accept button. Asuna's HP and status bar appeared under mine in the game interface. "Thanks."
We continued to head in the direction of the city, ambling this way and that way over the grassy fields. A monster would occasionally appear only to be hacked apart by my sword or impaled by Asuna's rapier. Neither of us said anything as we progressed. Rain was a very rare occurrence in this world since Akihiko decided that it was an unnecessary event, but even so, it rained once every few months. The moon in the sky slowly disappeared behind pitch black clouds, shutting out all light. My night vision skill kicked in as all light vanished. I quickly looked around and found Asuna, squatting down on the ground. She didn't look scared, but she obviously couldn't see anything around her.
"Asuna, hold onto me," I said. She obliged and took my hand. The moment our hands touched, I could the feel the overbearing warmth of her body. A strawberry scent lingered from her hair; I took a quick sniff, hoping she wouldn't notice. "Come on. Let's make our way to a safe area. I don't really know what rain does, but it's certainly unpleasant to run around in."
Luckily there was a stone cave off in the distance only a few hundred meters away. Just as we got inside, the first drops of rain started to hit the ground. Even with such a low chance of rain, Akihiko managed to perfectly simulate the sound and smell of rain. I sat down near the back of the cave, taking off my jacket and putting it under me as a cushion. Asuna sat down beside me, still holding onto my hand for support. The rain continued to fall outside with no indication of stopping. The incessant hiss of the rain was strangely peaceful. It reminded me of the world we'd all left behind before this game. Asuna finally let go of my hand as we sat and listened to the rain fall outside.
The rain fell for hours and hours. Steam started to rise above the plains outside as the sun rose over the far horizon. Something warm made its way into my lap. I opened my eyes and saw Asuna curled up on the cave floor using my lap as a pillow. In the lull of sleep it was easy to forget about her hyper-aggressive personality during strategy meetings, and instead remember that deep down, beneath the hardened shell of a warrior, she was a sweet innocent girl.
I couldn't resist the temptation to take advantage of the situation. Slowly, I extended my hand and ran it through her gorgeous hair that I admired so much. It felt like silk beneath my fingers. I don't think shampoo even existed in this world, but the texture was almost unreal. I kept patting her hair for the better part of an hour as the sun continued to rise. My hand came to rest on her shoulder was I fell into a light sleep.
A few hours passed before the alarm I set the night before went off. The irritating beep aroused me from my sleep. My vision blurred as I rubbed sleep from them. Asuna was no longer on my lap. She was sitting on the floor a meter in front of me rummaging through her inventory. She wore a pleasing smile on her lips. Just watching her, a smile broke out on my face too.
"Oh! Kirito! Good morning," she greeted me. She held out a small package towards me. "Here, have some breakfast. I prepared them last night and made sure to add extra durability in case we needed it later." I opened the package, revealing a tasty looking sandwich. "Please try. I worked hard on it, you know." I bit into the sandwich. The ingredients looked rather strange, but the taste was unmistakable.
"A-Asuna, is this really mayonnaise?" I couldn't hold myself back. I devoured the rest of the sandwich. "That was some of the best food I've had in Aincrad for the longest time." She giggled, blushing only enough to give away her delight.
"Oh, Kirito, you have some sauce on your face." She reached over towards me and wiped something from my face. She offered her finger to me, covered in a sticky black looking sauce. I hesitated for a moment. "C-come on, Kirito," she moaned. "This is so embarrassing!" Her face quickly changed from pink to red as my lips closed around her finger. Just like when we held hands, her finger radiated warmth inside of my mouth. I caressed the tip of her finger with my tongue, absorbing the flavor from the sauce. Even after I'd licked all of the sauce from the tip of her finger I kept flicking my tongue over her finger again and again. Asuna had enough and pulled her finger away, turning around hiding her face. "T-that was a little unnecessary, Kirito…" she grumbled.
"Sorry, my fault," I said, laughing. "Come on, let's get going." I stood and checked to make sure we had everything. "The boss fight will start soon."
Asuna gave me another one of her flashy white smiles. "Okay! Let's get going!" She took my hand in hers and started to lead the way.
The dungeon that the boss resided in was deep within a lake cave. In order to get there, we would have to take the long way around through a mountain pass due to no one being able to get through the entrance in the water. It would take us an hour to traverse the vast plains just to get to the mountain and then another forty minutes at the least to reach the door of the boss. The two of us dashed across the meadow in the general direction of the mountain. After ten minutes of running, the mountain range started to come into view. Mist appeared about halfway up the mountains; the peaks being entirely covered in snow. Small mobs appeared while we ran, but we ignored them to save time. Just in case, I equipped the Elucidator to my back as we ran.
The ground was still wet from the rainstorm the night before. Occasionally Asuna would step into a pile of mud. With a loud squelching noise, she would get stuck for a moment. Aside from those instances, we made it to the mountains in record time, taking only forty minutes. The "side door" of the dungeon appeared before us. Together we pulled the doors apart and ran in. Inside the dungeon, small torches littered the halls, allowing enough light for us to see. Asuna yanked me forward, never letting her grip on my hand go. Our footsteps echoed off the cave walls, attracting the attention of many monsters and players alike. We probably attracted a lot of attention. She was an elegant beauty next to a scrawny looking guy in a black overcoat. At last we arrived in front of the boss door with fifteen minutes to spare. The Knights of Blood stood erect as their sub-commander came into view. The other parties turned their heads and acknowledged us as we approached.
The leader of the Knights of Blood took no time extending out his hand to me. This was both a formality and an invitation he offered to me every boss fight. He really wanted me to join his guild, but every time I would turn him down. I couldn't even respond to a guild request earlier, so how could I possibly accept his? I shook his hand and then promptly turned down his request to join the Knights of Blood. I think at this point it was just his way of being friendly. On the side walls, I saw Klein and his party of friends that I left at the beginning of the game. His red bandana made him stand out in the crowd. His favorite katana was sheathed at his side. I checked the time. We had five more minutes before we would go in for the kill. Only then did I notice Asuna was no longer holding onto me. I took the opportunity to go greet Klein.
"Klein," I said, waving in his direction. He broke off his conversation he was having with his friends and turned towards me. "How are you doing? It's great to see you haven't died yet." Klein cocked his head to the side and gave me a broad smile.
"Right back at you, Kirito, you soloing son of a bitch." He placed his hand on my head and messed up my hair. I batted his hand away. "Me and my friends have been grinding hard to raise our levels for this fight, you know? Heh, I bet we've even gotten stronger than you." He flexed his arm to make his point.
"Oh, I don't know about that. Leveling as a party takes much longer than doing it solo, right?" I smirked. I didn't have to flex my arm to make my point. Everyone in the vicinity knew that I was one of the highest level players perhaps only behind Heathcliff himself. I quickly typed out a message to Klein:
"Between you and me. I'm seventy-five, what about you?"
Klein received the message, trying to hide it from the view of the rest of his friends. He quickly typed back a message:
"Dammit, Kirito. We're only level sixty-eight. You really do level too fast, you know that?"
I glanced over in his direction and cracked a smile. He gave me a thumbs up before returning to his conversation I had interrupted. The conversation quickly died away as Heathcliff stood up and raised his shield once to call everyone's attention.
"We all know why we are here today," he started. His commanding tone drew everyone in. The aged look in his face dripped with wisdom. "The boss inside will be strong! But that does NOT mean that we cannot take him." The silence he commanded was suffocating. "We will be using a variation of Asuna's strategy inside. We will use the Holy Dragon Alliance's defensive core as the front lines to take the brunt of the damage. The high damage dealers from the Knights of Blood and other key damage members will then take the frontal positions and attack after assessing the boss's strengths and weaknesses." Cheers started to break out amongst the crowd. Heathcliff had to raise his voice to be heard. "Let us defeat this death game!" He raised his shield/sword combo into the air. A frenzy of cheering and clapping burst from the players. Heathcliff brought his shield down in front of him and opened the door. Cautiously, everyone followed him into the room. As the last person entered, the torches flared up with orange flame. The boss materialized in front of us. Beside it its name and health bars appeared. "The Geocrawler."
The Holy Dragon Alliance's defensive core rushed forward, shields forward, halting the advance of the boss towards the offensive core. The commander was shouting out orders as the boss advanced. Each member used a defensive sword skill to parry each of the boss's attacks. For a small two minute window, the offensive core stood back, waiting in the wings for the time to attack. I was only in a party of two which was strange. Usually before the boss fights we divided up and made proper parties so that we could more accurately measure how each person was doing and if they needed help.
The offensive line's two minutes quickly passed. Heathcliff raised his shield and brought it down again, signaling for us to charge. The offensive core, twenty strong, lunged in to attack the boss. The two-handed sword users and spear users stayed at a safe distance behind the defense core and used slow and powerful sword skills to chip away at its health. The short ranged weapon users like Asuna and me rushed in, dodging around the boss to flank it from the sides. Asuna and I took the right side. We switched in and out, attacking the boss in turn. Ever since the first boss, the two of us had always been in the same attacking party, and we knew each other's fighting styles well. No one ever told us when to back up or move forward. We were always in the fray, whittling away at the hit points of the boss little by little.
The fight took longer than usual, and I couldn't figure out why. We had the full attacking force of twenty. Then I noticed that we didn't have the usual front line. A small group of five people on the left side of the boss that all wore their own guild icon attacked the boss as a mini unit. They had their own defense core of three members and the last two were left to attack. The leading attacker wielded an electric blue mace out in front of her. Her purple attire matched perfectly as she executed her sword skill, charging forward in burst of speed and lighting and striking the boss, switching just in time for her back up to take the charge as she waited for the sword skill stun to pass. She pushed dark blue hair to the side as she waited to charge once again, revealing her soft features and fearsome eyes. They flicked over and met mine for a split second.
"S-Sachi?!" I gasped.
"Kirito!" someone shouted. Asuna smacked my shoulder. "This isn't the time to get sidetracked! Switch!"
I tore my eyes away from Sachi and looked forward. The boss was only its final fifty percent of the last health bar. This was the time where Asuna and I shined. I launched the first attack, the sword skill Vorpal Strike. "Switch!" I shouted behind me. Asuna, the Flash, took the lead, unleashing a sword skill of her own. Her rapier repeatedly stabbed the boss until with one final thrust she leapt backing. The HP bar had fallen into the red zone. I smirked and charged forward. With a final Vertical Square sword skill, the boss's health disappeared. It reared up and roared. It attempted to lunge forward one last time before it shattered into thousands of polygons. The light quickly faded from the dance of falling shapes. "Heh, Asuna. That makes twenty-one."
Cheers spread through the room. Heathcliff approached me and gave a wide smile. "Well done, Kirito. I really wish you would join my guild. We could certainly use a powerful front liner such as yourself." Once again, this was one of Heathcliff's formalities. He didn't even bother sending the guild invite this time. He offered me the honor of opening the door to the next floor. As I approached the door, I remembered that I had gotten the drop for the floor. The drop was one I'd never heard of before. I tapped the item for its description. "Love Impaler?" I read out loud. It was a white rapier with a pink hilt. It would certainly fetch a lot of money on the market. I turned around, trying to pick out Asuna in the large crowd of people. She was easy to spot with her flaming red hair. I caught up to her as she approached the door to the next floor.
"Asuna, here," I said, offering the rapier over to her. She gave me an odd look. It was one of adoration and confusion.
"K-Kirito. I can't." She pushed the rapier away from herself. "You got the drop fair and square. I couldn't possibly accept such a thing from you." She was very stubborn. I liked that about her. I sheepishly withdrew the rapier and put it into my inventory. Thinking hard about it, I decided it was best to keep the rapier for myself. For now at least. Its name might give her the wrong impression.
It's called the Love Impaler, eh? If I gave this to her, would she think that I'm rejecting her? I can't say that I don't enjoy the time I spend with her, and she's a rapier user. I thought she would want a rare boss drop. But what is this feeling I'm getting from the Love Impaler?
The 'chink' of swords being sheathed brought me back to my senses. I was surrounded by two different guilds. To my right stood Asuna, followed behind by the rest of the Knights of Blood. It was a ritual that the person who defeated the boss would open the door. Then the people in the person's party would be next, and the guilds that each person was in would follow after. To my left was the small guild led by a tall man with spiky brown hair. He gave me a pained looking smile.
"Ah, I see." I thought out loud. "You must be the friends Sachi was referring to when she told me she had to go back to you all those months ago." I gave a small bow to the leader of the guild, another formality. "I am Kirito, a solo player. The beater." I held my hand out. The man took it, shook it quickly, and let go.
"I am Keita," he said curtly. It was obvious he wanted nothing to do with me. "I was the one who sent you a guild request a while ago as a favor to one of our guild members." His face plainly showed his relief that I had not accepted the request. Keita fell over backwards shortly after. With a loud cry he fell to the ground with a soft thump.
"That is enough out of you, Keita," Sachi said. She pushed the hair out of her eyes once again and gave me a toothy smile. "Kirito, it's so nice to see you again!" There was something entirely different about her now. The timid girl I'd met back in the Town of Beginnings was gone. In her place stood a self-assured woman, trying to live her life to the best of her abilities. The hand at her hip and the way she spun her mace around gave off an aura of power. The striking contrast between her hair and the purple suit she wore drew looks from the audience. Someone whistled close-by. She turned to look at Asuna. "Oh, you must be the beautiful sub-commander of the Knights of Blood, Asuna!" Sachi's eyes quickly took inventory of Asuna's features. She pointed her mace directly at Asuna who in turn didn't flinch or shy away. "You're another person I'm going to surpass. You and Kirito both!"
Murmurs passed through the crowd at this declaration. Both girls stared at me as if I was the one that brought them together. I receive to PMs at the same time. I flicked my finger over each of them and quickly read them.
From Asuna:
"Kirito, who is this girl? Is she really stronger than me? I'm level seventy-one right now."
From Sachi:
"Is this the girl you ran off with last night? I won't let it happen again. I'm catching up to you, you know. I'm level seventy-three."
"Well now, this is an interesting turn of events," I said to no one in particular. Both girls leaned in towards me to hear what I had to say on the situation. "Let's just put it at this. I'm stronger than both of you right now, enough said. Now let's us three open the door to the next floor. This game isn't going to clear itself." I headed up the staircase towards the large door that would open a portal to the next floor. Sachi and Asuna followed close behind. At the top of the staircase I raised the Elucidator from my back and held it out in front of me, facing down the crowd below. I was shocked to see Asuna and Sachi both follow suit. I felt out the position for a sword skill and thrust my sword forward. Instead of the usual light blue, the Elucidator, a black sword, glowed black as sin and pierced through the air. Asuna thrust her rapier forward in a flash of white light. Sachi, last in line, thrust out her mace in a shower of purple light and spark. The three colors clashed in the air before disappearing.
"So these are the three beaters, huh?" someone called out from the crowd. "The three legendary soldiers of black, white, and purple." The rest of the forces mumbled in agreement. Heathcliff seemed to be the only person not perturbed by this turn of events. He raised both of his arms out and turned around.
"Praise these three!" he exclaimed. "These will be the people that will save us all from this living hell!" Cheers burst forth, drowning out any attempt for him to continue. Our names could be heard amongst the din. I turned my back to the crowd. With Asuna and Sachi by my side, I opened the doors and stepped through.
Sachi and Asuna materialized next to me shortly after I appeared on the fifty-seventh floor. I quickly disbanded my party with Asuna and turned to them. "It's really been an honor to party with you, sub-commander." I couldn't keep the solemn expression off of my face. After the first boss when I gave everyone a common enemy to hate, the beater, I thought it would be better for everyone else, but they decided to join me. No. They weren't really beaters. Neither girl had been a beta tester. They were just better than the rest of the average players. My role was as a solo player, and I didn't need either of them beside me, sharing my burden.
"Sachi. You're welcome. I glad I was able to help you become strong. I hope you take care of the rest of your guild with gusto." Her smile faded. She could tell I was trying to say good bye to the both of them. They opened their mouths at the same time to protest, but before they could get a chance, I sprinted out into the new floor. I couldn't hear any footsteps following me, so I slowed down after a few kilometers and examined my surroundings. The fifty-seventh floor was a jungle. Not even a forest, but a dense, dark jungle.
It was still mid-day, even after a long boss fight, but light was strangely absent from this floor. I gazed upwards towards the canopy which cast a green hue over everything. Droplets of water fell down occasionally, condensed water that was heated in this greenhouse and dropped back down on poor bystanders like myself. I had the advantage by opening the floor. I got to be the first person to explore the best hunting grounds and could sell the map data later to the guilds and information brokers. I headed out in a random direction, taking care to map out my surroundings.
The first monster I encountered was a Jungle Boar ((level 59)). Unlike the boars back in the first floor, these boars had long ivory tusks protruding from their mouths and stood two meters tall. It grunted as it spotted me and scraped its foot against the ground. I didn't back away from its intimidation stance so it lowered its head and charged. I adjusted my position using minute movements, barely dodging the boar as it passed by. I drew my sword from my back and stabbed the creature through its eye as it passed. The HP bar of the boar dropped significantly, but it didn't die. It skidded along the ground and came to a stop three meters away. It lowered its head again, ready to strike. Before it got a chance to attack I dashed forward, pulling back the Elucidator, ready to stab through the boar. As I channeled the system to activate the sword skill, the same phenomenon occurred. The sword skill was black instead of blue. In a flash of black on black, I passed through the boar, cutting its head clean off. Its limbs flailed for a moment before it shattered and disappeared. I noted a miniscule increase in my experience bar. This would be a good place to train. The fact that I could notice an increase in my experience bar after only one kill meant that these gave a relatively large amount of experience.
I continued my way through the dense jungle, using my sword to cut through the vines that crossed my path. The jungle seemed to have no end whatsoever. There was the town behind me when we teleported into the floor, but after that I saw no civilizations anywhere. Not even an NPC could be found around the jungle. I sat down on the roots of a tree to rest. My thoughts wandered back to the way Asuna's hair felt as I ran my hands through it. Through the wind, battles, sweat, and grime, it still felt as fluid as silk. I remembered the sweet strawberry smell, imagining the shape of the fruit in the real world. There were of course fruits in this world that tasted like strawberries, but for the sake of it being a game, the strawberry flavored fruits looked nothing like a strawberry. In fact the in game fruit looked closer to a lime which really threw me off when I bit into it.
I breathed a heavy sigh before forcing myself off the ground and trudged forward again. There were a few more encounters with the native monster POPs which I duly noted on my map. None of them gave a significant experience gain, so I gave them little notice and didn't even bother remembering the position on the map where they resided.
My mind moved to my main menu. I hadn't checked in a while, but I was close to leveling up to seventy-six. I decided to aim for at least eighty by the end of the week. I was very close, so I headed back to where the Jungle Boars were and started hacking away. As I thought, these were significantly harder to kill than the boars on the first floor. First of all, their hit points were so massive, that even my superior strength level and equipment took two strokes to finish it off. Second of all, they tended to move in packs, making it very difficult to pick just one off and kill it. If I tried, the other boars would move in to defend and attack. I fought until night fall when I decided it would start to become dangerous. Especially out in a new floor away from a safe area, people were almost never alone for fear of being killed. I took every precaution due to only being a solo player, increasing my detection skill as high as I could, occasionally taking priority of my swordsmanship skills. After falling another boar, I received the messaging saying that I'd leveled up to seventy-six. I quickly distributed my new skill points and pulled out a crystal. Usually I would save an item like this for an emergency, but because it was late at night and I didn't want to be out in a new floor in an unknown region, I teleported out. Bright light surrounded me as I teleported out of the fifty-seventh floor back down to the thirty-fifth where I resided.
I moved towards the center of the town where the big information brokers liked to hang out. I spotted the one I usually went to and tapped her on the shoulders. Her hooded figure turned around. Though I couldn't see her face, I could tell she was happy to see me.
"Oh, Kirito," she said in her usual mysterious tone. "What brings you here? Do you have anything new for me?"
"I have some new map information for the fifty-seventh floor as well as some information on the sub-commander of the Knights of Blood and the offensive coordinator of the Black Cats of the Full Moon, Sachi." I offered her a display version of my map data. If I could see them, I would bet her eyes were lit up at the sight of the new map. Having contacts with the front line was the lifeline of an information broker and this girl was no exception. She approached me a long time ago and offered me a very good deal on some information I was seeking. From then on, I decided to go back to her whenever I could find her. I would later learn that she always resided on this floor.
"This is absolutely marvelous," she whispered. "No one is able to map as fast and as accurately as you, Kirito. Usually the maps I get this early after a floor has been cleared are very shoddy and not very well filled out. You have at least ten monster spawns as well as about thirty percent of the non-safe zone mapped out. This will be very helpful. How much do you want for this?" She opened her menu and offered a trade to me. I put up the map data.
"The usual I suppose," I offered to her. She obliged, putting for her 50,000 coll into the trade menu. We accepted the trade, and the screens faded back into the air. "Thanks." I was about to walk away when she grabbed my wrist.
"You said you had some information on Asuna and the other girl, yes?"
I paused. I did say that, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to let that information out yet. I decided it was best not to part with that information quite yet. "I'm sorry. I think I will hold onto that information to myself for a little bit longer. You're a very good information broker. I'm sure you'll find out soon enough." With that I disappeared from the information trading circle and headed towards the outskirts of the city where my house was.
My house wasn't very fancy. In fact it was rather drab. I only ever slept there and used some of the storage containers, so the rest of the house was bare. There was almost nothing on the walls, one bed in my room to sleep in, and the kitchen. As I approached my front steps, I saw someone standing outside my door, looking into one of my windows. I coughed, and the person jumped.
"May I help you?" I asked. This was a safe zone, so even if the person tried to attack me, I couldn't get hurt and I could simply send the person to jail. The person turned around and stepped into the light that beamed down from my porch light. In a fashion that she seemed to have adapted with her new personality, Sachi brushed the hair out of her eyes and gave me a shy smile.
"Hey, Kirito. I asked Asuna where your house was after you dashed ahead. She didn't really want to tell me, but I teased her into it, so here I am." She brought both of her hands behind her back and clasped them together, looking at the ground rather than at me. "I-if I'm intruding too much I can leave!" she said.
"That won't be necessary, but I will be having a talk with the sub-commander sometime soon." I opened the door to my house. I paused. The door wasn't locked as it usually was. I was shocked. No one had been able to break through my security until now. I walked into the house, waiting for someone to come out and attack. Sachi and I walked carefully through my small home. We walked into the living room where I had a comfortable chair and a couch. Someone was sitting on the chair. I flipped on the lights and drew my sword. As the lights came on I dropped my sword. "A-Asuna? How did you get in here?" Acknowledging that we'd walked into the room, she stood up.
"We need to talk about what happened back there in the boss's room," she said sternly. Her brow was furrowed in a very pained expression. Her usual light and playful features were masked by dark shadows. "Ever since you left us on the teleportation pad on the fifty-seventh floor, I've been receiving nonstop questions about whether or not we're in league with you." She tapped her rapier on the ground twice. "I know the reason that you set yourself apart from everyone else, and I appreciate you carrying this burden. I just don't know if I want to be called a beater like you." She gave me a wistful look. The burden of being in the league of a beater like me was seriously weighing down on her.
"Perhaps we should all just no associate with Kirito outside of boss fights?" Sachi put in. I didn't like this idea very much. It wasn't just because two of the few well known girls were my friends, but I didn't want to give up people I cared about just because of a miscommunication. "Or maybe a public message saying that we aren't associated with him at all!" This idea I liked better. I nodded my approval without saying much. I couldn't do anything to solve this problem. This would be up to the two of them to find out what to do.
"I think I could make the public announcement for you two if that's what you want." They both looked at me with quizzical looks. "I suppose it really is your fault for following me up to the top of the stairs, but the least I can do is help to try to clear up this misunderstanding." Asuna and Sachi looked at each other, trying to determine the best way to handle the situation. Asuna pouted and crossed her arms. Sachi pursed her lips and fiddled with the buttons on her blazer.
"Actually," Asuna started. "I think it would be best if we did nothing. If it really was all just a misunderstanding, then the situation should pass over by itself. All we have to do is act normal as if none of this every happened. Being associated with Kirito isn't really a bad thing. All they were really saying is that we were the three leaders of the fight with Heathcliff kind of as a figure head of my guild." I found myself nodding at this realization. We were all strong, but I was the solo player. In the end I had to be the strongest.
"I think that would be the best course of action, Asuna, Sachi." I said. "Hopefully this will all pass over, and everything will return to normal." The girls looked relieved. Asuna's facial features relaxed giving her thirty years back. Sachi once again brought her hands behind her back and smiled. "Well I guess it'll be best if you two get going then. It's getting quite late." I walked towards the front door and opened it. The two girls walked through and bade me goodnight. I closed the door. If I was going to stay the beater, I had to get stronger. They both sent me their levels tonight, and they were very close to me. I had to do something that would put me out ahead. I had to risk going out tonight and leveling at the Jungle Boars. I rummaged through all of the storage areas in my house, collecting every crystal I had. After checking to make sure I had an emergency teleportation crystal, I headed out towards the floor portal.
"Here goes nothing," I said to myself. I faced forward. "I am THE beater!" I called out as I warped to the fifty-seventh floor.
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I'm quite happy with how this turned out. I think the tension is building up quite nicely, but according to Rin, talking about a work in progress is 7 years of bad luck haha. Feedback is greatly appreciated. Review or send me a PM with your views or opinions. I'll try to update soon.
K. Kyouko