Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online or their characters. Any character not found in the original novel belongs to me though!
A/N: the novel gives very little information about the floors, you know? Kind of hard to work out some things: Kirito can have 14,500 hp at level 78 and yet his battle healing can only heal 600 hp per second? That would mean that at level 78, he has a level 60 Battle recovery… And I just noticed it…. Bah...
I'm editing all previous chapters to change this error. Also, equipment would definitely give some health since one would need 708 points in strength for at least 14.5k hp at lv78.
Monica's stats (1/2/2023)
Level: 20
Strength: 20
Agility: 40
Health/Base: 2360/822hp
Skills: One Handed Dagger Lv63, Battle Healing Lv294 (210hp/10sec), Familiar Communication Lv54, Familiar Recovery Lv48
Equipment:
Dragon Dancer's Costume (Clothes): Strength+5 and Agility+5. Gives random buffs, no speed reduction
Mithril Chainmail+3 (2D, 1Q):HP+700, reduces speed by 5-1%. Durability: 400+100
Mithril Bracers +3 (2D, 1Q): HP+300, reduces speed by 6-1%. Durability: 350+100
Mithril Shin guards +3 (2D, 1Q): HP+300, reduces speed by 6-1%. Durability: 350+100
Queen's Dagger +3 (2Q, 1D): 150-160dmg, Strength+3 and Agility+4, no speed reduction due to 2Q enhancement. Durability: 350 (+50 from 1D enhancement)
A/N: That's a wrap! Now on to the story! ... Yes, Monica is now forced to use a dagger…
Chapter 6: Reflections and Regrets
1st February 2023, Aincrad 8th floor, Wood Elf's outpost
"Thinker! Switch!" I yelled to Thinker as I advanced forward, Dagger posed for executing the skill, Critical X. The dark knife glowed an unearthly white as I struck the Wood Elf twice in the head, forming an 'X' in the middle of his face. The female elf screamed in agony as she shattered into polygons.
"Thanks for the save, Monica." Thinker patted my back as he watched his health regenerate.
"We wouldn't have so much trouble if we weren't with Kibaou…" I muttered while staring at his four-man team, engaged in combat with another pair of Wood Elf Warriors. His team constantly lured the elves to my back when they thought I wasn't looking, resulting with Thinker, our guild leader, running in to save me. It was highly annoying and irritating, trying to avenge Diabel like this. Thinker gave me a sad smile as he moves off to attack another Wood Elf.
"Damn it! Kibaou! Do something with the holes of your party!" I bellowed at the four-man group.
"Gives us some time, lady! We're not used to having a four-man group, okay!" He yelled an excuse while I stabbed a male Wood Elf Warrior in the chest before executing Critical X on him.
I growled as another Wood Elf Warrior slashed me from behind. Kibaou's a prick; I mentally reminded myself this as I spun around to engage the elf in combat.
After defeating him in combat, I went to check on my party members. Thinker seems to be doing fine, I concluded as he blocked the sword skill with his shield. My wolves seem to be doing fine as well, tearing elf after elf in to pieces. Looking at Kibaou's party, I was surprised to see their formation completely messed up; two of them were running to me while the others were sprawled on the floor, fearfully looking at the white-haired Elven Officer.
I sighed as I dashed in to intercept the Officer's sword with my dagger before punching him in the stomach with my other hand. Using the impact from the interception, I swiftly swung down of plunge the dark dagger into the Elf's head.
Yanking the weapon out of the male's skull, I turned around to see the frightened expression of Kibaou.
"Really… Then I think you should go back to your six man party…" I gave a cheerful sigh this time while watching Kibaou exploded into a furious string of swears.
2nd February 2023, Aincrad 7th floor, Tsukinomo.
Recalling that memory in my dreams always ends with me gasping for breath from laughing so much. Really, Kibaou had given such an unmanly scream when he fell down from the intimidation of the Field Boss there. Thinking like that caused my laughter to act up again. After calming myself down, I bit off a portion of the Boar's Meat I had cooked the day before while passing some of it to my familiars. This place had such a serene atmosphere, with monsters acting like NPCs. Not many people realized this, too focused on clearing the next floor. Perhaps when the next line of adventurers arrived here to train, would they realize it? I finished the rest of the meat as the wolves looked at me for guidance.
"Let's go…" I simply smiled as I left the tree house.
I nicknamed the village of the seventh floor 'Monster' Village when the clearers arrived from defeating the sixth floor boss, The Ravenous Vulture. Despite the ongoing war since the third floor, the village was completely unharmed. Wood Elf Warriors chatted casually with Dark Elf Rangers while Tribal Warriors sold items. It was completely different from the animosity between the Elves, where the two armies constantly clashed against one another. The place reminded me of the game I played a decade ago, RaiderZ. There was one place in that game where the players had to choose which side to join as well, causing a rift between those who chose the Mad-Eye Trolls and those who chose the White-Yeti Ogres.
This series of floors has also caused a rift between the players, and politics have started going on in the guilds. My guild, MMO Today, was no exception. Compared to the past where everyone listened to Thinker, now the other leaders constantly forces him to sit at the guild hall, trying to get people to see eye to eye. Why are people so power hungry? I wondered while watching the battles at the Monster Arena. The player swiftly cut down the four lions that surrounded him, using both sword and shield to block and stab the opponents. I could not help but applaud.
This man, dressed fully in red armor, continued to cut down the competition easily, decimating the set up of the monsters. It was as if he knew the patterns of the monsters and how to counter them. But before he reached the 35th round, he opted out of the Gauntlet, teleporting the man out of the arena. I left the Coliseum to find this man, if this man could observe the patterns of the monsters in the monster arena so easily, he could also pinpoint weak spots and weakness of the floor bosses at the front line!
I found him heading towards the tavern, though it was more like I crashed into him. Flinching in pain, I took his hand while getting up.
"Sorry for bumping into you like that." I apologized to him. He seems surprised to find me here.
"Oh… It wasn't a problem, not like my health could decrease here anyway." He replied as he gave a serious look. Dusting myself, I offered a proposal for him.
"I saw your performance at the Arena; you could immediately pick out their patterns and weak spots in the arena so quickly. Why not join the front lines?" On hearing the word 'front lines' he was uncomfortable immediately.
"Oh, it's because I am not certain whether my level was acceptable for the front lines. I'm level twenty five." Level twenty five!? He was at the same level as Kirito yet he was uncertain about joining them?
"Nonsense! That level is way higher than the average level, you can definitely join us!" I cheerfully replied while masking my shock. The surprised face of his was so cute!
"Really? Do you know when the next meeting is held?" He demanded, excited. Trying to calm him down, I said.
"Most likely when they are two floors below the boss."
He visibly deflated after hearing that.
"Don't-Don't worry! Why not party up first so that I can if you can help out with clearing the front lines?" I suggested when I saw his reaction to my first statement. I was feeling rather bad for getting his hopes up.
"Really?"
"Sure! Even though I was the one who offer, I still need to see how good you are at fighting, can you work in a team?" He seems to ponder for a moment before accepting my invitation.
"The floor we are going to is floor nine; we are going to do a bit of mapping, alright?"
"Do we have a party to go with?"
"Of course! I was going to do some mapping today with my other friends. But we have a vacant slot for people to take. Do you know the name of the village at floor nine?" I asked while dragging him
"That would be… Narakuni… Right?" I just gave him the face that said 'are you serious?'
"No, it's Serof. Where the heck is Narakuni anyway?"
2nd February 2023, Aincrad 9th floor, Orc's Tower 17th floor.
Monica
Narakuni is the village at the 10th floor! How'd you know that name!?
Kirito
I frowned when I received the message in after mapping. It was my fault to send it before entering the boss tower anyway. The man, Heathcliff found the stairs to the eighteenth and nineteenth floor quite quickly when we started to map. He was really observant; pointing out traps or secret areas, once he even found a passageway what we thought was a dead end. Heathcliff was a beta tester, I concluded safely after receiving that message.
Reaching the teleport gates, I teleported to the seventh floor again about to call it a day when I saw a male Wood Elf Warrior slumped under a tree, arrows protruding out of his body. From the puddle of blood under him, I could immediately deduce that it was a quest.
In this game, you cannot bleed…
"Are you okay?" On hearing that, the male's eye fluttered open. His lips parted to pronounce one word.
"Help…"
Immediately after that, his eyes closed again. A notification appeared on my UI.
Bring the collapsed elf to Ooljee
I half dragged, half carried the male into the village and to the potions merchant. On seeing the NPC, she asked a question while heading to get some potions.
"What happened?"
"I found him collapsed outside the place, brought him here since he is badly injured."
The next few moments were set about to recover the fallen warrior's health. When his health reached yellow, he finally opened his eyes. Seeing me, he tried to draw his sword, only to find that he does not have it. Ooljee scoffed at him.
"Don't fight in the village, you war-mongering elf."
Still wary of me, he asked Ooljee.
"Where am I?"
"You're in Tsukinomo, the neutral city. "
"I thank you for your help. Now, if you'll excuse me, I am leaving fo-."
"You're not leaving until you've paid me." Ooljee interrupted him. He finally looked at her, saw what she was, and growled.
Ooljee was a female Dark Elf; Short silver hair and dark skin, dressed in white robes with blue forest pattern. Seeing his anger, she retorted.
"I'd told you that this place was a neutral village, which applies to the Wood Elves and Dark Elves. No fighting in the-"The Wood Elf tackled her, fist ready to pummel her. As she landed on the floor, she used the momentum to flip the male over. They recovered at the same time, circling one another.
The other NPCs as well as some players started gathering round to see the fight in the village. It was clearly designed to let Ooljee win. Every attack made by him was countered by one of her strikes. The male's health soon depleted to red and he could not stand anymore.
Ooljee straddle him, fist ready to punch him should he resist. Looking for a way out and finding none, the Wood Elf Warrior relaxed in resignation. Ooljee got off him and offer him a hand, which he brushed off as he stood up.
"The fight is not over…" He seethed at her. She smirked as she crossed her arms, as if challenging him. Gritting his teeth, he took a step forward, getting his face socked by a right hook from Ooljee. Dazed, he crashed onto the floor, rubbing his cheeks.
"It's been a long time since I did that to anyone…Now may I know your name?"
He contemplated for a moment before nodding his head.
"Anshuman. My name's Anshuman." He replied in turn as he got back up.
"Right, Anshuman. Don't go around attacking the Dark Elves like so, some of the Wood Elves may be offended by that." She warned and slapped his shoulder before going back into her stall. The crowd dispersed after that. Anshuman shook his head before walking the opposite direction of her.
The only that went into my mind was… What the heck?
Quest Complete
EHHH!?
6th February, Aincrad 8th floor, Wood Elves' Camp.
I tried to stifle a yawn while waiting for the quest to start. While I was quite shocked from the first quest, it turned out to span a few more quests. The Wood Elf Warrior Anshuman started coming back more and more often to the village, sometimes rather depressed, other times in thought.
The 'quests' he received from the Wood Elves Capital were unreasonable supplies from the monsters around floor 8, where he was located at. Most of the mobs needed a party of two minimum to kill. Since it was a solo quest for me, I ended up have a hard time with the fights, but it did help me improve my skills.
One of them was the Tribal Wolves in floor seven; I almost got killed while fighting them on the first try. If Klein's party did not find me at that time, I wouldn't be here.
"Thanks for the save."
"Whoa, Monica, is that you? You look so different now!"
"Ah… Yeah… It's a good piece of clothing with a unique effect… Hey-ya, Dale, Kuni, Dyna, Issin, Harry. Wish we'd met on better circumstances."
"What were you thinking? Taking on the wolves alone? Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Harry yelled at me.
"Ah… I needed to do it for a quest, and no one could help me at that time…"
"Klein-sama! A damsel requires assistance! What should we do?" Dale dramatically queried his guild leader. Klein acted deep in thought, before proclaiming.
"We shall help the lady, of course! Our training can wait!"
The party cheered on hearing that, and I could not help but giggle at their theatrics.
"I'm no lady in distress… But I could really use some help…" I replied after calming down.
Thanks to them, I managed to cut some time in completing the quest. Anshuman had decided to leave the battlefield after that quest, which brings us to where we are.
He told us to meet at the entrance of the Wood Elves' Camp at sunrise, meaning seven o'clock. And he is planning to do a little bit of sabotage before leaving.
We arrived at six-thirty in the morning and waited for the fireworks. Before long a loud explosion could be heard, and sprung into action.
We ran through the camp, slaughtering the NPCs disoriented by the blast. One after another, they collapsed, until we reached Anshuman.
Giving a nod of acknowledgement, he started leading us to Tsukinomo, killing Wood Elf Warrior after Wood Elf Warrior. However, a few minutes after leaving the camp, we encountered a group of Dark Elf Warriors, that's where things got complicated.
Seeing a Wood Elf with us, they thought we were betraying them and attacked us. Reasoning with them was not an option apparently, and we hoped that killing those NPCs did not cause any distrust from our faction.
Anshuman made it to Tsuyinomo safely, but we received another quest from the Dark Elves now.
Damn it… When would the chain quest end!
9th February, Aincrad 9th floor, Ogre Lord's Throne
I glanced at the Queen's Dagger held in my left hip. Now I really want to throw it away… The Dark Elf Queen had me do all sorts of uninteresting chores for the next few chain quest before sending me in to fight the King's Bodyguard before she forgave me. I was really furious for such stupid filler quest when that happened. Why could she just send me in earlier! The Bodyguard was not that hard to defeat now compared to when I did it for the Queen's Dagger. When I find a Katar better than this weapon, I am going to sell it off…
The first time was a lot harder since my weapon could not do Damage over Time.. Now with the Queen's Dagger smeared with Level 5 Poison, it was a breeze. Klein's party distracted the Flag Boss while I dealt enough damage to finish it off. Just like that, the Dark Elf Queen forgave me, rewarding me with a decent amount of experience points along with a Elven Gem.
The gem summons a Dark Elf familiar for the user. Unlike the other AIs who knew what to do, this one did not know anything. I had to start teach it how to use sword skills and what not. She had a similar interface to mine, and could equip any weapons given to her. Omega, the alpha wolf, did not like her initially, but sooner or later he warmed up to her. When he did, so did the other wolves.
My tree house have suddenly become a family of AIs, the Dark Elf Prism being the support of my character with her Elven Bow while the four wolves assisted my in taking damage. In combat they are extremely useful, but taking care of them is extremely annoying!
"Monica-san?" Prism worriedly whispered to me. "Are you ready?"
"Huh… Oh Yeah…" I snapped out of my thoughts.
"Alright then… Let's go." Heathcliff declared as he entered the room. Kirito, Asuna, Prism and I followed in shortly.
Ninth of February, eight-thirty in the afternoon, the ninth floor was cleared with minimal death. But among them was Prism… I… I regretted bringing her to the boss raid… Wish I could bring her back, but… there's no way to do that at until the forty-seventh floor…By then it will be too late to save her.
9th February, Aincrad 10th floor, Unknown location.
A red figure stood at the centre of the area, holding a flower in his left hand and a pearl-colored earring in his right. Pouring a drop of liquid of the flower, the jewel glowed a bright white before a dark skinned female stood next to him.
"Who… Who are you! Where's Monica! I-I need to get back to her!" The female screeched while the figure manipulated his user interface. She suddenly felt drowsy, collapsing once she realized what he did.
"Well… a bottom-up AI huh? You'll be useful for the final encounter…" The figure murmered as he teleported away with the girl.
A/N: Unoriginality to the max… I failed in this chapter… The next one would be better! I promise! 2023 really has nothing good for me to do... T_T
Monica's Stats: 31/10/2023
Level: 49
Strength: 49
Agility: 98
Health/Base: 10138/1542hp
Skills: One Handed Dagger Lv254, Battle Healing Lv750 (530hp/10sec), Familiar Communication Lv232, Familiar Recovery Lv224, Night Vision Lv184, Acrobatics Lv165
Equipment:
Dragon Dancer's Costume (Clothes): Strength+5 and Agility+5. Gives random buffs, no speed reduction
Silver Chainmail+3 (2D, 1Q): Strength+40 (800+100hp), reduces speed by 5-1%. Durability: 800+100. HP+3500
Silver Bracers +2 (1D, 1Q): Strength +20 (400+50hp), reduces speed by 6-1%. Durability: 400+50. HP+1500
Dragonian Shin guards +3 (2D, 1Q): Strength +20 (400+100hp), reduces speed by 6-1%. Durability: 550+100. Reflects 50% of the damage impacted on the equipment. HP+1600
Howling Gale (Katar) +6 (2S, 2D, 2Q): 660-670+20dmg, no speed reduction. Durability: 1000+100
Dark Elf Pendant: Strength +3
Have a sneak peek at the next chapter.
"What the-? I didn't add this before…" I gasped as I pressed the recent skill added to my list.
"Dagger Skill? Not likely… Familiar Communication and Recovery? Perhaps, but there are other players who have it… Maybe both of them?" I mused while my wolves gathered around me, trying to tell me something… Wait, tell me something?
"Maybe something to do with what items I had? Not possible, far as I know, I have no special items yet other than my weapon."
"What was that?" Kirito yelled at me, I shrugged.
"I think it's better not to let anyone know of this until we figured out what are the conditions."
"Want to try it out?" I cautiously asked while sending the duel invitation.
