ALO: The Rangers
Feeling better. :)
Sorry there was no chapter yesterday.
Chapter 9: Aincrad #3
(1st person, Sinon, February 4th, 9:56pm)
We flew off the platform and in the direction of Arun, planning to teleport to the Leprechaun main city and buy a bow there.
The flight was peaceful and the wind blowing in my face felt nice but it was also quite short and only took about 10 minutes.
We landed next to world tree and walked into the Leprechaun gate, unlike the ones in Aincrad where you called out a destination and in a flash of light teleported there these gates were a completely smooth transition and you could see the city on the other side, they were basically permanently open corridor crystals.
As we stepped through we looked around and saw lots of factory-like buildings but right now, because it was quite late to be playing games, there were quite few people.
There were various signs and one of them said that there were weapons of every kind for sale there so we went in.
Bells rang as we opened and closed the door.
It appeared empty but there was two doors, one of which likely led to the blacksmithing area oh the building.
Sure enough, a few seconds later the door opened, revealing a rather short brown haired Leprechaun wearing a thick, brown apron.
"Hello, what can I do for you?" he asked.
"I want to buy your best bow." I said.
"Longbow, short-bow, or crossbow?" he asked.
"Longbow." I said.
"Right, that would be this one." he said taking a bow from behind him, probably his display of 'best weapons'.
"Can I try it out?" I asked.
"Sure. There is a range with some dummies and targets out back." he said, walking over to the other door and opening it.
We walked outside and saw a practice range with a few dummies and targets.
He handed me the bow and I equipped my quiver of arrows.
I took one of the arrows and drew the bow back, taking aim at the farthest target.
I released the arrow and it slammed into the center of the target with enough force to nearly topple it over.
"It's good. How much does it cost?" I asked.
"30000 yrd, it is a good bow." he said.
That was 1.5 times the price of my previous bow, but this one did seem to be much stronger.
"Okay." I said and traded him the money for the bow.
We left the shop and walked back through the gate to Arun, taking off and flying towards new-Aincrad.
10 minutes later we landed on the platform at the bottom of new-Aincrad and teleported to the first floor.
"Now to find the rest of them." Kirito said.
"Is there a friend locater in ALO?" I asked.
"Maybe, I can check." Kirito said while opening his menu.
After navigating for a moment he said "Yes, there is. They have gone in the direction of the boss dungeon in old-Aincrad."
"Well let's go catch up to them, though I wonder, your sword from the 50th floor should be able to kill the first floor boss in 1 or 2 hits, so is it nerfed while in Aincrad?" I asked.
He once again opened his inventory and tapped on his sword in it.
"It seems to be the case, it is a little more powerful then my sword I carried from the beta-test into the release was at the start. I'm guessing the same is true for the armor we're wearing." he said.
"Let's go catch up to them, even with nerfed gear we should have no trouble on the first floor." I said, starting to walk in the direction of Horunka.
"Wait, there is something I want to check first." Kirito said.
"What?" I asked, what could Kirito want to check.
"The [Monument of Life], I wonder if they kept it, replaced it, or removed it." Kirito said.
"I guess that's reasonable." I said and started walking in the direction of the [Black Iron Palace].
A few minutes later we arrived at the palace and walked in, once in this palace was the place where people respawned, then a memorial, and now, something unknown to us.
We walked through the doors into the chamber and saw a large stone tablet like the [Monument of Life], but it was blank expect for at the top center where the words "Monument of Swordsmen" were written.
We walked around the monument to look at the other side and on the other side were written 2288 names, the names of the people who died inside SAO.
"Well that answers my question." Kirito said sadly, looking at the vast number of names written on the stone.
"Let's get out of here." I said.
"Yeah." Kirito said with a sad nod and walked out, I quickly followed after him.
We ran along the roads and fields in the direction the dungeon was in old-Aincrad to catch up to our friends.
We reached Horunka in about 20 minutes because we ran the whole way there at a near sprint.
The reason we were able to run the whole way is because you don't really need to breathe and by the end of SAO our [Agility] was so high we could run it trivially, which meant we were used to being able to run like that so we were able to run like that in ALO.
We walked along the roads in Horunka in the direction of the dungeon and just before reaching the edge of town we saw our merry group of friends, chatting loudly, as usual...
We ran up to them completely silently and Kirito said "Hi."
They all jumped up slightly and turned "Why can't you two do anything normally?" asked Lisbeth.
"I am pretty sure sneaking up on people is normal, at least among teenagers." I said.
"Trying to sneak up on people is normal, most people aren't completely silent when they walk." Lisbeth said.
"It comes naturally to me and I think it is rubbing off on Sinon." Kirito said and I nodded.
"Ugh!" said an exasperated Lisbeth.
"Liz, just drop it, you can't win." Asuna said.
"True that." I said.
"Anyway, what were we planning on doing? It is getting late so let's hurry." Kirito said.
"Hopefully find and kill the first floor boss, though we probably won't be able to find it today." Asuna said.
"That sounds fun." Kirito said and started walking in the direction of the woods.
I ran after him and the others just stood there for a moment before following.
The forest—like in old-Aincrad—was filled with [Little Nepents], which we dispatched like we did in SAO.
We split into groups to search for the dungeon, the groups were Kirito and I—obviously—Leafa and Horum—also obvious—Klein and Egil—just because—and then Asuna, Silica, and Lisbeth—because otherwise someone would need to be on their own—after we split into groups we head off in various directions, hoping the dungeon was in this area.
Kirito and I head towards the place where the dungeon was in old-Aincrad, hoping it would still be there.
Another nepent down.
"Hey Sinon?" Kirito said from a little ahead of me.
"Yeah? What?" I asked.
"Why don't we have some risky fun. Something that might result in us dying." Kirito said.
"What are you thinking?" I asked, interested in a challenge.
"See that [Little Nepent] over there?" Kirito said pointing to somewhere blocked from me by a tree, I walked up to him and looked where he was pointing.
A little ways away was a [Little Nepent], but unlike the normal ones it had a large fruit on its head. If that fruit is damaged the smell summons all nearby [Little Nepents], and by nearby I mean a few kilometers.
"Yeah." I said, knowing where this was going.
"How about you shoot the fruit?" he asked.
Well if I do, we might die, which has little penalty, and if I don't then the rest of the search will be just as boring as the beginning.
"Sure." I said and drew back my bow, aiming for the fruit.
I released the arrow and moments later a fowl stench filled the air.
[Little Nepents] started swarming to the source of the stench, the destroyed fruit, and then searching for the perpetrators, us in this case.
They one by one started moving in our direction.
"I think they noticed us." I said quietly, though they searched by scent not sight or sound.
"I think so too. Well, we just made the job more fun for us and easier for everyone else." Kirito said.
"Yeah, so are we going to fight them one at a time a lot of times or all at once?" I asked.
"Let's try all at once and switch to one at a time if we start dying." Kirito said.
"Fine by me, you're the one doing most of the fighting anyway. I'm just sitting back here providing cover." I said.
"Okay, well then, cover me, I guess." Kirito said and ran forward.
Sword out he slashed at the first one and cut off most of the vines it attacks with.
I shot an arrow at its exposed weak spot, killing it.
Kirito parried vine after pine from all directions, with one sword, somehow, while I picked them off one by one, and because they used smell to find people, they still hadn't gone after me.
Not-so-slowly we killed all of them and Kirito had only been hit a few times but it was still more damage then he had taken in SAO except against bosses with few exceptions.
"That was tiring." said Kirito walking up to me.
"Not for me." I said teasingly.
"You didn't move more then a few meters." Kirito said.
"True." I said.
"Let's get moving." Kirito said.
"Can we just sit here? I feel lazy." I said jokingly.
"Let's go." Kirito said.
"Carry me." I said, expecting him to say no.
A second later he answered "Sure."
"Wha-?" I asked, surprised by his answer.
Before I could react he picked me up his back and started walking so I scrambled around and got upright and said "You know I was joking, right?"
"Yeah, that's why I did it." Kirito answered.
We, correction, Kirito, walked through the forest, which was now mostly clear of monsters because we had lured and killed them all earlier.
We walked out of the forest and saw the dungeon in exactly the same place it was in old-Aincrad.
"Let's message the others and tell them we found the dungeon?" I asked.
"That was the plan." Kirito said and opened his menu, I looked over his shoulder and saw him go into the friends list and send a message to all of them saying that we found the dungeon.
After he sent the message he said "Can you get off now?"
"You're the one who picked me up despite knowing I was joking." I said as I let go of him and dropped to the ground.
We walked down the hill towards the dungeon and saw the [Kobold Troopers] waiting there for us like the last two times.
I shot an arrow at the nearest one's throat, killing it in one hit, and found that the others didn't attack us.
"Why aren't they attacking us?" I asked.
"Maybe because it died instantly it didn't have a chance to alert the others?" Kirito thought out loud.
"If that is the case, wouldn't we just be able to sit here and kill them one by one?" I asked.
"Not if the others see it die, none of them were looking in its direction when it died." Kirito said.
"Right, well we can wait till they turn the other way and then shoot." I said.
"Let's have a competition, who can kill more of them without being noticed by the other ones. If one of us gets noticed that is an automatic loss." Kirito said.
"To someone listening to this you would sound crazy, given that I have a bow and you have a sword." I said.
"But you know that it isn't that impossible for me to win." he answered.
"Yeah, I do." I said, knowing that he can walk silently, it wasn't that unfair a competition.
"Let's start now, we go either till they are all dead or the others show up, whichever happens first." Kirito said and silently walked off, keeping himself out of sight of the kobolds.
Well, time to stop paying attention to him and focus on killing them myself.
I looked around at the kobolds, counting them.
There were 23 so if I kill at least 12 of them and then just hide I win, though whether I can kill 12 before Kirito does is quite uncertain.
They were all looking away from the dungeon so the ones nearest to the dungeon are the most likely to be unseen by any others.
The one farthest from me, or closest to the dungeon, was about 113 meters away and currently had nobody watching it.
113 meters was quite the long-shot (hehehe) and even I'm not sure if I can make that.
If I miss, I will still most likely not be noticed as long as I make sure the arrow hits the ground so it is quiet.
I raise my bow and look at the grass along the path the arrow will take to ascertain the wind and see that the wind is generally blowing in one direction, and that direction was parallel to the line between me and the kobold.
This means I need to shoot slightly lower then normal because the wind will speed the arrow up.
I drew back my bow and adjusted the angel, visualizing the path the arrow will take.
Once I was satisfied I released the arrow.
It flew along the trajectory I predicted with minor deviation and hit the kobold's head, killing it.
I mentally cheered and went to picking targets.
I counted them again and saw 21 which meant that Kirito had also gotten one during this time.
Finding my next target, a lone kobold which wandered far from the group for whatever reason, I raised my bow, unlike the last one this one was a measly 46 meters away and should be relatively easy, though the wind was blowing 43° to the left of the path this time.
I drew back my bow and aimed about 3° right and and raised it to the appropriate angel.
I released my arrow and it flew along the path I expected and hit the kobold in the head, killing it.
I counted the remaining kobolds and found only 18 of them, that meant Kirito was one ahead now.
(11:47)
Well both Kirito and I had 11 kills and there was one kobold left.
It was quite near me so it would be an easy shot.
Taking aim and drawing back my bow, I waited for the kobold to walk towards or away from me to make it easier to hit and just as it did I released the arrow.
Just as the arrow reached the forehead the head was removed from the shoulders by a pitch-black katana.
I ran the distance between me and Kirito and slowed to a halt right next to him.
""Was that a tie...?"" we both said at the same time.
"Let's call it that." Kirito said.
"I don't mind, it was fun though." I said.
Kirito was probably about to answer when we heard footsteps a bit away and turned to see Leafa and Horum.
They ran over to us and Leafa asked "Weren't there a bunch of guards here last time?"
"Where do you think they went?" I asked sarcastically.
"You two killed them?" she asked.
"Yeah, and we had a competition, whoever kills more of them without getting noticed wins, getting noticed is disqualification." I said.
"Isn't that unfair towards Kirito, I mean you have a bow and he has a sword." Leafa said.
"How many times has he snuck up on you without you having the remotest clue he was there?" I asked.
Leafa looked up as if remembering and started raising fingers one by one, once she reached ten she just sighed and said "A lot."
"Exactly." I said.
"So who won?" Horum asked.
"Tie, we killed the 23rd one at the exact same time." Kirito said.
"Oh..." Horum said.
Then in quick succession the remaining two groups showed up and we went into the dungeon.
We split up again once inside the dungeon and all found the stairs to the next floor around the same time in 4 different ways.
Kirito and I slightly first "Well that's a surprise." Lisbeth said sarcastically.
"What is?" Kirito asked.
"That you two were the first ones here." she answered.
"Ooh..." Kirito said.
Sorry this one is on the short side, I plan to finish ALO in a few more chapters and then move onto GGO, which hopefully will go better.
Well anyway, please favorite, follow, and tell me what you think with a review.
Anyway, cya me oouuttiiyy!
