Alone in a Crowd

by The Lord of Silence

Eltelm is a German player who understands only a few words of Japanese or English. Not that he cared much when a started playing SAO. But when the game becomes a death trap, he'll have to care, as he becomes isolated by the language barrier. He may be a talented warrior, but even if his body survives can his mind live through becoming the Lonely Blade?

10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Enigma

Max Floor: 30 Level: 45

Toji had fallen asleep with her face in a book. Many real world novels had been converted into SAO as readable books. Toji had been leaning back in the chair in her inn room by a fire (since autumn was well on its way now and outside temperatures had begun to drop) reading a copy of the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes when she'd dropped off. She was awakened initially by a knock on her door. Her eyes flickered open blearily and she looked around. Not having actually heard the knock, she shrugged, yawned and stretched. She looked down at the page to try and see where she had left off.

Before she could resume reading however the door to her room burst open, causing her to more or less jump out of her virtual skin. Her reaction was certainly so sudden that it caused a slight FPS drop in the area around her as the game reacted messily to the unexpected movement. She'd accidently slipped up and fallen on the floor, and got up in a rather ill temper to see Eltelm looking around the room as if he expected it to be full of bandits. Indeed, he did have his sword drawn.

"What are you playing at?" Toji asked grumpily. Dusting herself off she picked up the book from where it had fallen and saving the page returned it to her inventory.

"You didn't answer when I knocked," explained the black cloaked teen. "I could see from my friend locator that you were in here, but you weren't moving. I thought, I don't know that someone had broken in here, or something," he finished lamely, realising how stupid it sounded as he said it.

"I wasn't moving because I was asleep you idiot!" exclaimed Toji. "Uh! Forget about it."

"All right then," said Eltelm pleasantly, "I came to get you because I need your help with-

"Hold on," interrupted the blonde, holding up a hand. "What are you supposed to do every time we meet?"

Eltelm groaned and rolled his eyes. "Good afternoon Toji, how are you today?" he asked in Japanese, his voice implying that he didn't give 0.5 Col what the answer was.

"Terrible," she replied in Japanese, "someone disturbed my sleep."

"I thought you said to forget about it!" spluttered Eltelm, switching back to his mother tongue.

"Oh never mind about that!" said Toji, waving her hand. "You did the revision right?"

"Yes I did the revision," said Eltelm, clearly impatient to get past this and to the point. For the last three months now, Toji had been giving him lessons in Japanese and so far he'd progressed well. He could very nearly hold a broken conversation with most other people, and he knew enough that he was able to rent out rooms from the NPC innkeepers.

"And you haven't been sleeping outside have you?" asked Toji sceptically.

"What are you my mother?" asked Eltelm, his tone nearing exasperation. "No, I slept indoors. Just like I have for the past month and a half. Now can I please get to the point?!"

"All right, all right," said Toji with a disinterested yawn. "Do you need me to come along and explain some complex quest for you or something?"

"Sort of," said Eltelm. "This time it's got nothing to do with the language barrier. At least not yet it doesn't."

Toji looked at him curiously. Eltelm didn't usually ask for help unless it was to do with a language problem. He could generally handle most combat situations he got himself into, and if he couldn't he'd usually just teleport out and deal with the target later when he was higher level. "What is it?" she asked curiously.

"Well uh," Eltelm now looked a little embarrassed. "The truth is Toji, you're a good deal smarter than I am. No, you are," he said, cutting over her before she could say anything to the contrary. "You're two grades ahead, speak ten languages including Latin, you practically built the Nerve Gear you're using right now and you know the entire periodic table off by heart! That's an awful lot more than I think I'll ever be able to do. The point is I've encountered a puzzle dungeon, and I can't get past it. I was hoping you might be able to help me with it."

Puzzle dungeons were often renowned for turning away even the best warriors empty handed. Even Kirito had gone away from a few with nothing to show for his trouble. Challenges that would have been simple in a normal video game were far harder to accomplish in a VR game. Toji had only ever seen two in all her time in SAO so far and those had proved quite the challenge. The difficulty was usually to do with executing the tasks themselves though, not figuring out what you needed to do. If Eltelm was asking for her help on the grounds that she was smarter then he must be having trouble figuring out the solutions to the puzzles themselves. Toji-like many video gamers-enjoyed occasional or sometimes even frequent minder benders in games.

There was a problem though, "what sort of monsters are there?" she asked. "You know I can't handle anything at the top end of the spectrum for this Floor."

"Don't worry," said Eltelm, "up the point I got all of the monsters were fairly easy pickings. I'm pretty sure this dungeon's challenge lies in the puzzles, not the combat. Besides," he added with a sideways smile, "I can always protect you."

"Don't get cocky with me!" warned Toji, drawing her own sword and waving it threateningly in front of Eltelm's face. Of course she knew that he could knock it out of her hands easily. In all probability he would end up protecting her if things went bad, and that was a big part of the reason why she didn't party with Eltelm much. She'd never said so, but the fact that he'd most likely have to take care of her all the time wasn't something she liked the idea of. Of course, if she was doing him a favour that was different.

"Where exactly is this dungeon?" she asked.

Eltelm smiled with relief. The blonde hated not getting his own way. Not in a bratty spoiled way, he just didn't like it when events took a detour from his previously laid plans. Toji couldn't help but admit that in real life he was probably a massive nerd with almost no friends or social life. Still, she thought he was sweet. But not like that!

"Floor 45 on the fifth level of the dungeon," he explained. "There's a hidden door which leads down a flight of steps into a new network of tunnels. That's where all the puzzles are."

Toji sighed as she accepted the fact that she wouldn't be reading anymore of her book until far on in the day. Pushing herself to her feet she said, "all right then. Go outside so I can change into my armour and we'll get going."

"Thank you," said Eltelm, hastily ducking out of the room. Toji shook her head and allowed a private smile.

Eltelm lent against the door outside and listened to the slight tinkling sound of Toji switching her ordinary clothes out for her battle dress. Eltelm hadn't bothered with casual since he spent all but a brief span of his time in a combat situation. "You'll have to change that if you want to ask her you know." "Why?" "You can't wear armour on a date you moron!" "But normal clothes are expensive and I'd barely ever wear them." "So what? If she says yes and you turn up in worn out chain mail she'll think you're not taking it seriously." "Ugh! Fine, if she says yes then I'll get some proper clothes all right? Anyway, I may not even ask." "Why not?" "Because it's so risky. What if I upset her?" "You seriously think you'd stop being friends over something like that?" "I don't know! It happens in TV shows sometimes." "And they're such a reliable source of information aren't they?" "Fine, I take your point. It'd be better to ask and make sure, than stay quiet and be stuck wondering."

His thoughts never went any further because at that moment the door behind him opened and he nearly fell backwards. "Oh, watch it!" muttered Toji, nudging him out of the way as she slipped out into the hallway. She looked at him suspiciously, "why were so close to the door?"

"Um, because? I don't know I wasn't really thinking about it," responded Eltelm lamely.

Toji frowned, "what level's your perception?" she asked sternly.

"Uh, let me see," Eltelm flicked through his stats for a brief moment, "Level 58. But what's that got to do with..." His voice trailed off. "I was not using deep sight to peep on you!" he spluttered aghast. "Exactly, you didn't even know that would've worked or you would have tried it by now." "Shut up!" "Well you would have! You experiment with everything at least once don't you?" "That is not the point!"

"Well I should hope not!" she cried. With an exaggerated huff, Toji turned on her heel and made for the stairs.

"But seriously, we've got to try that next time." "Go. And get killed. In a fire."

Toji watched nervously as Eltelm quickly and easily deflected the lesser troll's blows. Calmly knocking the thick stone club to the side, he leapt over the monster's head and slashed it across the back with a glowing swing. The blue grey beast exploded into shards and Eltelm sheathed his sword with a cheerful smile. He looked at her somewhat concerned expression in surprise. "There's nothing to worry about," he said. "The monsters here are easy to deal with so long as you're within the safety margin. You could probably deal with them on your own if you wanted to."

"I don't need you to reassure me," muttered Toji in English. Normally she got a big part of her EXP off of crafting and non-combat related quests, though she did visit the dungeon sometimes now, it was usually with a party of friends. The truth was that she was scared; scared that if she messed up she'd be snuffed out of existence, though she'd never admit as much to anyone. "Especially not to Eltelm," she thought. He probably wouldn't understand what she meant. The worst part was that even though he needed her help with so many things she still felt like she was his inferior, simply because he didn't seem scared to fight on the front lines while she was terrified.

Eltelm frowned as she muttered words he couldn't understand. He couldn't for the life of him understand what the problem was. Had he said something wrong? "I can't have can I? I mean, what's wrong with what I said?" He huffed in frustration and kept walking.

In a few minutes Eltelm came to an abrupt stop. Toji looked around at the walls expectantly, but couldn't see any sign of a secret door. The dungeon walls seemed perfectly smooth and grey like the rest of the passages. There were no symbols on the floor or ceiling; everything looked perfectly normal. "Where's the door?" asked Toji in confusion.

Eltelm looked over his shoulder to make sure no one else was in the area, before opening his inventory. He pressed one of the buttons and small piece of paper appeared in his hands. Looking closely at the paper Eltelm drew his sword and tapped on the wall at several seemingly random points. As he finished there was a grating sound and part of the wall swung inwards. "How did you know it was here?" asked Toji.

Eltelm held up the paper. "I got this as an item drop from a mini-boss," he explained. Showing the piece of paper to Toji he continued, "I figured that each of these points was numbered for a set order, but of course I didn't have any idea what that meant. I figured it out quite by accident really. So long as you're on the same level of the dungeon as the mini-boss was, all you have to do is tap on any wall in accordance with the pattern. I just came here to make sure no one would be around to see."

"What on earth gave you the idea to tap on the wall?"

"Like I said it was an accident," said Eltelm with a shrug. "I just tapped on the wall to make sure i had the positioning and order right in my head. I didn't expect a door to appear." Smiling, he held out his hand in the direction of the door, "ladies first."

"No thank you!" exclaimed Toji. "I don't know what's in there."

"Please yourself," said Eltelm before walking calmly into the dark opening. With a sigh Toji slipped in after him. She jumped slightly as the door snapped shut behind her. The inside was pitch dark and rather hot and stuffy.

"If this is a puzzle then it's certainly a good one," she muttered, feeling around for the side of the room.

"Hold on a minute," said Eltelm. A few seconds later a series of torches ignited spontaneously along the corridor. The passageway was only just wide enough for three people and the roof was low enough that a tall person would have to bend over slightly. The flickering orange light played over simple stone walls and a hard packed earthen floor.

"Thank goodness those aren't real torches," said Toji idly as the pair walked through the crapped space.

Eltelm nodded, "if they were the vapours they would give off would asphyxiate us in less than a minute. Fantasy games tend be unrealistic like that." He laughed, "it's weird really; we talk as if that's reality but well, this is our reality."

"I don't like to think of it like that," said Toji. "This world is no more real than fairies or Santa. We might think we're only two metres away from each other, but in the real world our bodies are probably miles apart."

"I suppose," replied Eltelm. "By the way, I don't think I've ever asked. Where are you from exactly?"

"England," said Toji. "That's where my body is now in all probability. I bought the game online so I didn't have to go to Japan to get it. It was quite the rush buying the game at the time. All two thousand online copies sold out in about twenty seconds so I was pretty lucky to have clicked fast enough. Well, at the time I thought I was lucky."

Eltelm didn't say anything to that. After around two minutes of walking through tight passages the two came to a stop. A wall blocked their path with no apparent way through. Several stones were raised outwards from the wall and there was some writing at the top. Before Toji could read it however, Eltelm had pressed all of the stones into the wall in what seemed an arbitrary order. "I already solved this one," he explained as the wall slide down into the floor. "Although," he added with a sheepish grin, "I figured it out by just pressing all of the stones in a random order until I got the right one, since i can't read the sign."

Toji sighed and shook her head as they emerged into a larger room with what looked like a row of four coffins. On each of them was a statue lying down, presumably of the deceased. "A bunch of spirits came up out of those before," said Eltelm, "I killed them last time though so we don't have to worry about it. The problem," he said, pointing towards the far end of the room, "is that." The exit was barred by a wooden door with a locking mechanism composed of four metal rods inserted into a central block. There were four symbols engraved on it: a snake, a lion, a lamb and a wolf, lined up in that order. "I'm afraid I haven't a clue what to do here," confessed Eltelm.

Toji looked at the lock closely but couldn't see any sort of opening mechanism. "Well," she mused, "since the symbols are in a specific order that should probably mean something. We should check to see if they're repeated somewhere else in the room."

"They're not," said Eltelm, "I already thought of that last time."

Frowning Toji walked over to one of the four coffins and looked at the face of the statue. It was pulled up in an unpleasant sneer that made her shiver. She looked at the face of the man on her right. It was firm set and grim, angry even. Suddenly an idea occurred to her and she looked over at the other two faces. One of them was calm and serene with a slight smile on his face, while the other was stern, proud and noble looking. "I think I've got it!" she exclaimed.

Eltelm looked at her in surprise. "That was quick," he said a little ruefully.

Toji rolled her eyes. "What's the matter?" she teased, "Did I bruise your ego?"

"Oh shut up!" snapped the solo player. "What is the solution then?"

"You see how each of these statues has a distinct expression?" she explained. Eltelm nodded slowly. "Well, do you see those animals? Each one of them is usually associated with a distinct type of personality."

Eltelm's face suddenly lit up in understanding. "I get it," he said. "The noble one is the lion, the angry one is the wolf, the happy one is the lamb and the demented one is the snake."

"I would have gone with sinister but whatever floats your boat," said Toji with a shrug. "Since the animals are shown in a specific order on the lock, I'd say we have to do something to these statues in the same order." Toji proceeded to check the statue she was nearest to for any sort of button or switch. Eltelm bent over another and searched as well, pressing his hands against anything that might be a disguised mechanism. Suddenly, something gave way under Toji's hand with a sharp click. "Aha!" she exclaimed, "It's the jewel that their swords have for pommels."

"All right then," said Eltelm, "this should be easy enough." He clicked in the pommel of the sinister statue, then noble one, the serene one and finally the angry one. Nothing happened. "Well so much for that idea," he sighed. "It looks this isn't quite that simple after all. Maybe we're reading the wrong personalities onto the animals?"

Toji thought for a moment, and then burst out laughing. Eltelm looked at her as if she'd just lost it. "It's silly really," she explained, "we're reading it backwards! We read left to right, they read right to left!" Eltelm groaned and proceeded to press the buttons in the reverse order. There was a loud clanking noise and the four rods slid backwards to the edges of the door. With a second click the lock split in half and the door swung open. "That wasn't so bad," said Toji brightly, walking through into the hallway beyond.

"Speak for yourself," replied Eltelm, "I spent a whole hour trying to figure that one out!"

"Seriously?" asked Toji incredulously. "You never thought the facial expressions were odd?"

"Well, I just assumed they were made to match the personalities of the four ghosts I had to fight when I got in there." He looked rather put out and didn't say anything else until they reached the next puzzle.

It was yet another flat wall, this time with a grid of different coloured squares on it. It was eight squares long on all sides and each one seemed to be a totally random colour. Above the board was a plate with some writing on it. "What's it say?" asked Eltelm.

"First valiant steed of black, second fortress of white and the dark power behind the throne," read Toji. "What the heck does that mean? I suppose they're instructions of some kind, but what do we have to do?"

"Well, the first part sounds like a horse obviously," mused Eltelm, "the second part like a castle and the last part, well I'm not sure. The colours mentioned probably have some significance as well I guess."

Toji tried tapping on some of the squares, but nothing happened. She then proceeded to stare at the board for several moments before throwing her hands in the air. "It doesn't make any sense!" she exclaimed. "I honestly don't have a clue. Light and dark? There aren't any black or white squares on this board!"

Suddenly Eltelm clapped his hand to his head, "oh of course! It's so obvious when you think about it." Toji looked at him surprise. "The board is eight squares by eight squares," he explained. When Toji made no response to that he sighed and said, "It's the same number of squares on a chess board."

"Ooooh! I never played chess so, yeah," she said.

"Neither did I," replied Eltelm pointedly. Thankfully he didn't hold onto the point and kept talking, "the black steed is first black knight; the one on the left. Then it's the white rook on the right and finally the black queen."

"Power behind the throne huh?"

"That's what they like to put in a lot of stories yeah," said Eltelm. "So, the question is which side is black and which one is white? Is the board along the y-axis, or the x-axis?" After thinking for a few moments he shrugged and said, "eh, we can just try all possible options until we get it I guess." He then proceeded to tap away various combinations on the board until finally the squares he tapped lit up a glowing blue. The board shattered into fragments as if it had been destroyed and the wall slide down into the floor.

Toji sighed, "there's was probably a way to work it out you know."

"Maybe. Probably," admitted Eltelm, "but odds are it was faster my way."

"You should probably stop doing that sort of thing you know," she warned. "In some games puzzles damage you if you get them wrong."

Eltelm frowned at that, "yeah, you're probably right," he said. "Fine then, I'll be more careful on the next one."

A minute after he finished the two came out into a large room. "Umm, I'm not sure you can do this one carefully," said Toji.

"Maybe not," agreed Eltelm.

The room was about sixty metres long and forty metres wide with a roof around forty metres high. The floor was covered in streaks of fire that exploded upwards from in between the cracks in the flagstones periodically. At several points the floor vanished completely to be replaced by streams of lava. Chains hung from the ceiling and platforms were bolted onto the walls at several points. "How's your agility score?" asked Eltem. "I'm not a big fan of platformers myself."

Toji bit her lip nervously. "62," she admitted.

"Well someone's been focusing haven't they?" said Eltelm with a sideways grin. "Mine's only 50. You should probably take this one then."

"Are you sure? What if there's no way around?" asked Toji, hurriedly trying to think of excuses not to do the challenge alone.

"There's a leaver at the far end," pointed out Eltelm. "Odds are it shuts down the fire and all the other stuff. If it doesn't I can try it, but it's still probably best if you give this a shot first. I've seen you fight; you're pretty dam fast. You've got much better chances of managing this than I do."

"Well, um, I," Toji's voice trailed off. "I can't do it!" she cried suddenly.

Eltelm looked taken aback at that, "why not?" he asked.

"I'm afraid," she said, looking down at the floor. "I can't expect you to understand that. You're constantly on the frontlines so this sort of stuff is normal for you. You never seem to be scared of any kind of danger in this game, but I am! I'm absolutely terrified every time I go outside that I'll get smashed into shards and just vanish away into a string of zeroes and ones in the game's memory banks." Her hands shook slightly at her sides. "I'm a coward," she hissed, "and you're one of the bravest people I've ever met."

There was silence for a while and then, "is that honestly what you think?" asked Eltelm. "You actually believe I'm not scared of what this world can do to me? I know that if I fall off a tall cliff, or if I screw up in a fight and take too bad a hit then I'm gone. And of course that knowledge is frightening as all hell."

"Then why do you still keep putting yourself at risk like you do?" she asked, looking up at him. What she saw surprised her. He wasn't looking at her with sympathy, disgust or even confusion. His eyes had something in them that made Toji feel like she wanted to hug him and run away at the same time. It was, it was, she wasn't sure what it was.

"I suppose that's a good point," he said. "There are a lot of other strong frontliners who could win the game without me. The Assault Team could probably beat the entire game without my help. But imagine if everyone thought that. There wouldn't be an assault team. It isn't fair to ask other people to do things for you; you need to try and do them yourself. That doesn't mean you can't work with someone to achieve a goal you might desire, it just means you can't let everyone do everything for you."

"But, but I can't!" gasped Toji, "I'm too afraid! I'm just a worthless bookworm who likes to think she's smart. That's all I was in the real world, and that's all I am here."

"I can't believe that," said Eltelm with a slight smile. "If it wasn't for you I would have kept pushing myself to stay on the frontlines despite not knowing how I was meant to play this game. Odds are I would have died Floors ago. You've helped me to form relationships with people here as well. It's thanks to you that I don't have to sleep in the rain anymore. It's thanks to you I don't, well, cry anymore."

Toji looked at him in surprise. "What?"

"I think you heard me," he said. "Some many times before I met you I ended up crying myself to sleep. I was so lonely and miserable back then. I tried to channel all of that misery into anger to help me keep up with the game, but I knew it wouldn't be long before I screwed up and died. You saved me from that. I don't think I could ever call you useless."

"I'm still a coward," Toji mumbled.

"I don't believe that either. If you were a coward you'd still be crouching back in the Town of Beginnings with the Aincrad Liberation army. But you're not. You're here, on the front lines."

"But I don't fight!" she protested. "Not like the rest of you do anyway. I just farm of weak monsters outside the dungeons and only go in with a party. I only came today because you said I wouldn't have to worry about strong monsters."

"You show up for every single Boss fight don't you? And there's nothing to be ashamed about in only coming to the dungeons with a party you know. Most people do, even the frontliners. You don't have to be a soloer to be important. There's nothing wrong with caring about your life you know."

Toji felt several tears running down her cheeks, and finally gave into the impulse she'd had gnawing at the back of her mind. She threw her arms around Eltelm's neck and buried her face in his chest. The solo player froze for a moment in shock, then returned her embrace. The two stood still for several minutes while Toji sobbed into Eltelm's cloak and he quietly held her. Finally she stopped crying and looked him in the eye. "We can go home if you want," he said. "You don't have to do this. You're far more valuable to me than any items we might get from this dungeon."

Toji found herself smiling. She stepped back and looked at the spurting flames and bubbling lava. "No," she said, her eyes filled with determination. "A little fire never hurt anyone did it?"