In celebration of Trails of Cold Steel English release!
The Malga Mountains were a series of peaks and highlands to the north of Rolent. To its west was the River Verte; going further west from the River on the other side of the Verte Bridge was the Nebel Valley in the Bose Region. The mountainous region was the most likely places players with skills in mining could find Septium veins, but even mining carried risks because miners with a full inventory of Septium ore and Sepith shards were favorite targets for monsters.
Yes, monsters could smell Septium even when it was concealed in inventories. It was, after all, their favorite food. Humans were simply fleshy appetizers that conveniently came with the meal.
The region was built to the typical expectations of a highland; the environment was dominated by colors of dirt and rocks. The road under our feet was not paved and was barely visible against the same dry, cracked earth that was everywhere else, if it was not for the faint sign that the feet many travelers compacted the earth. What little vegetation there was consisted mostly of short thorny shrubs and splintered gnarly trees. If the artists had added a bit of fog, a roiling volcano and some perpetual darkness, the region could make a convincing substitute for nearly every single land of despicable evil ever created in fantasy.
That fact made the naming of Esmelas Tower ironic. It stuck out like a sore thumb in the distance, because it was built with emerald-colored bricks and covered with what seemed like damp moss. The Amberl Tower, which was built with the much more appropriate earthen-colored bricks, was instead situated in the much lusher forests around Bose. Either somebody in Argus mixed up the two towers' placements, or they had a strange sense of humor.
In terms of monsters, although it wasn't exactly a walk in the park because a group this size tended to attract monsters, they were not that challenging. At least, not until we reached the front entrance of the Tower, where a dozen Thunder Whales roamed along with some smaller monsters like Diavel advertised in the raid meeting.
The artistic design of these monsters were a fusion of inspirations from both the piranha in the Amazon and the anglerfish in Japan, and their sizes were more like small whales to make their names appropriate. They had rows upon rows of sharp teeth like a shark's mouth, and a row of what appeared to be evil, green eyes on each side of their fanged mouth. The entire body was covered in a hard dirt-colored shell that wouldn't look out of place on a tank except for the tail, which had soft, pink flesh exposed; that was what they used to hurl bolts of electricity at any fool who dared threaten them.
Individually they were quite dangerous to any traveler, but individually they were not impossible to defeat. The difficulty to kill them all increased exponentially as more of them congregated; a dozen of them became an adequate gear check to admit us into the Tower.
"Can we get closer, man? I can't get a good shot with this piece of junk," Nial adjusted the various rings on his newly acquired Orbal camera. His teeth were clenched together and he was breathing through them. "What I wouldn't give for a good zoom lens!"
"You'll get a good chance of observing them up close and personal real soon," Schera remarked as she pressed an EP battery against the nub on her Pocket Watch. "I sure hope you don't get zapped, because these things could burn out Orbment Circuits like your negatives."
"You're kidding, right?" Nial's lips twitched at the thought of losing all the hard work he put in documenting the fights we took during the journey here. He certainly put my charitable donations to good work, which was unexpected because I thought seriously that he would use the Mira I gave him to buy a bottle of booze to slack off with Schera.
"Nope, not in the least." I found out the hard way when some of my EP batteries exploded after I got hit with a thunderbolt during the beta test. Even though the game did away with all the knapsacks and containers that were needed to carry all the gear, it still considered the items as "being carried" as if our pockets were something like Bags of Holding, so everything in a player's inventory was subject to damage or even destruction when appropriate conditions were met. That was part of the reason that security deposit boxes and private storage chests at player homes were so important. "Luckily they don't seem to target sharply dressed and cleanly groomed people. Guess that's just tough luck for you."
"You've got to be kidding!"
"Shh!" Asuna turned and shushed the chatter with a stern look and a hard frown on her face. There was about four or five of these Thunder Whales staring in the direction of the group. Since the raid group hadn't entered their aggro radius, they were content with just staring at us, but I could tell they were ready for combat as soon as we step forward.
Of course, noise wasn't a factor in determining whether or not a monster was onto a player, but Asuna was probably annoyed at the banter like I was. The Tanks at the front were making ready, chugging health potions and munching on food to restore their health. Diavel, who wielded a long sword and a small buckler, was issuing inaudible instructions to his lieutenants, who then started relaying them to the forward groups.
The soldiers from the Army were checking their ammunition and topping off their rifles. I finally got a glimpse at the black-haired boy's weapon during the fights. He was using not one but two daggers, the blades of which were about as long as the forearm and black as the night.
There was no specific skill needed to wield two weapons in Zemuria Online for certain definitions of "two weapons". Equipment was categorized into a few classes: main-hand, off-hand, armor and accessories. Everyone, by default, could equip one main-hand and one off-hand weapon like a sword and a shield or a gun and a shield. Daggers—or knives if you prefer calling them that—were special in that they could be either a main-hand weapon or an off-hand weapon: one could choose between using a dagger with a long-sword, a gun, or another dagger. Most pistols were treated the same way, though some pistols have large enough calibers that they would be classified only as main-hand weapons.
Daggers were also known for their quick draw, bonus damage when attacking from behind and blindingly fast attack speed. Because they could be swung that much faster, a twin dagger user could unleash a hailstorm of combo attacks on a target without giving it any time to counter. As each combo increased damage of the next connecting swing, in skilled hands the weapon could truly be terrifying.
On the other hand, a crippling drawback daggers had was that the weapon had the shortest attack range in the game outside of demolition charges and landmines. The user had to literally be in the target's face for blows to connect. They also suffered from low base damage, so normally a skilled swordsman would use them as an off-hand weapon with a long sword in crude imitation of the Niten Ichiryuu technique to offset incoming damage by using the shorter blade mainly to block attacks. A gun user, on the other hand, would wield a handgun and a knife like so many shooting games out there to make sure they had a way of dealing with foes in melee.
To forego both damage and reach for sheer combo damage bonus, he either knew what he was doing or just liked the style of twin daggers to appear as some assassin. I had assumed that, due to his better-than-average looks and the head of short black hair, he was actively going for the looks by choosing to use twin daggers. His prowess on the battlefield though certainly convinced me otherwise. He sliced apart monsters with surgical precision and efficient movements like a seasoned butcher dismembering a dead cow for meat with the same nonchalant face to match. If this were real life, he would have left a trail of perfectly disassembled monster parts behind him already.
"We should just charge in there and cut them all apart already," Yuuki somehow procured another piece of bread and chewed on it happily. I could see her HP bar recover bit by bit, though it was at most only ten percent empty to begin with. She didn't need a lot of instructions because we hadn't encountered difficult enough monsters to warrant her to fight seriously; what I had seen was not in the least bit discouraging. Well, except this whole "charge in and slaughter them all" attitude, but Schera could certainly work on that with her whip if needed.
"You have to carefully assess your situation and have a plan of attack first," the more senior Bracer chided, finally discarding the spent battery. It collapsed into a shower of shattered polygons in midair. "You can't just rush in and hope your skills are going to carry you through. Most of the time, you'll just die before your skills could matter."
"Tank team, forward!" The signal came through an official announcement. These heavily armored warriors with swords, maces, axes, javelins and shields stepped forward, and immediately captured the attention of those Thunder Whales. These huge monsters swam gracefully in mid-air even with their massive hardened exoskeleton at the front, waving their exposed fleshy tailfins around like a real fish. Their mouths were filled with razor sharp teeth, ready to bite through armor and tear off limbs.
There was a loud clashing noise as the first Thunder Whale made contact with the metal shield of Schmidt, the Main Tank. His stance almost collapsed as the shield rang like a giant bell, but he did his best to hold. I shifted my targeting focus on him; his HP was shaved to 80% of maximum. Without the damage reduction from a shield, a player would have been left in critical condition or even outright killed. In the back, I already saw a caster pointing his Pocket Watch at Schmidt: the casting of a heal Art was already in progress.
Another Tank, by the name of Ryufior, took a blow to its shield and his HP decreased similarly. Behind the charging creatures, some of their companions whipped around and flapped their tails. The ring of runes around them that signaled them channeling Arts faded too quickly for an interrupt. Sparkles of electricity arced out between the tip of their tails and the ground before a bolt of lightning streaked for the Tanks, who were then struggling to adjust their posture.
The first bolt missed Schmidt by an inch just as he was shifting to the right. I could see Asuna with my peripheral vision; she just finished casting a buff on Ryufior. An ethereal mirror appeared right in front of him. The bolt of electricity hit the mirror; like light, it returned to the casting fish, causing no visible damage to either party.
The name of the Art was "A-Reflect". It did what it was supposed to do, reflecting the Wind-type Art that the fish threw at Ryufior back at the fish. Too bad the monster was immune to Wind-type damage, or it would have been fried to a crisp.
A brave swordsman stepped forward into the fray just as the Tanks and casters kept up with the pressure from the swarm of monsters. He picked a target that the main Tank just bashed away; it was trying to adjust its posture in mid-air, twisting and flapping like a fish on land. Aiming for the exposed soft flesh on the monster's tail, he let out a fierce battle cry and swung down his sword.
My eyes widened the moment his sword made contact with the flesh. Experience told me that the Critical Area for the creature—that is, the places against which strikes were guaranteed critical hits—was the entirety of that tail, and Slash-type weapons like mine and Yuuki's were simply not effective against the monster anywhere else. To my surprise, electricity arced from the tail onto the sword, and then the poor player was enveloped in azure sparks as thousands of volts passed into his body. He immediately collapsed like a ragdoll. It was fortunate that there was no pain in the world, or his real body would have been twitching and convulsing like what his avatar was doing.
Schera was similarly wide-eyed. This had never happened in the beta. It was hard to imagine that Argus had made such realistic advances during the time between the beta and the launch.
"Range DPS, aim for the tail! Weapon users, assist Tanks!" Diavel ordered as he realized the same thing. His sword struck a Whale's skull, but it bounced off almost harmlessly giving the fish only a moment's pause before charging at him. Schera's whip lashed out at the charging fish, coiling around its soft tail as she tugged with all her might, slowing it down just enough that Diavel could roll on the side and get out of the path of the charge.
Red aim-assist lines sprayed out of the Army soldier's rifles. These were there to warn allies and enemies where the bullets would go, since there was friendly fire for these rifles and that setting couldn't be turned off. It also made guns considerably less overpowered in a duel, but that was beside the point. As the guns fired with loud noises, bullets bounced off of the monsters' thick chitinous shells, producing little effect other than a shower of sparks.
The black axe wielder didn't care about the warning Diavel gave. It was for good reason; the shaft of his massive battle-axe was almost entirely wood and thick as a person's wrist. He drew first blood as the head of his axe smashed clear through the fish's hard shell and cleaved into its innards with its sheer mass. The fish flopped to its side due to the sheer force of impact, during which time he pulled out his axe and swung down onto the fish's tail, chopping it off entirely and killing the monster.
But people like him were in the minority. Most people picked up something completely metal, such as a sword, a mace or a dagger. Even if the grip of the weapon were made from softer materials, it wouldn't stop high-voltage lightning from penetrating it and zapping the wielder. In fact, even Agil was gambling, because if the physics engine were more realistic, the voltage would have turned the air between his axe and his hand into plasma, and plasma is a conductor.
If we went in as we were, it'd be mob-assisted suicide.
I scrolled through the items in my inventory menu, but all I found were HP potions, things that cured status ailments, food, and spare gear.
What do I do?
"DORYAAAH!" A battle cry cracked out from the twin-tailed Army officer. She made an extraordinary leap toward a monster that had just completed its charge, swinging her quarterstaff with all her might from over her head. The metal bulb at the end of the staff made contact with the fish; the armor on the fish cracked and shattered, revealing pink electric flesh within. The minute she landed, she spun like a top with her staff extended, putting the entire rotation behind her strike as it impacted the fish like a baseball bat, swatting it away from a staggered Ryufior.
I had a good look at the staff. It wasn't anything special, but I did notice that the mid-section of the staff was wrapped in strips of cloth.
Strips of cloth…
Tape…
Swiping from my inventory, I picked out a roll of Insulation Tape. The item was usually used for patching up Pocket Watches in case they short out. Perhaps…
I wrapped the tape around the base of my sword and the cross-guard, and then applied it liberally to the handle making it about a quarter-inch thicker. Then, I dashed toward the staff-wielding girl with my sword in hand just as she rolled out of the way of the wounded monster's charge.
It was again a gamble. If the physics engine was realistic to the degree of taking into account the conductive property of the sword's metal, I could stand and argue that the Insulating Tape I had could stop myself from being zapped. A full third of the raid's DPS did their work up close. The Tanks, casters and ranged DPS guys were busy as they were; at this rate, it wasn't just my life that would be endangered: it was entirely possible that there would be a raid wipe due to healers running out of EP.
Nerve Gear transmitted the data of my nervousness to my avatar. The grip of my sword felt slippery. My legs felt like they were going to give in at any moment, but there wasn't any turning back then. The hole that she made with her initial strike was just about in reach. My sword glowed a brilliant blue as I activated my Sonic Leap Craft; it gave me such a burst of speed that I almost slammed into the fish, which was then shrouded in a cloud of sparks.
My sword made contact with its flesh. I could still remember the feeling of sending cold metal through warm meat as it slid into the soft tissue, causing all kinds of damage to be registered on the fish. Apparently the soft tail wasn't the only Critical Area on the monster: all of the soft tissue within counted. A spurt of sparks sprayed out from the wound I inflicted. Blood-red numbers started floating off of the creature, along with the word "CRITICAL" beside them.
"Use Insulating Tape to protect your grip! Wrap it around the hilt and the shaft!" I yelled toward the group of hesitating weapon users as I pulled my sword out from the dying monster and put some more distance between us. "Schera! Support!"
"Got it!" Schera circled back with a roll of Tape in her hand from the left flank toward the players, who were then scrambling to find the specific item in their inventory.
Not half a minute later, Yuuki too charged into the fray. Her presence attracted the attention of a pair of Whales that were lobbing lightning bolts everywhere while hiding behind their more aggressive comrades. They advanced menacingly from the left and the right, their eyes aglow with reddened killing intent. Then, they charged without warning at Yuuki, their mouths open in the form of a silent bestial roar.
It was the first time I saw her fighting for all her worth. She used her shorter stature and agile build to great advantage. She knew exactly how far she could leap backwards without crashing into the electric tail of a fish that was then trying to pound against a Tank. The two monsters attacking her instead crashed into each other, hitting themselves on the head with the full force of their charges.
It was then that she struck. She slid between the two dazed monsters like a cat. Then, with the swiftness of an executioner she brought down her sword on the soft fleshy tail of the one on her left. Her sword caused a gashing wound on the tail as damage popped off of the cut in the form of a fountain of blood red numbers, but that was only a part of a Craft named "Vertical Arc". The follow-up strike tore open another wound on the monster's tail, causing a further burst of critical strikes to be registered.
The hurt monster flailed around. The one that wasn't took action as it turned around clumsily; monsters like these inherited the turning characteristics of a fish in water. With a flick of its tail, it launched a bolt of white lightning at Yuuki. She evaded it with the grace of a ballet dancer, putting about an arm's length between her and the nearest strand of hot plasma. Then, she did something I didn't expect a new player to do: Craft chaining.
Craft chaining was difficult in Zemuria Online. The system assisted with activating a Craft and bringing it to completion, but it was not designed to chain together a series of Crafts in a smooth attack sequence. Each Craft had a cool-down period; that is, after it was used, there would not only be a period of time before the same Craft could be used again, but also a period of time during which the system would not recognize the activation pose of any Craft. The universal cooldown didn't apply to most Crafts that consumed CP, but S-Crafts couldn't be chained to anything: they required the players to call out their names, and their activation poses were way too difficult to strike. With practice and skill, one can alternate between Crafts that consumed CP and Crafts that generated CP for a long chain of combos that racked up combo bonus damage. Although physically demanding and requiring a lot of practice, this technique could deal a lot of damage very quickly.
That was what Yuuki did. She unleashed Crafts one after another: Rage Spike, Vertical Arc, then followed by Savage Fulcrum. It was a six-hit combo, and the most amazing thing was that each hit actually connected with the small fleshy portion of the monster's tail. That was the second Whale the entire raid killed, and a girl smaller than my sister did it all by herself.
"Blunt weapon users! Smash their shells! Sharp weapon users, use the holes to kill them!" The third kill came not long after as Diavel plunged his sword straight into a hole the staff-wielding officer made on the top of a Whale. He issued the order while standing on top of the dying creature's armor before bringing himself over to another struggling Whale to finish it off.
One after another the monsters fell. The more we thinned their numbers, the easier the fight became, but it was still an exhausting fifteen minutes. Luckily, thanks to the prior knowledge we had and the Insulating Tape, there were no casualties, though plenty of EP capsules and potions were used after the fight to top off everyone again in preparation for the exploration inside the tower.
"That was that, then," Yuuki seemed a little disappointed as she wiped off the slime on her sword with a piece of cloth and sheathed it.
Schera coiled her whip and replaced it on her sash. "You've got some quick thinking there, boy," she said to me with a seductive smile.
"Well, I had this flash of inspiration when I saw that girl's staff," I smiled sheepishly. I would not have thought of it immediately if it were not for the visual cue the staff gave me. Taking a look at my sword, I peeled away the end of the tape and flicked open its property menu before choosing "delete". After confirming my action, the tape on the hilt disappeared in a flash of broken polygons, leaving my sword as clean as it was before the modification.
The owner of the staff was sitting on a large rock near the entrance to the tower, her staff in her arms and leaning against her shoulder. "She's a bit rough around the edges with her staff, but she can handle herself," Schera watched with some interest. "You wanna go introduce yourself? She's not bad looking, you know."
"Why do you always make me look like I'm desperate for a girlfriend?" I shook my head. The twin-tailed girl noticed me just as I placed my hand against my forehead in exasperation, and the next thing I knew she was standing in front of me.
"Hey there," she said with a huge grin. Standing beside her was the black-haired and golden-eyed dagger user, shadowing her like a bodyguard. "That was a good call."
"It's really nothing," I smiled nervously. I could feel the envious gaze of the male players around me.
"The name's Estelle, First Lieutenant of the Army," she added, her hand extended, "and this is my second-in-command, Warrant Officer Joshua. Nice to meet you."
"I'm Kirito, solo player. Nice to meet you," I said, taking her hand. It felt warm and firm, but despite that I felt Joshua's glare at me, so it didn't take long for me to break off the handshake. "These are my friends, Scherazard and Yuuki, both from the Bracer's Guild."
"Hmm. Solo, huh?" She narrowed her eyes and examined me, stroking her chin with her fingers in apparent thought. "Wanna join up with the Army? We have our own tailors, blacksmiths and mechanics, so you can get whatever you need if your rank's high enough! You might have to do some grunt work with people you don't know at first, but I'm sure you'll get used to it really quickly! Besides, with your skills, I'd think you'd make a good officer one day if you can bother getting through the quest chain…"
"Estelle, here you go again grumbling about the quest chain." For a guy who was absolutely terrifying in close quarters with his daggers and one who wore bloodshed around him like a coat, Joshua had a kind smile.
"Thanks for the offer, but I think I'll pass," I chuckled at the blatant manner with which she tried to recruit me. "Speaking of which, what is the Army doing here?"
"Oh, I'm just a representative for D—Commander Cassius. He's on a trip outside the country." She stumbled on the word. I had a feeling that there was something she wasn't telling us, but I wasn't going to ask further; we met literally five minutes ago, after all. "We're out here gathering information like everyone else. Others in the Army are busy trying to climb the ladder so they get more classified information."
"It's the same thing at the Guild," Schera added with a slight smile. "I wouldn't be here if Diavel didn't put up a request for help on the Guild's bulletin board with a fat reward assigned to it. High-ranked Bracers have more access to the Bracer Archives. Who knows what would yield info on the Sept-Terrions?"
"The info broker hasn't been helpful at all." By "info broker" I assumed that Estelle meant Argo. She was good at what she did, but even she has her limits. "I don't know; I mean, he could have left us with more clues as to where these blasted things are! Having to wait around for pencil pushers to get information just pisses me off!"
"So she says," Joshua offered a somewhat apologetic smile to offset Estelle's theatrics. "It's part of the reason why we're out here, looking around the game world and trying to uncover hidden clues that the documents and info brokers missed. I heard the Bracer's Guild has that practically written in their job description."
"Yeah, we do," Schera flicked her hair and folded her arms. It somehow made her assets look bigger despite the lack of need to do so. "We rescue kittens from trees too. Who knows? One day maybe a talking black cat would give me an ancient Gundam prototype or something."
"I don't think that'll happen any time soon," Joshua chuckled, "but I think what might be possible is for us to collaborate with each other. It's not the time for hostilities and confrontations between players, after all."
"We already do that with the brokers. It's a 'give-and-take' relationship; we trade bits of information with each other. Maybe we could set something up that is more official?"
"Yeah, but I don't think either Estelle or I am the right person for this kind of talk. If the Guild would be so kind as to send someone to the Leiston Fortress, it'd be very much appreciated."
"Okay. I'll call up Aina in Rolent when we're through here. She'll know who to contact."
"All right, it seems that we all know who's going to do what after the raid's done," Estelle summed it up, though I had the feeling that these talks simply bored her. "You guys got anything from the Whales that you don't really need?"
I swiped open my inventory. The interface itself was divided into several tabs according to the type of items: equipment, consumables, food and drink, Quartz Circuits, raw materials, books, quest items, bait, and miscellaneous. Initially I found it a bit pointless that fish bait—not including fishing rods, nets or components of them, just lures and live bait—had its own tab, but after a year or so I was thankful.
Who knew Kayaba took fishing this seriously?
Anyway. Each tab could be sorted according to a combination of criteria. I chose "Date Obtained" as the only criterion, and sorted the Equipment and Raw Materials tabs in descending order. To my disappointment, the Straight-Edged Sword didn't drop for me. It would have been a good upgrade over my current weapon with more attack power, slightly faster attack speed and a bit of armor penetration. Physically, it gave me about half a foot of additional reach with my weapon.
Instead, I found a piece of U-Material in my Raw Materials tab. Equipment in Zemuria Online could be enhanced through either a less-skilled NPC or a player. Each piece of equipment had an unlimited amount of enhancement opportunities, but each successful enhancement would diminish the chance of success for the next ones. NPC engineers could enhance given piece only once, while players with sufficient skill levels in Blacksmithing, Engineering, Sewing or Leatherworking could enhance the respective items unlimited number of times. The advantage of NPC engineers was that the operation was guaranteed to be successful, while player enhancements had a progressive larger chances of failure that consumed all materials used and did nothing.
There was a plethora of materials used for this. U-Material was a more ubiquitous material for enhancement. At that moment, it was the only material available for enhancement. T-Material was a less common item that was needed for high-level enhancements. The ultimate item—indeed, the item that every craftsperson dreamed of getting their hands on in the game—was called "Zemurian Ore", the product of a lost Orbal-alchemical process that produced a material that could be made into weapons that could sunder mountains and armor that was all but impervious to attacks, or so the game's lore said. At this stage, getting my hands on a single piece of U-Material was an achievement, though I really didn't have a good use for it.
"What... is this?" Asuna took it out of the inventory and examined it with a raised eyebrow. I had the feeling that she wasn't sure what to think of the porous lump of "something" in her hand. The appearance certainly didn't suggest that it was something valuable.
"How do you even use this thing?" Yuuki examined hers like a child staring through a looking glass. "Is it food?"
"No!" Schera snapped, almost snatching the item out of Yuuki's hands just as the black-haired girl tried to stuff it in her mouth. "Not everything in this world is edible!"
I shook my head and turned toward Asuna. She wasn't sure what to do with it either, judging from the puzzled face she had when she looked at it. I gave her a small smile: "Keep it around. Find a weapon you can get a lot of use out of, and then get a blacksmith or an engineer to upgrade it."
"…I don't know anyone who does work like that," she muttered.
"Well, there's bound to be some player who's looking for a little work in exchange for some Mira." Craftspeople made a lot of money with their skills. I thought correctly at the time that people who were less inclined to risk their lives would make their living off of training their crafts, but the reality of how many people chose to do that or how accomplished some of them were didn't really hit me until I got to Zeiss.
She nodded silently before putting the item back into her inventory. Then, she took out a golden Quartz Circuit and allowed the item properties dialog to pop up, before revealing the content of the dialog box to everyone around her. The Circuit was called "Heavenly Vision". Except its name and the indicators "2F 3S 1M" engraved on the flat side of the matte golden marble like any other Circuit, it also had a third line of characters reading simply "II".
It was one of the more advanced Circuits in existence that the NPCs at the Orbal workshops couldn't make. It basically adds a HUD element that tags the monsters with their statistics while at the same time highlight their silhouettes in the environment. The former was the effect of the "Information" Circuit, while the latter was the effect of the "Eagle Vision" Circuit. Both were available from NPCs, but they took up two precious slots in the Pocket Watch while providing a lesser elemental combination than this one.
"Let's try this out." Hurriedly, she removed the Circuit in the center of her Pocket Watch and inserted the one she newly acquired; it was one of the slots that she upgraded and one that met the "II" requirement the Circuit had. It locked into place with two distinct snaps, and she glanced around, no doubt trying to understand what just happened to her field of view. "This feels weird," she said finally, blinking several times before rubbing her eyes reflexively.
"It'll take a while to adjust to, but the information is nice." I had used "Eagle Vision" before; every living creature—be it monsters, NPCs or players—were outlined in my vision and color coded for as far as my eyes could see. "Information" would produce a small floating box to the right of the HP bar showing vulnerabilities and some other statistics such as level, health, and effectiveness of Art attributes.
"Yeah," she muttered back. At the moment she was glancing over the raid; the plethora of information from the raid members was probably too much for her. But she would adjust. We all did. I had hallucinations of boxes of information popping out to the right of the nurses and doctors for a couple weeks after I woke up. "It'll probably save me the trouble of having to refer to the Manual too frequently."
"It's a real boon to casters," Schera added with a small smile, "because you can now and pick the right Art on the fly to hit them right where it hurts."
Asuna hummed. She was deep in thought with several windows and menus open and her Pocket Watch in hand. Then, with purpose, her movements accelerated. Circuits popped out and into her Pocket Watch; spheres of various colors rolled around in her palm before disappearing back into her inventory. All the while, she glanced around at what I presumed to be the list of spells she could cast. Finally, after three minutes of it, she let out a light sigh and closed all the windows.
"Assembling a new spell?" Schera was the first one to break the silence. It was only then that Asuna realized that everyone around was staring at her.
"Uh, yeah," she was unsurprisingly a little flustered. "I got Last Disaster at the expense of some support Arts."
Schera whistled. "'Last Disaster'? That is one hell of a high-powered attack Art. Too bad its effective area is a straight line and it's fixed as soon as you start casting it, not to mention its 7-second cast time and its absurdly high EP cost. Part of the reason why its elemental requirements is so easy to fulfill. It's not as useless as Golden Halo, though, that's for sure; that Art cost too much for the pathetic amount of damage it does."
Asuna sighed with disappointment: "Not so practical for everyday play, is it?"
"No, unless you're in a party and could have people hold mobs in place until the Art fired," Schera walked toward me and gave me a pat on the shoulder. "That's your job, boy."
"What!? Why me?"
"Be a gentleman and help the ladies bring on the pain, would you?" She leaned into me and blew a burst of moist air against my ear. My heart raced when the two warm bulbous mass sandwiched my arm, and my spine shivered when the breath hit my earlobes. Asuna again unsurprisingly raised an eyebrow before turning her back toward me.
I had to be the most unfortunate person in Zemuria Online at that moment.