Chapter 11 – Uncovering the Secret
Aincrad 48th Floor, October 28, 2023
"Hey Norie, is it true you're going to be participating in the boss battle this floor?" Ellen asked peering at Norie from behind her parfait cup.
"Yup" Norie said taking a look at the so called "newspaper". It wasn't a real newspaper, but it contained stories about what's special going on in Aincrad at the moment. The headline was:
Orange Guilds are rising in Numbers
Recently, the number of orange guilds, guilds that conduct criminal acts like attacking other players and stealing, has recently been rising in number. With the increase in orange players within the past few floors, larger packs of these ruthless people have been reducing the potential number of clearers within the game. Thus, orange and red players are slowing down the progress of the game. As a notice, it is advised that players do not venture alone. Try to stay in the safe zones when not hunting, and keep rare equipment hidden.
"You should listen to what they say Norie" Ellen said eating a spoonful of cream and fruit.
"Don't worry about me" Norie said sipping her tea, "I'm completely capable on my own. It's Sachi I'm worried about" Norie got up. "Let's go, we've got a floor to finish"
Ellen hastily gargled down the rest of her parfait. "It's not healthy for me to eat too fast you know" she commented following Norie. In truth, Ellen was a pretty small girl, only about up to Norie's hip.
"You eat too fast anyway" Norie snickered.
"I do not!"
It took about 30 minutes to meet at the designated spot, but Norie was still a little early. Their meeting spot was a clearing in the forest a near the entrance to the labyrinth. There was a large tree stump in the middle of the clearing where some players had already gathered. Among those players was a girl dressed in a red and white knight like armor. A rapier was sheathed to her side as she kept a hand on it. She had two body guards standing to each side of her.
The searching party had just recently found the boss room a couple of days ago, so after days of preparation, the clearers decided that today be the day they will attempt to clear the boss. Norie waited a bit with some of the other clearers to gather. There were about 21 people that were going into the boss room today. Among those people were Kirito, Asuna and Norie.
Asuna gathered everyone's attention to the stump that she was standing on. She was in charge of assigning parties and tasks according to each member's strengths and weaknesses. She began explaining the attack patterns of the boss on this floor. Turns out, the boss this floor was a giant turtle like being. It could expand its' neck to sweep enemies in front, and the long tail can sweep enemies from the back. The only safe way to engage was from the sides, but it turns constantly, so it could be rather difficult. It has hard shelling in certain parts of the side, so to deal effective damage, one had to strike at its' legs or in the exposed areas of flesh. You could go through the back and attack there, same with the front. But those are considered the boss's danger zones. You could only send people with high defense and parrying skills, or extremely fast people. Since the head and neck was rather large, only heavily armored and strong parries could be there. Kirito, Asuna and a couple others took charge of this. Everyone else except Norie was placed on the sides. Norie placed herself in the back since every other position was filled. Her superb parrying skills proved to be useful when combating the tail. It strikes extremely fast and very consecutive, so someone with fast parrying times would be ideal.
"Are you okay with that Norie?" Asuna asked.
"Ah, I'm good with it" Norie said giving a thumbs-up. "I'll call if I need help."
"Good" Kirito said. "Everyone know their positions?" he asked. Everyone seemed ready.
"Then I shall call this meeting over. Everyone, don't die, and good luck!" Asuna said with much seriousness. They opened the doors. The room was like a large sewer like place. Puddles of muddy water were scattered everywhere and the center of the room had a large, but shallow body of water. All the way at the back of the room was a large turtle like monster. It towered about 3 times larger than the tallest member in the group. As the party moved closer to it, it moved closer to them towards the center of the room. Asuna gave the signal for everyone to spread out and get to their positions. Four people, including Kirito and Asuna, where in the front, eight people on both sides, and Norie in the back; all of them took their positions. The large turtle then approached the front party as the others surrounded it. Norie broke off to the left and headed to the back. Right when she got there, a large whip like tail smashed against her.
"Oof!" Norie was knocked back a bit.
At that moment, the turtle then extended its' neck moving its' had closer to the front group. It roared in their faces as it swung its head to the side and swung it back towards them. Kirito and the other two tanks blocked the head, and this gave Asuna the opportunity to give fast attacks. That was the plan after all. Eventually, the two tanks got used to the strikes and let Kirito give additional attacks.
The others were doing fine from Kirito's point of view, but he didn't know about Norie. He looked around frantically for a sign that she was fine. Then a voice called from above, it was Ellen giving a thumbs-up. He sighed, Norie was doing good also.
"Are you doing okay?" Ellen asked from above.
"I'm good" Norie said blocking the rapid strikes of the whip like tail. It was good practice for leveling up her parry skill, so Norie didn't mind. The whips attacks were also rather weak, so her battle healing would kick in and be rather effective.
Eventually the boss's HP fell to the red. It looked as if victory was in their grasp before a change in the attack pattern occurred.
It roared one more time and then dug its' feet into its' shell. Then, it span around swinging its' head at the entire party knocking back everyone except Kirito, Asuna, Norie and a couple of others. As it emerged, it was facing Norie and stepped forward towards her.
"Crap…" Norie gulped as she braced herself. The turtle swung its' head colliding with Norie's sword on her right. It was a huge impact that managed to push Norie to the left. Her HP took a rather heavy hit as the turtle swung around for another hit, this time, on Norie's left. Kirito and Asuna were having a hard time against the tail and the others that were still standing were trying their best to deal damage. The swipe against the party knocked about 14 members out cold. Each blow against Norie's sword pushed her left and right, left and right. Norie was panting, she could only hold out for one more block. She had to strike. As the turtle raised its' head upward for a pound downward, Norie raised her sword up to block. The turtle collided with her sword as it seemingly crushed her leaving a huge crater in the ground.. Everyone gasped in fear, but miraculously, the turtles head was pushed back. Norie was in the middle of that crater still standing as she rushed forward. "Ellen! Spirit Awakening!" Norie called out as her cutlass started glowing a brighter gold. She jumped upward and delivered a strong Horizontal on the turtles neck. There was a huge streak of gold light that radiated horizontally along the neck as it separated halfway from the body. It moaned one last time before the head burst into the countless fragments followed shortly by the body shattering.
"Huff….hufff….huffff" Norie was panting extremely hard still holding her cutlass. The glowing slowly dissipated as Norie fell back on her bottom.
"Norie!" Kirito and Asuna cried out splashing through the body of water running to catch up with her. The rest of the party that was still standing went to check up on the rest. No deaths were reported.
"Are you okay?" Ellen asked sitting on Norie's lap with concern.
"Yea…huff. I'm fine" Norie was catching her breath taking a look at her boss loot.
"Good to know that you're still in working order" Kirito commented
"Nice work" Asuna said with a congratulatory tone, "What did you get?"
"Erm, Aqua Amulet" Norie said taking it.
"Are you collecting the pieces?" Asuna asked, "It looks very nice if you get the entire set."
"I'm not collecting it, but I do know a certain someone who is" Norie grinned.
"Alright! Floor cleared!" Someone hollered out. His voice echoed endlessly through the hollow room.
"How many does that leave us left with? Fifty one?"
"Yea!"
Most of the party was already going to explore the next floor. "Hey! Don't explore by yourselves okay?" Asuna warned. "Stay in a group!"
"I think I should get going also" Norie said gulping down an HP potion. Her HP had hit the red.
"Keep up the good work oaky?" Asuna asked.
"Anything for the Sub-leader of the KoB" Norie said bowing and taking her cap off. "Well, here is where I take my leave. Adieu to you." Norie said waving her cap around as she started walking towards the door to the next floor. "I'll be seeing you two around the floor"
"See you around too Norie" Kirito replied waving back.
"Fifty-one floors left huh" Asuna asked getting a little closer to Kirito. Her chestnut brown hair blew with the light wind that was coming through the doorway.
"Yea, it only seems like yesterday that this hell started" Kirito commented. One more floor down, one more floor closer to the end.
Aincrad 46rd Floor, November 12, 2023
"Finally found you!" Sachi said stomping her foot on the floor out of complete determination.
"Eh… me?" A girl asked. Her face had whiskers on it.
"Yes you Argo!" Sachi said even louder. "I've been looking for you for weeks!" She pointed her index finger and brought it closer to Argos' nose.
"You don't have to be so aggressive you know" Irina commented sitting down opposite to Argo.
"Alright alright, you found me. Now what do you want? Information I assume?" Argo replied leaning back in her chair crossing her arms.
"Yes, I'm willing to pay" Sachi said taking a bag of money out.
"Okay, what do want to know about? I can't tell you the names of Beta tester by the way" She was waving her finger when she said that.
"Well, I want to know where the Ancient Ruins of Saraata are" Sachi was in her "business" tone, though what business was to Sachi was regular conversation to Irina.
"Ancient Ruins of Saraata?" Argo said with a rather sarcastic tone. "You guys haven't been on this floor for a long time have you? No matter, it's right here on this floor. Just go to the East of here and you'll stumble upon a large pillar with a blue gem on it." She shrugged will gesturing with her hand to give her the payment.
"Ah! Here!" Sachi said handing the bag of money with both of her hands bowing slightly. "Thank you!"
Irina got up with Sachi and followed her out.
"Anytime!" Argo waved back throwing the bag of money up and down.
ooo
Sachi was walking down the path that Argo had directed her to go.
"You think it'll be here?" Irina asked plucking the strings of her lute.
"I trust in Argo" Sachi said giving a light smile. If Norie trusted Argo, then there should be no reason that Sachi wouldn't trust her as well.
Eventually, they made it to a large pillar. Argo was right, there was a blue gemstone inscribed in it.
"Is this it?" Irina asked pointing.
"This is it" Sachi said taking her own blue gem stone out. It glowed brighter the closer it got to the one in the pillar. Amidst this, her gaze was set upon something else that gave a light tint of light on the ground. Curious, Sachi bent down to pick it up. It was a small little pin; yellow with a smiley face on it.
"They were here…. Ellen…. Norie…." Sachi said to herself.
"Who?" Irina asked tilting to the side.
"This pin belongs to a close friend of mine. I think she'll be wanting this back." Sachi said as the little pin disappeared into her inventory. "Let's go" she tapped the blue crystal on the pillar and both of them were engulfed in a blue light. Within a matter of seconds, Sachi's sight was now a narrow hallway. It led them to a room with two doors. Sachi went to open the first, but stopped before her hand touched the handle. Her gemstone shone with a bright light. When it died out, a loud clank was heard. Then the door opened. Sachi and Irina entered the room; there was only a teleportation crystal. Sachi tapped it once and they were engulfed in a blue light again. They were in a large room with 3 pillars on each side of the path towards the middle. At the other side of the room, there was stairs that led up to an altar. Upon the altar was a chest. The entire room was dark except for the glow of blue flames on torches that hung from the pillars. Irina glared in amazement at the entire room as she followed Sachi towards the stairs.
"Finally, the right one" A voice rang in the room, but surprisingly, there was no echo from the voice. Sachi could hear her own breathing echo as her pulse went faster. She drew her sword looking around to see the face of her opponent. Irina did the same with her short sword and left her free hand near her knives.
A figure appeared in front of them, it was a hooded figure that wore a cloak that was darker than Kiritos'. Sachi gripped her blade tighter as she pointed it lower ready to strike.
The figure said nothing and pointed towards the chest at the top. It then pointed at Sachi's sword and shook its head. Sachi had a feeling that there was no threat. She lowered her sword and nodded her head pulling her gem out. She pointed at it giving a questionable expression on her face. The figure nodded yes.
"That gem is the key" It said as it disappeared.
"An NPC…" Irina muttered sheathing her sword.
Sachi was silent for a bit before she started making her way up the stairs. Irina started to go up with her, but she held her hand up to say no. The chest was sleek and smooth. The blue light from the flames gave it a blue tint that bounced off the surface and radiated to the surrounding walls. The gem in Sachis' hand grew brighter with each step. Sachi opened the chest to find only the hilt of a sword. It looked sort of like a small dagger, but with a large hilt. There was a teal portion that was spiked past the protector to make it look like so. The blue gem in the center of the hilt that closely resembled Sachis' own gem emitted a sort of blue mist.
"MMhhhph!" Sachi heard Irina muffle a scream.
"Well well well!" Another voice said followed by a single pair of hands clapping. "I really thank you for finding the treasure for us"
Sachi turned around with a frown on her face to see. It was a slim lady that wielded a cross spear. There were about 5 other guys with her. One of them was holding Irina hostage cupping his hand over her mouth.
"What?!" She muttered. How did anyone know they were here she asked herself.
"All of this was made possible by this girl right here!" The woman said squeezing Irinas' cheeks together with her index finger and thumb. "Too bad she won't be getting a cut" The snapped her fingers and the man let go pushing Irina towards the woman's spear.
Irina yelped as the spear dug into her stomach. "I-I trusted you Rosalia!" she cried out. Her HP dropped quite a bit.
"It's just business" Rosalia said pulling the spear out letting Irina fall to the ground. As Irina tried to get up, she kicked her in the face and Irina rolled closer to the stairs. "Taking out the middleman will result in more profit."
Sachi was filled with anger as she stomped down the stairs holding her sword out. "Don't hurt her…" she muttered pointing her sword at the band of thieves.
"You fool. Why risk your life for such scum like her?" Rosalia scoffed. "No matter, if you won't give us the item, we'll just take it by force!" Then, the other 5 members, whom all had orange cursors, ran towards Sachi. She held her sword up and blocked as best she could. It was difficult to block with a sword in one hand and a seemingly useless hilt in the other. Waves of pain made it through her body as a sword slashed into her arm. An axe phased through her leg. The blade of a spear met the side of her sword, and spark flew all over the place. Sachi felt a shockwave pulse through her body eventually knocking her back. To her horror, her sword had broken in half. With her HP down in the orange, she couldn't believe it.
"Come now, you have nowhere to go" Rosalia said. "Just hand us that hilt and we'll let you live"
Sachi knew that was a lie. She's seen enough shows like this to know the bad guys never keeps their promise. Her breathing was heavy as she knelt on one knee trying to lean on her broken sword. She was surrounded, her weapon was broken, her HP was getting low and so was her comrade. What was she to do? She didn't know; there was no way she was going to give the hilt up either. Closing her eyes "I guess this is the end" she muttered.
"Sachi…. " A voice said gently. Sachi opened her eyes to familiar faces. It was Keita. Her heart raced with fear as she closed her eyes. Expecting a spear to be thrust in her head again, she felt nothing except a hand patting her head. She opened her eyes slowly to see Keita smiling.
"Keita…" Sachi muttered. Just then, the rest of her deceased friends had appeared behind her, all of them with expressions of happiness and encouragement. "Guys…"
"Don't give up Sachi." Testuo said.
"We're counting on you."
"Keep living, that's what we would have wanted for you" Keita stopped patting her head. "If we had to choose between which one of us could live again if all of us died, it would be you. We all agreed on it, don't let our hopes go in vain." He said again gripping her hand with both of his hands.
"I will" Sachi said as the tears started dripping from her chin.
"Good bye Sachi, we'll always be with you. Never give up" Keita said as the rest of the guild waved back at her. They disappeared one by one. As Keita started to disappear, "Tell Kirito… I'm sorry for what I said to him"
"Goodbye…." Her heart ached, but she was happy. Her friends didn't scorn her, they didn't hate her. They only wished the best for her. She smiled sweetly and closed her eyes again.
It felt like an eternity, but in reality, only a couple of seconds had passed. At that moment, Sachi opened her eyes and saw blurred figures of the thieves running at her behind her tears. The hilt in her hand started glowing and a pale blue blade had materialized from it. It was a long blade that tapered down about the length of the tip of her toe to the bottom of her ribs. A hissing sound was heard as the blade came to existence. Sachi stared at the thieves with determination as she threw the remainder of her old sword to the side. She brandished her new weapon and pointed it at them.
"Bring it" Sachi curled her eyebrows and slanted her eyes.
"What are you waiting for!?" Rosalia yelled. "Get her!"
The thieves darted towards her. The first sword user slashed downward. Sachi blocked it with ease at an alarming speed. With the blink of an eye, Sachi pushed his sword away and slashed it leaving a streaking blue light behind. To everyone's' surprise, his sword broke.
"W-what the?!" He muttered confused about what just happened. The axe wielder jumped from behind her swinging his axe down. Sachi dodged his axe and as he was trying to swing it back up, Sachi sliced through it. It broke in his hands. The spear user charged towards her managing to scrape her arm, but it wasn't enough for him to stay planted on his feet. Instead, he kept going forward and Sachi took this chance to slash downward on his spear cutting it short. A shield user tried to shield bash her, but she stuck her sword out aiming for a stab. To his surprise, her sword cut right through and Sachi pulled upward damaging the shield even more. He tried to pound her on the side with his hammer, but Sachi narrowly dodged it and cut into his arm causing him to flinch. Taking this opening, she then proceeded to landing a blow on his hammer. The last one dashed towards her slashing upward. Sachi managed to block the strike, but his sword didn't shatter. He pulled upward going for a down slash, and Sachi timed her attack this time. She remembered Kirito told her something about a swords weak spot. If she hit that spot with the right time with the right amount of force, the weapon will shatter. By judging the appearance of his sword, she figured the weakest point will be around the area above the hilt. Aiming her sword upward for a stab, she pushed forward. The tip of her sword made contact as the thieves sword collided with hers. A loud screeching sound was followed by some sparks. Then, the sound of shattering glass was heard as his sword broke.
He was speechless as Sachi pushed forward ramming him with her shoulder. He was knocked back and when he came to his senses, he scrambled backward in fear.
"It's the sword!" One of them said trying to look for a spare weapon in his inventory.
"Rosalia, all our weapons are broken, we can't fight!"
"Cowards!" Rosalia said pointing her spear towards Sachi. "Learn to fight with your fists more!" She then darted towards Sachi with the tip of her spear rushing forward. "Gotcha!" she muttered as she felt her spear hit something. Her eyes widened as she saw her spear blocked. Sachi was holding her sword with the wide side of the blade blocking the spear. The more she struggled, the more the tip of her spear started to vaporize. There was smoke coming from the area where her spear and Sachi's sword came into contact. Eventually, her spear broke and burst into pieces.
"Im-impossible!" Rosalia said stricken with grief.
"Let's get out of here!" One of them said as all of them hastily grabbed their crystals out and teleported.
"Hey! Get back here! You cowards! You call yourselves members of the Titans Hand?!" Rosalia screamed out in anger. Giving one hateful look at Sachi and Irina, "You haven't seen the last of me!" she said before a blue light engulfed her. The room was silent. Sachi only looked at her glowing sword.
"Sachi…"
"You…" Sachi replied pointing her sword close to Irina's face. "You lied to me…."
"I'm sorry…" Irina said with tears beading down her cheek. "I understand if you won't forgive me. Kill me if you want; I'll finally be with Aika"
Sachi was silent for a moment just standing there with her glowing sword planted close to Irina's face. She sighed, and her blade disappeared back into the hilt. "Then I won't" she said smiling. "As punishment, you'll keep living."
"Why…" Irina asked not understanding what Sachi had done.
"Everyone deserves a second chance" Sachi said lending her hand out. "I learned that the hard way"
After a moment of silence, Irina managed to smile. She took Sachi's hand and said, "That's a cruel punishment you know.
ooo
"Care to explain?" Sachi asked resting her head on her hands while staring at Irina. The chatter of players coming in for dinner had filled the dining hall.
"It all began that night when Aika died" Irina started. "I was lost, almost dead, heartbroken, and had no other people to turn to. Then Rosalia took me in. I didn't realize she was going to backstab me so she doesn't have to share the profit." She was staring at her reflection in her tea. "I betrayed you and Rosalia was going to kill me anyway. I'm sorry"
Sachi smiled and leaned forward. With her thumb and middle finger, she flicked Irina's forehead.
"Ow!" Irina said rubbing it with her hand.
"That's how my mom disciplined me for doing something wrong. But she always forgave me after." Sachi said sighing as she rested her hands on her head again. "It's okay. I forgive you."
ooo
"Lightsaber Mastery huh…." Sachi said flipping through her skills. "Weapon break…armor pierce?" These new skills were in Sachi's skill window and she didn't know how they got there. The hilt was resting in her hand as she was lying down on her bed.
"I've never seen anything like it" Irina commented.
"Me neither. Maybe I should get this appraised somewhere." Sachi responded by turning her sword on. The pale blue blade materialized from the hilt all the way to the tip. It seems the length would always be the same. A low humming was heard and a slight whoosh was emitted when she moved it slightly. It was kind of like the one in Star Wars. She remembered she used to watch it with her father when she was younger. Other than those, there weren't many memories with her and her father. He left when she was young, so she's never really had a father figure.
"How did their weapons break so easily?" Irina asked.
Sachi wondered for a moment. Looking back, it seemed that their weapons were of average quality. The lower the quality, the less durability it had. "I think it's this sword special ability or something" Taking a look at the swords specs, she read some additional information.
Weapon Name – Fragarach
Weapon Grad - Unique
Enhanced Weapon break – This weapon deals additional damage to weapon durability if the weapon grade is lower than this.
Armor Pierce – This weapon ignores the defense of opponents and damage inflicted is called true damage.
"Wait…" Irina asked taking a look at the details. "Armor pierce, don't you think this is too game breaking?"
"It does seem very over powered" Sachi noted, "Maybe I should go to an appraiser and ask them"
"I know an appraiser; we'll talk to him tomorrow." Irina said slomping on her bed again. "But I wonder, why would they put such a game breaking feature in this game?"
"Maybe there's a catch" Sachi replied still examining her new weapon. "There's always a catch to things like this." It was the same case as the Divine Stone of Returning Soul. It defied the games feature of killing the player if their HP went to 0; however, the catch was that it had to be used within 10 seconds of the player's avatar shattering. Considering that this weapon has the ability to single handedly enable Sachi to solo the game, there had to be a huge catch, she knew there was.
The pale blue glow of the blade was the only thing lighting their room other than the light of the moon. Curious, Sachi slowly moved her hand to touch the blade. She was expecting it to slice her fingers off like in the movies, but it didn't. It felt like a solid mass. She ran her fingers on the blade; it was warm to touch as it sent goosebumps up her arm.
Aincrad 40th Floor, November 13, 2023
"The guys name is Agil" Irina said pointing a finger up towards the sky. They were walking through the wet streets of town. Rainy season of Aincrad was upon them. "He's a good equipment appraiser, so he would be more than glad to help us out"
"So you've used his services before?" Sachi asked breaking her gaze from her sword hilt.
"Yea, he's very reliable. But he also runs a shop."
"What kind of shop?"
"Well, he's basically a merchant, he buys cheap and sells cheap. That's his motto" Irina said giving a wink.
ooo
"How are you holding up Kirito?" A rather deep and manly voice asked from behind the counter.
"Fine I guess" Kirito replied leaning on the counter waiting for the payment of his items. Looking around the store, he saw various items. From relatively rare weapons, to simple cooking ingredients and camping supplies. You could call it a general store, or you could call it a pawn shop; either way.
"Here you go!" A large African American man popped up from behind the counter with a bag of Col. "Twenty-thousand Col for all of it"
"Sounds a little low don't you think?" Kirito said grinning as he took the bag of money.
"Hey, that's the highest I'll go. That's including the friends benefit too" Agil said punching fists with Kirito.
"Haha, alright alright. I'll be seeing you then Agil" Kirito said waving before he walked out of the shop and turned to his left.
"Anytime Kirito. See ya!" Agil waved goodbye before he continued wiping down the counter with a rag.
ooo
Sachi and Irina turned the corner of the street on their right and walked down.
"There!" Irina pointed to a small shop on their left. Approaching the shop from the right when you're inside, Irina opened the door. A little bell rang to signify a customer.
"Agil!" Irina said waving her arms upward to say hello.
"Well well, it's Irina!" Agil said as Irina made her way to the counter. Sachi followed her, but something shocked her. Agil was extremely large and tall; it amazed her that someone was this fit, even after about a year of inactivity. Then she looked at Irina's short figure and gave a half hearted chuckle. Irina was very short for her age of 17, so comparing her to Agil was like comparing a tool shed to a mansion.
"So what can I do for you today Irina?" Agil asked slouching a bit on the counter.
"This is my friend Sachi" Irina introduced the two.
Sachi was actually rather intimidated by his appearance. His large muscular body, huge figure, bald head and beard all intimidated her.
"N-n-n-nice to-to- m-m-meet you" She stumbled on her shaking tongue.
"Nice to meet you too Sachi" Agil said in a friendly tone. This calmed Sachi down a bit.
"Would you guys like to come in for some tea?" He offered gesturing for them to come in.
"Ah sure!" Irina said following him. "C'mon Sachi"
"Tea…" The thought of soothing tea calmed Sachi's nerves even more. "O-okay"
After sitting down in his small living room, Agil brought out a tea kettle and three cups. "So what was it you wanted?" he asked Irina gently pouring the hot beverage.
"Well, my friend Sachi here stumbled upon a unique weapon and I was wondering if you could appraise it" Irina said pointing her thumb.
"Unique weapon?" Agil asked tilting his head, "We'll let me have a look see then"
Sachi nodded and pulled the sword hilt out. Then squeezing the hilt a bit, the pale blue blade formed.
Agil stared in amazement as he took the extraordinary sword in his hands. "Well I…" he struggled to get the words out, "I…I've never seen anything like this before in my life" Agil viewed different angles of the sword tapping the gemstone in the middle a few times. "It seems the blade is stored in this stone" he said glaring at his reflection. After a bit more examining, he waved his right hand in front of the sword and a menu popped up. He pressed the appraise button and a waiting menu popped up. The little dots circled for a couple of moments, and then another menu popped up.
"Lightsaber?" Agil asked scratching his head. "This certainly is a unique weapon."
"But there's something strange about it. The sword seems over powered with Armor Pierce" Sachi pointed out. "But I don't see the downside to any of it"
"Armor pierce…" Agil said rubbing his chin. "You're right, it does seem blatantly overpowered. No weapon I've seen has an additional ability like this." Agil sighed as he kept looking through the details. "Indestructibility also. This sword doesn't have durability, so it can't be broken. What else… wait…" he muttered going out of the room. He soon came back with another sword in hand. "Let me compare…." He looked at both the windows deep in thought. "Ah! I see the catch" Agil said closing the window of the other sword.
"Well? What is it?" Sachi asked extremely anxious to know.
"The armor pierce does seem extremely over powered," Agil started to explain. "But there's a noticeable downside to it. This sword has extremely low damage. Not much higher than a steel sword. I compared it to another sword of the same level, and your swords damage rated about fifty percent lower than this one. This sword I compared this to isn't even rare either, it's from an NPC. "Agil explained as he returned The Fragarach to Sachi.
"Extremely weak huh…" Sachi said still examining her sword. "Is there any way to bring the damage up to par?"
"Well, you could always dump all you stat points to STR, and the sword is relatively light, so you won't require as much DEX to be fast. You could also upgrade the weapon from a blacksmith. Upgrading it increases the base stats of the sword as well as STR scaling. Judging from the base scaling of your sword, I say that upgrading is the best way to gain some additional damage. But looking at it now, I don't think it'll ever be up to par with other swords" Agil said sipping some tea.
"Who would have known that it would be so weak" Irina said scratching her head.
Sachi lowered her head to stare intently at her sword. She was a little disappointed, but not losing hope.
"That doesn't mean you should use a different sword though" Agil reassured, "This certainly is a useful ability you've got there, and I'm sure that on the higher floors where monsters have higher defense, having guaranteed damage will be coveted." Agil motioned placing a large hand on Sachi's rather small shoulder.
"What about the Weapon Break?" Irina asked.
"Hmm…" Agil thought about it for a bit.
"The weapon grade of your sword is Unique right?" Agil asked. Sachi nodded in reply.
"Weapons with unique names like your Fragarach have a weapon grade of Unique. That means that the quality of these weapons are unrivaled to any other weapon. When this sword states that it deals additional weapon damage to a weapon with a grade lower than this, it enables you to easily break non unique weapons even without hitting the weak point." Agil explained further.
"I see" Sachi said tapping her chin, "So I'll still have to dump my stat points into STR"
"Well you don't have to" Agil quoted, "It'll help, but I recommend you upgrade it at a skilled blacksmith instead. It's more worthwhile in my opinion. I think you're more of a fast fighter rather than a strong hitter. Don't neglect DEX, try to keep a balance between the two"
"I'll try" She responded positively accepting Agil's advice with a smile. She was actually a very fast sword fighter. This was because she often found herself combating multiple monsters by herself, so she adopted the saying "The faster you are, the faster you kill" It hasn't failed her thus far.
"Besides, I'm sure that Aqua set would give you plenty of STR wouldn't it?" Agil joked.
Sachi turned a little red at his flirty comment. Agil simply chuckled with Irina at Sachi's embarrassment.
ooo
"He seems like a nice guy doesn't he Sachi?" Irina asked Sachi as they were walking through town with the water pouring down their umbrellas.
Sachi chuckled, "He does seem very nice despite his figure"
"Ahh don't let his appearance scare you. He really is nice you know. He owns a café in real life"
"He does?" Sachi asked with a keen interest, "I'd like to see it one day." She muttered glaring up at the dark rainy sky. It felt as if someone dear to her was in the vicinity.
Kirito was glaring off in the distance as he looked back at town. There was this nagging feeling tugging at his mind to go back to town. He shook it off and started forward off into the wilderness.
