Chapter 13 – Road to Sparta
November 11, 2022 - Floor 2
"When he said we were getting horses, I was not expecting this," sulked Jax as he sat inside the carriage with the others.
"It's because of all this stuff he wants to bring there," said Irelia, who was coaching the carriage with Asuna beside her. "Our inventories aren't big enough to carry it all."
Jax sighed, "Why are we even bothering to bring all this. Didn't Theseus say that the Spartans would only listen to violence?"
"You seem quite excited to fight for someone who just got his ass kicked."
"Ay that's not fair, I put up a pretty good fight, right?" said Jax as he turned to Kirito and Arthur.
"Yeah…I really like that…one move you did," said Kirito as he looked to Arthur for help.
"Y-Yeah that one move right before he knocked you down."
"I hate you guys…"
"By the way Robin, how's your sister doing?" asked Kirito. "Is she okay with you leaving her out of another exciting quest?"
"She'll find out soon, whine about it, and move on like she always does," he answered nonchalantly.
"You didn't even tell her about this…"
"Her knowing would just complicate this process, plus bringing another tank player isn't really necessary."
"Guys…" said Asuna as the carriage came to a stop.
A gang of ragtag bandits blocked the road in the front of them. "Everyone get out of the carriage right now!"
"What's the move?" asked Arthur.
"Seems like something interesting is happening," said Jax as he pulled out his weapon.
Kirito lowered it, "Let's go out there and assess the situation before we jump headfirst into a fight." The team listened and got out of the carriage to find a band of twenty or so bandits surrounding them. Kirito looked around to examine his surroundings first, they've been inside the carriage the whole time and hadn't gotten a chance to see where they were. It seemed like they were in the middle of a forest, not an uncommon spot for bandit raids. 'There may be archers in the trees but judging by their gears and formation, they don't look that organized. This is probably the whole group that we're dealing with.' He used his [Analyze] skill and got a sense of their Levels, widely diverse but none surpassing Level 19.
"We're just passing through to Sparta, let us be on our way and there won't be any trouble," said Kirito, despite it being relatively safe to fight, he'd rather have a more controlled environment in which they can more securely level-up.
The bandits laughed at his statement, 'This is pretty cliché of you Kayaba.'
"I don't think you understand your position here. Leave all your belongings, that carriage included, and maybe we'll let you go. After we have a little bit of fun," said one of the higher leveled bandit in the group.
"I call that one," said Asuna.
The other guys looked at him for confirmation. 'Well I tried…' thought Kirito as he gave the nod and the group of adventurers sprang into action. Kirito, Arthur, and Robin defended the carriage while Asuna, Irelia, and Jax went on the offensive.
"I'm really glad you guys attacked us," said Jax as he jumped in between a group of five. "I get a chance to test these new skills against you guys."
"Cocky son of a bitch!" The five bandits attacked him at the same time but the attacks were either blocked or dodged. The halberd he wielded glowed brighter and brighter the more hits he avoided. Finally, Jax spun and sent out a mini shockwave, stunning everyone who was around him. "[Counter Strike]!"
Kirito observed out of the corner of his eye, 'Despite his goofiness, Jax does have a unique battle prowess. Creating a skill that can be used both for offense and defense. I should probably think of a skill like that as well.'
The girls had little trouble on their side, as Irelia and Asuna cruised through most of the lower-leveled bandits with their speed. "[Blade Surge]" Irelia gained a burst of movement and attack speed as she made short work of the fodder bandits, jumping from one target to the next whilst dodging attacks with ease. They fought through to the first bandit that was mouthing off the threats and looked at each other. "He's all yours. Give him a good beating for me," said Irelia as she moved on to deal with other enemies.
"Bring it on!" yelled the leader, now much more nervous after seeing what they just did to his henchmen.
"[Vitals]" said Asuna as she activated her sword skill, but instead of her sword glowing it was her eyes. She smiled as she saw small circles appeared all over her opponent's body.
"[Throwing Knives]!" Small knives flew at her but they were easily parried. The leader used that opening to close the distance between the two of them and began the close range sparring. Despite her speed, the bandit still managed to trade some hits here and there. Seeing that his strikes were hitting harder than Asuna's, the bandit leader gained some confidence and went harder on the offensive. Asuna was quick to capture all the openings her opponent just offered up as she parried the blow and struck two of the small circles with pinpoint accuracy. Instantly bringing the bandit leader on his knees and his HP into the red zone.
On the carriage side, there was little the bandits could do against the combination of Arthur's defense, Robin's cover, and Kirito's offense. With their leader defeated and no progress being made on the carriage, the bandits who were not yet incapacitated retreated. With the threat gone, the adventurers gathered the bandits' whose HP were in the red zone and tied them up.
"Shouldn't we kill them?" asked Robin, whose statement sent the captive bandits into a state of panic, "I mean it's not like they are real people, they're just NPCs right?"
"Well looking at them like this, it's kinda hard to just execute them in cold blood, don't you think?" said Irelia, who suddenly became like an angel to them.
"Yeah I agree, it feels a little distasteful," said Asuna.
"Y-Yes we will never rob anyone ever again, please don't kill us!" begged the bandits.
"Wow that's some careful attention to details right there," commented Kirito on the game design. "Sorry, I did give you guys an out. It's really not personal, it's for the Cor and EXP." He turned and patted Arthur on the shoulder. "Give them a quick death."
Arthur severed all their heads with one swing of his greatsword, ending all the begging and returning them back to the pixels that they were created from. "Wow, clean," commented Jax.
"I could have done it if you didn't want to," said Robin.
"It doesn't bother me knowing that these same bandits could potentially kill one of us for good," said Arthur. "It's better and safer to eliminate them."
"Geez talk about cold-blooded," said Asuna to Kirito as they walked back to the carriage.
"They are just a bunch of 0s and 1s, on top of that they were criminal 0s and 1s," said Kirito as he defended himself. "And the Cor and EXP!"
Asuna sighed, "You're such a hardcore gamer."
The statement cut deep as Kirito muttered to himself at the back of the carriage. "I make sure the roads are safe for any future players that pass by but instead of being praised I get called a hardcore gamer…"
"I think you hurt him with that one," whispered Irelia to Asuna.
"He'll be fine," said Asuna. "He too can be a little bit of a kid sometimes."
The delay caused them to have to settle for camp early that night, and the group picked a spot next to a river for the horses. They set up their tents and gathered around the campfire for dinner. "How long until we get there?" asked Kirito.
"It was supposed to be two days ride but make that three now thanks to the delay," said Irelia.
"That's fine, in fact, I say we slow it down and make it a week's journey. We will make a stop at Corinth for a few days to do some quest and focus on leveling up."
"Eh, why?" asked Jax. "Aren't we trying to clear these Floors as fast as possible?"
"Yes, but we have to make sure that we are familiar enough with these new skills that we have acquired. At this level, even with the skills, I don't think it's enough to match the strength of someone like Theseus who's Level 40."
"I agree," said Asuna, "the skills are draining and I'm not familiar enough yet with the vitals, and to a degree, it was slightly distracting seeing those points highlighted."
"My arm felt kinda sluggish too when I tried to use [Counter Strike]. Normally I would have been able to block all of them, but I just couldn't move my halberd as fast after a few hits," said Jax.
"Same with [Blade Surge], it causes me to lose a lot of movement speed and attack speed after the effects wear off," Irelia added on.
"I'm guessing you need to level up those skills to make them more efficient. Not to mention, it's probably the system's way of balancing the skills. Something that can provide both offensive and defensive power must have some kind of drawbacks," said Kirito. "It's probably fair to assume that the stronger the skill, the more drawbacks it has."
"I haven't made any skills yet since I don't know if there is a limited number of skills you are allowed to create," said Robin. "What if you are supposed to save these custom ones for the later stages of the game?"
"I think it's safe to assume that there won't be a cap on how many skills we can have since SAO is focused on training the skills you need. Even if a person creates a hundred skills, if those skills aren't leveled up then they are going to remain inefficient," said Kirito. 'Speaking of which, it's about time I make mine so that I can start leveling them up.'
When everybody went to sleep, Kirito snuck off and found some crab monsters down the river to test on. First, he created a skill for his signature combat combo, the [Spin Slash Combo]. A two-step combo that uses the swordsman's momentum to spin and land a quick and powerful second hit. Then he added another skill, the [Horizontal Square Combo], a four-step combo that starts with a side slash followed by an upward diagonal slash through the torso. Following that momentum, Kirito spins behind the enemy dealing a downward diagonal slash through the back and ends off with a final torso slash as the opponent turns. Both were extremely high damaging skills, however, due to the nature of combos being so situational, the stamina cost were all relatively low. Using combo skills will lock the player's body into an animation that can't be canceled, leaving them wide open for attacks if the player foolhardily uses them.
'Something offensive and defensive…I wonder if this will work.' He channeled a little bit of mana into his feet and dashed at the crab monster, disappearing for a split second and then reappearing behind the crab. His momentum and sense of balance was completely off and resulted in his planting face first into the river. "Okay, that went considerably well but not the way I had planned it."
The concept was simple. What if instead of just incurring stamina as a cost for the skill, he incurred mana cost into the skill as well? The answer played out just as he expected, by incorporating mana as a cost along with stamina, he is able to free himself from the physical laws of the world and travel into the realm of impossibles. The skill [Riftwalk] was what he thought of, allowing him to quickly teleport or blink from one point to another. However, he quickly found out the drawbacks of this ability as he found himself instantly out of breath and stamina.
'That cost me around 75% of my stamina bar…unusable, to say the least. For now.'
After doing a few more test he found that the further he tries to blink, the more mana it costs. Using the skill in quick succession also increases the mana cost, but no matter what, the stamina cost stays constant.
"Quite the hard worker, aren't you?"
"I'm just a hardcore gamer," said Kirito as he turned and found Asuna looking over him. "What are you still doing up?"
"Same as you," said Asuna as she came up next to him.
"You sure? Because I'm doing hardcore gamer things right now," said Kirito as he continued to sulk.
"You know the hardcore gamer thing was just a joke right?"
"It wasn't very funny. When you say hardcore gamer you make me sound like a NEET."
Asuna laughed a bit, "Sorry that wasn't my intention. You know, back in the real world I used to play a lot of games as well. I would stay up in my bed with the lights off, playing on my old school Gameboy. Got into a lot of trouble with my mom doing that."
"Did you not do your homework or something?"
"What, no way! I would have you know that I was an excellent student. I bet I had better grades than you."
"Hey don't be so sure, I had pretty good grades too, you know."
"Somehow I doubt that."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing," she said as she looked away. "Talking about school and stuff makes me miss the real world. There are so many things I didn't get to do yet."
"Like what?"
"Like going to prom, graduating from university, getting married."
"Wait, do you have a boyfriend in real life?!"
"W-What no, why would you think that?"
"Okay phew, that would have been a shame," thought Kirito.
"Why would that have been a shame?" asked Asuna.
'WAIT I SAID THAT OUTLOUD?!'
"I-I mean it would be a shame if you didn't get to do all that stuff!" He stuttered through his half-baked explanation but it seemed like it worked. "A-Anyway I thought that maybe you had a boyfriend since you were talking about going to prom and getting married."
"These are pretty common things to want to do as a girl. Anyway, what's your motivation for getting out then?"
Kirito took some time and thought about it, before he answered, "I want to beat this game. I don't want Kayaba to get away with doing this scot-free and if I don't beat his game I would feel like in some way he has won."
"Quite the sense of justice you have."
"Well, I guess I would also like to be a game designer and make my own game someday. Sort of giving the same kind of joy that I have experienced to other people."
"Ah, it must be nice."
"What?"
"Being so free, being free to choose what you want to do. Back in the real world, I had everything planned out for me. Which university I was going to attend, which job I was going to get, perhaps even which man I was going to be married to." There was a brief moment of silence between them as Asuna kept her head down.
"Why not fight for what you want to do then? It's your life, you should live it the way you want to live it," said Kirito finally.
"That's easy to say but in the real world, it isn't as simple as it is here. There are some bosses that are just unbeatable."
"Asuna…" said Kirito as he grabbed her hand. "Listen to me, if you can wake up every day, look at death straight in the eye and charge at it. Then there are no bosses out there that are unbeatable for you."
"Thank you…" said Asuna as she lifted up her head. She didn't even realize it but a few tears had rolled out of her eyes. She had felt like a bird in a cage for so long, felt like there was no way out. But now, someone has shown her that she has the strength to control her own life, and even in what can be considered her darkest times, she has never felt so free.
"When we get out of here, let's do the things we want to do," said Kirito as he brought her in for a hug.
"Yeah…"
Author's Note: I know nothing really exciting happened but it's kind of a setup chapter for the big ones in Sparta. If there were aspects of the skill creation process that you guys didn't really understand please comment in the reviews and I'll try my best to answer them (or correct the plot holes). Leave a review and tell me what you guys think of the custom skills so far! Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and I wish you all a good day/night!
Behind the Page
-the answer to last chapter's question: Her heart was frozen from lack of ruth
-ruth: compassion or pity for another
-the [Spin Slash] is actually an attack combo that Kirito has used in the past chapters, check out the fight against the Leaf Sprouts in Chapter 2 and his fight against Skrill in Chapter 5
-the [Horizontal Square Combo] is the skill that Kirito uses many times in the anime (ex. at the start of Episode 8 when he's fighting that lizard monster on Floor 74), the one that draws a rhombus out with overlapping lines after the combo
-if you think my skill naming skill is deficient, I will say there's a reason that you guys will find out later on
-I balanced the skill the way I felt was appropriate, as mentioned in the chapter, the more OP a skill is, the higher the stamina cost or the harsher the debuffs
-combo skills had the benefit of being high damage and low stamina cost since it's considered a high-risk high reward playstyle; if any of you ever played a fighting game you know that landing a combo is very rewarding but missing one lock you in an animation and the opponent has a window to do whatever he/she wants
Response to Reviews
MakkuroX: Thanks for the review! You were super close, off by ONE word, I posted the answer in the Behind the Page section XD
bioben7: Thank you for the encouragement, and a good day/night to you too!
VergilChan: Sent a reply through the messaging system but just wanted to thank you again on here for the great reviews that you've provided. I look forward to reading more of them in the future!