~Delay~
Philia wanted to clear up her situation with Anabelle, not having the courage to tell her true name with everyone else at the celebration the night before. Philia still kept herself without a guild, but in spirit, Beta had already taken her in.
Philia couldn't keep the guilt down about being dishonest with Anabelle when she hadn't used her actual name in being in contact for their linguistics lessons. She simply used her email ID which she had created for anonymous talking, having a decent fake name to use. Something believable. Possibly a name used by another person, but it didn't matter since she wasn't taking someone else' information to do her communication.
Philia had called Anabelle out to meet up and walk around the town together, feel at ease and just hang out. Just enjoy the day together as friends. Philia had always wanted to do something like that with a friend. She felt awkward about it since there was an age difference between them, but when Anabelle responded that her mother would come along as well, Philia felt both nervous and happy. She wanted to properly thank Ana for the Christmas gift of her new equipment, and she was also happy that Ana would break the tension there might be if it was only Philia and Anabelle. Nervous, because she wondered how Ana would react to the reveal that Philia hadn't used her real name when talking with Anabelle before for their lessons.
It was about three minutes until their designated meeting time, but Philia had skipped breakfast, disgusted at the idea of eating the regular bread after tasting the piece of heaven she had consumed the night before. As if they had the same kind of reasoning, Ana and Anabelle rounded the corner into sight from the location of their inn and headed straight for Philia. Of course, Philia was proudly wearing her present from Ana, the new combat clothing. There had been another set of comfort clothing, something meant for lounging in at home from the look of it, but Philia couldn't imagine just wearing that anywhere within the game...
"Good morning!"
The greeting from Anabelle was like a douse of water to the face, waking Philia up from her thoughts. Ana sent a message box as well.
"Good morning. I hope you slept well?"
Philia's morning discomfort betrayed the words she wanted to say, and Ana sighed before sending another message to her.
"You should really take better care of your health. Sleep at an inn, even at the same inn we use. I'm sure you could find a good use for your comfort wear I gifted you yesterday. How does your new combat equipment fit by the way?"
Philia had a feeling she would always face an all knowing inquisitor whenever she would face Ana. How did she know how to understand such fine details of a person from a small amount of conversation?
"Right...thank you for your concern, and thank you so much for the new equipment. It's so comfortable, I almost feel like it's cosplay and we're out of the game..."
Philia lost her confidence to reveal her main reason for calling Anabelle out.
"Are you okay Philia? Have you had anything for breakfast?"
Anabelle's innocent curiosity and worry for Philia in her strange state alerted Ana something else that she noticed.
"You really should be careful of your hunger. Here, I always have a few extra meal items in my inventory and plenty of snacks."
Ana passed Philia a large smoothie cup and stepped back beside Anabelle, taking her outstretched hand. Philia stared at the contents of the simple smoothy in her hands, and she felt the same sensation she did when looking at the food the night before after eating a bite. That she needed to savour every bit of it.
"Thank you again..."
Philia sipped a little of the smoothie and the sweet, yet slightly tangy, smooth taste of the rich fruity tastes entering her mouth made her stagger from her happiness to taste it. She wanted to cry, but she held it back, and fell in line walking with Ana and Anabelle when they began walking.
"So, was there anything you had in mind today, Philia?"
Anabelle was being as polite as possible. There was always the temptation to speak in accordance with her age, but Anabelle did have the vocabulary of most adults. Philia was nervous, but it was the best time, between sips of the smoothy, to tell the truth about her name.
"You know...how sometimes people use a fake name when communicating with other people? I'm sorry, but my real name isn't actually Philia or Zuzu Kiriya. I'm sorry..."
Anabelle and Ana walked ahead of Philia and faced her directly after Philia had stopped in telling her apology of not using her real name.
"It's okay. I'm sorry you feel bad because of this. Maybe I should have used an alias as well. I always had the feeling that you didn't look like a Zuzu, but you're definitely still cute."
Anabelle, the child calling Philia, the teenager cute nearly made Philia laugh. She took a deep breath and smiled, readying herself to introduce herself to Anabelle and Ana properly.
"To make up for lying to you about my name before...my name is Kotone Takemiya. I hope you truly forgive me for my lies about my name..."
The two in front of her laughed softly and smiled wide in response to Philia's true introduction.
"It's a good thing I put up a private conversation barrier for us so your personal information wasn't heard by others nearby. It's nice to meet you properly, Kotone-chan. I'll be sure to continue using Philia to refer you in the future of our time together in Aincrad."
The whispered English from Ana was like bells to Philia's ears. Even if she was reduced to whispers for her voice, just that much was still beautiful to the ears. She smiled and took another sip of the smoothie she had been given for her breakfast.
"Does...does joining the guild guarantee a delicious breakfast like this everyday...?"
Ana had dropped the privacy screen, and she nodded her head in response to Philia's question. Philia was certain right then she was ready to give up her solo playing pride through Aincrad to have a real meal everyday.
"We eat three proper meals every day, and sleep properly every night. I'm honestly surprised many if any people could have survived off of that horrid bread the NPCs sell. You should especially be getting proper sleep every night. At least most nights. Because you have to consider how you would feel most ready in real life to tackle your day."
Philia was surprised her mouth wasn't watering from the sound of being able to eat proper, delicious three meals a day if she joined Beta. She couldn't believe with how alive she felt how empty she had felt within the game after being trapped inside. Not empty enough to throw her life away. Empty enough however that she had no real goal with her time inside of the game. She didn't have any desire to get out of the game. She didn't have any goals in growing stronger. She would simply do her normal solo act and eventually get out whether on her own or from other people pushing their way out of the game. One invitation and meeting Anabelle and the people around her within the game though...that gave her meaning in her life again.
"I can't believe I was stupid enough before to turn down the invitation so quickly. Can I please, please, please join?!"
Philia was really cute when she showed how determined she was to get into the guild. The guild invite came from Ana with a tagged message."
"Now, will you continue with dagger alone for your weapon, or will you try sword or bow, which seem they would suit you better? Whichever you choose to handle most, I will teach you."
Philia looked down to the replica Ana made which was at least a solid hundred times better than the dagger she had before, just imitating the shape of the sword breaking dagger she had before. She didn't like seeing that jagged lethal sight hanging at her waist. She thought about the sword or bow options that Ana mentioned, and pressed the accept button on the invite to Beta.
"I'd like...to learn how to use the sword and the bow. Would that be alright?"
The grin which filled Ana's expression made Philia worried.
"Mama is very strict with her teaching. You'll never forget though!"
Philia only grew more worried to hear how enthusiastic Anabelle was toward her mother's teaching. Had she gone through it? How was it so strict? Was it rough?
The message window from Ana confirmed that it was okay for Philia to learn sword and bow. However, Philia didn't feel reassured even the slightest bit. Just what kind of training was she going to have with Ana steering her?
Philia couldn't help but feel happy being with Ana and Anabelle though. Her best friend and her best friend's mother. Both of them were so strong and she felt even more like she was back outside. There was one thing many people might still be scrambling for, but Philia gave up on it on day one. The Christmas event. The event would continue to the end of the day. The top spots all belonged to Beta regardless. Top guild in present collection? Beta of course. Top individuals? Well, Asuna had taken the number one position, but otherwise, the rest of Beta were right behind her filling the top positions individually. Beta never even had to try. Just follow along with Ana's leading. Now Philia was going to be part of that group.
"Don't worry about how strict the lessons are. If you don't have anything for today's plans completely decided, would you like to get some training done for those? Ah, but I'd have to take you down to the second floor and get some of your skill trees unlocked."
The message window from Ana was a little surprising. Philia didn't really have the day planned out. Just like she normally did on a day off outside from school or her other lessons, she would have just walked around and did whatever with Anabelle and Ana through the day since they accepted going with her. Just relax. However, having the offer to start on training and get the necessary skills trees unlocked? What skill trees? She could understand the bow, but wasn't the one handed sword enough?
"I assume that you would like something a little more suited to yourself than just using a simple one handed sword, sabre, rapier, or scimitar for a type of sword you would wield. There's also the tachi style weapon, which can be one or two handed, based off of katana and kendo, and magic swords, which have the chance to grant the ability to heal like Asuna and Sachi have with their weapons, or temporarily enchant the weapon for doing a certain element of damage, or even throw the element with a non-connecting slash to do ranged damage that way. For the bow, there's a few different skill trees. The primary one is the shooting skill tree, while the other skill tree our guild's bow users all have is the hunting skill tree, while the third, sniper, is held only by Sinon."
Philia was eager to find out what Ana meant by all of that. There were that many kind of skill trees? Philia had gotten used to daggers, but just about anything could have been fine. Daggers just seemed more right when sticking to the treasure hunter kind of style she usually preferred in her gaming. A magic sword though? That seemed even more like a treasure hunter weapon. And there were a lot of stories of treasure hunters who suited to the hunter type with a bow as a piece of their equipment they always had with them.
"Sure! I'm eager to learn, and it'll be fun to do something a little more than just whatever we find on this floor."
Ana and Anabelle laughed a little at the mention that it truly was Philia's idea to just wander around and do whatever they came across. Good thing Ana came along, Philia thought. Otherwise, it was likely she'd still be hungry. Which reminded her of the smoothy she still hadn't finished drinking. She tipped the glass of delicious berry flavoured smoothy back and gulped the rest of it down, putting the glass into her inventory when she finished instead of wasting it. It was a very nice glass.
The three of them walked to the teleport plaza together, and in minutes after being on the second floor, Philia found herself in a small clearing in the forest she had mostly ignored on the second floor, where there was a simple little shrine. The unending quest marker showed up, telling her to offer something. Suddenly, a magic sword and a bow showed up in her inventory and a message appeared in front of her from Ana.
"Offer the magic sword and bow on the altar. One at a time though, unless you want to try unlocking something especially unbalanced for Aincrad like a crossbow sword. I tried it a few times but it only left them there until I took one away, so it's likely to be a waste of time."
Philia nodded her head, and as if trying to do something that hadn't been done, she placed both the magic sword and bow on the altar at the same time. A few seconds passed after she placed them there, and she decided she would just follow Ana's words, but as she reached to pick the bow on top off so the sword would be offered, both disappeared from the altar of the shrine and a notification window told her she had unlocked different abilities. Magic swords were unlocked, enchanted attacking was unlocked as a sub ability for all weapon types. Shooting was unlocked. Hunting was unlocked. Sniping was unlocked. Crossbows were unlocked. Combined weapons were unlocked...
"Uhm..."
Philia was nervous to tell Ana and Anabelle what all was unlocked from what happened, but she was also scared that so much was unlocked all at once.
"That's so cool! What did you unlock since they offered at the same time?"
Anabelle was excited to hear, and a message window from Ana agreed in asking what Philia had unlocked.
"Well...enchanted attacking for all weapon types I use was unlocked, magic swords, shooting, hunting, sniping, crossbows, and combined weapons were all unlocked..."
Ana and Anabelle were excited.
"Finally someone can make use of the one I planned to use instead of cycling between my bow and sword!"
The message window from Ana was quickly followed up by an equipment entering Philia's inventory again. A holy, wind and lightning attribute magic sword with a small crossbow mounted to it... Ana had mentioned the possibility, but Philia had thought she was joking about it being possible to even make. But there it sat in her hands after she equipped it from her inventory...
"Try using it!"
Anabelle was eager to see Philia using it. Since she had the other ability added, she could even use fire or freezing attacks with the weapon, whatever she decided to enchant it with. As she thought of using the ability, her stamina bar blinked letting her know she was about to consume some energy from it. She decided to add fire to a bolt and aimed the crossbow toward a stump beside the shrine. After clicking the crossbow trigger, the flaming bolt flashed out like a bullet and pierced the stump with a small explosion and flames coated the surface of the stump. Shortly after the bolt secured there, it disappeared like arrows normally did. The flames lasted a few seconds longer since the stump wasn't a valid target, an immortal object, as the system notification showed in purple like the error grids in red which showed up when Kayaba Akihiko made his appearance for those events.
"It worked perfectly...!"
Anabelle was thrilled after seeing the result of the weapon working. Her and Ana both wore happy expressions. Philia was stunned that it actually worked. The weapon was a simple one handed sword, with a small crossbow mounted to it. The crossbow was a mechanical wonder, folding into the handle or securing to the guard depending on the intended use of the weapon. The entirety of the weapon was...incredible. As Ana had mentioned about it before, it was something overpowered. Something that didn't really belong in the game. As far as the gimmick about the game from the beginning, Sword Art Online was a game designed with the fantasy setting, but more relied on the player's skill in using melee weapons to fight their way through the game, but the game also included the unlimited crafting, and had the programming included that allowed magic and ranged skills available. Philia was a little disappointed Sword Art Online could be bypassed as what it was intended to be so easily by one quest location in the game and crafter ingenuity, but she was also excited. With a weapon like the one she held, she would be able to fit in and catch up with the rest of Beta rather easily.
"Now, let's go and start training."
The window with those words from Ana were the next part. Philia would get the chance to catch up to them. By training with them. Or at least being trained by them. She realized how little she had to offer them, and that teaching Anabelle felt like such a small contribution to them compared to what they were giving her.
For Philia, she had her life back. Even outside of the game she hadn't felt she was truly living since before she left her family's home. She felt empty, like there was little point in what she was doing. That her days were empty, and she was just going to end up doing whatever life guided into, whether she would enjoy it or not. The little enjoyment she'd had was in her time with Anabelle in linguistics. She didn't really enjoy linguistics much, but talking with Anabelle was what she enjoyed. She wondered what kind of future she might be able to enjoy from going off of what she realized she enjoyed. Would Ana and Anabelle help her with realizing what kind of future she wanted?
Philia was led out of the forest, and back to the town. Of course training on the second floor would be pointless currently, so Philia wondered where they would take her. When they arrived on the tenth floor, her first idea was that they would test her ability against the floor monsters and back her up if she needed it, which she knew she would because of the level disparity. But then...they led her to the dungeon. Ana started a proper party between the three of them and led them forward, sending a message to Philia to do whatever she thought would best help when they would encounter enemies. Seconds after that window was finished being read, Ana had dashed in and started controlling a group of monsters within the dungeon. They were all powerful and fast, but she still danced around between their attacks like a magical fluid moving around to the control of a master magician. She carved away at the skeletal humanoid monsters.
Philia couldn't find even a single opening worth risking to use her new crossbow, so she would have to get in there and try to help put out damage with the magic sword. She had to be careful so she wouldn't hit Ana...but she realized Anabelle beside her was loosing arrow after arrow into the heads of the monsters in the crowd. The arrows from Anabelle did a fair chunk of damage, but the health of the monsters was draining like they were on a steady damage over time instead of being whittled down quickly by Ana's relentless slashes with her sword.
Realizing she had to do something, Philia decided to charge forward, and just do her best to support Ana's attacking without getting in the way, hitting her by mistake or pulling the aggro from any of the monsters. She realized as soon as she started unleashing attack after attack on the enemies that Ana was making it easy for her to do her part, just hacking away at the nearest enemy with the holy element charged to her blade. Sending one enemy at a time within Philia's range and letting her focus each one down.
"You're quite messy. We'll have to get you trained on proper technique and motions with that kind of sword before we go further with this. Not bad on how you handled this though."
Philia received the message window at the same time as the last monster fell to the holy element of her sword and a notification that she had levelled up...twice during the entirety of the first battle in the dungeon. She was low levelled, and she knew it. She would have the opportunity to level up a lot during her training, she realized. Only one pull of five monsters at the beginning of the tenth floor dungeon had managed to level her up twice though...that was crazy. She was nowhere near Ana's level though. She checked the levels beside each party member's name in her peripheral vision, and sighed. There was a whole twenty levels between her and Anabelle alone, and another eight between Anabelle and Ana, with Ana in the lead.
Ana led them out of the dungeon and took them back to the city, to a training ground where there was a duelling section. There, Ana challenged Philia to a duel after dissolving the party.
"Be careful, Philia! This is what I meant by Mama's training being impossible to forget!"
Philia looked from Anabelle with her warning to Ana, and the serious expression on Ana's face put a heavy sense of dread in Philia. Just what kind of disaster was about to occur?
Philia learned. A lot. Ana was fierce in her teaching. The way she moved with the same magic sword alone was mind numbing. It was all Philia could do to try and dodge or block any of Ana's flurry of attacks. After three minutes of that, Ana stopped, and reset the duel so that Philia's hit points would return to full, since she had lost a full third of her hit points from taking a couple of hits, and blocking didn't stop all of the damage.
After the test of being on the receiving end of Ana's flurry, Philia was then required to try and hit Ana just once, and it had to be a full strike. All of this wasn't really helping Philia learn the sword at all. She hoped that Ana would start teaching her how to properly hold the sword and move in numerous ways, but she could only act as naturally as she could when she had to react. She brought up this opinion on how she was being taught before following Ana's test of trying to land a hit on her.
"Shouldn't I be learning how to wield the sword properly instead of this? I know I wasn't good at using the dagger because I was fighting like this, just going off of what felt natural. I know that it's better to learn technique properly..."
Ana shook her head in response, which caught Philia's attention and surprised her.
"I didn't have one day of holding any other than a bow before entering this game. I know it's just myself and Anabelle capable of learning so quickly, but the best way for any person to learn their fighting style, is to first become familiar with the feel of your weapon. You weren't bad with the dagger. You worked with it for a time. However, now you're moving onto a sword. It's a heavier, longer blade which takes more effort to control. You need to get used to how the blade feels, use it in a combat type of situation. React with it, then try and find out what's most comfortable in how you use it to attack your opponent. From there, I could help you fine tune your movements, since everyone has some bad habits they will create. Just continue as you are for the time being and we'll have you ready in no time."
Philia was surprised to read what she read. Ana hadn't held anything other than a bow before being in the game? But...wasn't she blind in real life too and that was why she was blind inside of the game? She thought to not question it before with the beautiful clothes she made everyone, but somehow it was bothering her that Ana had been wielding a bow in real life. Regardless, it was still a huge surprise after seeing how fierce and amazing her handling of the sword was in the dungeon, so Philia was convinced for the time being, that she could let Ana teach her this way. She knew that traditionally, this was far from how people were taught, so she wondered if in emergency situations in the past there had been this sort of training. Realizing there was no point in questioning it all any further, Philia held her sword in a way she aimed it at Ana, and she began taking the sword training lesson seriously. Anabelle watched with interest, and the day wore on. By lunch time, Ana had already started correcting mistakes in her movements. By evening, Philia felt completely comfortable with the sword. The next day, she would train with a long bow and a crossbow.
