Mystic Knight Online
Chapter 42 - Press "G" for Gnosis, Better Known as Knowledge
July 13, 2024 - Aincrad 61st Floor, Selmburg
"So, how did it go?" Strea asked as the group entered the villa. They had decided to go after the floor boss, though she had been asked to stay behind due to her not being ready. It wasn't a matter of skill on her part, though she was still refining those skills as she continued to go out with them. It was getting a few field or event bosses out of the way for her to cut her teeth on and gain the needed experience. Once she got that, they would let her in on floor boss fights.
Still, from the looks on their faces, the fight did not go as well as they had hoped.
"Four dead," Harry said tiredly. "Not the worst boss fight we've been to by a long shot, but it's been close to twenty floors since we lost anyone in a boss battle, and those guys just retired from fighting." He shuddered. "Not that I blame them. After what that one boss did to them? I don't blame them one bit."
"It was a stupid mistake," Asuna muttered angrily. "A stupid mistake that they should have known better than to make. Those damn impatient idiots! We warned them. We fucking warned them not to charge in right then. Not when it was shifting attack patterns. What in the hell were they thinking?"
The rest of the group looked at her in shock before Harry just gestured to Kirito, and the other boy took Asuna to the living room.
"I take it that's unusual?" Strea asked.
Harry nodded. "Asuna usually watches her language, so for her to be swearing means she's either very angry, or what happened put her really out of sorts," he commented. "And I can say that she's only echoing what the rest of us think." He then shook his head sadly. "Just give her some time to calm down."
"At least Heathcliff jumped in to keep it from getting worse," Silica said, to Strea's surprise.
She was about to say something when she felt the system lock her down, saw something in her field of vision.
FM: CARDINAL - YOU CANNOT MENTION THAT HE'S KAYABA, THEY HAVE TO FIGURE IT OUT.
A quick glance to the side saw Yui staring in front of her with wide eyes. And as she glanced at the others, she saw that they noticed.
"Hey, are you two okay?" Rain asked.
Feeling the lockdown lift, she looked at them and saw the concern in their eyes.
Shakily, she nodded and saw Harry scowl.
"Something tells me that's not the case," he said simply. "We mentioned Heathcliff, and you two reacted oddly. I mean, I don't trust him very far, still don't, and doubt I will, but that shouldn't… wait a second."
"Harry?"
"Everyone, tell me something," he said. "Have we ever seen him struggle all that much against anything? I'm not meaning having to work at it, but actually having trouble."
Silica looked thoughtful. "Well, he did seem to have a few problems when he solo tanked the fiftieth floor boss long enough for us to get back to our feet." She said, but there was a clear note of uncertainty in her voice.
"And when you look at it, he shouldn't have been able to," Rain mused. "I don't care how good you are, a boss like that should have been too much to handle on a person's own. You would have to… be… oh that fucking mudok!" She started swearing at length in Russian.
"What is it Rain?" Lux asked, blinking at the clear vitriol that was in the Russo-Japanese girl's voice.
"She put it together," Harry said. "We don't have confirmation, but it does make sense. We just might know who he is." He then chuckled a bit darkly. "And if that's so, then it was well played you brilliant bastard. Well played indeed."
"Harry," Silica said sharply. "Just who-?"
Harry looked at them all and smiled grimly. "Just someone I owe a beer to," he said simply. "For keeping you out of the line for fire back in January. You know when."
Silica's eyes widened. "You mean…?"
Harry nodded and then looked at them all.
"Kayaba."
Silica started swearing, as she easily made the same connection he had. Strea was impressed by her knowledge of the Japanese language, not to mention the other languages were thrown in as well.
Rain nodded and then looked at Harry askance. "Why do you owe him a beer?" She asked.
Harry smiled, though it didn't reach his eyes. "I just owe him one, and I'll leave it at that," he replied. "It was after you left to get Gus, so that's why you don't know. Now, we need to get Kirito and Asuna, and brief them up on our suspicions. Hmm, perhaps we should eat out tonight, the Golden Way sounds good right now."
"For what?" Lux asked.
"To let him know we'll play his game… until he fucks up and we can expose him." Harry said with a calm that Strea could easily tell he did not feel. Not with how tense his body was, like a mob primed and ready to strike. "And to get dinner, of course." He stood up and walked out of the room. A minute later, they were all startled by Asuna's shout.
"WHAT?!"
Aincrad 55th Floor, Grandzam
Heathcliff looked over the footage of the fight with the log files running alongside them, trying to see what precisely happened. With the levels of everyone, it shouldn't have dealt that much damage, but it did, and four players were now dead. Was it a minor glitch that got missed? Was it just not tuned right? Or were the ones who leapt in, like Asuna had shouted, being idiots for doing so. Either way, whether it was his fault or not, he wanted to make sure.
Though it did seem as if Asuna had the right of it. True, the damage was higher than it should have been, but the rest of the players had been cautious enough to expect something. The Glitchzone had gotten them to be wary that not everything would have been properly fixed before being reopened. There were a great many possible factors that could have led to this that he had to take into consideration.
"HEATHCLIFF," CARDINAL said. "IT SEEMS AS IF STEEL PHOENIX HAS MADE THE CONNECTION. THAT YOU ARE KAYABA, THAT IS."
And now he had this to contend with. "Was it Strea and Yui?" He asked.
"NEGATIVE." Came the immediate response. "OR, AT LEAST, NOT DIRECTLY."
"What do you mean?"
"THE PROTOCOLS IN PLACE TO PREVENT THEM FROM TALKING, AND WARNING THEM AGAINST TRYING TO MAY HAVE PLAYED A PART." CARDINAL replied. There was a slightly sheepish note in her voice. "THEY WERE ALL TOGETHER WHEN THOSE PROTOCOLS TRIGGERED."
Kayaba considered that and sighed. He should have considered the possibility that anything he did could get them on the right track, not that they needed any help. Regular observations showed him that it was sheer luck on his part that they hadn't before now. The gods only knew he unintentionally dropped enough hints, looking back on it all, that any of the players could have made the connection by now. So, something in place to block two who might, might have known, from disclosing it could easily get them to think.
Especially them.
After all, his play was too perfect, and he never went into the red. How many players could claim that?
"And their reactions?" He asked. He had a feeling that he already knew, but he needed to make sure.
"THEY SEEM TO BE WILLING TO PLAY YOUR GAME… FOR NOW." CARDINAL replied. "THEY WERE DISCUSSING HOW THIS SHOULD BE APPROACHED AND REACHED A CONSENSUS."
"Oh?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. That someone figured it out, and wanted to approach him was unsurprising, and with them, he had a feeling that they would definitely want to discuss some things. At sword point.
"I WOULD SUGGEST CHECKING YOUR MESSAGES," CARDINAL replied, and there was a bit of that put off tone to her.
Blinking, Kayaba noticed the message pop up in the corner of his vision. Thirty messages waiting. He sighed. "Budget, budget, a thank-you from the orphanage on the first floor for the outing, bill from that blacksmith-" he easily sent that to Daizen, his guild's financier- "message from- oh."
Hadrian. Harry. The Mystic Knight. It was an invitation for them to meet and talk at the Golden Way in Algade.
I see, he thought. It makes sense as well. Of all of them, he is probably the most able to keep a cool head even when enraged. Which makes him all the more dangerous, really. However, from the tone of the message, he's clearly not looking for trouble, not right now, at least.
He considered it for a moment, weighing the pros and cons of it, before accepting the invitation.
The fact that it would be in public, and at a place that was popular with players in general wasn't lost on him. It probably was intended to serve as a check on all parties, constraining their actions, or at least ensuring that if there was a blowup, his true identity would be exposed to many witnesses. Rather well thought out, for a plan that was done quickly. Potentially risky, for him especially, but having spent just as much time in SAO as everyone else- more so really- he thought it would be a worthwhile one to take.
I wonder how this will go, I didn't plan for something like this, he thought to himself with some anticipation as he stood up. Despite the fact that it could mean everything would come to a conclusion soon, he was looking forward to it.
Aincrad 50th Floor, Algade
"Just to be clear, I will be the one handling this." Harry said quietly. "I don't want you all getting involved in this."
Asuna blinked at Harry's quiet declaration and turned to look at him. "Why?" She asked.
"I'm the one who invited him, to talk and nothing else," Harry said simply. "Also, all of us are angry at him, and we need to keep clear heads." He looked at Asuna. "You might be able to pull it off, but I need you to keep an eye on the others, and dear, don't try and say you can keep calm, I heard you muttering about what you want to do to him if this confirms it."
Asuna nodded and thought about it. He's right, damn it. She thought. And of all of us, he tends towards cold anger, rather than hot anger. It sounded like he didn't want to accidentally cause the situation to degrade, but was going to take precautions in case of that anyway. "You're worried about it being likely to escalate, then?" She asked, more for confirmation than anything else. "More so than it is already is."
He nodded. "You think I would be this sensible otherwise?" He asked with a wry grin.
Silica and Kirito snorted at that, while Rain just shook her head. Lux simply turned to Strea and Yui and explained that, while not exactly reckless per se, he did have a tendency to leap into things.
"So, taking precautions, and you want us to keep our distance then?" Asuna asked as they entered the inn. She spied a table that would have a clear view of the entire inn and decided that it would do. It had an excellent line of approach to the bar, meaning they could support him if needed, but was far enough that it shouldn't put Heathcliff on his guard. Well, more on his guard, as they all considered that he probably knew the reason for this meeting. "I still don't really agree with this idea of yours, but…"
"But we'll just keep picking at it if we don't do something, and it might make us act at the wrong time," Kirito said. "I know I would do something stupid in the right circumstances, like noticing it right after a boss fight."
"And knowing him, he would offer to duel, with the prize being releasing everyone if we win," Harry said. "But that's what he would want. I do think you would stand a good chance at winning, if only because he would disable his most dangerous advantage to keep it somewhat fair. But you would be doing what he wants, when he wants it. The advantage would still be his."
"And even without his GM abilities, he's probably that good anyway," Kirito admitted. "I would be walking right into it."
Asuna could only nod at that. Having known Kirito this long, she knew that when something provoked him into action, he tended to not think of the consequences. It really would be him dancing to Heath- no, Kayaba's- tune. Harry could distance himself, at least a bit, from it. Take off the edge of his own emotions, his own anger, allowing him to be clear headed.
But she could tell that his own fury is why he was doing this. Not because he was spoiling for a fight, but because he couldn't just do nothing, now that he knew. So instead, he decided to do this.
Tell Kayaba he knew, and perhaps find out why he did this. If he couldn't yet act, he could use this as an opportunity to perhaps get some answers.
"Harry, be careful," Silica said. "If you get killed, Rain still has that resurrection stone. I will use it, and force you to commit seppuku with a spoon."
Harry looked back and smirked. "Duly noted, dear." He replied and then turned to walk toward the bar.
Asuna looked at Silica, who was looking at her husband's figure with worry. "Why a spoon?" She asked.
"Because it's dull, it'll actually hurt, and he'll feel it." Came the response.
##
"Ever notice how the myth of the Buddha and the myth of Oedipus are, in a way, mirror images of each other?"
Heathcliff blinked.
He had come in expecting anything, a fight, an angry confrontation, a public falling out, anything really. But the question asked by Hadrian was unexpected. That the others in the guild were at the inn, if at a table a fair way from the bar, was noted, as was the presence of a clearly nervous Strea and Yui. But their distance showed that this was being done on Hadrian's initiative, and they were there for support in case things did go wrong.
It's not unexpected,he thought to himself. They would no more allow him to go in and do something like this alone than he would allow them to do the same. It's clear that he's doing this because he has to act, but he doesn't want this to be in a way I can perhaps dictate.
Which was rather clever of him. If anything, the boy probably considered the possibility that he, himself, would have considered this happening, and planned for it. Perhaps offering them a chance to fight him and decide everything right then and there. And the boy considered it something to avoid, as the ball would be in his court, so to speak.
Still, that question needed to be answered, and perhaps it would give him a clue as to what Hadrian was hoping to get from this. He took a moment to reflect on the various stories he'd read. Even with the vast majority of his time spent developing SAO over the course of years, he had to have a starting place, inspirations really, for quests and mobs to come from somewhere. Stories were fertile ground for such. In turn, those stories helped him give CARDINAL the cream of the crop for her own management and adjustments to that shared pool of knowledge.
He found himself pleasantly surprised at the boy's insight. "Now that you mention it, yes." He admitted. "They do seem to be mirror images of each other. Oedipus flees his destiny and it destroys him. Buddha embraces it despite his parents' attempts to trap him in a gilded cage of luxury. An interesting observation."
Hadrian gestured to the seat at the bar beside him, and ordered a tankard of the local beer. "You know, I once talked to one of my teachers about Oedipus and the One Who Woke Up. Especially how I figured that Siggy von 'Slow Mo' Freud got the point of Oedipus wrong."
Heathcliff gave him a thoughtful look, trying to find any hidden meanings in the words spoken. "I don't see Freud as the kind of thing to be on your reading list at your age." He said after a moment.
"The teacher in question runs the Book Club, and he likes to point you toward books that have the answers, rather than tell them to you. Add to that one of my best friends is a bibliophile..." Harry replied with a shrug. "At least it gave me options besides textbooks and class related materials."
Heathcliff nodded his head in acceptance. "So you're not enamored of Freud's idea that every boy wants to sleep with his mother?" He asked, trying to gauge the boy's reaction to an obvious interpretation of a reference to Freud.
Hadrian winced. "That... exaggerates things a bit, I think." He said. "Not to mention that my wife would beat me to death with my own spine if that was so. Also, eww, gross. I think Freud was a better poet than a psychologist, which would go a long way to explaining why his interpretation of that myth went that way. But, that's not the real point of the myth."
"And what lesson do you see the Greeks imparting?" Heathcliff asked as the barkeep arrived with the boy's drink.
Hadrian paid for his drink and took a pull from the tankard, most likely as a ploy to gather his thoughts, or at least to maintain control over the conversation. "It's all the running away from, or toward for that matter, one's fate that actually caused the problem," he replied. "When Oedipus tried to run from whom he thought to be his parents to prevent the prophecy, he ended up killing his real dad and marrying his mum."
Heathcliff nodded at the boy's words. He had been right about his observations made a while ago. Hadrian was interesting, and more than just as an idle curiosity due to his special abilities. "Buddha's parents tried to force him toward a life of luxury rather than him becoming a holy man," he said. "When he finally ventured out just to get a break from it all, he saw the three sights that led to his enlightenment. That's a good point, and it emphasizes your point about them being mirrors, the two myths."
"Mm. How secure is that field I felt when you walked up?"
It took only a second to accept the sudden shift. "At least as good as your friend Argo's. A little more selective perhaps, so I can interact as needed, but at least as good." He was short selling it, of course, and he wouldn't be surprised if the boy knew it.
It didn't mean that it wasn't highly useful, especially now.
"Tom was like that," Hadrian said. "That was the mistake he made, and it cost him."
Ah, Heathcliff thought. Laying out the cards on the table, now that the initial verbal sparring is now done. The conversation to this point was probably Hadrian's attempt to trip him up, reveal more than he intended, and he wondered what the boy got from it. But now, it was time to get to the real subject of things.
He had suspected that one of the members of Steel Phoenix would eventually put it together. If anything, he was surprised it took this long, really. The boy's lack of trust in him since their first meeting carried over to the rest, and it had shown that the mask he wore back then wasn't as good as he thought, or the boy was simply perceptive. Probably a bit of both.
Not enough for more than suspicion, but that would be all that was required for him to be wary.
"Did you two have a prophecy, then?" He asked
"Maybe, I don't know," Hadrian shrugged. "I'm going to ask my headmaster when we finish this dance between us. I'm not planning on telling anyone else if you're worried about that. My guild knows, but I think you expected that. Hell, there are a lot of things that they've probably figured out, or will soon."
"Aside from my identity? Or some other things?" Heathcliff asked knowingly.
"Yes." Hadrian said with a nod, acknowledging what was being implied. "As for Tom, he was running so hard toward his ascension, or immortality, or winning any prophecy we might have had, that I think it's why he walked right into a place he had so little power." He smiled grimly. "We all know how that ended."
"And if I were to take your advice," Heathcliff said with a small smile, "I wouldn't make it impossible for you to spread the word."
"No, I expect you to do that much," Hadrian admitted. "But if you do, I just ask you let me and the others talk amongst ourselves, or act if, and when, you reveal yourself. Though I don't doubt that you'll slip up before you plan to reveal yourself. You've done it often enough already."
"That I have," Heathcliff said, acknowledging his point. "You, all of you really, are playing within my rules. In your own ways perhaps, but still within my rules. You know the secret, but will keep it until the right time. Whether it is on my initiative, or you exploit an opportunity presented, it is still within my rules."
"And the rules the situation creates," Hadrian noted. "My book club teacher is a brilliant man, a duelist and a respected scholar. I once noted how two of the maxims of his main subject implied a third, and his eyes lit up. Only my book-loving friend had seen it before me in our year, at least in his subject. He told me that once a game or system gets complex enough with its rules, those rules begin to imply other things. Whether 'rules' are how reality is or how you've set up a game like SAO, a complex system by its nature will have more rules suggested by the observable or stated rules. Kirito and Strea called it the 'meta-game'."
"Well said," Heathcliff allowed with a smirk. After a flicker of... shock maybe?... Hadrian gave a small grin back.
"If you could help me figure out how to phrase that in a manner that works in essay format... well, there'll be a thank you mixed in with the curses when we beat you."
Heathcliff allowed himself a brief, closed mouth laugh. "Still, that does beg the question. Why make you Oedipus, to draw the analogy of the comparison to those tales to a logical conclusion?"
The boy smirked at him. "Why not?" He asked. "I was an instrument to one man's destiny destroying him, after all. And just to be clear, I, we, don't care if you want to play both sides. We don't care if you want to plant more ideas with a well-timed mob or clue, or give out Uniques to those you think fit for the role of hero. Nice one with Kirito, by the way, it fits him. But if you try to force us down a specific path to make things exactly as you wish, you'll end up like Tom, my dear Demiurge. Not getting what he wanted, not even a really noble and epic alternative."
"I prefer the term of storyteller, actually," Heathcliff remarked. "Though your term, Demiurge… it's rather fitting for the setting. Perhaps I am a bit of both. What else am I but a false god telling a story and having his audience live it?"
"For what purpose?"
"That is the question, isn't it?"
He had to restrain his shock at Hadrian's reply to his attempted enigma.
"So you don't even know why you did it, then?" Hadrian asked. "You're a dreamer, who forgot what his dream was. I don't know whether to consider that sad or not." He shook his head. "By the way, if you want people following Asuna so much, why not just reveal yourself, gloat a bit, and announce if your guild had just followed the ones you were so intent on subverting, they wouldn't have been lead down the garden path. You stand as our villain, the heroes you want in the spotlight are, and you don't fuck it up with over reaching in an attempt to make it 'just so'. That's just good writing. Anyway, Barkeep! I owe this man a drink!" He saw the boy select from the menu even as he went through the motions with the NPC to be polite.
Heathcliff accepted the drink, and watched Hadrian return to his friends as he mused on that last comment from the boy. Was he possibly trying too hard to make his story seemingly perfect? And what did that say about a half remembered dream from his childhood that was the genesis of it all? Was it a story to tell? Was it an attempt to make a dream reality?
Maybe it can be both a dream and a story to tell, he thought. After all, stories aren't to tell that there are villains, but that villains can be defeated. That heroes do exist. And the world needs heroes in this day and age. Maybe, when I dreamed, I wanted to be a hero back then, but in making the dream and story a reality, I became the villain. Heh, fitting really. Every tale needs one, and it was I who made this their reality. After all, who is it that makes the heroes what they are, but the villains?
Hadrian, it seemed, did not want another one of this "Tom" running about, and he could speculate on the others. Metagaming was a part of playing any game. He saw a number of looks being exchanged, some concerned, some not, and wouldn't have put it past them all to be muddying the water, despite the fact that he already knew that they all knew.
This was the level of play he'd hoped for, but seen as an outlier. Instead, he had a group of players who had learned to navigate the rocky path that was this world, and he had to admit, he had probably unintentionally aided them in getting that skilled. But that they hadn't been honed in the way he anticipated, made him stretch.
He took a pull of the ordered drink, and had to smirk as he realized Hadrian had ordered the poorest quality beer available. Horse piss by any other name, really.
It made sense. They weren't friends. He was no one's friend in the end. He could settle for being a respected enemy, though.
Still, he thought as he took another drink. You all seem willing to play by my rules. In your own way, perhaps, but that's the nature of this game.
##
Silica watched as Harry walked away from Heathcliff and back toward her.
"So, it went well?" She asked him.
"I think so," he answered. "At least, it seems as if he's willing to accept that we will play by his rules. Even if I didn't say that we would do so in our own way." He smirked. "But I think he expects that."
Something her grandmother said occurred to her and she smiled. One with a lot of teeth to it. "Well, that's nice." She said. "After all, we now know what the game actually is. Us… against him."
"Hasn't it always been that way?" Rain asked.
"In a way," Asuna said. "But it was us against the system more than us against him. If only because of the clear conditions that were stated. Now, it is us against him. All of us, all the players." She looked at them all. "Now, we need to plan for when he will either make a mistake, or reveal himself as the main enemy to defeat."
"Which means, a loose plan, I take it?" Lux asked.
Asuna nodded. "Of course. But we will have something in place, for us to work with, or for Harry to… how does he say it? Oh, right. For him to royally bugger it all up as he pulls something crazy out of his ass that somehow works."
"Aw, Asuna, you say the sweetest things." Harry remarked, easily dodging the halfhearted swat from Silica.
"I keep trying to train him," Silica said apologetically. "But he's like a dog that refuses to be housebroken."
"Ah, but you like the fact that I refuse to be housebroken, dear." Harry said, wagging his eyebrows. "It makes things more… fun."
"Down boy," Silica said, landing a swat on his shoulder.
"Get a room you two," Rain shot out before looking around the table. "Anyway, how should we go about it?"
Kirito nodded. "I'll start breaking out the Dual Wielding, publically," he declared. "I can use the last boss fight as a reason to do so."
Asuna nodded. "Would it have made a difference?" She asked.
Kirito shrugged. "I don't know, probably not, but it wouldn't have hurt." He admitted. "We also need to grind, and grind hard for this. He's going to be tough for when we expose him, or he does it himself, and I expect there to be a fight when that happens. This way, we have some extra levels to serve as a cushion."
"I have a suggestion," Yui said. "I can start following you all to various towns and asking around while you're in the fields fighting mobs and questing. This way I can gather information on quests you haven't done." She shrugged. "There is a lot more information on them than you expect, so long as you look around."
Asuna nodded. "That could work," she said cautiously. "I don't feel comfortable with leaving you alone in Selmburg, to be honest. I'm not completely comfortable with it, but sometimes we might end up being gone for several days. Also, we can divvy up the quests when we meet up for lunch or dinner then and speed up the process of getting them. But are you sure about it?"
Yui shrugged. "I'm not a fighter, and this way I can do something to help," she said. "I know that I wanted to experience a family, but this is also important."
"And it's not like she can't do both," Harry mused. "We can go out, fight, and then come back to learn what she learned. At the same time, she can also see the sights and tell us if there's anything worthwhile for us to see and experience." He shrugged. "After all, part of his game, his rules, is to see what this world offers, isn't it?" He then looked at Kirito and Asuna slyly. "She might even find some nice and romantic spots for you two to spend some time at. Alone."
Both Asuna and Kirito blushed and then glared at him while Silica, Rain, and Lux all giggled. Strea and Yui looked at bit confused for a second before comprehension dawned on them.
Strea looked at Harry and Silica. "So, are you trying to encourage them to compile children? Or at least practice?" She asked curiously. "Why? It's not like you can here, from what CARDINAL once told me. Oh! Maybe you can explain something to me! How do you do it? How long does it take? You know, when you're Outside?"
Yui sighed as the others tried to parse the comment. "Didn't CARDINAL ask you to check the databanks last time you asked about that?" She asked.
"But that's boring!" Strea protested.
Silica then realized what Strea was really asking, and her face went as red as a tomato. From everyone else's reactions, they also connected the dots, even Harry, whose face was just as red. "That's... something done in private," she explained. "And for your information, it takes nine months. If the two involved manage to get it started."
"If?" Strea asked. "Why?"
"Can we get back on topic?" Asuna asked desperately, her face slowly becoming redder. "How did we get sidetracked from things like this?"
"Harry commenting on Yui finding some spots for you and Kirito to have some alone time." Lux said easily.
"Well, let's get back on topic," Asuna said firmly, shooting Harry a look. "And Harry, quit trying to play matchmaker, Argo does it better. Also, Strea, ask both Harry and Silica later." She shot them a smile. "They can explain some things better since they have experience."
Harry and Silica just shot her a flat look.
"I will sic Argo on her." Silica declared.
"Which one?" Harry asked. "Asuna? Or Strea?"
"Yes."
From the suddenly nervous look on Asuna's face, it was clear to Silica that the older girl was worried what she and her husband had in mind if they actually decided to involve Argo. She caught the context used there. This wouldn't be Argo the Rat, information broker. This would be Argo, the unrepentant gadfly, who got her amusement however she could.
Asuna was well within her rights to be worried there. As for Strea, she already knew what to do. She would simply request that Argo give the AI a certain talk, one she had given both Harry and herself last year.
July 22, 2024 - Aincrad 66th Floor, Horvarth Caverns
Harry looked around the chamber they entered and didn't see or hear any signs of more mobs showing up. A glance to Silica and Lux near the entrances showed them relaxing as well, indicating that they didn't need to worry about any surprises from those directions, and he relaxed.
Turning to their other companion, who was looking around, much like they were, he waved to get her attention.
"You get what we came here to get yet?" He asked.
Strea nodded. "I got the armor we came here for, and we should have enough of what the quest Yui directed to us completed, too," she replied. "I would equip the armor, but better to wait to do it in town, from what Kirito said."
Harry nodded. "He's right about that," he admitted. "This way you can see if the stats it provides are right for you in a safe setting. Worst place to find out that it's not for you is during a fight, and you should avoid that when you can."
"What if that's the only way to find out?" Strea asked.
"That's why you also make sure to have some extra gear, gear you know is fit for you, in your inventory." Silica replied, gathering Pina into her arms. "Of course, you still need to gather the gear, but that's why we're out here. If you get a drop, or a quest reward fit for you, good. If not, you still get col, mats and things to trade. Before long, we should have you properly kitted out."
Strea nodded.
"Well then, we can either head back to town and wait for the others to show up, or we can head out and farm the area around the caverns until it's time to head back." Harry said. "What do you all think?"
"Back to town," Lux said. "The others should be getting done soon."
Silica fed a few peanuts to Pina before nodding. "Might as well," she said.
Strea was about to say something, and her stomach growled. A growl that was immediately answered by several more from the others.
"Back to town it is, then," Harry said with a laugh as he sheepishly rubbed his stomach.
Aincrad 66th Floor, Sorithien Gorge
Asuna's eyes swept in every direction as she looked for the any mobs that would try and ambush her and her group. The quest was a simple search and destroy one, but had an interesting mechanic to it that only allowed those who were on this particular quest to fight these mobs. Otherwise, they were there, but basically part of the background.
She had seen them several times before taking the quest, and the fact that they couldn't be targeted had been noted then. Now that they can be targeted, she now found that the fact that she had previously seen them as a part of the background was now working against her. From Kirito's cursing and Rain's more vehement Russian swears, this was not appreciated by them in the slightest.
Clever design for this quest, though, she thought admiringly. Use the player's own habits against them to catch them off guard. The mobs aren't powerful, not enough to be a major threat to them, but still, it's a nasty surprise to experience.
And a nasty surprise it was, for all of the stated reasons. It was designed to exploit the fact that the players had, by this point, fallen into habits. They saw something as just part of the background, and they naturally filtered it out of their awareness. After all, they had other things they needed to focus on. At the same time, it indicated what would likely become an annoyingly common thing on higher floors.
It wouldn't be the first time SAO introduced something new in this way.
"How many more of these mob groups do we need to do?" Kirito asked.
"I think we're done, or almost so, but let me check," Asuna replied, opening her quest log. "Both of you keep an eye out."
Holstan
Yui saw Harry and his group teleport in from where she was sitting down at a nearby cafe, the meeting place they all agreed on when they started exploring the floor. She had spent most of the morning looking around the town, checking the wares at shops, potential places to eat a meal at, for the entire group, individuals, and for smaller groups. She also asked around for quest information, listened in on NPC conversations for potential tidbits, quest or otherwise, and gathering more information on just about anything for the sake of completion.
By now, she had what was probably the most comprehensive compilation of data for the floor to date, and she was considering providing it to Argo. For a price, of course. The allowance that Asuna decided on for her only went so far, and this would provide her with funds to get some things that had grabbed her interest, but were outside of her budget.
Thankfully, the questions about her presence had tapered off after a few days. It had taken some fast talking, on everyone's part, to explain her presence without outing her as an AI, but her presence was accepted far more quickly than expected. She had honestly expected the questions, along with the occasional demand for her to go somewhere safer, like an orphanage, would last longer, but it hadn't.
Instead, she had become the de facto little sister of the players up here.
Humans really are illogical, she thought idly as she waved Harry and the others over. They go from questioning my presence, to accepting it, and basically adopting me as some little sister in such a short period of time. But, is that a bad thing?
She didn't know, but she was interested in finding out. It wasn't what she had planned on when she escaped her digital prison, but the opportunities presented made it clear that she had done the right thing. When she wasn't gathering information for the others, she would occasionally talk with players who were wandering around the town, and learned a bit about each of them.
Nothing about the real world, but there were times when they would voice things like their concerns and hopes. Such as what they will do when they get out of SAO, or how the time it was taking made them wonder if they could go back to their old lives. She couldn't really help them much, other than provide an ear to listen to them, but that seemed to be enough.
Because sometimes, all anyone wanted and needed, was for someone to listen who would not judge them.
She was able to, even if only partially, carry out her duties as a Mental Health Counseling Program.
She dropped her musings as Pina flew over to land on the table and reached out to give her a small scratch behind the tufts of feathers that indicated where her ears were. She then turned her attention to the others, who were approaching the table with expressions of fond amusement.
