The Drunk Ape was, pound for pound, one of the strongest basic monsters one could encounter within the walls of Aincrad. Their ponderous lumbering belied the unusual speed and agility with which they converged upon their prey, and their strength was evident from the sinews that bulged from the considerable muscle mass that covered their body. Like their real-world relatives, the apes of Aincrad tended to become aggressive when you made eye-contact with them; however, unlike real-world apes, Drunk Apes were typically neither shy nor gentle. They constantly skulked the forests, wooden club in hand, scouring the woods for their next meal.
However, as in the real world, no animal was truly an apex predator when a well-prepared human was in their vicinity.
A shadow crept through the canopy behind the trio of Drunk Apes beneath its feet. The shadow was clad in a long robe, with only a thin steel breastplate and small pauldrons to provide any additional protection – an insufficient defence against the brutal swipes of a Drunk Ape at first glance, but a necessary trade-off in the sacrificing of steel for speed. After all, why guard against an attack if that attack could never come close to hitting you?
The branch upon which the shadow knelt creaked. The Drunk Apes stopped in their tracks and looked up.
The shadow made its move.
A silver stiletto was plunged into the neck of the rearmost ape. As it fell, the other two bellowed and beat their chests in fury, in an attempt to intimidate their latest challenger. But the shadow was not perturbed; it had seen this behavior dozens, if not hundreds of times before. As the beasts flailed about, the shadow latched onto their arms, climbing onto their backs. One dagger followed another, and the three apes drew their last breath.
The shadow sighed with relief, and pulled the hood off its head, revealing the face of a dainty-looking young girl with chestnut-colored hair and eyes. The girl could never help but feel nervous about her hunts, regular as they may be. One misstep could spell death, and in this particular game, there were to be no respawns – a fact of which all its players were painfully aware.
She checked the loot she had received from her quarries, then slunk back into the comfort of the shade, away from the auspices of the moonlight. Waiting for her in the darkness was a tiny blue creature, curled up in a ball, purring as its master stroked its head.
"You tired, Pina?" she asked.
The creature chirped quietly, then rolled over onto its belly and continued its siesta.
"Let's head home, then." Pina's master, Silica, placed her dearest friend gingerly on her shoulder, then crept between the trees and out of sight. Another evening well spent.
Caenor did not know what to think of Kirito's next acquaintance. She was a short, mousey girl with a puffy pair of twin-tails and a constantly expectant look in her eyes, especially when she was staring at Kirito, a phenomenon that occurred once every ten seconds or so. The more she blinked and peered at the object of her affection, the more she looked to Caenor like a small animal. Which was to say nothing of the actual small animal perched on her head, a miniature dragon dressed in beautiful crystalline scales that seemed to share its master's affection for the Black Swordsman, but was understandably wary of his less glamorous lookalike.
"N-nice to meet you," she stammered as she switched her attention to Caenor.
Caenor stuck out a hand, and she shook it vigorously.
"This is Silica," Kirito said. "We met on the 35th floor, after I helped her out of a bit of a pickle. Drunk Apes, right?"
Silica nodded. "I've just come back from hunting them."
"You seem to hunt them a lot. I remember you were also looking for them last week."
"Well you know, I feel like I should help people out by thinning their numbers. They drop some good materials, too. Also, they're how I met you, so…"
"True, but what does that have to do with killing them?"
Silica shook her head. "Never mind. You're Caenor, right?"
"Yes, I am. I hear daggers and other short weapons are favorites of yours."
"I wouldn't say that. It's an affinity borne out of necessity, if anything. I'm not quite tall enough to wield a standard longsword consistently, so I've been using short swords and knives for as long as I remember."
"Her low center of gravity means she can move quickly and dodge attacks easily," Kirito added. "She's definitely a good match for the one-handed dagger. I'm sure she'll be able to give you some pointers."
"I'm looking forward to being under your tutelage. So, what can you give me?"
"Hm…" Silica scratched her head, and her pet leant down to nuzzle against her finger. "That'll depend on how high your skill level is. What's your skill with short weapons? Daggers, throwing knives, or anything."
"Unfortunately, I've rarely used any of those weapons, so my skill gauges for those are pretty much close to zero."
"Then we'll have to grind a bit until you get the gauges up to a reasonable level. No point thinking about Sword Skills for the moment. Tomorrow morning, I'll take you to my favorite grinding spot on the 35th floor. We can start from there."
And so, as the morning of the next day beckoned forth, Caenor made his way down to the 35th floor. It was a floor he would typically have little reason to go to, as his guild usually aimed to send its members to higher-leveled floors or floors with better material drops to boost the guild's coffers. The 35th floor was as average a floor as you could get in any way: the landscape was nothing but swathes of forest, leaving little room for sightseeing; the Drunk Apes that roamed the thicket were, in hunting terms, high risk for moderate to low reward; the loot that the forest's critters dropped consisted of the bare minimum that one might expect of other monsters of a similar level. Mishe, the floor's only town, had once been a hotbed for adventurers, but the unlocking of the higher floors had lured most of the adventurers away, leaving only the nostalgic and the helpless to remain. Clearly there was something that drew Silica to the floor, or she would have long since moved on to greener pastures.
Caenor assumed that it had something to do with Kirito, and he posed the question to her as they entered the forest. Silica blushed, but shook her head.
"I… I like Kirito very much, but that alone wouldn't be enough for me to stay here. After all, it would make more sense for me to join Kirito in the higher floors if I liked him that much."
"Then why?"
"You see, there's someone – or something – that I like even more than Kirito." She pointed at the miniature dragon that had glued itself to her hair, gazing quietly at the treetops and cooing softly. "My Feathered Little Dragon. I call her Pina."
Caenor stared at the dragon's beady red eyes, and instinctively reached out a hand to touch it, but retracted it before he could get too close. "Does it bite?"
"She doesn't, though she's not very trusting of strangers. She's a good judge of character, though. If you're a nice person, she'll let you near her." Silica rummaged in her inventory and fished out a peanut. "Here. This is her favorite food."
Caenor took the peanut and inched his hand slowly towards Pina. The dragon initially shrunk away as Caenor's fingers approached, but upon smelling the treat, Pina poked her head out, sniffed the peanut, and began nibbling at it. Caenor smiled, and sighed with relief.
"Has anyone ever told you that you look like Kirito?" Silica suddenly asked.
Caenor allowed Pina to hold the rest of the peanut in her stubby claws. "Where did that come from?"
"When you smile, you look a bit like him. Although your smile is a little more… sorrowful."
"Thanks for the compliment." Caenor wasn't sure what sort of shape to make with his mouth, now that he had abruptly been made aware of how he looked whilst he was happy. "Though maybe I get what you mean. Didn't Kirito tell you about what happened to me?"
"He did. I'm sorry to hear about your friend. Your friends, rather. One of them managed to survive, right?"
"Yeah. She's in no state to do anything, but she's alive."
"That's good. Keep her close," Silica replied somewhat cryptically. "Keep her as close as you can. As long as there's life, there's a chance to make things right. If a second chance is offered to you, take it with both hands, and don't let go."
What Silica said was ostensibly abstract, yet somehow it seemed eerily familiar.
"Have you watched someone close to you die before?" he asked.
"Yeah, I have. Not someone, though. Not in the sense of a human being, anyway." Silica lifted Pina off her spot on her head and stroked the dragon's head, staring at it forlornly.
"Your dragon?"
"Pina is the only one of her kind that anyone has ever seen. She took a fatal blow that was meant for me… and I would never have been able to live with the guilt of causing her death if Kirito hadn't helped me bring her back to life. It's no exaggeration to say that Pina and I owe Kirito our lives, but I also owe Pina to try and find other members of her species so that they might not have to suffer in loneliness. It's why I come to this floor so often – it's my only lead in my search for other Feathered Little Dragons. That's just one of a few reasons, though."
"What other reasons would you have to come here?"
Silica wordlessly pointed into the distance. Caenor followed her finger, and found a Drunk Ape sitting in the grass, its back turned to them, belching and burping as it took large gulps from the gourd its ilk always carried.
"Kirito says you want to learn how to kill other players. While I've never actually done so myself, I can tell you that Drunk Apes are perfect for player-versus-player target practice. They're tough, surprisingly fast, and move just like bigger humans do. And," she pulled out a dagger and raised it to her chest, "when all is said and done, they have the same weak points as we do."
Caenor equipped his wrist-guards, tightening the straps that fastened them to his arm until they no longer budged. He clenched his hands into fists. The buttons on his palms activated the wrist-guards' internal mechanisms, and the blades sprang into action.
"How confident are you feeling about using those?" Silica asked.
Caenor smiled, and this time, all traces of negative emotion were gone from his features, leaving only a fierce and intense gaze that told Silica everything she needed to know.
"We'll just have to find out," Caenor replied.