Sword Art Online and The World Ends with You are not owned by me, but this is a work of my own creation. Please do not take any ideas without permission.
-§-
The moon shone through the leaves and the boughs of the forest, giving the three players enough light to navigate through the bear forest. The team's current objective was to gather materials to build a boat, the first of which was to get bear fat that acted as a sealant for their new seafaring vessel. Unfortunately, while the party was overleveled for anything the forest had to offer, it presented numerous other obstacles that got in their way.
Neku clicked his tongue before sidestepping another naturally occurring spring in the area. These things were small but surprisingly deep, capable of swallowing a player if they did not pay attention to their footing. Worse yet, the water was bone-chillingly cold, never a fun experience. The dense undergrowth hid numerous other tripping hazards such as roots that was sure to bring the trio down if they weren't careful. However, the biggest problem that was currently plaguing Neku was not the forest, but…
"I am just saying that it is unwise to use so much of our time and resources to make a boat that we can't even take to the next floor." Kirito said as he maneuvered around a hazardous root.
"And I keep telling you, I don't care." Asuna bit back, "If we are making our own gondola, we need to make the best one!"
Neku sighed for what seemed to be the upteenth time. Kirito and Asuna were arguing, again. The root of the problem came from shipbuilder Romolo's comment when they had accepted the quest.
"There is a massive bear called the bear king. If you see it, run away to save your own hide, however I'm sure his fat would be something remarkable…"
Asuna had immediately latched onto this comment. She reasoned that if they would be building a boat, they should make it as high quality as possible and had all but demanded that they defeat the bear king for his fat. Kirito had, obviously, refused to do so, in the interest of time.
The two had been at it for a good ten minutes now, and while Neku had learned to deal with the oddities and quirks of his two companions since starting this death game, his patience was starting to wear thin.
"Enough." snapped Neku as Kirito once again started to argue the logistics of killing certain types of bears, "We do not have time for this argument, especially if time is so limited." The other two started at the sound of his voice before looking his way, though they quickly looked away from his withering glare. Neku rubbed his temples tiredly. Though the action could not physically help him, as he was currently an avatar inside a digital world, the involuntary movement still helped him calm down. "We need to move, we don't have any time to argue semantics. Now agree to something, or we do this my way." The two flinched before conspiring together for a minute or so. Finally the pair nodded and turned to the impatient headphone wearing boy. Neku quirked up an eyebrow, "You two figure something out?"
"We've agreed that we will make a regular gondola" Kirito said with a smile, only for a grimace to appear when Asuna elbowed him.
"What this dork means to say," the rapier user corrected, "is that we will make a regular gondola, unless we find the Bear King. If we do, we are instead making a high quality one." The orange haired boy rolled his eyes.
"Good luck with that. That bear was in the beta," Neku snarked as he walked further into the forest, "There is no chance we are going to find it without going out of our way to search for it."
-§-
A sigh that was more akin to a hiss escaped Neku's mouth at the sight in front of him. A gigantic creature that could only be vaguely constituted as a bear wandered nearby. The fur was deep red and oddly enough two large horns grew from the forehead. The crimson red cursor warning players that fighting this behemoth was a poor plan of attack. The nameplate above it read Magnatherium.
Kirito could only stare, mouth agape. "Hey Neku... isn't that?" Asuna, however, was in a much better mood.
"Hey! We found it pretty easily! Let's make ourselves a fancy boat!" The girl cheered before drawing her rapier. Kirito's expression looked as if he wanted to renegotiate the terms he had set not five minutes ago. Neku half heartedly drew his blade, Hollow Bone, and got in a stance to strike.
"Kirito, any information on this thing?" Neku asked as he opened his menu. His eyes flashed red as his scan skill came into effect.
"I don't know anything about it," muttered Kirito as he drew his own blade, "There was no reason to go out and try to fight it in the beta, Scan turning up anything?"
"Yeah," Neku said before frowning, "The tail and snout seems to be weak points. But considering that thing is at least Twenty-five meters tall-"
Neku's words were lost when the bear suddenly let out a roar, dropped to all fours, and charged at them. The group dodged in different directions, Asuna and Kirito to the left while Neku dashed right. The monster bashed through several trees dropping wood crafting material in its wake before it slowed to a stop and whirled around. Neku was already enroute to engage the bear was still facing towards Kirito and Asuna, so he was guaranteed a free strike. However, when it reared a dull flickering appeared in its throat, Neku reevaluated his battle strategy.
"Breath Attack!" Neku's voice echoed throughout the forest. Kirito grabbed Asuna and threw her into a spring before jumping in himself. Seconds later a raging inferno burst from the bear's maw scorching everything in its path. Neku dashed around the monster. As he reached the backside, he jumped up, Blade glowling, Neku launched upwards and brought his blade down, slicing the tail. The fire breath was cut off as the bear roared in pain. It charged forward blindly rushing to get away from the headphones wearing boy. While the bear retreated, Neku ran to the pool of water that his companions had dived into. Both Kirito and Asuna were already out by the time he skidded to a stop before them.
"Nice thinking with the pool of water," Neku commented, "If you had hidden behind a tree, you would have been roasted."
"Thanks," Kirito said as he combed his hair with his fingers, trying to get the water out, "Appreciated the warning by the way. This fat is going to be a pain to get..."
"Oh, speaking of materials for the boat." Neku said, "I picked up some of the wood crafting material that fell from the big tree it knocked over. It's called Noblewood core." Asuna tilted her head in confusion while Kirito groaned and put his hand over his eyes.
"What? What's wrong?" The chestnut-haired girl asked as she looked between the two boys,
"The thing is Asuna, since we are making the highest quality boat possible, there are multiple components for one boat. This is one of those quests that we need to go back to the same place over and over to gather ingredients. I am willing to bet that we need to collect wood as the next step." Kirito said while rubbing his eyes, "Ordinary wood can be gotten by the average player, but the best materials can only be gotten by players who have some skills in woodcutting."
"Ah," Asuna said, finally picking up what Kirito was complaining about, "So we will need to grind levels in that skill, right?"
"Fortunately, that isn't the case here," Neku cut in, "Remember, the material I just got is called, 'Noblewood core' which is much more high quality than normal wood crafting material. We can get the first class materials as long as we keep making this bear ram into trees for us, speaking of which…" The three players turned as one to regard the monster bear. I had finally recovered from Neku's attack and we glaring hatefully at them. Neku smirked, "Alright, let's do this."
-§-
The monster gave a final roar before it burst into blue battle had taken over an hour, but most of that time had been leading the overgrown bear around to smash into trees. The three players opened their menus checking the drops.
"Oh! I have three drops of legendary bear fat!" cheered Asuna as she scrolled through her list, "How about you guys?"
"Two for me," called out Kirito, "As well as a whole other odd assortment of things."
"I got two as well, "Neku said as he looked at his menu, "Each of us picked up four noblewood cores as well, giving us twelve. You think we have enough?"
"Only one way to find out," sighed Kirito, "If we don't have enough we will need to come back and fight it again." The look on Neku's face told Kirito exactly how he felt about that.
"Hey! What else did you guys get?" asked Asuna, drawing the two beta testers' attention, I got some pelts and claws, oh? And a fire bear's palm?"
"I highly recommend against materializing that," grimaced Kirito, "It is bound to be disgusting." Asuna nodded warily as Kirito looked closer at his inventory, "As for me, I have pelts and claws, no paw for me, but I do have a fire bear's horn."
"Then that leaves me then," said Neku, "I got pelts and claws as well, no surprise, but I also have a..." Neku slowly trailed off while his face morphed into a grimace.
"Neku?" asked Asuna, "you ok there?"
"Yeah," said Neku, but I have no idea what 'Fire Bear's flame sac' could be used for." the two faces of his companions scrunched up in disgust, Neku sighed before speaking, "Either way, let's head back, we can't do anything more for now." THe two were quick to agree.
"So," Asuna asked as she fell into step with the two boys, "That fight wasn't as hard as you though it was going to be, right?"
"Admittedly no," Kirito said with a shrug, "I gave too little credit to our weapons, your rapier and Neku's sword are certainly powerful. Remember though that I just wanted to save time, fighting the bear wouldn't have been necessary if we just wanted a normal boat."
"I'm just glad this is over," Neku mumbled out, giving a tired yawn before he continued. I really need to get some rest."
"Huh? Aren't we reporting our quest progress right after we get back?" Asuna asked.
"You've still got energy to spare?" asked Neku with a tired slump, "We defeated a floor boss , swam down a river with only small flotation devices, and beat a named monster, all in one day."
"Technically, it is already the next day," said Kirito tiredly looking at his menu. Neku rolled his eyes at Kirito's comment.
"Well we did have that rest in the afternoon." said Asuna as she held up a finger.
"That was only for an hour," Neku bit back, "that doesn't qualify as a rest. We need to sleep
soon or we are going to make mistakes." The pout on Asuna's face did little to sway Neku's opinion. If Neku kept this up, he would be able to convince the team to get some much needed sleep. The next words from his black-haired companion, however, banished those thoughts.
"Well, if we just update or quest logs that would be fine, right?" asked Kirito. Neku's glare caused Kirito to push forward, "Come on Neku, think about it, if we turn in the materials we have, we will know if we need to come back here to collect more or not. After that, right to sleep, no harm in taking a detour."
"Fine," Neku sighed as he finally relented, "I guess there is no harm in a small detour, though remember, thirty minutes maximum. I want to actually sleep in a bed before the sun comes up."
-§-
"How are you holding up?" asked Kirito wearily.
"Oh I am just having the time of my life," Neku bitterly replied. The two were currently sitting in the shipbuilder's Romolo's house. Kirito in a wooden rocking chair and Neku sitting in a stool. When the group had arrived at the house they had revealed the legendary bear fat to the old shipbuilder, who was impressed with the group for slaying the great beast. As Neku and Kirito had predicted, the next ingredient needed was wood, and the 'noblewood cores' they had obtained were the perfect material for the job. After off loading Fire bear claws (to be refined to nails) and Fire bear pelt for upholstering the old man had stood up and opened his workshop. A menu had appeared in front of Kirito asking for a large amount of specifications on how to build their boat.
Asuna, predictably, was starry eyed over all the options that were available. Since Kirito was no good with making things pretty, and Neku didn't particularly care, She was given full rights over the specifications. This turned out to be a poor decision. Neku and Kirito had been waiting for more than an hour for Asuna to finish making the design for it.
"Well hang in there," muttered Kirito, "I'm sure she will be done in the next 10 minutes or so." Neku scoffed.
"You said the same thing 30 minutes ago." Neku said while rubbing his eyes. "I knew I would regret coming here. We should have just gone to the inn when we came back. If she doesn't finish in the next five minutes I am going to choose all the remaining-"
"It's done!" cried out Asuna. The two boys slowly stood up and walked to where the girl was standing, looking over her shoulders at the menu in front of her. The boat, or technically gondola, was mostly ivory for its main body, while the trim was a nice deep forest green. There was also a large amount of decorations that Neku could care less about such as a design on the side as well as the artistic touches to the seats. Overall though Neku couldn't really tell how this had taken more than an hour to design, but chose to keep that comment to himself.
"Looks good," Kirito said. Asuna nodded in appreciation.
"Now we just need a name," the girl said. Neku and Kirito frowned at that. Both weren't very creative when coming up with names, as evidenced by their own screen , before either boy made a comment the girl continued. "I was thinking, usually ships are named after girls...so how about Tilnel?"
"You mean, Kizmel's sister?" asked Kirito, blinking in surprise, before tapping his chin in thought, "Not a bad idea."
"It certainly is well thought out," Neku said while giving a rare smile, "I like it."
"Then it's decided!" cheered Asuna before typing in the name, "Alright let's hit the 'Finish' button together."
"Hold on a second," Neku said as he pointed at the blueprint, "There is nothing in this field."
"Oh," Asuna frowned, "when I clicked on it, I didn't have any options. See?" Her hand clicked on it, but the drop-down menu showed nothing.
"Hmm, that's strange." Kirito muttered, "Hand it over to me for a second." Asuna nodded and a few button presses later the menu slid over to hover in front of Kirito.
"Oh! There is something here!" Kirito exclaimed after he had pressed the button. Asuna looked over his shoulder curiously.
"Fire bear's horn?" Asuna asked with a frown on her face.
"A horn?" Neku muttered, before his eyes widened slightly, "If I am correct, I think it might be added to the boat as a ramming implement. Similar to an old naval ship, the galley. Old man Romolo, will we be needing this horn attached?" Neku asked as he looked at the old man.
"Maybe, Maybe not." was all the answer he got.
"Well that was certainly helpful…" muttered Kirito before looking at his two companions, "What do you two think we should do?"
"I chose literally everything else," Asuna dismissed, "you can choose if you want to or not."
"I say go for it." shrugged Neku, " better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it."
"Alright, I will add it, ah! Neku, you might have something as extra equipment as well. Let me pass the menu over." Soon after the screen appeared in front of the orange haired boy.
"I doubt I have anything that could be…" Neku stared down at the drop down menu. It read "Fire bear's flame sac.' "Oi, Romolo, what possibly could a flame sac be used for on a gondola?" The old man slowly looked up at Neku before shrugging.
"Don't know, if you give me the materials I might be able to make something out of it." was all the shipbuilder said before looking away again. Neku took a deep breath before turning back to his party members, silently asking them their opinions.
"Well…" Asuna said, "It is better to have it and not need it...right?"
"Think of it this way," Kirito said with a wry smile, "If it is an optional additional item, the shipbuilder can use it, so it will be fine."
Neku sighed before adding the Fire bear's flame sac to the list. As one the three brought down their fingers on the 'Finish' button. The blueprint snapped shut and disappeared, only to reappear in Romolo's hand. The gruff old man nodded. "Alright, it'll take some time for me to make it for you, so be patient." with that he walked off to his workshop and the door closed behind him.
"Wait... how long is some time?" Asuna asked as she frowned.
"If I had to take a guess, Kirito said while muttering, "probably around three hours or so."
"Yeah that sounds about right, so if we have three hours, then we can finally go to an inn and get some shut eye."
"Neku, it isn't that simple." Kirito said, shooting down Neku's plan. "We will get a notification when the ship is complete, but what do you think will happen if someone is already inside when we arrive?"
"Huh?" asked Asuna, "Can't we just come in and take our boat? Is there a problem with that?"
"No, this house probably can only let in one party at a time, "said Neku, "If another party beats us here, we won't be able to enter until they finish up. But honesty Kirito? It is one in the morning! Who in their right minds would be out and about doing quests at four in the morning?!"
"Well…" Asuna said sheepishly, "We are doing quests right now."
"Also, what about that situation on the 3rd floor?" asked Kirito, "that was early in the morning as well. You can't deny that possibility." Neku scowled.
"Ok, I admit that there MAY be a chance that there could be someone here when we get back to retrieve our boat, but what is the problem with that?" Neku said as he threw up his hands in frustration. "We just wait till they exit after starting the quest, problem solved."
"There is only one NPC Romolo Neku," said Kirito, "if he finishes the boat, he might not help the next client until we retrieve ours, so we might wait a very long time until a group finally decides to vacate the house." Neku slumped down tiredly.
"I have a feeling I know where this is going…" Neku said as he rubbed his eyes, "And I am far too tired to argue."
"Sorry," Kirito apologized.
"Whatever," muttered Neku as he walked over to the wall and collapsed against it. "We are sleeping here till the ship is done right? Make yourselves comfortable."
Neku slowly started to nod off as he heard the two talk again, but ignored it in favor of sleep's embrace.
-§-
A beep that only Neku could hear caused the headphone wearing boy to snap open his eyes. The quest log had updated and alerted him and his party members that the boat was ready to be picked up. It was four in the morning, proving that the time Kirito had suggested was right on the nose. Neku slowly stood up and stretched before focusing his attention to his two other companions. Kirito sat asleep on a stool teetering dangerously to one side that if a stiff breeze were to hit him, Neku suspected that he would topple over. Asuna sat on the chair, snoring softly. Neku frowned. He had been the one that wanted to go to bed, and yet these two couldn't wake up when the boat was ready. Neku sighed before approaching the two.
"Oi! Boat is done! Get up!" Neku's sharp voice caused Kirito to jolt awake. That, combined with his poor sleeping posture, caused the boy to fall to the floor with a loud thump. The sound of Kirito's collapse jerked Asuna out of her chair as well.
"Wha? What's going on?!" Asuna looked around sleepily. Neku just sighed.
"We got a notification that our boat is ready, let's pick it up." with that Neku started towards the back of the shop, his two companions scrambling to catch up. To their surprise however, the backroom was empty, no seafaring vessel or shipbuilder. A quick look around revealed a lever on the wall and after it was pulled the entire room shook before it slowly descended.
"An elevator?" asked Neku, raising an eyebrow, "I thought that SAO was supposed to have more of a medieval vibe to it, though I guess Kayaba wasn't really forced to stick to a single genre or anything."
After a minute the sounds stopped and the three walked out to find Romelo standing proudly next to a waterway. Tethered to a bit was a green and white boat. In a deep green cursive was the name, Tilnel."
"Ohhh!" Asuna said as she ran up to it, eyes sparkling brightly. Neku walked behind her at a more sedated pace. The boat was a thing to behold, even though Neku had seen the thing in full detail just three hours ago, that had not done it justice. Even in the moonlight that filtered into the small work area, the vessel seemed to glow.
Romolo stood nearby, looking at the craft with a satisfied smirk on his face. A golden question mark floated above his head, prompting Kirito to talk with the man.
"Thanks for making the boat." Kirito said to the old boatman.
"It has been a long time since i've been this satisfied with a vessel." the man said with a satisfied sigh, "But now I'm handing her off to you." He gave the group members a glare, "Don't go sinking it now, you hear?"
The three nodded solemnly before turning to their new boat. Neku knelt down to examine it closer. The horn that Kirito had added sat below the water level, promising an unfortunate surprise for anything on the receiving end of the weapon. The back of the boat however, drew his attention. Unlike the other gondolas around town, this one had a small wooden box affixed underneath the water line.
"Romolo, what is this?" asked Neku and he slowly reached out towards it.
"I wouldn't touch that if I were you kid." Romolo warned in a gruff voice, "that little compartment is explosive." The joy that had been on Asuna had been radiating was snuffed out instantly, replaced with abject horror.
"Wha...what?" Neku asked slowly, backing away from the boat as if any sudden movements would make the whole thing go up in flames.
"Mr Romolo…" Kirito asked, "What do you mean by 'explosive?'"
"It's what you think it means," the old shipwright said while crossing his arms, "it goes 'kaboom!' pretty self explanatory."
"Why would you put something like that on the ship!?" asked Asuna hysterically, "We don't want to sink it!" The old man just seemed to shrug at the girl's outburst.
"You guys are the ones that wanted it." explained the old man unabashed, "I used the Fire Bear's flame sac for that." Neku's two partners rounded on him.
"Neku…" Asuna said as she slowly approached him while cracking her knuckles, "You better come up with a way to remove that bomb off our boat or I am going to-"
"Its a booster, isn't it?" asked the headphones wearing boy suddenly, "It is something that makes the gondola go faster, or gives it a temporary speed boost, right?" The three other occupants in the room stared at him for a few seconds until the old man started to laugh uproariously.
"In all my shipbuilding years, nobody has guessed the reason for that box until you boy!" the shipwright said, wiping a tear from his eye, "you are correct, that device will allow your boat to race forward at your command." Neku nodded before turning towards his other group members. He was met with gobsmacked faces.
"What?"
"How… what?" Kirito stuttered while pointing at the boat in an exaggerated manner. Asuna, fortunately, was able to question Neku a bit more eloquently.
"How did you know that the device was a booster instead of a bomb?" the girl asked, crossing her arms."
"Deductive reasoning," Neku answered simply, "You know how the workshop we were just in doubled as an elevator right? I figured I should keep an open mind on what else we could find in this world. Romolo said that he was satisfied with this vessel, implying that anything he added to it wouldn't be detrimental to the boat's integrity. So I just thought about what else an explosive device could possibly be, and I came to the conclusion it was a speed booster." The two sat there for a while, digesting Neku's logic. Neku just sighed before looking at the boat again. "Looks like one of us needs to drive it. No man comes with the boat to ferry us around."
"Not it!" called Kirito immediately, causing both Asuna and Neku to roll their eyes in exasperation.
"I'll man it," sighed Neku before hopping onto the boat. As soon as Neku grabbed the oar, a menu popped up explaining the driving instructions. It was pretty straightforward, to go forward, pull the oar forward, braking was pushing the oar away. Turning was minutely more complicated. To turn in the desired direction one had to maneuver the oar in the opposite direction. The other two clambered onto the ship and after a quick wave goodbye the Tilnel launched and started to pick up speed.
"Awesome!" Asuna cried out as the craft cut through the water. She was leaning over the side of the ship, face filled with excitement as the air rushed through her hair. She leaned back to look at Neku, "Hey! Do you think we can go any faster?"
"No, I think this is our maximum speed," said Neku with a frown, before he became thoughtful, "Well we do have the boost button though." Asuna's eyes sparkled at the mention of the aforementioned speed boost.
"Try it out!" the girl exclaimed.
"Hold on," Kirito said, turning around to face his two party members, "These are the waterways in the city, we should be more care-GRK!" Kirito immediately slammed both his hands on either side of the boat and gripped it with all his might as a geyser of water erupted from behind the boat and the speed practically tripled. Asana cried out in joy as their craft sped throughout the waterways, Neku expertly maneuvering around the bends and curves. After ten seconds or so, the geyser behind the boat cut off and their boat slowly decelerated until they returned to normal cruising speed.
"Neku," Kirito snarled, "some warning would have been nice." Asuna however, just giggled at Kirito.
"Oh hush Kirito," the chestnut haired girl said with a smile, "It wasn't even that fast."
"Perhaps not fast," Neku commented, while looking around, "but certainly useful. It certainly helped us lose our pursuer." The two passenger's wiped their heads around, surprised at their driver's words. Neku sighed, "I assume both of you didn't notice? After we left Romolo's shop, we were tailed for a while. Two people on the shore were keeping pace with us. We lost them after we increased our speed, but the real question is why we were followed in the first place."
"You think this could have something to do with the Shipwright of Yore questline?" Kirito asked.
"Perhaps," Neku said with a frown, "It would certainly seems so, I didn't see any cursors for the individuals following us. Plus, who would know we were exiting Romolo's workshop from an underground waterway after we were in the shipbuilder's house for over four hours? That, or someone really wanted to follow us and covered all their bases."
"Gah, I am too tired for this, muttered Kirito as he rubbed his head in frustration. I need some sleep in an actual bed. Think we can go to the inn?" Asuna let out a big yawn.
"That actually doesn't sound half bad," muttered the rapier user, "let's head to bed."
"Took the words out of my mouth," said Neku as he angled the oar to take them to the central plaza. Ten minutes later the group had docked their ship and had tethered it to bitt.
"What time do you want to wake up?" asked Neku as they strolled up to the inn.
"Ten? No how about Eleven?" said Kirito as he let out a yawn.
"Sounds good to me" said Asuna as she headed into the inn. The three rented rooms and bid each other good night before splitting off into their own separate rooms. Neku let out a sigh of relief as he collapsed on the bed. He was exhausted. As his consciousness slowly slipped away, the figures he had seen on the shore came back to him. It had been dark, so he hadn't gotten a good look at them. But there had been something about the pair that had bugged him. Something about their ears.
-§-
It has been a while since I was actually able to sit down and write. This chapter's direction was difficult to plan out. I have an idea in the works, but I needed to find the places that I could tweak the story without throwing the main plot off the rails. Either way, I am happy that I was able to post this. As always, leave a review if you enjoyed it, or comment on how I could do better. Stay safe out there.