Chapter VIII Innsmouth:

The driver of the Innsmouth bus wore a ragged plain blue t-shit and pants. In just as shabby a state was an aqua coloured golf cap that may have once been bright, but now was so worn that it was hardly imaginable. Asuna for one was glad that the cap shaded the man's face as it dimmed his pale grey skin and strange bulging watery blue eyes. The driver glared at them unblinkingly as they boarded, thick veins bulging beneath his oddly tinted skin.

As they moved further back on the bus Riordan whispered. "You better get used to that, it's called 'The Innsmouth Look' and most of the people in Innsmouth appear even worse."

Argo and Agent Nishiyama took opposing seats near the middle of the bus, still a healthy distance away from their strange driver. Liz and Klein sat together a few rows further back and looked out towards the spot near the break in the tree's where they had made their stand together. Kirito and Asuna took seats across from them and as they sat, Kirito looked out at the reset old buildings, starting to talk about how he thought the game handled destructible terrain.

Riordan intended to sit at the back of the bus more out of old habits than anything else, as he and his friends had always done that in the real world. It seemed that Sinon had the same idea and he soon found himself sitting next to the young sniper who had propped her rifle up against the corner of the bus and was leaning against it while looking out the window.

After a few minutes of staring and the frayed fabric on the bus seat in front of him and absently checking his magical wards to make sure no one else was approaching the Innsmouth bus stop, he finally decided to break the silence.

"You're a pretty great shot." he said. "Few players in the game can keep a line on me when I'm moving at top speed."

"Thanks, you're not so bad yourself." she replied without looking over at him.

"I'd like to see what you could do with a real sniper rifle."

"Thanks." she said finally looking over at him. "I'm glad somebody finally gets that this isn't a real sniper. Kirito and crew are great and all, but they wouldn't know an M16 from a P90. I suppose I should introduce myself properly, Sinon." she said extending her hand. "I've been trying to get a real sniper since day one, but no luck on drops or quests."

"Riordan, but my friends call me Rio." he said shaking it. "Sniper rifles in ETO are pretty rare, but they are out there. I've seen a few M1903 Springfields, one of the players in the top guild even got his hands on a Mauser Gewehr 98; even I don't know how he got his hands on that one."

"Now that's a sniper. An antique to be sure, but going bolt action over single shot would be a huge upgrade."

"Well, so much of the loot in Innsmouth is still undiscovered, maybe you'll get lucky."

"Yeah, maybe." she replied looking wistfully out the window and thinking about being a true sniper again.

They sat silently for a few minutes before Sinon decided to return the favour and start up the conversation. "So how does a scythe wielding tank know so much about sniper rifles?"

"Well, I played a lot of games before SAO. Whenever I played shooters I'd always play the sniper and in fantasy games, I'd always tank."

"Seems a bit... contradictory."

"On the outside perhaps, but they take some of the same skill sets."

"I've never played a tank so I wouldn't know."

"Well, when you're in a battle, how do you know the right moment to strike?" he asked.

"You read the field. Watch the fight, find the right moment where a single bullet can do the most damage."

"Exactly, it's the same with tanking, though instead of reading the entire field you're just reading the opponent in front of you and the immediate area. Every strike needs to be stopped precisely, then when the moment is right, you strike back."

"Hmm, I guess I never thought of it like that."

"Honestly, if this scythe could also be a customizable high-impact sniper rifle, I'd be all over it...But this isn't that kind of game."

"What kind of sniper is also a scythe?"

Riordan laughed a little to himself. "A bad-ass one? It was just a reference to an old... eh never mind."

"So I meant to ask," Riordan said, ignoring Sinon's quizzical expression. "I don't remember you from SAO and I knew most of the front-line players. Were you in one of the smaller guilds on the lower floors? From what I've seen of your skills so far, I doubt that."

"No, that's not it. I never actually played SAO in it's original form."

"Wait for real? I would never have guessed."

"Why's that?"

Riordan looked Sinon up and down while recalling his brief battle with her in the forest. She had raw talent to be sure, but it was more than that. While she looked totally relaxed in front of him, in battle she was razor sharp. He could see her calculating her moves, placing every shot with precision, fighting as though her very life depended on it and in the end, spitting in the face of death itself.

"I've moved through a lot of games since my time in SAO and in so doing I've fought against more players than I can count. Yet no one has ever had that special... je ne sais quoi, that the SAO survivors have in a fight. Not a single one... except for you."

"Well, I many not have had to fight my way through SAO, but I've stared real death in the face more that I would have liked to."

"Perhaps that is it then... why you fit into their team so naturally I mean. Maybe one day you could tell me about it?"

"Maybe one day." Sinon quietly replied and returned her attention to the passing forest outside the window.

Riordan inwardly cursed himself for his question, it had been way too personal to ask someone he had just met; what in the world made him ask that? Perhaps being so bereft of any real social interaction over the last few years had left his social skills much duller than he had expected. He'd have to find a way to make it up to her somehow. In the meantime though, everyone else was lost in their own conversations so there wasn't much to do but wait until the bus arrived at their destination.

Riordan stood as he felt the bus go over a familiarly rickety wooden bridge that crossed a small but rapidly rushing river. Around them were nothing but old stumps succumbing to decay as they left the forest and crested a hill that led into Innsmouth itself.

"We're here." he said, causing everyone to look up from what they were doing.

The town of Innsmouth was wide and densely constructed, but even from how far away the bus was it seemed oddly devoid of life. Kirito could see a few cars on the streets below, but after looking closer he noticed that almost all of them were parked. Many of the roofs in the town were in terrible disrepair, some even having collapsed in on themselves. Three tall steeples shot up above the other buildings of the town, but they were in no better shape. One had crumbled to such an extent that it looked like it could topple over at any moment while another had a large black hole in the place where its clock had once been.

"Hey, I've been wondering." Kirito said to no one in particular. "Why is this bus so important? If this really is an open world, why did everyone have to bother with the Innsmouth bus instead of just cutting their way through the forest?"

Riordan was about to answer, but Argo beat him to the punch. "Come on Kii-boy give me a little credit, don't you think I thought of that? The whole forest is filled to the brim with insanely powerful monsters and to add insult to injury, they don't even have loot tables. The guilds have tried cutting their way through instead of taking on our new friend here, but none have made it more than halfway here."

"What about-"

"Water's even worse." she answered before he could ask.

"Oh, okay."

The bus wound it's way down the opposite side of the hill passing through a handful of farms that seemed no better off than the town itself. Aside from their dilapidated state and boarded up widows, the really strange thing was that there were shells and dead fish littered all over the ground around them.

As the street rounded down near the waterfront, the party was assailed but the most repugnant fishy odour any of them had ever experienced. Most of the houses in this area were barely still on their frames and seemed to be all but abandoned along with the ruins of various wharves that jutted out from the shoreline.

"This is ridiculous." Liz moaned. "Please tell me that this game has some sort of odour filter I can turn on."

"Afraid not," Riordan replied. "The smell does get a little better away from the waterfront, but it's something you have to learn to live with while you're in Innsmouth."

"I think my nose would have to be dead not to notice this."

As the bus passed the waterfront district, not nearly soon enough for any of it's passengers, it moved uphill again and into the town proper. The odour began to subside slightly and the houses that now lined both sides of the street looked like they may actually be somewhat habitable. They were still old and shabby to be sure, in fact there seemed to be no trace of the original paint, if there had ever been any at all. Yet rather than the boarded up or non-existent windows they had passed previously, these had drawn curtains and small puffs of smoke rose that from their brick chimneys.

Yet further into the town they finally witnessed real habitation, though only to a small degree. There were a few shops with rickety awnings spread around and a few NPC's here and there that were sullenly milling about the worn cobblestone streets. As Riordan had said, they all had the same strange 'Innsmouth Look' that their bus driver did. With the young ones it was less pronounced and hardly noticeable, but the middle aged people seemed to be loosing much of their hair and the shape of their bodies where all slightly off. Many of them had the same bulging milky eyes and quite a few walked the street with strange limps. There was no sight of any elderly people in the town and Kirito worried at what kind of form, and combat potential, these mutations would equate to in the older population.

"I thought쟈this world was unsettling on the best of days, I can't imagine people wanting to spend their time here as an endgame zone." Kirito mused.

"It's not exactly welcoming, but as the secret corrupted lair of the terrible monsters in this world, it at least feels the part." Riordan noted.

"Guess it's just not my kind of game."

The bus passed over a bridge that for once didn't feel like it was going to fall out from under them. It was iron railed and sturdy, taking them over a deep gorge and a raging river. The water fell off at several locations below them and looking further out, a small factory district below seemed to be powered by the river before it joined to the sea farther out.

As the sound of waterfalls slowly faded away behind them, they pulled up into what appeared to be the town square. The buildings here were in far better shape than the rest of the town, though they still hardly seemed terribly well maintained. At least there was some semblance of normality to it as they spotted a grocery store, a small restaurant, and a fish market that made their stomachs churn after the lingering smell from earlier. The building they stopped in front of was fairly large with faded yellow paint peeling off it on all sides. There hung a small swinging sign on a post that read Gilman House.

Kirio and Asuna followed Agro and Agent Nishiyama off the bus, happy to put some distance between themselves and their strange driver. They made their way into The Gilman House which they soon realized was a shoddy hotel, though at least there was no one in the lobby with The Innsmouth Look. In fact the only person in sight was a young clerk behind the counter who's nameplate simply read Gilman Clerk.

"Checking... in?" he clerk trailed off for a moment as he witnessed eight well armed strangers step into his lobby.

"Yes please." Kirito replied.

"That will be two dollars per night, per person."

Kirito paid the man and was handed four room keys. Each of the rooms listed were in the five hundreds, placing the entire party together on the top floor of the dingy establishment.

The lobby walls were made of old stained wood and in the centre of the room was an old oak table with a few leather chairs around it that were practically falling apart at the seams. Argo was, as usual, already poking around the place when a nearby door flew open. An arm belonging to someone he never caught sight of flew out, grabbing hold of the former info broker and pulling her into the adjacent room.

"Argo!" Kirito shouted chasing after her with the rest of the party in hot pursuit.

As they tore into the room ready to combat some kind of monster, they were all drawn to an instant halt bumping into each other. Argo, barely visible in the dim room, was holding out her hands and motioning them to stop. "I'm okay, slow down." she insisted.

"What's going-" Kirito was cut off by the shutting of the door behind them and an NPC stepping just a little bit out of the shadows.

"Do any of you have any sense in your heads at all? Do any of you have even one braincell shared between the lot of you?" The hidden NPC labelled only as Mysterious Informant managed to somehow both whisper and yell furiously at them simultaneously. "What in the world were you all thinking parading yourselves through Innsmouth armed to the teeth, do you have a Goddamned death wish?!"

"Look here we've-"

"I don't care, and neither do the things out there. Whatever you've fought up the this point, it pales in comparison to the horrors lingering just out of sight in this light forsaken hellhole."

Kirito examined what he could see of this NPC even as it continued to berate them. Given the rough outline and the voice, he was fairly confident it was a woman. However any defining features were hidden by the thick shadows in the room and a heavy cloak that was wrapped around her. In a way, it reminded him a little of the first time he had met Asuna.

"We know there is a darkness in here, beyond anything anyone has seen. Regardless of what you say, we're going to find it and deal with it."

The NPC let out a soft humourless laugh. "Think what you will, until experience changes your mind... assuming you survive that long. Though I suppose if you all wish to go out in a blaze of glory, I could point you in the direction of some of the darkest denizens that could use whatever form of justice you manage to dole out before this place consumes you."

"That works for us." Kirito replied evenly, not allowing himself to be intimidated by the ramblings of an NPC.

"Then, with any subtlety that you can manage, make for the Marsh Factory it's just across the bridge on the other side of the gorge. I have it on good authority that the head of the family, Barnabas Marsh, is in possession of a golden coral crown blessed by The Deep Ones themselves. It is his symbol of authority and gives him tremendous weight with the cults in Innsmouth. If you can remove it from his possesstion it, you may cause enough of a chaos that they will be too busy with an internal power struggle to deal with a group of nosey intruders."

With that, the Mysterious Informant melded back into the shadows with a simple parting "Best of luck."

Kirito turned back to the only player with them who had traversed the zone before. "Hey Riordan, you've come here before, is this quest necessary?"

"I've actually always snuck into Innsmouth quietly, so I've never triggered this quest before."

"Sounds like a solid lead." Asuna noted. "We know that not everyone coming to Innsmouth has been affected, perhaps some kind of triggered event like this could lead to something?"

"That's a good point." Agent Nishiyama agreed. "We should go scope out this factory and see what we're dealing with."

"That NPC seems to be... strongly hinting that going out into town as a large group is a bad idea, we should split into pairs until we get there." Kirito said.

"I concur," Agent Nishiyama agreed. "We can also use the opportunity to get a bit of the lay of the land. Argo and I will scale down the side of the ravine and get as close as we can to the building itself without being seen, we'll message you with what we find. Riordan, do you know of any abandoned buildings nearby that you could set Sinon up in?"

"We actually won't need to go anywhere." Riordan replied. "The Gilman house is five stories tall and our rooms happen to be on the top floor. The Marsh refinery is down on the opposite side of the ravine, but it's not too far down since it sits up on the bluff, we should be able to get a good line of fire from up here."

"Sounds good. Then Klein and Liz, you can take the west route while Kirito and Asuna go around the far east side. Once we find a way in, I'll signal you and we can move in."

Everyone quickly nodded in agreement.

"All right then, lets get to it."

Kirito and Asuna headed out first as they had the longest route to take to their destination. Riordan had drawn them each a simple map of the area from his time in Innsmouth, so they had a general idea of where to go.

As they stepped out into what passed to the centre of town they both did a quick double check to confirm that their weapons were safely concealed beneath the large cloaks they now wore. Given how secretive the people of Innsmouth were, they doubted they would stand out much, and certainly not as much as if they ran around brandishing their weapons.

There were a few NPC's about the square, all of whom had the Innsmouth Look to them, so Kirito and Asuna did their best to keep their distance. They crossed the square and passed the town's office for the Marsh Refining company. Given the nature of their quest to infiltrate the factory across the gorge, they treated this building as enemy territory and gave it a wide berth as well.

"Over there." Asuna nodded subtly to a young man, perhaps only a year or so their junior, who was the first normal person they had seen.

A young man with a black mop top and an old clerk's uniform walked the street with a resigned weariness, unbefitting of his young age. He was heading in the opposite direction though and they soon lost sight of him as he made his way into the First National Grocery Store.

"At least there are a few people in this town that seem normal." Kirito noted. "We should check in the store later in case he's a quest giver or something."

As the two of them walked down the left side of the road heading towards the shore, they looked out over the gorge beside them. Past the rushing river and a little ways back from the edge of the bluff sat their target. The building itself didn't look like anything special at this distance, it was large and rectangular with a few tinted windows high up near the roof. The entire area was surrounded by a high barbed wire fence and, at least from the angle and distance they were are, had no entrance that they could see.

"Don't be too obvious about it." Kirito told Asuna while nudging her with his shoulder. "We don't know how good these NPC's recognition software is. We don't want them to catch on to what were doing if this entire zone really is a giant stealth mission."

"Right." Asuna replied, looking forward to the bridge that crossed over the gorge two blocks down. It was a long wooden one instead of the metal one the bus had crossed, but it looked as though it was still build to handle cars so she wasn't too nervous.

Her nerves were instead coming from the town itself and what it represented. They were in the belly of the beast now, the source of the madness that had been afflicting players and they still knew so little about what they were up against. "So... how do you think it's happening?" she asked. "This thing that's affecting people's minds I mean."

"I've been thinking about that since this whole mess started and honestly I'm still not sure, but I've got part of a theory at least. As you know, unlike the Nerve Gear, the Amusphere doesn't do anything that can cause a person to die. Also, from what Agent Nishiyama said when we met him, ETO's removal of some of the stress related safety features is likely related. That being said, it wouldn't be enough to do something like this on its own, there has to be some kind of outside force causing this."

"But people aren't just switches," Asuna remarked. "You can't just flip on the crazy."

Kirito looked over the edge as the crossed the wooden bridge, wearily keeping an eye on the raging water below while he spoke. "I'm still learning a lot about how the VR systems interface with the users brain, but it makes sense that it has to be related to that in some way. The curious thing though is that not everyone who has come to Innsmouth has been affected. I wonder if whatever is behind this is choosing who to affect, or if it's only capable of affecting certain people by nature or something... genetics maybe, I'm not sure? Really, it's all just speculation until we learn more about what's going on."

"Hopefully we'll manage a lead on it soon, I'm quite sick of this eerie place already."

After crossing the bridge, they now stood on the east side of the Marsh factory. From what they could see at a glance, past the barbed wire fences and entrance gate with tinted windows, there was a side door to the facility guarded by another NPC.

"I'll let them know we're in position." Asuna said, getting back on track.

We're just about in position, looking for a spot to lie low. Asuna typed.

Within a few seconds she got a reply from Klein. We're in position as well, waiting for the go ahead.

Lastly was Argo's reply.Sounds good, we're moving to scale the cliff-side now.

Asuna looked around their immediate area, as Kirito had said, they didn't want to be too obvious about scoping the place out. Across the street from the Marsh Factory she spotted a warn out sign that read Hagatha's Curiositie Shoppe. The place looked decrepit like the all the buildings around it, but there was something subtly different about it, like it didn't quite belong with the rest of Innsmouth, and given the nature of the town itself, that was a welcome difference.

"How about in there?" She asked Kirito. "There's a large window in the front that we can keep an eye on the factory."

"Sounds good to me." he said and the pair made their way over to the small storefront.

A small bell jingled as they opened the creaky front door to reveal row upon row of shelves crammed full of strange items. "I'll keep an eye on the window if you want to have a look around." Kirito said.

"Okay, I'll let you know what I find." she replied and set about inspecting the strange shop.

The air in the dimly lit shop was thick and musty, especially as she made her way through the dusty old oak shelves. One of the shelves had a wide variety of plants and powdered herbs on it that drew her eye. As she inspected them, the item names and prices displayed on her HUD but nothing else about the items showed up. They were all quite expensive and she had no idea what any of them were for.

The shelf behind her was filled with jars of murky liquid that mostly hid whatever contents were inside. These were even more expensive than the herbs and she had no illusions of buying them just to see what they did; perhaps later Argo might have an idea on what they could be used for.

"Help you find something dearie?" The creaking voice of an old woman nearly caused Asuna to jump out of her skin.

She spun around, hand on the hilt of her rapier to see a hunched old woman in dark brown robes with a cowl that covered her face. Her appearance made her look like one of the inhabitants of Innsmouth, however her demeanour already seemed anything but. Above her head floated the name Hagatha, Weird Shopkeeper.

"Oh, sorry," Asuna replied. "I was just browsing."

"Not from around here are you?"

"That easy to tell?" Asuna asked. "What's with this town anyway?"

"That is a very long and morose tale dearie, suffice to say that the progeny of Obed Marsh are the stuff of nightmares for regular folk... though I suspect you and your companions are far from regular folk."

"I suppose you could say that."

Hagatha crooked her head to the side as she looked at Asuna. Despite not being able to see her face, Asuna couldn't help but be reminded of an owl. In fact upon closer inspection, the only thing Asuna could discern of her face was the faintest shadow of a hooked nose in the middle, adding even more to her owl-like visage.

"When I look at you, I can tell you have peered beyond the veil." Hagatha crooked her head to the other side as she spoke. "You have the potential to right the wrongs of this horrid place. If you will realize that potential though, that is the question now isn't it?"

Asuna looked back at the window and Kirito keeping watch on the Marsh Factory across the street. She supposed that was one way to put what they were doing. They still had so little idea of exactly what they were up against and she couldn't help but feel pensive about the whole situation.

"There's still so much we don't know..." she whispered to herself.

"Ah, now that I can help with Dearie." Hagatha said.

"Wait, what?"

Hagatha reached into her robes and pulled out a small monocle. It looked rather plain upon inspection, almost as if whoever had worked on the art assets for it had thrown it together at the last minute with the most generic form and textures. "Please take this dearie. In a world fraught with horrible deception, it will illuminate your way when your doubt holds sway."

"Thank you." Asuna said accepting the item into her inventory. She brought up the status window to see what it was that she had acquired and it simply read ?

"There is one thing that I would ask if you don't mind dearie." Hagatha looked to the window past Kirito. "The magical wards that guard my home from the horrors of this place are fading and I am no longer fit to venture out to replenish them. In the Marsh Factory across the street rests a golden coral crown imbued with ancient and terrible magic. I would like to extract the power from the vile thing and use it to enhance my wards. Can you please retrieve it for me?"

"Of course I-"

"Asuna, Argo's in trouble, we've got to move!" Kirito shouted over his shoulder.

"Right behind you." she replied.

As she turned and ran off towards Kirito, she waved a quick goodbye to Hagatha. Asuna headed off in such a hurry that she never noticed there had not been any quest to accept in relation to the old woman's request.

Hey everyone, thanks for reading as always.. So this chapter was originally going to have a lot more stuff in it, but as I was getting in around the 8000 word mark and wasn't even halfway done, I realised not only was it going to be way too long but also that it wouldn't be finished in any amount of reasonable time, so I've split the part off into it's own chapter to post early. Given how long the "next" chapter is still turning out to be, I may end up splitting it again before I'm done to make sure I'm not taking too long to put up more content.

I'm curious what everyone thinks of Riordan now that you've had a couple chapters to get to know him. I'm always a little nervous bringing an OC into a story as a primary character and meshing them with the rest of the cast so I hope that's all going smoothly.

I've been trying to give each of the cast their time in the spotlight as well, to not keep anyone overshadowed. Liz and Klein got some of theirs last chapter, Argo had a big section earlier in the original draft, but that sadly got cut, she still got some time last chapter and we'll be seeing a bit more of her next chapter. As for Sinon, she was going to take the spotlight after the original version of this chapter for a bit... but now that's a few chapters from now. Don't worry Sinon fans she'll get her time to shine soon enough.

That's it for now, I hope you all enjoyed it and I'll see you all next chapter.

- Tawnis