Sunday, December 4th, 2022, 1:30 P.M.

I sighed as the door closed behind me. "Well, the aftermath of that was way more draining than any boss fight."

Asuna sighed and shook her head. "I can't believe those people… trying to push all the blame off onto someone else…" We climbed the narrow spiral staircase in relative silence; Asuna stopped in confusion once she reached the top. "Um, why does this door have a carving of a bull on it?"

"All the doors leading to the next Floor have carvings on them that represent something about the Floor. As you can probably guess, the second Floor is cow themed. It's a mix between rocky savannas and more mountainous areas. The main settlement is called Urbus, by the way." I pushed open the door, revealing a view across most of the floor from atop a cliff. There were terrace-like stairs leading down the side of the cliff; Kirito was sitting on the edge of one of the steps. I walked over and sat next to him, while Asuna stood behind us.

I broke the silence after a few moments. "... Was that really necessary?"

"..." He shrugged. "Well, arguing with them wasn't getting anywhere… That was the only way I could think of to get them to leave all the other testers alone."

"By making a scapegoat out of yourself."

"Yeah… well, and the two of you by association if you stay in a party with me."

I scoffed. "Like I care about what they think."

Asuna was similarly unabated. "... I'd rather be an outcast than have to agree with them. Besides, I trust the two of you."

Kirito sighed. "Well, it's your choice, I guess."

I slapped Kirito lightly on the shoulder. "If it's any consolation, Agil got what you were trying to do, and Kibaou… doesn't hate you, at least. I think."

"You sure are reassuring. Let's go activate the Gate, I guess." Kirito stood up and stretched, and started walking down the stairs next to him. Asuna and I followed behind him. We walked mostly in silence for the rest of the trip to Urbus; spawn rates were lowered when a Floor was first opened, so we didn't run into any mobs. As we entered the town, the popup «Entering Safe Area: Urbus» appeared in my vision, and I was finally able to relax. Before doing anything else, we headed to the center of town, where we found the Teleport Gate in the center of an elevated plaza. We walked up to it, but Kirito hesitated to activate it.

"Something wrong?" I asked.

"Well, it's just… after what happened, I don't feel like it'd be a good idea to be around when everyone comes through the gate."

"Aah… well, if we just leave it, it should activate automatically once two hours have passed, right? Or the rest of the raid could activate it once they get here."

"Making everyone wait that long would be even worse, and I think it will take them a while to make the trip."

"Hmm…" I looked around the plaza, trying to figure out what we could do. "Well, we could go hide in one of the buildings around here before the Gate fully activates. It takes a couple seconds, right?"

"I guess that works… you two go to that building at the east of the square, the one that looks like a church. I'll run over after turning on the Gate."

"'Kay." Asuna and I ran over to the building in question, which was currently devoid of NPCs. We climbed the stairs up to the third floor of the building, which had a few windows looking out over the plaza. As we walked up, the town's music changed from its normal, somber tune to an orchestral fanfare—Kirito had just activated the Gate. The main towns of each floor would often have an orchestra or some other performer playing some music. Out in the Floor or in smaller towns it was usually quiet, though. I was thankful for that—during the beta the idea of having BGM play throughout the game world was tested but it was quickly dropped. Having to listen to it day in, day out would probably get tiresome quickly.

We looked out the window, and saw the Gate lighting up, still not completely activated. Kirito rushed up the stairs and appeared behind us. Each Teleport Gate had a different style based on the floor; this one was a massive arch carved out of stone. Inside the arch, a translucent, water-like portal appeared, and masses of people started pouring out of it, cheering and celebrating. Most of them came out of the north side of the gate, but two people came out of the south, catching my eye. One of them was wearing a brown cloak and leather gear, and their hood was blown back by the wind, revealing curly blonde hair. Behind her was a player wearing a hooded black cloak.

"Hey, Kirito. It looks like someone is chasing Argo."

"Yeah, I saw… this doesn't seem good. Let me activate my «Tracking» ." Tracking was a mod for the Searching Skill; every 50 or 100 levels, it was possible to add one of various mods to a Skill that enhanced it or added new abilities.

After fiddling with his menu, Kirito jumped out the window and started running along the rooftops, following the direction that Agro and the two other players had went. Rolling my eyes, I followed after him, and Asuna followed behind me, looking confused but not questioning us. Of the three of us, Kirito had the lowest Agility stat, so we both kept up with him without issue.

We followed Kirito out of the western gate of Urbus and across the plains, which had fairly dangerous monsters wandering around. We continued past the plains towards a more rocky area, and stopped near a valley. We could hear Argo yelling from inside.

"How many times do I have to tell ya!? This isn't for sale, and that's it!"

A rough-sounding man responded. "Are you withholding the information so you can raise its price later, then!?"

Kirito started climbing up the nearby cliff, looking perplexed. Asuna and I followed him, and we came to a small flat area where we could look down into the valley below. In front of Argo stood the player that had been chasing her.

"It's not price! I told you before, I don't want people blamin' me for what happens!"

"Why would that be a problem!? I have no reason to blame you, regardless of what you want me to pay! I will get that Extra Skill!"

"...Haa?" Kirito breathed out in surprise at the man's words. Certainly, a new Extra Skill was surprising; the only ones that were known before were «Meditation», which was of limited usefulness, and the «Katana» skill, which no one knew how to unlock yet. "Stay up here for a minute…" With that, Kirito jumped down and landed in between Argo and the man, surprising them.

"Who are you!?"

"Kii-bou!?"

He turned to look at Argo questioningly. "What's going on here?"

"What's going on here is she's being greedy!" shouted the man, glaring at Kirito angrily.

Argo stomped her foot in annoyance. "For the last time, I'm not bein' greedy!"

"Look…" Kirito sighed, shaking his head, "whatever it is, she clearly doesn't want to sell it. Leave her alone."

"Tch…" The hooded man slowly moved his hand closer to his waist, where his sword was sheathed. "And why should I listen to you?"

"Eugh… let's go down there. This is going south real fast." I jumped down and landed next to Kirito, and Asuna landed next to me, further surprising Argo and the man. I tried to get a look at his face, but his hood covered it in shadow.

"Gr… seriously, why are you so stubborn about this?"

Argo sighed in frustration. "I didn't even bring them here… would you just get out of here already?"

"Tch. This isn't the end of this." The man turned around and stalked off in the direction of Urbus.

"Riiight…" I turned around to face Argo. "What the heck was that about? A new Extra Skill?"

"Ehh, you sure saved my hide there."

Kirito pushed her further after she dodged my question. "Hey, you owe me one anyways, right? What was he going on about?"

"... You three swear that ya won't hold it against me?"

"Of course," Kirito responded. Asuna and I nodded.

She sighed. "Follow me, then." Argo led us up a small trail along the wall of the valley and into a cave.

"How the heck did you even find this path?"

"That's not important, unless you're willing to pay, of course."

I sighed. "No, no, it's fine."

We continued through the cave for a while, and emerged into a small clearing at the top of a mountain. It was surrounded by small cliffs, and contained a few large boulders, a small spring, a single tree, and a small hut.

"There ya are."

"Er, okay…" The four of us walked into the building. Inside was some basic furniture, and a well-built old man. Above his head was a shining golden exclamation mark.

"This is the NPC that gives the «Martial Arts» Extra Skill. Naturally, there's a quest involved. It's up to you if you want to take it."

"Martial Arts, huh…" Kirito mumbled.

"Unarmed combat, as ya could probably guess. 'Least, I assume."

"Is that so… When did you find out about this?"

"At the end of the beta. A NPC on a higher floor gave some information about it, that guy has been buggin' me since."

"And you didn't sell him the info, because… he'd hold a grudge about the quest, or something?"

"It's not just the quest! Most people would get over it if the quest was hard or somethin'... nah, this is somethin' they'd have to deal with forever!" Argo stomped her foot on the ground for emphasis.

I was skeptical of Argo's claims. "Really, it can't be that bad. I don't know about you two, but I'll try it… I have an empty Skill Slot, and Martial Arts would work well with my fighting style." Asuna and Kirito looked at each other and shrugged before walking with me up to the old man.

"Do you wish to seek my teaching?"

"Yes." The three of us responded in unison.

With such a simple exchange, the exclamation point turned into a question mark, and the NPC led us outside. "Your goal is simple. Split those boulders using your bare hands, and I will teach you what I know."

"Wha…" I walked up to a boulder and tapped it; if you were familiar with the system, such an object's durability could be estimated by its hardness. A weak object would almost sound hollow… needless to say, this rock didn't. "T-This thing is near-unbreakable…" I turned around to speak with the old man again—

And suddenly his hand flashed across my face with a writing brush. I felt my stomach sink, and looked over at Asuna and Kirito. Sure enough, they had whiskers on their face.

"You may not leave until the boulder has been split, and this mark will represent such."

Kirito tried in vain to rub the ink off, but failed. "I see… so you tried the quest, failed, and you decided to keep the whiskers."

"Yep! By the way, that rock's demonic."

"Ugh… do the whiskers at least look okay?"

"Well, Aa-chan's and Rei-chan's are fine, but…" Argo looked at Kirito's face before bursting out into laughter. Asuna and I started laughing as well.

"Gah…" Kirito ran over and looked into the spring to see his reflection. Without saying another word, he walked over and started punching one of the boulders with all his might, which only got us to laugh harder.

"Well, I'll leave you three to it, then. Good luck! If you didn't bring any food, the old master should be able to provide some!"

In the end, it took Kirito and I three days to break the boulders. Somehow Asuna got it done in just a day, so she left to go explore the Floor.


Thursday, December 8th, 2022, 7 P.M.

After we had finally completed the quest for the Martial Arts skill, we decided to grind for some materials to upgrade our weapons. My Wolfswipe and Kirito's Anneal Blade were both at +6, and Asuna's Wind Fleuret was at +4. The upgrading system had five applicable stats: «Sharpness», «Accuracy», «Quickness», «Heaviness», and «Durability», generally abbreviated using their first letter. Kirito had specced his sword to three Sharpness and three Heaviness—or 3S3D—as he liked to focus on heavy attacks that could kill a mob in one or two hits while still staying agile; Durability raised the weight of the weapon, though not as much as Heaviness did. Asuna's rapier was upgraded to 3A1D; she had enough speed just from her own skill and weapon type, so she didn't use Quickness. My dagger was the least specialized at 2S2A1Q1D, demonstrating how much of a mouthful the system could become, especially at higher levels.

While we were grinding «Windwasps» for the materials that Asuna needed, the three of us made a bet to see who could kill the most, and Kirito lost. He never really stood a chance; due to Asuna's high accuracy, she was able to hit the Windwasps' weak spot consistently with Linear, killing them in one hit. On top of that, she had spent a lot of the extra two days she had fighting against the wasps, so she was used to them. While I wasn't quite as accurate, my shorter attack range made it easier for me to hit the weak spot consistently. Kirito's strategy of 'hit stuff really hard' didn't work out too well for the wasps, and by the end of it he was using Martial Arts more than his sword, but he still wasn't able to keep up with us. As a result, Asuna and I got a free cake, paid for by Kirito.

"Man, that cake is going to cost everything I got fighting those wasps…"

"Then it's completely paid for, and you have nothing to worry about. Lighten up, you'll get to eat it too." I gave Kirito a light slap on the shoulder.

"Come on, hurry up." Asuna led us through Urbus's dull streets to an inconspicuous shop hidden in the mess of buildings.

I was surprised that Asuna knew the location of the shop so well. "Say, Asuna, how did you find this place, anyways? It's not very noticeable."

"I asked Argo-san."

"Aahh…" Come to think of it, Argo had seemed familiar with her. "What was it that she had called you the other day? Aa-chan?" Her hood twitched slightly, but she didn't respond. I wonder if it gets on her nerves… I might start calling her that.

We entered the shop, which was devoid of any players, so Asuna and I took our cloaks off. Kirito had mentioned the other day that he wanted to disguise himself so that others wouldn't recognize him, but the second he put on his 'disguise'—a bright yellow-and-blue bandanna and a leather vest—I instantly rejected it and told him to just not wear his coat. It had given me the idea of buying a cloak like Asuna's, but I was less concerned about being recognized as a beta tester and more about people just looking at me. Mine was identical to Asuna's save for the fact that it was blue instead of gray—her red cloak had apparently been destroyed during the boss battle.

The three of us sat down at a table and an NPC waitress promptly took our orders: salads, stew, some bread, and a «Tremble Shortcake». Asuna and I split the cost of the dinner, while Kirito paid for the cake in full. We ate our dinner quickly, and the waitress brought out a massive cake 35 centimeters across and almost 10 centimeters tall, not counting the piles of cream on top of it.

Kirito paled at the size of the cake. "J-Just what about this thing qualifies as 'short'?"

"It's not called a shortcake because of its height, doofus. It's just the name for the type of cake, based on its texture… though sponge cake is used in Japan, so it isn't really accurate to the crispy American original." I cut a third out of the cake using my knife and put it onto my plate.

Asuna did the same, and split off a large chunk with her fork. "Mmm… it's the Japanese kind. I like this style more anyways."

Kirito took his third as well, and we ate in silence for a while. Just as we finished the last few pieces of our cake, the shop's door opened, and six people poured in.

"Hey, Leader, you sure this place is good? It seems kinda run down, and it's outta the way…"

"Yeah, I don't like this place too much."

Their supposed leader, a scruffy-looking man with red hair and a bandanna, turned to look at them. "Get over yourselves, guys. The info I got said this place has some amazing cake. C'mon, let's—Ah! Kirito!" The man walked over to our table; Kirito looked downwards in discomfort.

"H-Hey, Klein…"

"How have you been doing man? I—" Klein stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Asuna and I, before bowing stiffly. "E-Er, excuse me! M-My name's Klein, I'm twe—Ow!" One of his friends came over and hit him over the head, prompting him to shut up.

"Don't mind him, he always does that."

I glanced over at Kirito. "E-Er, do you know them?"

"Uh… their leader, yeah… I helped him out at the start of the game…" Oddly, he looked really upset about it… he probably did something he regretted.

Klein stood back up and nodded, rubbing the spot where his friend hit him. "Yeah. We'd probably be nowhere if it wasn't for him. Ah, these are my friends." He gestured at the five others that had entered with him. "Issin, Dale, Dynamm, Harry One, and Kunimittz."

"Um, well, it's nice to meet you. I'm Asuna."

"... my name is Rei."

"Nice to meet ya." Klein glanced over at Kirito, grinning slyly. "What the heck, man? Trying to get all the ladies for yourself?"

Kirito choked on his cake. "Grk—What, no! It's just—"

I chuckled at Kirito's floundering reaction. "Hey, Kirito, he has a point… far as I know, it's just us two and Argo at the higher levels…"

"Rei, come on…"

"A-Anyways…" Klein interjected, "Say, is that cake really as good as I heard?"

I was busy enjoying Kirito's discomfort, so Asuna responded for us. "Um… I'm not sure what you heard, but it is quite good."

"I feel like 'quite good' is understating it…" I turned to look at Klein's group. They all looked kind of rough, but appearance wasn't really enough to judge them by. Regardless, I still felt a little uncomfortable. "A-All I can say is try it yourself... I guess." I glanced up at my clock to check the time, and to my surprise I found a buff icon there.

Kirito had just noticed it as well. "A Luck buff? That's new…"

"Yeah… looks like it lasts 15 minutes."

"Oi, Leader! This table's big enough for all of us! Get over here or you're not getting any cake!" All of Klein's group had already shuffled over to a table on the other side of the building.

"Gah! See you later, Kirito. Don't get too greedy, now." Klein turned around and scurried over to the large table so that he wouldn't miss out on the cake.

"I'm not greedy…" After grumbling about Klein's remarks, Kirito got up and started heading for the door. After putting our cloaks back on, Asuna and I followed after him.

"Say, Kirito… possibly, was what Klein-san said true?"

"Huh? ...Gah—what? No!"

"Come on, Aa-chan, Kirito's not that kind of guy…" I dropped my tone and shifted away from him a few steps. "At least, as far as I know."

"Rei! Honestly…"

"Moving on, we need to figure out what to do with this buff. 15 minutes isn't exactly enough to go out and farm for a rare drop…"

Kirito tilted his head in thought. "Hm… Maybe a NPC vendor around here might have an item that doesn't show up often… Ah! We could use it for upgrading Aa-ch—"

"Hm?"

"—A-Asuna-san's rapier."

I stifled a giggle. "Alright. I'll go look at the vendors, you two can go get the upgrade."

"Wait—" Before Kirito could object, I broke off and dashed into a different street, taking the fastest route to the plaza.

"Jeez… I just need some alone time. Too many people... Might as well go look at the vendors, I guess."

I walked around Urbus, stopping to look at any NPC shops I came across. I wasn't paying much attention, though; my mind was stuck on something else.

Kirito had said that he helped Klein out when the game first launched. That being said, he didn't look too happy when Klein showed up earlier. That look was similar to one that I'd seen before, when he'd talked about his family in the past, so I knew not to press him about it. Regardless, it had made me remember something kind of important that I had completely forgotten about in my haste to get across the first Floor.

Yi. I had no clue what had happened to him after Kayaba's… tutorial. Matter of fact, he had completely slipped from my mind. Honestly, as long as he was alive, I couldn't care less about his problems. What had been eating at me, though, is that he had never messaged me at all after I had run off. With how dependent he had seemed on the first day, one would expect that I would have been bombarded with messages. So he either didn't need any help, which was best for the both of us, or…

He was already dead.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts, trying not to feel guilty. If I hadn't helped him, the likelihood that he had died already would be much higher. But at the same time, he might not have tried risking his life if he didn't know how to fight…

A small chime drove my out of my thoughts; the Luck buff was 5 seconds from wearing off. I had no rare items to show for it. What a productive 15 minutes that had been…

I guess I should go find Kirito and Asuna. My moral crisis can wait. I opened my map and navigated to Kirito's name in my short Friends List, tapping on it and selecting the Track option. Strangely, he didn't appear on the map. It wouldn't make sense for him to be in a dungeon now, and he probably wouldn't disable the tracking for no reason… If that was the case, he was probably using «Hiding». But why?

Deciding to just ask him about it for tomorrow, I headed to the main plaza, as I didn't feel like going to the inn this early, despite it already being nighttime. Upon reaching the plaza, I made my way over to a line of trees planted along the eastern side. They provided a nice amount of shade and were out of the way enough so that no one would bother me. As I approached, one of the tree trunks became noticeably less tree-like.

There's my answer, I guess.

"Um, Kirito. What are you doing?" I could see his black silhouette standing out slightly against the tree.

"Shh! I'm using Hiding for a reason right now, you know?"

I rolled my eyes and walked over to the next tree and leaned against it, pretending that there was nothing weird with the tree next to me.

"Seriously, though. What are you doing?"

"Watching the blacksmith."

"Why?"

"Because Asuna's sword shattered."

"... What?"


Author's Notes

Hey everyone!

First of all, a late Merry Christmas (or whatever holiday you may or may not celebrate) and a Happy New Year to you all! Barely eked in another chapter before 2017!

Close to 2 months this time… I'll try to pick up the pace, but like usual, no guarantees.

This chapter… It is what it is, I guess. Long story short: school, procrastination, and a LOT of trouble trying to find a spot where I felt comfortable with what I had written.

That's all. Take care, everyone!


P.S.:

The postscript that was here originally is no longer needed, and has been removed. Just a heads up!