Wednesday, December 14th, 2022, 1:50 P.M.
I stopped before the door at the top of the stairs, opting not to open it; from what I understood, once the door was opened the thirty or so minutes during which spawn rates were reduced would start ticking down.
I sighed and flopped down to sit against the door, grateful for the opportunity to finally rest. Now that I had some time to myself I could relax and think about what happened.
I… almost died. That's what happened.
I shuddered when I realized how easily it had happened; one mistake was all it took. I looked up at my health bar in the corner of my screen. That bar was everything that represented my existence here, the only thing that stood between me and death. It nearly disappeared, so simply, just like that. It could be played with so easily, no different from health in any other game.
It wasn't like I hadn't understood that our lives were really at risk up to this point, but this was the first time that I had experienced my health dropping so low. It made it really feel real. But somehow I still felt calm; somehow the fact that I had almost died wasn't actually bothering me that much. It felt as if it was just something that happens. And I hadn't—
Bam!
"Nguh!"
A sudden impact and grunt to the left of me yanked me out of my thoughts. I saw Kirito in front of me, flailing his arms in attempt to keep his balance, then—
The door supporting my back opened, causing me to fall backwards, and then Kirito fell on top of me. "Gah! What the hell, Kirito?"
"Woah! Rei?" He scrambled to get off of me."S-Sorry, I was walking backwards and, um…"
I sat up and shook my head. "Whatever. Did everything go fine?"
"Eh… mostly. There was one person that claimed that someone had died because he lost his weapon, and people started getting riled up, but Lind calmed them down. There wasn't any evidence of it, anyways."
While Kirito and I talked, Asuna was busy marvelling at the Floor. It certainly was a sight to behold. All around us were gargantuan trees that towered just as high or even higher than Asterius, each of them at least a meter in diameter. They were surrounded across the forest floor by various types of foliage. Below our feet were rough dirt and stone pathways. Sunlight dappled the ground, filtered through the giant leaves of the trees overhead. The whole Floor was covered in trees the same as the ones that we saw around us. Even the door we had walked through was carved out of the base of a particularly massive tree.
We currently stood in the «Forest of Wavering Mists», which covered the whole southern half of the Floor. As its name implied, enshrouding the forest were clouds of mist that would vary in their intensity; at its worst, I wouldn't be able to even see my hand in front of me, but a patch that dense was rare to encounter. Thankfully, the mist wasn't present along the pathways or in the towns. The mist even pervaded into our maps, causing everything on them to appear hazy.
As I watched Asuna admire the scenery I wondered what had brought her into SAO in the first place. She had certainly never played an MMO before, and didn't seem to be much of a gamer in general.
I banished the thought for now; we had more important things to do, and even if we didn't I wasn't sure if she'd be comfortable talking about the real world. From what I had been told, most people weren't. I had never really understood that myself, but I had no reason to be rude about it.
"So, we ready to go?" I asked Kirito. "I'm about ready to be done for the day, but we should at least get that quest started."
"Oh, right… you feeling alright, after taking that hit?"
I sighed. "... Yeah, I'm fine… I mean, it was a bit of a… shock, but it's not like I've been fighting this past month thinking that I was invulnerable. Stuff like that is gonna happen, no matter how careful we are." I decided to change the subject. "Anyways, are we heading straight for the quest?"
"Hm, I should be okay on supplies for now. I told Asuna about the Floor on the way up… speaking of which—Asuna, do you need to restock on anything?"
Kirito's question interrupted her reverie. "Hm? Oh, I should have enough for a while yet. Why do you ask?"
"Well, if you're fine with it, we won't be heading to the first town for a while yet." Upon seeing the inquisitive look upon Asuna's face, he continued. "Er… part of it is that I'd rather leave opening the Gate to the others, but more importantly… see how the path splits about 30 meters down there?"
"Yes. I suppose one goes to the town and the other continues forwards?"
Kirito nodded. "Yep. We'll be taking the path on the left. It heads to the next town, but that's not what we're after. There's a different task for us to take care of." We started walking down the path in question.
"And?"
"Getting to the point," I butted in, "on this Floor is the start of the «Elf War» campaign quest. It contains numerous quests that span all the way through to the ninth Floor."
"The ninth!? That's really how long we'll be working on this?"
"Well, just view it as the replacement for our normal grinding. It just has a story attached now."
Asuna hummed in understanding. "That's simple enough, then. How do we find this quest?"
"Well…" Kirito trailed off. "How is your hearing, Asuna?"
"... The same as anyone else's? It's not like we use our actual ears to hear in this place."
"E-Er, that's true. Well, the quest starting point is somewhere in the forest. We need to listen for the sound of metal striking metal—two swords clashing."
"In the forest? Didn't you say it was dangerous to stray from the paths?"
"Um, when one of the monsters tries to lure you off or you're just wandering around, yeah. Once we hear where the quest is it should prevent us from getting lost, though."
"Should?"
"Worst comes to worst, I do have camping supplies."
"Ehh…" Asuna didn't seem thrilled by the concept. "Rei-chan, you said the campaign was called the Elf War, right? And since we're listening for the sounds of fighting, I'm guessing that we'll have to pick a side?"
"Exactly," I nodded. "I don't know if there are any major differences between the two sides, but… I didn't go far into the campaign in the beta, and more than that I think Kirito and I both picked the same side…"
"So our choice is already made, then."
"Er, pretty much."
"Shh! I think I heard it," Kirito whispered.
We stopped talking and focused on our hearing; sure enough, I heard the faint sounds of a sword fight coming from our right.
"Let's go."
Following an uneventful few minutes of walking through the varying mist, we found ourselves at the edge of a small clearing. The height of the forest's' trees served to make the already small open area feel even smaller. In the center of the clearing stood two humanoid figures locked in combat—a forest elf and a dark elf.
The pale-skinned forest elf stood about 180 centimeters tall, and wore ornate, well-polished armor. His sword and his hair held a shine similar to his equipment's. The dark elf was a few centimeters shorter; she seemed to be about as tall as Asuna and Kirito. Her dark-colored gear wasn't as flashy as the forest elf's, but it was obvious that it was just as strong.
As we approached, the two swung at each other with Sword Skills, the impact knocking them both backwards and shaking the foliage surrounding the clearing.
"Those are… the elves? They look just like players…" Asuna whispered.
"Yep," I nodded. "You can see the quest icons above their heads. The one our our left is a forest elf; the other is a dark elf. We'll make our choice by siding with one elf and fighting the other."
"I see. So, will we be siding with the dark elf?"
"... That obvious, huh?"
"Well, yes. Shall we get started, then?" Asuna moved to step out of our cover, but I quickly grabbed her arm.
"Woah woah woah, hold up there. There's one more thing: there is no way we'll beat the forest elf."
"... Eh?"
"You can tell by their gear… if the quest markers weren't there and they were hostile, their cursors would be very dark. Both of them are stronger than us."
Asuna stared at me in silence. I looked away, uncomfortable with the extended eye contact.
"Um, it's not much of a problem…" I already got close enough to it once today, like hell I'd start a quest if it meant almost dying again. "Once we reach half health our ally will use a special attack to defeat the other elf."
Kirito nodded. "She's right. Because of that, we shouldn't worry about attacking, and just focus on defending."
"Well, I wouldn't get too hung up about how we fight," I said, "but yeah. Don't worry about it."
Asuna blinked. "Um, okay…" she mumbled.
"Let's get started, then."
Kirito leapt out from our hiding spot to confront the two elves; Asuna and I followed. The elves immediately put some distance between themselves and glared at us. The dark elf confronted us first.
"Humans!? Cease your trespassing! You have no business here!"
"Leave this place! Our fight is none of your concern."
In lieu of responding, Kirito simply drew his sword and pointed it towards the forest elf. The elf's face contorted with rage. The quest marker changed to a cursor with an ominous red hue.
"So be it. If you wish to go against the forest elves, you shall die by my hand."
"I am your opponent! Do not ignore me!" The dark elf took the opportunity to strike while the forest elf was distracted, but the latter quickly turned and blocked the attack. Kirito moved forwards carefully, waiting for an opening.
"Hm…" Asuna let out a small hum; I looked over to her, and it looked like she was thinking about something. "Say, Rei-chan…"
"Hmm?"
"If the fight will end when we reach half of our health regardless, shouldn't we try our best to beat him anyways? And 'focusing on defending' like Kirito said would just make it take longer…"
"Well, when you put it like that… but we don't want to overexert ourselves or accidentally take a lethal attack…"
She didn't seem to hear the second half of my reply, and moved to join Kirito. I hesitated for a moment. I felt a little uncomfortable jumping into another fight, considering what I'd already been through earlier. I shook my head and moved to join them; there was no point in getting worked up over what had already passed.
It took twenty minutes, but actually trying paid off; we managed to defeat the forest elf. All three of us just barely had our health in the green. Kirito was kind of taken aback when we started fighting more seriously, but he didn't try to stop us.
Aside from the fact that we had improved considerably compared to the beta, the main thing that allowed us to win was the dark elf herself. She adapted much better to fighting alongside us than I had expected; in the beta, the elf that one allied with mostly ignored the player, and just focused on attacking the enemy. Now, though, the dark elf cooperated and communicated with us quite clearly in order to make openings to attack. I had no way of knowing how much Kayaba had improved NPCs since the beta, but the dark elf was so lifelike it felt like she was hardly an NPC at all, at least in combat.
Kirito watched in disbelief as the polygons of the elf's death animation dispersed. He likely had a few questions running through his head, but I knew of one for sure: What happens now?
I sure didn't know. No one did. There was one part that I had forgotten to mention to Asuna earlier, mostly because it slipped my mind: the attack that the dark elf would have used once our health got low enough would have taken her own life as well as the forest elf's. But now she was standing right in front of us, alive and well. How that would affect the quest was anyone's guess.
The dark elf in question appeared to be just as confused as Kirito, clearly unsure of what exactly to do next. Hopefully we didn't just break her AI.
Fortunately, after a moment she moved; she stepped forward and picked up a small bag that had been left behind by the forest elf. After mumbling something to herself, she turned to face us, resolve returning to her eyes.
"I must thank the three of you," she said with a polite bow. "Due to your help, the Jade Key has been secured. Please come with me to our base camp; my commander will want to reward you, and possibly ask you for further help, should you be willing." A ? appeared above her head, showing that we had initiated the quest and made progress.
Well, that's something normal, so that's good.
I don't know what Kirito planned to do after this, but whatever it was it went sailing right out the window. Before Kirito or I could splutter out a response, Asuna replied for us.
"We'd be honored to."
All of us, our new companion included, hesitated for a moment. Normally, NPCs would only understand clear, concise responses, like 'yes' or 'of course'. Asuna's answer might sound obvious to any actual person, but it wasn't exactly synonymous to a 'yes.'
However, apparently everything we had known about NPCs before was completely wrong, at least in this case; the dark elf nodded in response. "Follow me. The camp is at the south edge of the forest." Perhaps the range of phrases that NPCs understood had been broadened since the beta, but that just wasn't enough to write off how naturally she spoke and acted. The ? disappeared from above her head, and a new health bar joined the three already in my UI, labeled with her name and title—«Kizmel: Dark Elven Royal Guard». At the same time, a notification that we had initiated and made progress in the quest «The Jade Key» appeared in my vision.
Kizmel turned and strode to the edge of the clearing, and Asuna hurried after her. Kirito and I stood still for a few seconds, unsure of what to do. After sharing a quick glance I shrugged and caught up to the two women, Kirito hurrying to follow behind me.
We encountered a few mobs, but with Kizmel with us we made short work of them. The dark elf strode expertly through the mist as though it wasn't even in her vision, and within fifteen minutes numerous flags were visible through the gaps in the trees and mist.
"That was quick," I mumbled. I remembered having a hard time making it to the camp in the beta, and the fact that I had been playing by myself then hadn't helped.
Kizmel smiled proudly. "Well, you will not have had such an easy time without me."
As we approached the camp, the mists of the forest faded away. Curved stone walls stretched in either direction, the dark elf flags flying above them. In front of us stood two soldiers in heavy armor, guarding the gate to the camp. Kizmel nodded as she walked past the guards while Kirito, Asuna, and I followed behind her.
The camp was much larger than it had been before; it was close to fifty meters across, and instead of the small handful of tents I had expected, there were at least twenty within my vision, many of them so large that they felt like actual buildings. Dark elves clad in various kinds of clothing and armor bustled about the camp.
Kizmel led us to a tent towards the back of the camp. Upon entering, we were greeted by her commander. He was ecstatic to see that both Kizmel and the Jade Key had returned to the dark elves safely. In addition to a generous reward of Cor and experience, the three of us were allowed a choice from several pieces of equipment. None of the weapons or armor were any better than what we currently had, so Kirito took a ring that gave him a +1 boost to Strength, and Asuna and I both took an earring that gave +1 to Agility.
Unfortunately, the meeting didn't go perfectly for us. The next quest in the storyline was different from what it had been in the beta… but that was a problem for tomorrow. It was only mid-afternoon, but I'd had enough for one day. The boss fight and extended fight with the forest elf had drained me of most of my energy.
Kizmel turned to face us as we exited the tent, a small smile playing across her lips.
"Again, I must thank you three for all of your help. I trust that you will continue to assist us with our coming tasks?"
Kirito looked a little unsure about how to interact with the dark elf; after a moment, he nodded. "O-of course, we're happy to."
"Wonderful. Please let me know when you're ready… ah, come think of it, I do not know your names."
Kirito was stunned into silence. No NPC had ever asked for our names before.
"My name is Asuna."
"Er, um… my name is Kirito."
"I'm Rei."
It took Kizmel an attempt or two to get the pronunciations right, claiming that "human names are strange"; the game's language system probably had to fine-tune it via trial and error. At least she was doing something that an NPC would do.
"Please, call me Kizmel. As I was saying before, we can depart for our next task whenever you feel ready to. If you need to return to the human settlement on this Floor, I can send you there with a charm; otherwise, you are welcome to stay in one of the tents here."
Kirito and I had both opted to use the dark elf camp as a base back in the beta; the tents were better than an inn room, and more than that it was free. It also cut down on travel time, since the camp was the main hub for the campaign quest on the Floor.
After looking at us, Asuna understood immediately what Kirito and I wanted to do. Exasperated, she replied, "Thank you. We'll stay here."
"Well, I cannot guarantee it is worth your thanks… There are no vacant tents right now, so we will have to share mine. It will be somewhat cramped for four people."
"Um…" Asuna trailed off.
"That's alright; we'd be happy to join you," I said.
Kizmel nodded. "I have some business to attend to here in the campgrounds; just come find me if you need anything. You will find my tent towards the back of the camp, two tents over from the commander's." The dark elf strode off and disappeared into one of the tents.
Asuna stood rooted to the spot, her face jumping between various different expressions. "I—you—... there's not any chance I could ask her to send me to town now, is there?"
"Well, no, but… it shouldn't be that bad," I answered. "Considering that the camp is much bigger than before, her tent likely will be, too. What are you so worked up for, anyways?"
Asuna heaved a huge sigh. "No, nevermind. Let's just go see the tent."
We made our way to Kizmel's tent. Kizmel must have come from a rich family or something, because her definition of 'cramped' was quite liberal. Forget four, her tent could hold eight people and not feel that cramped. The floor was coated with soft, thick furs, and in the center of the tent stood a small, strangely designed heater.
"Well, I wasn't wrong…" I mumbled, "but who calls this 'cramped'?"
Kirito shrugged and sat down in the center of the tent, next to the heater. After unequipping his sword and leather armor, he flopped backwards lazily. Asuna glared at him and started rolling him to one side of the tent with her boot, the black-clad pile of laziness offering no resistance.
"That's your quarter of the tent," she ordered, standing about half of the way back towards the heater, presumably where the border of his space was.
"Okay, okay."
"Jeez, if it's that big of an issue, I'll sleep between you two," I said.
"That aside," Asuna huffed, "what should we do now?"
"Well, nothing outside the camp…" I walked over to Kirito and kicked him, albeit lightly enough to not cause any damage; the camp wasn't a Safe Area. "Get up. We should go look around the camp, since it's so different from before."
"Gah, alright! What's with you two and kicking me?"
Our exploration proved fruitful; we were able to learn the general layout of the camp, as well as the locations of a few specific facilities, specifically the blacksmith, the dining tent, and (much to Asuna's delight) the bathing tent.
The three of us peeked into said bathing tent—fortunately unoccupied—and came to a slightly troublesome conclusion.
"There's only one bath," Asuna said.
"Yes," I said, "we saw it too. We can take turns, so it's not like it's a problem. One of us should probably stand guard here, unless you want a dark elf wandering in. I mean, they're just NPCs, but…" I shrugged.
"What about other players? And this isn't a Safe Area either, right?"
"No one else will make it to this point for a while. And besides that, the camp is instanced, so players aren't a problem." Asuna appeared to be confused by the word 'instanced'. Apparently we had missed that one when we went over that kind of thing a while back. "Er, basically, it's a location made specifically for a quest or the like… running into other players would be kind of awkward when you're on the same quest and need to talk to the same NPC, for example."
Asuna caught on quickly. "So… no other players can come into this camp? And so we're basically cut off from the rest of the Floor."
"Exactly. We can't be seen on the map either... but we're not stuck here or anything. Ah, and you're right about this not being a Safe Area…"
"I'd certainly feel more comfortable with one of you staying guard, then."
The sound of footsteps from behind me prompted me to turn around. "Ah, Kizmel."
"Greetings. I was planning on bathing before dinner; I take it that you three have the same idea. Feel free to join me if you like, though I would not suggest more than two try to fit at a time." Kizmel walked into the tent.
"Well, uh…" I pushed Asuna forward a bit. "If you're fine with it, you can go on ahead, Aa-chan. We can wait."
Asuna nodded and entered the bathing tent to join Kizmel.
"Um…" Kirito mumbled, "how long are we going to have to stand guard here?"
"Probably a while…" I could hear the faint sounds of splashing and chatting emerging from the gap between the tent's flaps. "Definitely a while."
Thursday, December 15th, 2022, 2:30 A.M.
"Come on, Rei, get up."
"Nnghmhmh…"
I groggily pushed Kirito's hand away and forced myself to sit up. I took in my surroundings slowly. The heater in the center cast a dim glow upon the other three members of the party, all of them fully awake and equipped.
"... How about… next time you wake me up before everyone's already ready?" I glanced at the clock in my HUD. "And maybe not at 2:30 in the morning?"
"Well, um… I have no defense for the first part, but we did go to sleep really early. Plus we likely won't run into anyone else at this time."
I sighed, stood up, and equipped my gear. "Alright. Still the same plan?"
Kirito nodded. We decided yesterday that we would split up to get our tasks done faster, since we didn't have to have everyone present at all times to make progress in the quest. Asuna and I would be heading northeast, in search of a lost scout somewhere between a small forest elf camp and the main human settlement on the Floor. Kirito and Kizmel were to go northeast, to a nest of the giant spiders that inhabited the floor. The nest was the original location for the quest during the beta; Kirito suspected that we'd have to go to the nest at some point regardless, so he decided it'd be best to go investigate it now.
Once I was ready, we left the tent. I opened my menu to check what supplies I had while we walked through the camp.
"Oh, it has been quite some time since I had last seen that charm," Kizmel remarked, probably in reference to my menu. "From what I understand, it is one of the last vestiges of magic that you humans have access to." The charms and magic that Kizmel spoke of must have been her way of justifying various game mechanics.
"Um…" I wasn't sure how to respond.
"Wait, magic?" Asuna asked, confused. "I thought that it didn't exist in Aincrad."
"Well, that is true, in a way," Kizmel said. "That charm of yours and the ones us elves have access to are nothing compared to the magic of old. Aside from us, most races completely lost their capabilities once they were torn away from the ground and into this castle; us elves are the only ones who have even preserved any knowledge from that time, as far as I am aware."
"Magic, huh…" I mumbled. We had never been provided with any background lore on Aincrad before, so this was new. "I guess that can give an explanation for a few things…"
We reached the camp's exit, prompting Kirito to speak up. "A-Anyways, we should get going now. Rei, I'll, uh…" he hesitated, probably because he was still a little uncomfortable around Kizmel. "I'll send you a message once we're done with the spider nest, since it won't get through while we're in there."
I nodded. "Got it."
Kirito and Kizmel disappeared into the mist-enshrouded trees.
"... You sure it's fine to leave Kizmel alone with him?"
"It's fine, Aa-chan. Kirito's not going to cause any problems like that."
"Alright."
We headed into the forest ourselves, facing closer to north than Kirito and Kizmel had.
"... Wait, couldn't we have had Kizmel send us to the town with a charm or something?"
Asuna sighed. "Well, it's too late now."
After a few minutes, we were attacked by a large spider, but I quickly overturned it with a kick, giving us an easy kill. After that, we returned to walking in silence for a while. Normally I'd be perfectly fine with not talking, but I actually had a few things I wanted to ask Asuna about.
We'd been in the same party for ten days now, but I had barely spent any time with Asuna outside of fighting mobs and questing. On top of that I had a habit of going off to do things by myself, so she had spent more time with Kirito than me. Because of that I wasn't completely sure what she would and wouldn't be comfortable with talking about when it came to more personal questions.
"Hey, is something bothering you?" Asuna asked out of the blue.
"Huh?"
"You're fidgeting a lot, like you're thinking too hard about something."
"Oh. Um, well… I was wondering earlier about what caused you to play SAO… you don't have to tell me if you feel uncomfortable talking about the real world or anything…"
Asuna looked away with a complicated look on her face. She remained silent for a minute or two before responding in a soft voice.
"... The game was actually my brother's. He got called to a meeting at the last minute… As he left he told me I could try out the game if I wanted to."
"And so you did."
Asuna nodded. "I don't really know why… I had never really had any interest in games before. It was just kind of a whim, I guess."
"Hell of a whim," I muttered.
Asuna grimaced. "I hope he doesn't feel guilty about it."
I patted her shoulder. "Well, when we get out of here be sure to tell him it's not his fault."
A faint smile slowly rose to her face. "I will."
"Oh, if you ever want to talk about anything else from the real world, feel free to," I said. "I don't get touchy about that kind of stuff. I honestly don't understand why some people do."
"Yeah… There's a lot of things I've realized since the game started, and since I met you two…"
I was about to respond, but the sound of footsteps and jangling armor from in front of us stopped me in my tracks. Asuna stopped too, her gaze jerking up from the ground to search for the source of the sounds.
"Weird…" I mumbled. "Kirito said we shouldn't run into anyone this time of night, but I guess he was wrong."
After a moment a fully party of six players appeared from behind a bend in the path. They had a fairly well balanced party, with a mix of different weapons and both light and heavy armor. At the front stood a player that struck me as very strange. He wielded a shield and a one-handed axe, which was a weapon type that I had seen almost no one use. He wore thick scale armor, and the weirdest thing of all was that he wore a chainmail coif that completely covered his eyes. The thing looked like it absolutely killed visibility. A coif like that didn't even offer that much protection.
A player from the back of the group moved forwards to address us—one with orange cactus-styled hair.
"The hell're you two up to at this time'a night?" Kibaou asked with an accusing tone.
"You make it sound like we're doing something suspicious," I retorted. "We're going about a quest. What the hell're you up to?"
"None o' yer business," Kibaou grunted. "Come to think of it, where's the beater boy?"
I blinked in confusion. "Uhh… 'beater'? Assuming you're referring to Kirito, he's at a different part of the Floor."
"Tch, whatever. Jus' stay outta our way, got it?" Kibaou walked past us, prompting the rest of his group to follow. The person in the coif had a smirk on his face, as if he had found something about the conversation amusing.
I sighed once they were out of earshot. "What a pain. Aa-chan, have you ever seen that guy that was at the front before? The one in the chain coif."
Asuna shook her head. "No, why?"
"I dunno, he just kinda weirded me out. I'll have to ask Argo about him later, I guess."
Aside from encountering mobs, the rest of our walk was uneventful. After another twenty minutes of walking, we made it to the main settlement of the floor, «Zumfut». Our quest required us to head west out of the city—I couldn't fathom why it was changed to be so far from the camp—but Asuna and I decided to stop in Zumfut to get some food. Once we finished eating, we left the town and got to work on the quest.
Hey everyone!
This chapter ended up being a bit longer than usual. I was unsure at first on whether to include the part with just Rei and Asuna in this chapter or the next… After writing it out it came out to be 1500 extra words, so I decided a longer chapter wouldn't be that bad. Besides, it's not really that far outside the range I've been trying to stick to.
I seem to have fallen into at least a somewhat consistent timeframe for my writing—as my life becomes centered around a more strict schedule here in about a month that trend will hopefully continue. I don't think that the amount of time I'll have available to spend writing will decrease much, but we'll see how it goes.
That's all for now. Take care!
