Thursday, December 22nd, 2022, 4:00 A.M.
"Mghnnhngh…"
I swiped at the pop-up halfheartedly, annoyed that my alarm had forcibly woken me up. I decided to set it early because I went to sleep so early. I got enough sleep, but the alarm probably went off at a bad time. There was an option in the alarm settings to sync it with your sleep cycles so that that wouldn't happen, but I favored punctuality more. Maybe it would be a good idea to change that.
After taking a moment to wake up a bit more, I took a look at the map to see if I could spot Kirito and Asuna. Interestingly while they were in Rovia, they weren't at the inn; rather, the two of them seemed to be over at the shipwright's workshop. The NPC's name was Remolo, if I remembered correctly.
I forced myself out of bed and after equipping myself properly I left the inn. The first inklings of morning light were streaming their way through the gaps in the side of Aincrad. Surprisingly I saw a player or two around, even so early in the morning—or perhaps it was extremely late into the night for them. In any case, I figured it would be a good idea to go find the other two and catch up with them.
That is, until I got to the edge of the plaza. "Ah… right. Kinda forgot about that," I muttered to myself as I looked down at the short wall. Guess my mind wasn't quite firing on all cylinders yet.
"Yo, Rei-chan—"
"Jesus!" I spun around with my hands raised defensively. "Oh, Argo… could you, maybe, not do that? Not exactly awake yet."
"Haha, sorry, sorry."
"Seriously, could you not make a habit of that?"
"Noted. Anyways, if I had to guess ya want to cross the canal, right?"
"… Yeah, can't exactly walk on water. I don't really feel like waiting around for a gondola…"
"Hmm…" Argo walked up to the low wall and peered over the edge. "Sure seems like a biblical problem, eh?"
"…"
Argo relented. "'Kay, that one fell a bit flat. Anyways, while there are some bridges around town it can take a while to get somewhere using 'em. But what if I told ya we could walk on water?"
"Uhh…" it took me a moment to try and figure out what she might have been suggesting. "Oh, no way, is it seriously those things? Kirito was joking when he said that…"
"Hm?"
I shook my head. "Nevermind. Anyways, you have some of those ninja water shoe things, don't you?"
"Nyahaha, you're sharp. So much for getting some Cor out of that one. You have to be pretty damn light to use them though, and with a high Agility to boot."
"Well, I'd guess that your Agility is a bit higher than mine, but I've probably got the weight part covered. Cause, y'know. Short."
"Mmh, even then you'd need to reduce weight as much as possible; you're not that much shorter than me. Until we can get some higher AGI having anything equipped is pretty much a no-go."
"We'll see, I guess." Wait a second. Again, mind not firing on all cylinders. "Uh, well, before that… there's kind of the problem where I can't swim."
Argo didn't have anything witty to say for once. "I… huh. Can't argue with that one. I could try to teach ya, I guess, but I dunno if either of us have the time for that. This place ain't exactly a good place to learn, either."
"Oh hey, there's a gondola. Guess I didn't have to wait long after all," I said, pointing out a small two-seater that was rowing by under the soft lamplight. I quickly flagged the boat down and asked the boatman to go to Remolo's workshop. I wasn't sure if the NPC would recognize the name, but he understood without issue. Argo tagged along.
"So where're Kii-bou and Aa-chan?"
"At the quest location, the workshop. They've been up all night doing the quest, the maniacs."
"So ya didn't go with 'em?"
"No. I like sleeping, thanks."
"Keep this up and you're gonna start fallin' behind them, y'know."
"I probably already am. But I don't like staying up so late."
"Aa-chan's probably getting pretty far ahead of ya, in particular."
"I… isn't that what you just said?"
Argo snickered. "I guess."
"Uh, okay…"
"Mmh. Well, lemme know when you guys are done with that quest, alright?"
"Will do… Oh! By the way, I have something I'd like your help with."
"Hm?"
"Uh… I'm not really sure how to explain it. I'll message you later, probably today I guess?"
"Sure, that works. See ya."
Argo leapt out of the gondola onto a low platform nearby, leaving me to my own thoughts for the rest of the gondola trip. Argo's last words directed my mind to Asuna and Kirito. I wondered how they were getting along. I had a tendency to go do my own thing, so pretty often it was those two off together while I was by myself. Asuna had been fairly withdrawn at first, but she seemed to be more comfortable now, especially on this Floor.
I hopped out of the boat right next to the workshop and walked around to the front side. I was able to catch a glance of a rocking chair through the window near the door.
"Hmm?" I hummed in surprise. That was probably the last thing I expected to see.
I tested the door and it was unlocked for me, so I pushed it open as quietly as I could to get a better look.
The rocking chair was quite wide and spacious. On one side of the chair sat Asuna fast asleep, turned 90 degrees to where her legs were under the chair's arm. Back-to-back with her was Kirito; he was asleep as well, and situated much the same way.
I took a moment to try and work out what I was looking at. I looked around the room, and besides a small stool off in one corner I didn't see anyplace else to sit. That answers that question, I guess… I would've thought that Kirito would just sleep on the floor, but…
As I pondered the sight in front of me, Kirito woke up. At roughly the same time I noticed a couple of quest update pop-ups had appeared when I walked in the door.
Well then. I glanced at my clock quickly; it was 4:30. Perhaps the NPC took a set amount of time to make the gondola?
He looked over at me groggily. "Oh… morning…" Kirito carefully extracted himself from the rocking chair, taking care to not wake Asuna.
"…" After staring for a moment I shook my head; this wasn't the time for this. "Morning. How's the quest gone?" I focused on the update pop-ups to pull up the full information. From the looks of it, they had gotten all the gathering done and the shipwright had just now finished making our gondola.
"Oh, it's done." All thoughts of the sleeping arrangement seemingly vanished, Kirito moved back over to the rocking chair to wake Asuna up. He rocked the chair back and forth gently. "Hey, Asuna, wake up."
I crossed my arms. "Kirito, that's not gonna wake her up, ya doof."
"Y-yeah…" After contemplating it for a moment, Kirito reached over and shook her shoulder. "Asuna. Hey, Asuna, come on, wake up."
She… probably wouldn't get a harassment pop-up. Probably.
"Asuna, our boat's ready."
"Mghhh… hn?"
"Oh, good, you're up."
"Mnnn…" Not completely awake though, it seemed. After a large yawn she woke up considerably. "Oh, morning Rei-chan."
"Yo."
"Anyways, what did you say, the boat…? Oh! The gondola is ready!" She bolted up out of the rocking chair and looked around the workshop. "What are you two waiting for? Let's go see it!"
We found a door at the back of the room which Asuna hastily pushed us through. On the other side there was a small, empty room to our right and a stairway directly in front of us. We made our way down the stairway to enter what was the actual boat workshop.
The storeroom above wasn't exactly small, but this workshop was huge in comparison to that. I hadn't paid attention to just how big this building was. The walls and floor were made entirely of stone, and multiple torches were hung regularly along the walls. The room was filled with equipment that certainly looked suitable for shipbuilding—big platforms, giant wooden hoists presumably for lifting the boats, and stacks of crates and materials that lined the walls. Most notably, there was a channel in the center of the room about 5 meters wide and filled with water. On the far wall the channel was connected to a pair of tall wooden doors, which I could only assume led out to the channels of Rovia.
Remolo was standing near the edge of the water, looking over an ivory white boat with dark green trimmings. A golden question mark floated above his head, but the three of us took a closer look at the gondola before talking to him.
The boat was about 10 meters long; within it were three leather seats and an oar ready to be used. Along with the white-and-green exterior, the interior was painted with soft shades of brown. The name of the boat was written in the same dark green along the side in a flowing script: Tilnel.
Why are there three seats…?
Remolo turned to look at us when he heard us enter the workshop. "Raring to go, I see. Surprised myself with how quickly these old hands got back to work. You did a damn fine job with the materials."
"Tilnel, huh…" I mumbled. They'd decided to name the boat after Kizmel's supposed late sister. I hadn't really thought about the girl since Kirito had shown us her grave. It was likely just a name written into Kizmel's memory… There was certainly no reason anything would be active on locked Floors, but I couldn't help but wonder.
Putting that question aside, I asked Kirito a more pertinent one. "Why are there three seats?"
"Huh? Well, there's three of us, right…?" He returned, as if he was somehow unsure of that fact.
"Well, yeah, but… one of us is going to have to pilot it, right? So there's no point in having an extra seat, is there?"
"What?"
"What?"
Apparently we were both confused.
Thankfully, the NPC answered my question for us. "The little missy's right, ya know. It isn't like the Water Carriers Guild is gonna send out a boatman for you, though I suppose you could find someone to hire. Nothin' wrong with an extra seat, though."
"Well, there's your answer," Asuna said matter-of-factly, like she had known this the whole time. She probably had noticed the inconsistency, but hadn't bothered to mention it. "And obviously, Kirito-kun's going to be our boatman."
"Huh?"
I rolled my eyes. "Don't 'huh' her, you by far have the highest Strength of the three of us."
"I guess…" Kirito turned to Remolo. "Everything's good to go?"
He nodded. "Yep. She's all yours. Hmph… I haven't been this proud of a vessel in a long time. Now, don't go crashing this thing after workin' me this hard, alright?"
"Of course we won't!" Asuna said, sounding hurt at the suggestion. "We'll do our best to take care of it!"
The three of us clambered aboard the Tilnel—it took me a moment to steel myself to jump across the water—and Remolo opened his workshop's doors for us.
The sunlight was starting to reach more thoroughly through Aincrad's gaps, now, so Rovia was painted in a bright dawn, the water reflecting twinkles of the amber light. After a little bit of panic with our initial launch and Kirito getting to grips with the controls, we were on our way through Rovia's waterways. At the moment the waterway we were in was fairly empty, so Kirito was free to speed up and practice his sailing a bit.
"Ahh, this is amazing!" Asuna was enthralled, her eyes sparkling just like the last time we were in a gondola. "Say, we're free to leave Rovia now, right?"
"Well, sure… but I'd like to get some more practice in the safety of town first. We need to be careful with it, remember?" Kirito replied.
"Mmh, I guess you're right…"
As we made our way through Rovia, we had a few close calls with other gondolas, and the boatmen were… less than enthused. It was odd to see them acting so rudely.
… What was the deal with this Water Carriers Guild that Remolo mentioned, anyway? He hadn't really said much of them, but from what it seemed they must have had a monopoly in the town regarding the gondolas.
I turned to look at Kirito behind me; he was apparently following a similar train of thought, and was looking at something in his menu. "Ah. Looks like we've got to go talk to Gramps again." He came to a sudden stop to turn around, which damn near threw Asuna and I both out of the boat.
I didn't bother to look at my quest log, but there must have been an update to the gondola quest—come to think of it, there hadn't been any indication that it had been finished in the first place.
"Er, once we finish this up, what are you two planning to do?" I asked.
"Well…" Kirito trailed off. "It'd probably be a good idea to head back to the inn once we're done. We did get some rest in the workshop, but…"
"I agree," Asuna said. "We really only got a couple hours of sleep…"
"Hm…" I looked around; we seemed to be fairly close to the plaza. "If that's the case, then if you don't mind I'll hop off here."
"That's fine, but… it seems like you're avoiding the quest a lot, for some reason." Kirito said.
"It's not that, really, I just haven't really been helping with it so I don't see the need for me to tag along. I have something I want to look into, too."
"Alright." Kirito pulled up as close to the side of the waterway as he could, right next to a lowered area for passengers to board and disembark the gondolas. I hopped off, causing the Tilnel to rock gently in my wake.
"Thanks. I'll message you if you need anything."
Kirito nodded and pushed the oar in his hands forwards slightly, launching the Tilnel and quickly taking the two of them out of my sight. I sighed slightly, happy to be back on solid ground.
"…I really need to learn to swim."
"So, what's the deal? Just looks like some boring rocks to me."
"Well, about that… could you try hitting them with a Sword Skill?" I asked.
Argo looked at me side-eyed. "Uh, sure, but why?"
"Just, try it, please? I'll explain in a second."
After a moment of consideration, she shrugged. "Sure, whatever."
With a bit of a run up, Argo slammed her claws into the rocks with a powerful looking Skill. Thinking about it, I realized that I barely knew anything about claws or other obscure weapons—I made a mental note to look into that, since not knowing how to defend myself from stuff like that was obviously dangerous.
… And as I expected, her attack didn't do anything besides stirring up a bit of dust.
"Right, well…" Argo waved away the dust cloud that was swirling around her. "Did that tell you anything?"
"Not really, I guess. Do you have Martial Arts?"
Argo again paused to think about her response. "… No harm in telling that. Sure, I do. Why?"
"Try that, then."
"Hm, I see, I see." Argo walked back up to the rocks, this time attacking them with punches and kicks.
Still nothing.
Argo walked back over to me and flopped down onto the grass. "Well, I'm literally bangin' my head up against a wall, here. What's the deal?"
"Well, it's definitely not just Martial Arts, then… I doubt it's a level thing, since you couldn't break them either…"
"Hello, Rei-chan?"
"Uh… here, let me try this." I unsheathed my dagger and walked up to the rocks myself. I was still able to break them down by using my dagger, with the rocks emitting the same glow as before.
I turned back around to look at Argo and gestured at the now-revealed cave. "There you go."
"… Well, that certainly explains that."
"I mean, sort of… I don't get why I'm the only person that can do this, though."
"Quest flag?"
I shook my head. "Nope, at least not that I know of. Didn't have anything quest-related when I first came here—no notifications or anything."
"Hmm…" Argo scratched her whiskers. "Definitely not skill level, like ya said… has to be an item, then. Did you get anything related from in there?"
"I mean, sure, but I don't know what… Oh!" I opened up my inventory and pulled out the necklace I found on the third Floor. "Maybe it's this?"
"Lemme see."
I tossed the necklace to Argo; she leapt back up and caught it with ease. By now the rocks had respawned. She walked up to them, the necklace in one hand, and gave a quick test punch with the other—cracks.
"That's that. What's in here anyways?" She tossed the necklace back to me.
"There's… a crappy chest, a stupidly dangerous monster, and another cave behind a wall that I was way too freaked out to go into. All the chest had was another rusty piece of jewelery like this thing."
"Stupidly dangerous, you say… how so?"
"Uh… as in it charged at me, and literally killed itself from the impact with the wall when I dodged it."
"Okay. Stupidly dangerous it is. Well, seeing how you're the only person at the moment that can get into this place, I'll defer to your judgment and not go in there for now. I'd betcha need the necklace to get out too, anyhow."
"Yeah… there's obviously something going on here, but I don't get what the deal is." Maybe if I look into the name of that thing, I could figure something out… 'Khazmeri', I think? I quickly opened up my menu to make a note of the name so I wouldn't forget it.
"I won't ask ya for any payment this time 'round. Just lemme know what else you find from this."
"Sure. Thanks for the help."
Hey everyone!
Apologies for the inactivity. School, stress, poor time management, laziness, etc etc yada yada.
Ahem So, here's a chapter. I don't have much to say today; just enjoy.
That's all, then. Take care!
