"Two days later." Leonn said in his best attempt at a French accent.
The reference was lost on his companions, however. Sideways glances and confused looks were enough to convince him of that unfortunate fact. Leonn sighed as the group of four made their way back through the front gates of Urbus.
Indeed, it had taken Kirito's party two days effectively alone in that secluded valley to complete the quest required to unlock the ((Martial Arts)) extra skill. As many would come to learn later, this particular skill had much more potential than one might expect. Upon first glance, one would imagine that the ((Martial Arts)) skill allowed one to perform kicks and punches as sword skills, and they would be right. However, just like real-world martial arts, its true strength lay in its versatility and interactions with other existing weapon styles. Along with the default punches and kicks that came with the skill inherently, each member of Kirito's party was able to acquire a skill that perfectly integrated with their existing style of combat.
Kirito learned ((Meteor Fall)), a skill that involved the user throwing their sword into the air and performing a quick punch to their target. Next, the user would then jump into the air to catch their sword and finish with a gravity-assisted vertical strike.
Leonn learned ((Blockade)), a skill that caused the user to abruptly slam into their opponent with their shoulder. While quick, short-ranged, and relatively weak, this skill could also be used to cancel a sword skill in progress, even if the attack was mid-swing. Making contact with this skill had the potential to stagger or stun opponents if used at the right time.
Sinon learned ((Disengage)), a skill that had the user perform a quick frontal kick to the opponent. Afterwards, the user would push off of their opponent, sending the target backward and the user into a backflip, creating distance between both combatants.
Asuna learned ((Stellar Slip)), a counter used against an attacking opponent. Using their superior speed and a quick grappling technique with their free hand, the user manipulates their opponent's momentum to throw them off balance. Immediately afterwards, the user maneuvers to the opponent's side or back and executes a swift horizontal slash.
The party of four were just discussing their new abilities when they walked past a tavern. Leonn was smiling as he looked up at the tavern sign before stopping in his tracks. After a moment, his companions took notice and turned to look towards the now-distraught young man.
"Leonn?" Asuna asked with some worry.
"You alright?" Kirito inquired.
Sinon seemed to connect the dots sooner than the others. "... You didn't."
"Yup." Leonn immediately answered, looking her right in the eyes.
Asuna, chalking her confusion about the current conversation up to more gaming knowledge she'd need to ask about later, looked over towards Kirito, who only shrugged in response.
"Just before we ran off to save Argo, this one over here bought us rooms to spend the night in." Sinon explained, jabbing a thumb over towards Leonn.
"Rooms we didn't use." Kirito realized. "Sorry."
Leonn let out a somewhat pained chuckle. "Don't worry about it. We saved Argo and unlocked some pretty nice skills. It sucks, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Just means we're low on funds right now, that's all."
"We didn't kill any monsters there either, so we don't have anything easy to sell." Asuna noticed as she opened her menu and began scrolling through her inventory.
"We'll just have to cut back somehow." Sinon suggested. "Kirito, Leonn. Any ideas?"
Kirito mulled over some easy methods that were used in the beta to make or save money. He raised a hand and spread out his fingers, using the index finger on his other hand to start counting off possibilities.
"Well, we can start getting our equipment repaired by a player blacksmith instead of an NPC one. Their repair jobs tend to be cheaper to compete with the set NPC rate, so it's probably a good idea to start doing that now anyway. We can also start bringing some of our extra monster drops to a player who's taken the ((Cooking)) skill. That's an easy way we can save on money, by not having to buy food from NPCs." Kirito began, depressing a finger for every suggestion mentioned thus far.
"Well, we don't need to worry about one of those anymore." Asuna said with some confidence. "When we hit level 12 after finishing that quest, I learned the ((Cooking)) skill."
Kirito and Sinon looked at her with surprised looks on their faces. Meanwhile, Leonn had a half-grin spreading at the prospect of food.
"What? I wanted to try cooking in this game." Asuna said as she crossed her arms and her face puffed into a pout.
Kirito recovered from his momentary surprise before continuing. "We can also share inn rooms to save money. Two-bed rooms are cheaper than singles."
Asuna's face morphed from pouty to flushed in a matter of moments. "Share a room?! You can't be serious!"
Kirito almost immediately regretted his choice of words and held his hands out as if to defend himself from the verbal barrage that was to come. "I didn't mean it like that! We could get two rooms! Leonn and I can share one while you two share another."
Asuna seemed to take some solace in that correction before quickly changing the subject. "Well, you mentioned player blacksmiths? Where can we find one?"
Leonn answered her. "We can check the market here in Urbus to see if any smiths have opened up shops yet. If we can't find any here, we can check the Town of Beginnings."
"Sounds good." Sinon said before the four set off towards the direction of the market. It didn't take them long to find it. Whether it was by sheer coincidence or because of smart game design, the tavern was located nearby the market. There were two smith shops set up in the street. One was operated by a short, brown-haired girl and the other operated by a young man with dirty blond hair. The lines for each smith were about equal in length.
Sinon looked over and could tell that Asuna was shooting pointed glares at Kirito. Clearly the fencer was still flustered or bitter over the misunderstanding earlier.
"Hey, we can probably save a little time by hitting both smiths. How about whoever finishes up first rents us our rooms for the night?" Sinon suggested as nonchalantly as possible. "Kirito, let's go check out this smith. Leonn and Asuna, try the one over there."
Leonn shot Sinon a mildly confused look, which quickly dissipated when he realized what she was trying to do; separate Kirito and Asuna to dissolve the tension.
"Sounds like a plan!" Leonn declared. "Let's go, Asuna."
As a confused Kirito and a conniving Sinon left to join the line for the other blacksmith, Leonn turned to Asuna. "Sorry about that. Kirito sometimes forgets that what he says can be misinterpreted."
Asuna let out a sigh. "No, it's alright. I shouldn't have gotten so flustered like that. I probably made a bad impression by jumping to that conclusion."
"We've all been there before, you're good." Leonn assured her. "I'm sure he's not bothered by it. Confused, sure, but not bothered."
A minute later, Leonn and Asuna were second in line and talking between themselves when they noticed that the men in front of them sounded very irritated.
"Oh come on! How do you mess that up?!" The shorter of the two men yelled at the brown-haired smith.
"He gave you the mats you needed for the upgrade and you still failed. Seriously!" The taller man scolded.
The brown-haired girl was bowing and apologizing profusely, beads of virtual sweat dripping off her forehead. Whether it was brought on by hard work, stress, or embarrassment was hard to tell.
"I am so sorry! I just started smithing a few days ago, so my success rate isn't high yet." The girl explained, straightening herself upright and putting on her best customer service face.
"That's not good enough! I want those mats back. " The shorter man started before stopping his rant. He turned as a finger tapped on his shoulder.
"Hi there. Yeah, sorry to interrupt, but are you two done being asses?" Leonn asked as he pointed a finger between the two men. Asuna had to stifle a laugh at her friend's brazen, albeit nonchalant insult.
"What'd you just say?" The taller man turned and asked, anger further spreading across his face.
"Hard of hearing too. Huh. Let me try a different way, then. If your business here is done, kindly exit. You're holding up the line." Leonn said, gesturing to the queue behind him and Asuna.
Face growing red with anger and irritation, the taller man turned to his companion. "Let's get out of here. This isn't worth it."
As the two belligerents stormed off, Leonn and Asuna stepped up to the flustered blacksmith, the former starting with a question.
"Are you ok?" Leonn asked with genuine concern etched on his face.
"What happened? I doubt there was any good reason for those two to act like that." Asuna added.
The blacksmith gave a heavy sigh. "My blacksmithing skill isn't that high, so I messed up trying to enhance their weapons."
"But are you ok?" Leonn asked again.
The blacksmith looked a little stunned, the question only now registering. "Y-yes, I'm fine now, thank you." She took a second to compose herself before continuing. "Anyway, how can I help you?"
Leonn gave a warm smile. "We'd like our weapons repaired, please." He and Asuna placed both of their weapons on the table before continuing. "And you know what? I think I've got the right mats on hand. Let's try for an enhance on my maul, please."
The blacksmith looked at Leonn with equal parts confusion and amazement. She'd never encountered someone who used a maul, and she'd never enhanced one before. "You want me to enhance your maul after hearing that I failed twice already?"
"Sure!" Leonn said.
She wasn't sure if he was crazy or just a glutton for punishment. She took a few moments to repair their weapons, which was a job she'd done frequently enough so as not to be an issue. She handed Asuna her rapier before turning to Leonn. "You're sure?"
"Of course. You're trying your best, and honestly that's all that matters to me." Leonn assured her.
After accepting the materials and Cor via a quick trade, the blacksmith looked at the maul with some hesitation before attempting an enhancement. Much to her surprise, when her hammer hit the maul, it didn't produce a fizzling sound, but instead the weapon glowed yellow for a moment, signalling that the enhancement was a success. Her expression immediately brightened and she returned the enhanced maul to its owner.
"Congratulations!" Asuna exclaimed, smiling at the blacksmith.
"See? Believe in yourself a little more." Leonn said with a smile. "Anyway, thanks for the upgrade!"
"Of course, come back any time!" The blacksmith shouted as her two newest, friendliest customers exited the line. She smiled and turned to the next customer.
After watching those brave players fight the first floor boss and win, she refused to sit around the Town of Beginnings any longer. No longer would she sit and wait for others to save her. She might not be as strong or as nimble as those forty-something people, but she had vowed to do everything in her power to support them. After doing some asking around, she decided blacksmithing was the best way to do so, but her couple of days since starting had been anything but glorious. People were rude, entitled, and out for themselves in this world.
That had changed just now. Someone had given her a chance instead of assuming the worst of her. Having someone believe in her was, to put it mildly, refreshing. It was by far the friendliest transaction she'd had thus far and she hoped she'd see them again.
Then she froze, a troubling realization dawning on her.
Lizbeth had forgotten to ask their names.
"He what?!" Both Leonn and Asuna shouted at the same time.
Having finished with their smith visit sooner, Leonn and Asuna went ahead and rented out two rooms at the local inn, one for the boys and one for the girls. Ten minutes later, all four players were assembled in the girls' room and seated around a table. Leonn and Asuna looked amazed and confused, whereas Kirito and Sinon looked irritated and pensive, respectively.
"Yep." Sinon sighed. "He broke my dagger."
Leonn was the first to break the silence. "How? I didn't even think items could break like that. Not outside of combat at least."
"They can't. At least, that's not how it was in the beta." Kirito answered before getting up. "If this is a new feature, it's going to change things. We might need to buy backup weapons, and that could get expensive.
"Unless one of us decides to take up blacksmithing, he's right." Leonn looked at his companions. "What was this blacksmith's name?"
"Nezha." Sinon replied.
"Well, I know who I'm not getting my upgrade work done by." Leonn said, leaning back in his chair.
A thought dawned on Asuna. "Did we ever get the name of the blacksmith we went to?"
Leonn's eyes went wide with realization before he shook his head. "Damn. No, I don't think she ever gave her name. Too bad. I liked her."
Sinon looked at Leonn with a subtle grin on her face.
Leonn flushed at the face his friend was giving him. "What's that look for?"
"Nothing." Sinon lied. He could be so easy to read sometimes.
Kirito interrupted the awkward exchange as he came out of his thoughtful trance. "I'm going to go track down Argo. She might know more."
As Kirito stood up, he opened his menu and walked towards the door. While the others couldn't see his menu, they could tell by the hand movements that he was composing a message.
"Wait, what about…" Asuna began just as Kirito walked out the door, mid-message. "...the food?"
"Sorry." Sinon placed a consoling hand on Asuna's shoulder. "We'll eat your food, though."
"Yeah!" Leonn agreed. "I never got a chance to try player-cooked food during the beta, but I heard great things about it!"
Asuna seemed to brighten up somewhat as she stood up and walked over to the small kitchenette that was on the far side of the room. With the hesitation of a novice, she brought out the kitchenware she and Leonn stopped to purchase before renting the rooms, along with the raw food items dropped from various monsters on the 1st floor. She also materialized a small book and placed it on a nearby counter. Looking back and forth between the book and the ingredients, Asuna slowly but carefully began preparing a meal.
Sinon leaned over towards Leonn in order to keep her voice down. "You need to have a talk with him."
Leonn sighed. "I know. Sometimes it's like he slips back into solo player mode. Poor Asuna was looking forward to making her first meal for all of us."
Within minutes, Asuna had prepared sandwiches for them to eat. They didn't look particularly fantastic, but they smelled a fair bit better than the bread and cream they'd survived on for the past week. They were simple, being made up of the standard vendor-fare bread, thinly-sliced boar meat, Nepenthes leaves meant to simulate lettuce, and a variation on the cream they'd used before. The three looked at each other in silence, glancing down at the sandwiches hungrily.
"On three?" Asuna asked.
"Yes please." Leonn answered eagerly.
"Alright then. One…" Sinon started.
"Two…" Leonn continued.
"Three!" Asuna finished the count as all three players bit down on their sandwiches. The trio froze in place after taking the first bite, looking up to stare at each other with their mouths full. Each tried to read the expressions of the others with absolutely no luck. Finally, they all swallowed and looked down at their sandwiches.
It was delicious.
It was no five-star meal, to be sure, but after having spent the better part of a month subsisting on only bread and cream, these rudimentary sandwiches were a godsend. The feeling and sound of crunching leaves. The way your teeth sank into the boar meat. Even the sensation of having bits of bread stuck against the inside of your teeth. These minute little details which had been missing for so long in their lives, this night would not be taken for granted. Within a matter of minutes, each sandwich was gone and each player sat back in their seat with a look of deep satisfaction.
Her hunger sated and a sense of relaxation began to wash over, Asuna looked over to the kitchenette counter. More specifically, her gaze drifted over to the one object still sitting by itself.
A single, untouched sandwich.
He's late.
Argo crouched, shifting her weight slightly from side to side. Pain wasn't real in this world, but the kind of discomfort that came from not moving for long periods of time was. Glancing down at the street below, Argo was glad for her high agility and dexterity stats, otherwise balancing on this rooftop would be a much more precarious situation to maintain for so long.
He's lucky I already had an interest in this case.
Eventually she spotted her quarry in the alley below, the late evening light dragging his shadow far behind him. Without making a sound, Argo dropped down to the street below behind him.
"Come here often?" Argo abruptly asked, startling the boy before her.
Turning on a heel, Kirito spun around to find the Rat grinning at him, ear to ear. "Hi Argo. Why did you want to meet here?"
"Wow, getting right to the point." Argo said, startled by the lack of verbal jousting that she'd grown so accustomed to with the black-haired swordsman. "Because, Kii-bou, your sad excuse for a blacksmith is staying at a tavern nearby, and I'm pretty sure he's not alone."
He gave Argo a confused look.
"Look, just follow my lead, Kii-bou. We'll look a lot less conspicuous together than if either of us was alone." Argo explained before gesturing to the tavern door. "Come on."
Kirito followed her out of the alleyway and into the tavern. The lobby inside wasn't anything fancy; aesthetically the architecture of every building in Urbus was very similar. The developers hadn't gotten lazy and copy-pasted entire buildings, but there was a clear theme to be seen. Simple walls adorned with hanging flower vases, a crackling fireplace, a room full of tables and chairs. Apart from the NPC customers and staff, there looked to be maybe three other groups of individuals here, one of whom happened to be the blacksmith in question. He was seated at a table along the wall and was talking with a group of five other boys.
Argo walked over to a corner table and took the seat furthest from the group they were tailing. Kirito fell in line and took the nearest so that his back was facing them. Argo immediately pulled up her menu and began swiping her finger up and down, left and right in a flurry that puzzled Kirito. He gave her yet another questioning look.
Argo gave him a quick glance before looking at her menu again. "What? I'm a multitasker. Helps me focus. Order us something, will you?"
Kirito's eyes went wide at the mention of ordering food. There was an audible *smack* as palm met forehead. Argo looked over again at her black-haired friend.
"Hey, try to keep it down, huh? I'm trying to focus here." Argo said, shifting her attention from Kirito to her messages, letting her gaze drag over the blacksmith's group for a second longer than the casual observer might have done. She let her ears focus on that table, actively muting all other conversations in her mind to focus on her new quarry.
Alright, Nezha. Start spilling.
"... should keep doing this. What if I'm caught?" Nezha said, nervously brushing some of his light brown hair out of his eyes.
"Relax, Nezha. Has anyone confronted you yet?" A taller man with very aggressive eyebrows said, waving his hand around as if to waft away the concern.
"No, not yet." Nezha admitted.
"He's got a point." A man with a horned helmet said, directing his attention to brow-man. Argo didn't have a name for brow-man just yet, so brow-man he would remain. "More and more people are taking up blacksmithing and it's only a matter of time. Someone's bound to get wise to this at some point."
Brow-man looked pensive for a moment. "Alright. We're almost fully kitted out with gear at this point, so we can have you stop soon. Can you go two more days?"
Nezha sighed. "Maybe. That's cutting it close, though. I don't know how much longer until others start realizing what the Quick-Change mod can really do."
Interesting. Wonder how that plays into this.
Argo spared a glance over at her companion and could see that he too was listening intently, miming interest in his own menu at the same time. She turned her attention back to Nezha and his group.
"Orlando, I'm with Nezha and Beowulf on this one." A man with a European-styled plate helmet interjected. "We've got enough gear so that we're competitive now. We can catch up and join the clearers soon with a little work."
Orlando and Beowulf. These guys must be the group calling themselves the Legend Braves. Good to have faces to put to the names now.
Guilds wouldn't be unlocked in SAO until the 3rd floor, but that hadn't stopped people from banding together pre-emptively. Argo had even heard that the 1st floor clearing group was already starting to group themselves into pseudo-guilds. Kibaou was leading a group of six and had started calling themselves the Aincrad Liberation Squad. Another man named Lind, who was also part of the 1st floor raiding party, had grouped together with another five people and had started calling themselves the Dragon Knights Brigade. Both groups had made quite a bit of progress on this floor already, with the only other notable group on people's minds being Kirito's. That seemed to be because of that stunt he pulled in Illfang's boss room and not because of anything he and his group had done on the 2nd floor yet.
I wonder if Kii-bou's going to form a guild. That could be interesting.
"We can probably join in on the field boss tomorrow." Beowulf suggested before turning towards Nezha. "Sorry bud. Don't know how much help you'd be."
Nezha grimaced. "What am I supposed to do when we stop this? Am I just going to hang around in town and wait for you guys to return?"
Helmet-man put a hand on Nezha's shoulder. "We'll figure something out. We'll find a way around your FNC."
FNC, Argo recalled, stood for FullDive Non-Conformity. FNC was a rare condition where the user suffered some handicap in-game due to a faulty connection between the NerveGear and their brain. Argo's curiosity was piqued. While she tried to stay away from personal details and remain professional, the fact of the matter was that Nezha's FNC was a contributing factor to whatever scam they were putting on. At least this sounded like a scam.
The rest of their conversation was rather boring, if Argo was being honest. They talked about what kind of monsters they'd fought in the field. Nothing new, there. Argo had already updated her guidebook to reflect what had been found on the 2nd floor. They did mention where they'd found the field boss, and while Argo already had that information, corroborating was never a bad idea. Chances are there would be an attempt made to kill it tomorrow by any number of groups.
Kii-bou will probably want to buy that info later. Kibaou and Lind did.
The interesting part came when they got up to leave, specifically what happened when Nezha went to go push in his chair. As he reached out for the back of the chair, he missed. He'd caught his balance easily enough and the fumble was minor, but Argo caught it anyway. Nezha very quickly composed himself and went to grab the back of the chair again, this time effectively waiting until his palm had hit the wood before closing his fingers around it and pushing the chair in.
Depth perception, maybe? That would definitely get in the way of fighting. Swing a sword too soon and you open yourself up to attack.
As the Legend Braves filed out of the tavern, Argo looked over towards Kirito, who seemed deep in thought. She snapped her fingers in front of his face, bringing him back to reality.
"What's on your mind, Kii-bou?"
"Just wondering about his FNC. It's gotten in the way of him fighting with his party, but how?" Kirito murmured thoughtfully.
"Well, it looked like his depth perception was off. You didn't see it, but the poor guy couldn't even grab his chair without fumbling it." Argo said with just the slightest bit of pity in her voice.
Kirito brought his hand up in a thoughtful expression. "That makes sense. Swinging your sword too early would open you up to counterattack too easily."
Great minds, Kii-bou.
"Throwing weapons are the best alternative for that, but their damage is terrible. Just ask Sinon." He continued.
Several minutes passed as the two mulled over what they'd just learned. From what they could gather, Nezha was running some sort of elaborate scam involving the Quick Change weapon mod, a feature that allowed instantaneous swapping of weapons on the fly. Nezha also seemed to be doing this under protest, undoubtedly pressured by his inability to help his teammates. Cases of FNC weren't rare, more like uncommon, but the range of symptoms ran the gamut. They'd been lucky enough to see one such symptom manifest itself while Argo was watching. If it weren't for that lucky break, there'd be no way of finding out how his symptoms were manifesting themselves without directly confronting him.
Kirito snapped his fingers. "That's it! Argo, they mentioned the field boss. Where is it?"
Argo grinned. "You know how this works, Kii-bou. Ain't free."
Kirito sighed.
"How much?"