Okay, here we are with part two of Field Training.
Pretty much everything I said about the first part also applies to the second one, so... yeah. Let's leave it at that.
Last time, Akinym started battle training with the girls, and they encountered a wasp-like monster at the edge of the forest. Well, guess what awaits them inside the forest...
Disclaimer: I don't own Sword Art Online Re:Hollow Fragment or Sword Art Online in general.
Well, they discovered soon enough what "where that one came from" meant, namely when they reached the destination Akinym had had in mind for today.
Said destination was a giant tree in the middle of the forest. It was separated from the other trees by a large clearing, which was filled with dozens of these wasp monsters.
The tree happened to be their spawn point. The lore behind that was that there was a colony of mutated wasps, which build its nest inside that tree.
From here, some of these monsters spread out throughout the forest. They flew relatively high, and when they spotted players in the forest, they would slowly make their way towards them and launch a surprise attack from above. In a sense, they were small open field traps.
Incidentally, there were ominous black rock formations around the large roots of the tree. Those were mining spots for the ore that Akinym had mentioned. As some sort of "special reward" if they did well, his group could mine there if they cleared a path to the tree roots and kept the remaining monsters at bay long enough.
Akinym and his students surveyed the situation from outside their aggro range.
Silica [slightly nervously]: That's… a lot of them.
Leafa [uncomfortably]: Yeah, no kidding. Ugh… I get bad flashbacks to family picnics in summer…
Sinon: Well, there are quite a lot of enemies. They are all the same as the one earlier, so I guess we know what to do about them individually. But… [slightly worriedly] Are we really going to be okay against that many?
Akinym: Of course not, and that's exactly why you need to get them to split up. It's a vital skill when operating in areas with such a high monster density. Don't get any funny ideas about taking this many on at once!
The girls took a closer look at the clearing and the way the monsters were spread. It should be doable to get the attention of a few of them and to lure them to the edge of the clearing to fight them there.
Akinym: There is one thing you should keep in mind! This particular hunting ground is tricky because these monsters have the Swarm Aggro mechanic. In other words, if you attack them, nearby monsters of the same kind will start attacking you.
Lisbeth [slightly nervously]: R-right… I've heard about that. It's kinda nasty… What was the range for that effect again? Around six metres?
Akinym nodded, and all the girls looked at the clearing in front of them again. Yeah… That would be difficult.
To be fair, they probably could still fight the monsters at the edge of the clearing without drawing even more of them. Unfortunately, they all had a relatively agile fighting style, so they'd probably move around a lot during battle. With that in mind, the risk of getting too close to the other wasp monsters was just too high.
Silica: What should we do? We can't fight them in the clearing, can we?
Akinym: You can't, which is why you have to lure them into the forest.
The girls looked around the area. Sure, the forest was still a relatively open area, but with all the trees and thicket, their movements would be fairly restricted. They couldn't argue against Akinym's "advice", though.
By the way, all these disadvantages of this particular hunting ground were the reason while this wasn't a popular area for leveling. After all, there were many monsters, and their respawn rate was relatively high. Under other circumstances, this would be a good area for leveling. The Swarm Aggro issues, however, completely ruined that.
That was beneficial, though.
Akinym [looks around]: It's good that nobody else is around. That would've made this even more difficult.
Leafa: Huh? Why?
Akinym: One of the reasons why Swarm Aggro is so dangerous and troublesome is that it is reset easily. Now, imagine you draw a bunch of monsters with Swarm Aggro by attacking one of them, and then you lure them away, but you pass another party fighting the same kind of monster. What would happen?
Sinon: Well, they would… [slightly worriedly] Wait, the monsters that are following you would attack the other group as well, wouldn't they?
Akinym: Exactly, and this is why you have to be extremely careful when fighting such monsters around others. Not only could you put others in danger, you could also end up on the receiving end of that problem. That said, if anyone comes your way with a bunch of Swarm Aggro monsters in tow while you fight the same kind, stop fighting immediately and try to get away as fast as possible.
This was overall understandable given the previous explanation. There was, however, one remaining concern.
Leafa: But wait a moment… What if that person is in trouble? Shouldn't we help them in that case? I mean, it doesn't have to be a careless mistake, maybe they need to be saved.
Akinym: That's possible, of course, but even in that case, the person in question should just keep running and try to escape. There is no point in trying to save others if you'll only get yourselves killed, too. Besides, it'd be more likely that the person in question is just trying to MPK you.
The frowning expressions, which the girls had put on upon hearing Akinym's "helping others might lead to your deaths" remark, gave way to puzzled or shocked ones.
Sinon: Um, what is this "MPK"?
Akinym: Ah, right… Of course you haven't heard about it yet. That's what the method of killing other players with monsters is called. Monster Player Kill. Basically, you send a group of monsters someone's way, make that player draw their aggro, and watch the monsters kill that person.
Leafa: T-th-that… [upset] That's awful! Isn't this SAO, where players die when they are killed? I mean, when their avatars die? How could anyone just murder them?
To be honest, Leafa (and Sinon, too) had already heard about the whole issue with orange cursors and players from Kirito before, but that was when he had told their group about Philia.
Judging from what Kirito had told them, Leafa was overall willing to agree that something else had to be behind Philia's orange cursor, and she had assumed that there actually weren't any orange players out there, which, admittedly, had been a bit naive.
Akinym: Well, people murder in the real world, why wouldn't they here? SAO had its fair share of criminals, from guilds that were essentially bandits to psychotic murderers who called themselves "Laughing Coffin". You'll probably hear about them sooner or later.
Sinon [surprised]: Wait a moment, just to be sure I get you right: [worriedly] There are… honest-to-goodness murderers… walking around in SAO? Like… [very worriedly] What do players think about that you could meet someone, and that person might've killed someone?
Akinym [slightly taken aback]: You don't have to be that concerned that you might run into them. Most of the so-called orange guilds have been put out of commission. As you can imagine, the players throughout Aincrad don't want to worry about that kind of threat. There are probably still a few of them around, but most of them are imprisoned in a special facility on the first floor.
Leafa: They better are! [sadly] How could you excuse killing people who just try to live their lives and to escape from this place?! That's just unforgivable!
Lisbeth [slightly reassuringly]: I get you, Leafa, I get you! I don't get why people would kill others, either. [annoyed] And man, these orange guilds were a pain!
Silica [dejectedly]: Hm, they are. It's really scary if you think about it, isn't it? Not to mention that some members disguise themselves as "normal" players to scout targets and earn the trust of them, only to betray it…
While the other girls were busy ranting about player killers or dealing with their own bad memories, Sinon just felt extremely uncomfortable in the background. To be fair, the others thought that this was because she was just as disturbed by this conversation about murderers as they were. Well, they weren't completely off the mark…
Leafa [worriedly]: But wait a moment… You said there might still be some of them out there? What if… they are here on the upper floors?
Akinym [slightly exasperatedly]: I doubt that you have to worry about that. [calmly] With an orange cursor, players can't enter towns because the NPC guards would attack them. The penalty for PK is one of the reasons why MPKs were so popular. They allow players to harm others without actual consequences for themselves.
Just as Akinym had finished that explanation and Leafa already breathed a sigh of relief, he had another thought which needed a bit more consideration.
Akinym: Well, I guess there would be one way, and that one is also used to put orange players into prison… An ally with a green cursor would have to come to the upper floors, leave the safe zone and use a special crystal to open a passageway, which orange players could use to come to this floor.
The Assault Team had tried using Corridor Crystals to get back to the lower floors. At the very least, they had tried to bring some players who had stranded here back.
Unfortunately, they had encountered the same issue they already had with the teleport gates: Teleporting from the lower floors to the upper floors was possible, but not the other way around – no matter what method they would use. It seemed that the system would cancel any teleport leading from the upper floors to the lower floors and redirected the players to the starting point.
That, however, also lead to a certain problem for all orange players who would go to the upper floors that way.
Akinym: Regardless, the players wouldn't be able to go back, either. It would almost be like trapping themselves in a room with the Assault Team. They wouldn't do that.
Akinym had a bit more work to do to calm his students down after that. For instance, he explained that he had planned PvP lessons later down the line to teach them how to defend themselves if the worst came to worst.
Fortunately, the conversation about PK came to a close before long. Sinon was particularly happy about that.
With the briefing out of the way, the girls went straight to battle… or rather to battle preparation.
They checked their items a final time. They made sure that they had their Teleport Crystals ready in case of an emergency. Akinym had made sure that they all got one. Silica and Lisbeth already had such crystals, and Asuna had got Leafa and Sinon those crystals as well.
Furthermore, they checked that they had enough potions. Akinym made sure to remind them to have healing items they might need in a battle in their pouch, so they could access them easily. Of course they should have even more of them in their inventory so they could quickly replace items they used in a battle afterwards.
Healing Crystals and special medicine to cure status ailments weren't really an issue at that point. Crystals, in particular, were emergency items anyway, easy to access, but also more expensive than potions and such. Not to mention that there were anti-crystal areas…
Well, antidotes to poison would've been helpful. Akinym had brought some anti-poison items with him in case they would need them. However, the poison of these wasp monsters was relatively weak, so Akinym figured that it would be a good opportunity to teach his students to avoid status ailments in the first place. Therefore, he hadn't told any of them to get that kind of medicine.
Anyway, once they had made sure that they were ready, they discussed the best escape route in case anything went wrong. Another standard procedure from the "Akinym guide to successful hunting".
Once the preparations were done, they chose a good point to start, and Silica and Leafa approached the target to lure it out. They had been chosen for that task because they were the fastest runners among the group due to their stats.
They got five monsters to follow them. That was a bit more than they had hoped for, but it was overall okay. Once they had reached their destination, the most suitable position in the surrounding forest that they had found, they assumed their battle formation together with Lisbeth and Sinon.
Akinym had proposed a "3-1" formation, meaning that three of them would fight the monsters while the forth one was on standby, ready to switch with any of them. It was the most efficient battle formation for them, especially if they wanted to train Switching.
Silica, Lisbeth and Leafa worked together quite well. They switched with each other back and forth. Admittedly, they had a lot of room for improvement. They understood the concept, especially Silica and Lisbeth, who had already been familiar with it, but they still needed practice.
The environment provided a bit of a challenge. At first, they fought in a relatively narrow space between two lines of trees, but it was hard for three of them to fight five monsters there.
Sinon lured one monster to the other side of the trees to their right to solve that problem. It separated her a bit from the others, but she didn't mind. She wanted to take care of this enemy herself anyway.
Akinym, who observed them, thought that it was an interesting tactic, so he didn't interfere, but he also noticed that it would make observing the battle as a whole and helping out on both sides much more difficult.
Two monsters went down eventually, and Silica and Lisbeth were fighting the remaining ones on their side. Leafa stood by in the background and waited for her signal.
To be more precise, she waited for her signal from Sinon. While she was holding her ground and whittled down her enemy's HP slowly but steadily, Sinon still struggled the most out of all of them.
Sinon didn't tell Leafa to switch, though, which just confused Leafa. She expected Sinon to give the signal any second, but nothing happened. Leafa nervously looked back and forth between Silica and Lisbeth, who had the situation on their side under control, and Sinon, who… didn't.
By the time the HP bar of the monster that Sinon fought went into the yellow zone, Sinon had also lost around half of her HP. At the end of the day, she had just been too immersed in the battle, and her overexaggerated focus on taking down her enemy and her subpar technique with the dagger had caused her to take too many risks, hence she had sustained a lot of damage.
When its HP bar reached the yellow zone, the monster prepared another attack. Sinon leapt back to dodge, expecting another sting attack. Unfortunately, she hadn't taken the change in the monster's attack pattern into consideration, so she was taken by surprise when it attacked with its poisonous fog.
She should've dodged to the side… With her stats, she wasn't fast enough yet to escape from the poisonous gas when it came her way. Not only did it cause a poison debuff, it also burnt in her eyes and airways.
Sinon [thinks]: Damn this game! Does it have to be that realistic?!
The fog obstructed her vision for a moment, but that was enough for the monster to get in position for the next attack before Sinon could take countermeasures. This time, it attacked with its sting, and it hit Sinon head-on.
Fortunately, she managed to shield herself with her arms a little, the attack would've been a critical hit if she hadn't. Nonetheless, the impact was strong enough to knock her down, and the monster got ready to attack her again.
Sinon finally considered calling Leafa for help. In fact, Leafa was ready to jump to her aid at any second, she would've already jumped in on her own initiative if it hadn't been for her doubts if that was the right thing to do.
However, Sinon still hesitated. In her opinion, asking for help now would almost be like giving up. She wanted to defeat this foe herself after all. She considered her options to keep fighting on her own for a second, but it was a second she actually didn't have to spare.
The monster attacked her again. Leafa became so nervous that she finally decided to ignore the whole Switching training and to jump in to help. However, when she readied her katana, she saw a figure to her right dashing at the monster at remarkable speed, beating her to the punch.
It was Akinym, and he pushed the monster back with a strong thrust of his spear before it could finish its attack. He had used Armor-Breaking Lance for that to inflict the defense debuff on it.
The monster turned its attention to Akinym after a moment and started a series of attacks with its legs. Akinym dodged them one after another.
While he was doing that, Sinon got up. She was visible annoyed and disappointed that Akinym had to intervene since she hadn't wanted him to help her either.
When Akinym dodged a sting attack to the side and circled around the monster in a wide arc, Sinon thought that this could be a good opportunity to take over again, so she got ready. Akinym saw her standing on the opposite side of the monster, and his expression became very stern.
Akinym [yells]: Wait for your turn!
Akinym's outburst startled Sinon, and she instinctively took a step back. However, her frustration and impatience returned almost immediately.
That was none of Akinym's concern at the moment, though. Once he had seen that Sinon stepped back, he returned his full attention to the monster while charging at it.
It had almost been too late. When Akinym saw that the monster prepared another sting attack, which he hadn't expected immediately after the previous one, he couldn't stop in time anymore and would probably run straight into its attack.
Or he would've if he hadn't had a certain tactic for situations like this. He used his Acrobatics skill to dodge to the side with a cartwheel. With the help of the system assistant and his high Agility, he could change the trajectory of his movements drastically.
The attack of the monster missed, and Akinym used the opportunity to get behind it. He readied his spear and aimed his Sword Skill Needle Rain at the monster's wing base.
He had to act fast to finish the attack before the monster would turn around, so he had barely got in position when he struck. One of the seven thrusts of Needle Rain missed, but the others hit, and the attack dealt enough damage to destroy the monster's wings – or, to be more precise, a part of them.
The wings of the wasp monsters were a destructible unit, and destroying them would hinder the monsters' ability to fly. The principle was similar to the Lost Limb debuff.
Akinym: Switch!
Sinon didn't expect to actually get a turn at this point, so she needed a second to understand what Akinym wanted. Once she got it, though, she attacked with fierce determination.
She used Cross Cut, a simple combination of two Slash attacks, one vertical and one horizontal blow. Now that the monster couldn't hover in the air properly anymore, Sinon could easily reach its head for critical hits.
However, she still hadn't got used to the difficulty of aiming Sword Skills. She didn't position herself correctly for the Sword Skill to hit as intended, so the vertical slash didn't hit the head, but the less vulnerable thorax. The horizontal blow hit as intended, though.
The HP bar of the monster went down into the red zone, but it stopped. Sinon became both nervous and frustrated when she saw that. It just wasn't enough…
Akinym: Leafa-san, switch!
Akinym's command caught Leafa a bit by surprise, so she needed a second to grasp the situation.
Leafa: Um… [determinedly] Yeah, got it!
She charged at the monster quickly. Akinym jumped to the side to make way for her.
Given the monster's low HP, it took Leafa only one strong swing of her katana to kill it. Sinon just watched her turn the monster into polygons so easily. She watched her motionlessly… and almost expressionlessly, too.
After they had taken care of that monster, they could hear the sound effect of another death animation on the other side of the trees. Silica and Lisbeth came over to check on them.
Silica [slightly worriedly]: We're done over there! Do you need help?
Lisbeth [determinedly]: Yeah, we're ready to… [slightly surprised] see that you're done as well. Well, I guess that's that.
Leafa [slightly cheerfully]: Yep, the first wave is done!
They turned around when they heard Akinym coming closer. Their instructor had a calm expression as he thought about what he should say.
Akinym: That was good for the start. You obviously need to work on your timing, but still.
Leafa [nervously]: Um, yeah. Sorry, I think I should've stepped in earlier in Sinon-san's battle, right? I… was really worried there…
Sinon averted her eyes. All she could think was that she really had become a burden after all… In the end, she had only made someone worry, and she had needed Akinym to save the day.
Akinym: You don't have to worry, Leafa-san. You didn't make a mistake. Your teammate didn't give you the signal, so it was okay for you to stand by. Once again, you didn't make a mistake, [turns to Sinon, very sternly] which can't be said about all of you, though!
Sinon struggled for words for a moment, but she couldn't think of anything to say. Meanwhile, Akinym went over to her, positioned himself in front of her and stared her down.
The other girls considered coming to her aid, but upon witnessing Akinym's stern aura, they could only gulp and remain on the spot.
Akinym: What were you thinking?! Take a look at your HP bar! This could've turned out really badly for you!
Sinon did as she was told, and she was shocked to see that her HP bar was almost in the red zone, too. Her HP had recovered slightly since the battle, so she had probably been in the red zone after all.
To be honest, she had been so occupied by her thoughts and doubts that she had just stopped paying attention to her HP bar anymore.
Akinym [slightly sternly]: You are lucky that the poison effect from these monsters is rather weak. And that I stopped that attack. [very sternly] You could be dead now!
Sinon: Y-yes… I…
Leafa [nervously]: W-well, but you were there to help, so she's fine now, right? A-and I'm sure we can learn something from that, can't we?
Akinym [calmly]: Well, that's one of the reasons why I'm here. I'm responsible for your overall safety during the training. [sternly] And there is something to be learnt from this! Work as a team! Sinon-san, you should've switched during that battle, but you completely ignored that even though that was the whole point of this battle!
Sinon: I… guess, yeah. It's just… I couldn't rely on the others here! I had to do something myself.
The other girls looked at her with worried expressions.
Silica: Sinon-san…
Leafa [soothingly]: But that wouldn't have been a problem! I mean, that's why we're here together, isn't it? [reassuringly] I was ready to switch with you any time, so just say when, and… we do it! And even if I couldn't help Silica-san and Liz-san anymore, you could take over instead, so… It would've been alright!
Sinon: That… [frustrated] That's just not the point! All of you could fight on your own if you had to. If I want to fight in this world, I have to be able to fight on my own, too. [mutters] There is just no point if I can't…
Akinym [annoyed]: Are you starting that stupid discussion again?! I've told you already: Perish that thought! [sternly] You're here to learn how to fight in a team, so drop the "lone wolf" attitude! THIS INSTANT!
Sinon [angrily]: This isn't easy for me, okay?! I'm doing this to become stronger, but how can I do that if I always depend on others?!
Akinym [very angrily]: ENOUGH! There is no strength in dying!
Akinym's outburst made all the girls flinch, even Sinon. She backed away while staring at Akinym wide-eyed, almost like prey facing an overwhelmingly terrifying predator. Well, Akinym usually had an intimidating aura, but this right now was at least ten times worse.
Akinym [sternly]: I'm not going to repeat this! Take this lesson seriously from now on! [calmly] We'll continue as planned. Keep in mind what you've learnt and try to put it to use! Keep practicing!
Akinym walked back to the clearing. The girls hesitated a bit, but they followed him eventually after making sure that Sinon was okay.
In the afternoon, after they had returned, Akinym sat on the couch in his inn room and thought about today's training session.
After that little incident, they had fought several groups of wasp monsters. Things had gone better after Akinym had put Sinon on the stand-by position. She could get used to Switching by switching in.
Once Akinym had calmed down after their argument, he had figured that she would need time to get used to working in a team, so he should probably respect that. Therefore, he put her on a position that would allow her to learn how to switch without having to think about it in the heat of the battle.
Indeed, switching in had worked surprisingly well. It was just that she still hadn't switched out on her own accord. Akinym had to tell her several times to do it. That would take a lot more practice…
The Switching training had been overall successful, though. They had even made a valuable discovery, namely that familiars could be used to lure out monsters with Swarm Aggro quite safely and effectively.
At one point, Lisbeth had suggested that Pina should try to lure out some monsters. Unfortunately, Pina had got trapped, so it tried to escape to the sky. Unlike Pina, the wasp monsters couldn't fly in the clearing (which was meant to make fighting them there easier for players), so Pina escaped easily.
The interesting observation at this point was that the monsters which were attracted by Swarm Aggro were reset immediately, while the monsters Pina had attacked with debuff skills still tried to chase it and changed their target to Silica after a few seconds. They had decided to use this to lure out smaller groups.
In the end, they couldn't kill the wasp monsters fast enough, so they didn't manage to get to the mining spot. However, Akinym was sure that they would pull that off once they got stronger.
Judging from what he had seen, the girls were the most promising one of his groups. They needed practice, a bit more knowledge and more sophisticated techniques, and they were underleveled, but once these issues were taken care of, they should make good Assault Team members.
The big question mark of that group was Sinon. She had potential, Akinym still thought that way.
He just didn't think that way whenever she held her dagger in her hands. While her movements had become better, they were still rather robotic.
Akinym wasn't sure what the problem was. He had the feeling that she got caught up in the heat of the battle too easily. To some extent, it seemed as if close combat triggered her in some way. Well, fighting deadly monsters up close wasn't something everybody could handle…
If that was the problem, a different weapon could do the trick. Akinym considered suggesting to switch to some sort of polearm, maybe a spear or a two-handed axe. Some people would probably laugh when they saw a girl with a small frame like Sinon wielding a large axe, but here in SAO, physical strength was a matter of stats, so that wouldn't matter.
Or maybe it would. Handling weapons that were as large as the user or maybe even larger was difficult, to say the least. It was important to have a feeling for how big the weapon really was and how you could move it without slamming it into the ground or wall… or whatever else there was.
Akinym made a mental note to keep all that in mind, but there was still a lot he had to figure out.
Sinon's attitude was also a problem. He had dealt with his fair share of troublesome students, but she was among the most stubborn ones.
Sinon showed several symptoms of the archetypical "I have to become stronger at all cost" player… much to Akinym's dismay since it was usually a huge pain to keep these students from committing suicide by recklessness.
For instance, Akinym saw more than Sinon's discomfort with close combat and her lack of proficiency when using a dagger during her battles. He also saw her desperation to overcome the challenge in front of her.
Akinym sighed. Just what was he supposed to do with that girl?
A knock on the door made him snap out of his thoughts. He had no idea who could want something from him now, but he didn't particularly mind a little distraction at the moment.
Akinym [slightly curiously]: Who is it?
Sinon [hesitantly]: Um, it's Sinon. If it's okay… I have a question. It shouldn't take long.
Akinym [thinks, calmly]: Speak of the devil and she shall appear, huh? Well, fine with me. [says aloud] Okay, come in.
Akinym's authorisation temporarily unlocked the door, so Sinon could open it. She didn't set foot into the room, though. She stayed at the doorstep.
Sinon [nervously]: I'm sorry to disturb you, but… I've checked the skill menu, and… there is something… new.
So, that's all for today. Sinon's "something new" will be discussed in the next chapter. Well, I've pretty much announced it already, and anyone who knows the events in HF can probably easily tell what's going to happen.
Swarm Aggro is another idea I had. I have no idea to what extent something like that exists in SAO. The idea was inspired from things I came across in MMOs myself. Frankly, it's not going to play a big role, but according to my current plans, it's going to appear at least twice more.
Leafa's Fate reference is completely intentional, and the theory about orange players coming to the upper floors is good old foreshadowing.
Little Preview: Sinon has received an early Christmas present from Cardinal. Time to check it out!