Chapter 8 - A dilemma, and confusion.

Sitting in the adobe cafe in the middle of Urbus, with a bowl of soup in my hand, and a simple spoon in the other, I moaned with satisfaction.

Ben raised an eyebrow at me.

"Really?"

"You have no idea brother- This - This is divine."

He had a bowl of soup of his own, and he ate it with a nod, but he hadn't had to endure the agony of barely edible rolls with barely anything to compliment them for as long as I had.

"Par'n my manners-" I mumbled between spoonfuls, "This is the best food i've had in almost a month. Any word from the others?"

Ben nodded, sipping the last of the soup from the bowl.

"As a matter of fact...yes. And it seems that there's another glitch with how you were patched in."

I frowned. "How do you mean?"

Ben shrugged. "Well, for one, Sika told me about the pain. That shouldn't happen. You need to make sure you don't let that secret out- a moderater finds out and well… we don't know what would happen.

I nodded.

"However… apparently, you shouldn't have been able to use the Martial Arts skill yes either- Sika told us about a quest she read about in the guide-book. Something about breaking a rock without your weapons, or something. She said that you have to beat that quest usually to gain that skill."

I put down my spoon, folding my hands on the table.

"I think that's actually a good thing- here forward I can say that's why i have access to the skill."

Ben nodded. "Yeah, that would be great, but she also said that you used some of those skills during the fight with the Kobold King back on the first floor."

I glanced out the window. Did it matter if people realized I had a skill that should have been impossible? Would they think that I had been cheating?

"I'll think about solving that problem. How goes the exploration though of the rest of the floor?"

"Decently." Ben stated simply. "People are somewhat more relaxed, now that we've gotten through one floor, and are already a good ways into the labyrinth up to the third. Amazing what these gamers will do in a matter of days given the dedication."

I pushed my bowl out of the way, adjusting my longsword on my hip.

"We'll want to think about how we want to specialize for when we make the guild official once we get to the third floor. What are you thinking?"

Ben grinned. "Same as we used to talk about, brother- I'm taking points in smithing as soon as I can. Caleb might do the same- make sure that our group can get some decent armor."

I nodded. Sika and I had talked earlier, after we'd met up in the main square with the rest of our battle-squadron from the boss fight. We were already coming out as being among the frontliners. Each day at least one of us joined the clearing parties that were constantly fighting their way through the massive labyrinth that led up to the third floor. Today she was there with Tarvos and Naira both, while Caleb set about exploring with another squad, accompanied by Banto.

"You're sure that we can secure a room in this inn for that long?"

I nodded at Ben's question. "We make a good deal of COR, between all of us. Pooling our resources, we'll be able to pay for a private room for everyone here on this floor for the next month- almost in advance. It will work for now, and we can buy teleport crystals as we need once other floors open up."

Ben nodded. "They say that they'll probably clear this labyrinth within the next week or so- are you sure that we don't want to save up, and just get somewhere higher up? The guidebook says that guild homes can be purchased anywhere from the fourth floor up. That might be a better option.

I sighed, glancing at the spinning blue message crystal on the table. Just in case.

"You might be right- but we'll still need somewhere to call home for the next week- you and Sansukon got here by luck- we've gotten you close to the rest of us, by bringing you with Sika, Banto and I, but there is still a gap. We can't just charge through the floors and camp out- especially as the creatures here get more and more dangerous the farther we go."

Ben nodded. "A week- maybe two- I like that. Then we can choose somewhere better if we like."

I smiled at him. "You do always have the best ideas, Irongrip. I think you'll find us a good place- i just found us a decent one."

I lifted a cup filled with something that was similar to peppermint tea. No sugar, of course, but, it beat the not-quite-right water of the first floor. Sipping the simple earthenware mug, I glanced out at the amber glow over the desert town of the caldera.

Ben stood, leaning against the window. We had the simple restaurant to ourselves. An NPC blacksmith worked away, and the sound of his hammer striking metal was methodical, relaxing almost, in the constant stress of our lives.

Ben turned to me. "So, you said you wanted to take the group into the caverns tomorrow? I thought we were going to hit the savannah again. Sika is probably going to get Naira leveled up to where Ca- Sansukon, and I, are at, but you know our group still has to catch up to you three."

I nodded. "Its- its a rumor really. I talked with an information broker- a player specialized in stealth and evasion, who mentioned that an NPC had spoken of a special glaive that can be earned there- it's on par with any weapon we can find in the city- and I think that Naira or Sansukon could make good use of it."

Ben nodded.

"You've talked to Sika already?"

I sighed. "No. She's been...strange, lately. Ever since the fight against Ilfang, if I'm being honest."

Ben raised an eyebrow.

"How so?"

"Well, She's got her head in the clouds lately. Su Mente está….I don't know, it's like she seems scattered, distracted and wary about everything."

Ben nodded thoughtfully.

"I would talk to her first. You said that she was the leader when you introduced us, I figure she should make the decisions."

I nodded. "Well, she was- but, lately, it's like she's trying to put me in charge. It's concerning, makes me worried that she's going to try something stupid."

Ben smiled, and was about to speak when a his inventory lit up.

"Word from Caleb- they want my help down in Marome. Keep me posted - and talk to Sika."

I nodded. "Thanks for chatting- stay safe. I'll be here, if that spearman asks about me again."

Ben smiled. "Miju was impressed during that fight- he teams up with us quite a bit now, doesn't he?"

"Chao brother."

"Chao, Na'Has."

Ben adjusted the katana on his hip, and ducked to fit under the mantle of the doorway.

I hesitated, tapping the crystal on the table before me.

"Sika - I have a thought for tomorrow, or perhaps later today. I would like to talk to you about it please - let me know where to meet you."

.

Two hours later, I stood at the edge of one of the raised farming platforms at the edge of a Mesa - the flat topped mountain towering above the landscape, and still so very far away from the roof of this floor. Wind blew the simple leather coat that I had draped around me, and I hummed to myself as I smiled up at the false stars that were beginning to emerge as the artificial suns replaced themselves with moons and silver crescents.

I heard careful footfalls behind me, and I turned, smiling at the sight of Sika. She wore close to full-plate armor now. A greater income had its perks, and it matched the silvery blue of her clothing well.

I blinked, coughing as she stepped up next to me.

"You said you had something you wanted to talk to me about?"

I nodded, staring back out at the mesa in front of us - at the patch of shadow that marked the entrance we needed.

"Yes, I uh, I did."

She nodded, glancing back at me. "You changed your hair?"

I blinked, one hand going up to the hair that I had half-tied up, so it was in what I liked to call a half-elven style.

"Ah- yes. I did."

She smiled faintly. "Looks good." She turned to the valley below.

"What's this plan you wanted to talk to me about?"

I pointed down at the cave entrance. "It's in there. I got some information off of a Broker- there is, apparently, a particularly rare quest that starts in that cave. According to her, if we follow it, we'll end up with some particularly rare items- things that Naira and Sansukon might be able to use if we can get to them.

She hesitated, crossing her arms. Her shield clanked against her simple plate armor, and in the fading sunlight, as the moons began rising, she seemed...concerned.

"Are you sure your information is correct?"

"Mostly. I spoke with a few other people who have bought rumors off of her- she seems to investigate her sources very thoroughly."

Sika paused, glancing at me, her mouth opening for a moment, before turning away, dark hair flying.

I caught her by the arm, before hesitating and letting her go.

"Please, I just want to know your thoughts."

She frowned. "You are sure? You seem very confident in your plan."

"Maybe, but last I knew, you were still the leader of the group - I don't want to make decisions without you."

She turned to me, expression...curious.

"You do not want to lead?"

I shrugged. "Does anyone?" I turned back to that cave. "To lead is to be responsible- if you want me to lead the group, the guild, or, whatever it is that we're slowly building between the two or three parties that we tend to work with, then I will. I'll accept that vote of confidence." I turned back to her. "But no one wants to truly be responsible. As you know, to lead is to take the lives of the entire group into your hands. I could lead us down into those caves- which I know nothing about, and I would have us plan a way to escape, ways to stay up while we're down there, and ways to make sure that we get what we need. But I know that if I lead, then if anyone dies- it's my fault. Something I didn't plan for, a risk that I shouldn't have taken."

Sika stared at me for a long moment. "So you're not just trying to avoid the savannah to avoid the bulls, minotaurs, and other creatures out there? To protect your brothers?"

I hesitated. "No, though that is a motivation. I want them to be stronger- to reach our level, so we can protect each other."

Sika didn't say anything for an uncomfortably long time.

She pulled out the guidebook in her pocket, and leafed through it.

"According to this," She said, "there is a particularly fearsome beast in those caves. They say it took two parties to kill it last time."

I frowned, glancing down at the pocket where i kept my own guidebook.

"It does?"

She waved her hand, blushing slightly. "Yes, it does- Do you really think that you can take it on?"

I turned back to the cave. "Well, what do we know about it?"

"It's a bull-type creature, like almost everything on this floor- but it's aggressive, violent, and very deceptive. It hides in the tunnels, emerging from whatever side it deems least defended."

I frowned. "Thats...unfortunate."

"Does it say anything about the glaive? Or the weapons down there?"

"Not in the book, no. One person got it, apparently they never shared the details."

"So...what do you say? Do we risk it?"

She paused, one hand going up to her mouth.

"I don't want to- but we are a higher level - even your brothers, than that party was back then when they stumbled across this. It would give us an edge, to be sure- I'm fairly certain that the rewards are significant for other party members as well- not just whoever gets the glaive- or whatever weapon they have included in this version, post beta-test."

I didn't say anything this time, simply watching and listening as she thought.

"Experience points are good too- the hard part will be making sure that everyone survives."

I hesitated. "What are your thoughts about the Beta-Testers?

She started, jolting upright in a moment.

"What? Why would you ask me that?"

I shrugged. "Because, I want to know."

She hesitated, adjusting her dark hair, her angled eyes staring out at the entrance to the cave down below us. "What are your thoughts? Na'has? Are you like everyone else, blaming them for everything that's happening?"

I smiled, glancing down below me.

"No. I don't blame them. Some, are, of course, jerks. None of them are responsible for all of this."

I waved my hand out before me, staring at the amber glow of the sunset savannah, at the bull-creatures I could just see in the distance before me.

"One man, in the end, is responsible for pain, the loss, and the beauty."

She scoffed. "Beauty?"

I nodded. "It is beautiful. If this weren't a death game, you had best believe that I would take time to sit down on this ledge, and just…admire the view."

A strange virtual sky swirled around us, clouds drifted lazily at the roof of the second floor, where the false stars were slowly coming to life one by one, as the sunset glow faded to more violet tones. "The loss makes it harder to see- but the beauty, that is still there."

She actually did sit down then, and I started, rushing to join her, resting an arm on my right knee as we watched the world dim around us. We'd gotten stronger, so we weren't super concerned about the monsters and mobs that ran about this part of the floor at night, but it was concerning how far away from town we were- even though we had just healed up and were topped off.

"One man, and you don't feel any resentment for those who hold back knowledge for themselves?"

I smiled. "Frustration for sure, but no, not resentment. They could save many lives, instead they choose to save one. They're locked in here just like the rest of us, in the end all blood is spilt at the hands of Kayaba."

"Kayaba be damned." Sika muttered.

I nodded, and echoed the explicative that had come to be the motto of our little group.

She pulled her knees up to her chest, her blue tabard and silvery armor clinking as she adjusted, staring down into the valley below our seat at the edge of this particular mesa. She didn't say anything for a long time, and I contented myself to watch the moons light up on other plateaus farther away, tried to see if I could spot the lights of the three different towns from up here. On the mesa like this, you could see almost the entire floor.

I started to think about something, I don't remember what, when suddenly she had latched both of her hands onto the sides of my chest plate and pulled me down until I was face to face with her- her eyes cold, and intensely locked onto mine, a seething rage and deepening need of some kind burning right beneath the surface.

"Are you a Beater?" She asked, her voice cold as ice and cutting me to the bone. "Because, you can do things- things that no one else can do. You had that martial arts skill- the one that people are just barely discovering now- I read up on it- I asked around. You know the one other Beta Tester who knew that skill? Who knew how and where to find it? It was that Beater - the one who finished off Ilfang, the one who couldn't save Diavol. And yet- you had it before him. You had it from the first floor. You were able to use sword skills in your punches, in your strikes from day one that I met you! What cheat code are you using? What secrets are you not sharing that you never gave me, never gave us! What code or hack do you have that could have saved Maro and Ausben?"

I blinked rapidly, and feld my heart skip a beat as I stammered.

"Wha? I-No! No I'm-I'm not a beater! I swear!"

Her eyes narrowed, and her nose was nearly pressed up against mine as she rose up slightly, practically hissing the words.

"Why should I trust you? No one else can do that- there are so few americans amongst us- I can ask around- see who was included in that Beta Test- see if you were there. See if you are cheating."

I raised my hands defensively, suddenly very worried for my life. I'd heard rumors of players killing each other by accident, and I was worried that she might pull Biter- her arming sword-and tear into me unless I spoke quickly.

"I'm not a beta tester! I knew nothing about this world, know nothing about this world! This is all new to me! All I know, just like I told you when we met, is that my Nerve-Gear doesn't work the way that it should! I didn't even have a name when I got here! I barely knew how to work the menu, let alone how to work any cheats! I don't know why I can do what I do! I swear!"

She gritted her teeth, her eyes hardening as she tried to bore into me, tried to peer into my soul.

"By the gods, I wish you spoke Japanese." She muttered, tears starting to flow from the corners of her sharp eyes. "Then, I could read you - I could understand you. It always comes out almost right. Almost perfect. Too stiff, or not stiff enough, No formality, or all the formality in the world."

She slumped forward, her forehead thudding into my chest plate as her shoulders started to rock in sobs.

She was crying. The virtual world didn't let you hold in your emotions. You learned to accept it after a while.

"I had three cousins in here, you know."

I noticed the past tense, and It felt like a stone sank in my stomach with a flash of understanding, my hands still lifted to either side defensively, unsure how to respond to the sudden shift in emotion.

"Ah."

"They - they didn't make it long. A week. Stupid things. Idiotic, stupid mistakes. And I- I couldn't help them, I pushed them too hard. And then we lost Maro, and the others, Ausben. I honestly don't know why you and Banto stick around me."

I crossed my legs as the light next to us shifted into being an ethereal, spectral moon, its silver glow seeming to accentuate her sadness.

"It must sting, having found my brothers, having them around." I said as carefully as I could, cautiously setting one hand on her shoulder, a hug of sorts, but certainly a hesitant one, right hand ready to summon a weapon if I needed one.

She nodded once. "It does, but it… it makes me, happy, in a way."

She leaned back, pushing my arm off of her, crossing her arms on her legs, staring vacantly into the valley once again.

"I was a Beta Tester." She said softly. "If you want to know."

I paused, and probably reacted less than gracefully. Makes sense, given the vehemance behind her accusation that I might have been one, but still a bit tactless.

"I didn't even make it to the fourth floor. A few made it up to floor six- maybe even farther. I was so… proud to have been one of the thousand let in on that test. I told everyone. Instagram, Tik-Tok, any site that I could find. I let everyone know how absolutely incredible this game was."

I didn't say anything, just let her speak.

"That's why I pushed so hard. I was so… sure that I could get my cousins to the end. I was certain that I was good enough to keep them alive, to calm them down."

The tears began again.

"Now they're dead. How many others are dead, because they listened to me? Because I said that this game was perfect? Because, in that otherl life, where the grass is real, and where water feels and tastes right, people listened to ME? Too late to look back I guess. I can only hope that Akihiko was lying about the way death works in here. To have their brains fried-" She cut herself off, her body trembling with rage now, as she stared at the hole in the ground that marked the entrance to the cave.

She turned to me sharply.

"Jean." She said after a moment. "Swear to me that you're not lying to me - on something that matters."

"Like what?" I asked hopelessly. I didn't know her culture, I didn't know how anything in Japan worked, how would I know what mattered to her?

She didn't move, she just locked those icy eyes onto mine, and for the briefest of moments, through that almost-perfect virtual avatar of Sika, I could see the pain that burned and ate at her soul, could see the guilt that was tearing her apart piece by piece, leaving her a hollow shell. It hit me then what mattered.

I hesitated, then stood, crossing my fist over my heart in the only gesture that had ever had any meaning to me - the salute the flags in my karate studio, the salute to our teachers, the salute when we left the gym to go home, the salute I gave my brothers when I met them.

"Sika - I don't know your last name and you don't have to tell me - I swear on the lives of my brothers- the lives of your cousins, and Maro, and Ausben, that I have not and will not lie to you."

She nodded. She took a single, deep breath.

stood then, slowly, and uncertainly, staring at the inky black entrance to the cave.

"Did your informant say a time to enter?"

I shook my head. "No. Only that it was a maze. The minotaur, I assume, is at its center. Glaive as our reward if we can survive the ordeal."

She inhaled deeply, then extended a hand to help me up.

"We take the risk." she said after a while. "That is my vote. We gather our group - we recruit a few others. We need to make sure to take care of our own, and one of our own needs to get that glaive. We'll need another tank or two, and we'll want to keep our assault members- the soft and squishy ones, closer to the center, if this monster targets weak points. Do you know anyone you trust to add to our collection?"

I hesitated, for a moment, before letting a thin smile grace my lips.

"I know one person - he helped me to survive when I was first starting out, when I finally ventured out to try and make my way here."

She nodded. "Good start, according to what you told me we'll want at least four others too."

"When do we go in?" I asked, accepting her help to stand.

"Now." She said through gritted teeth. "Akihiko Kayaba be damned, we'll beat his game, and then I'll kill him myself."

She sent a message summoning a few select people from her friends list to our location, before giving me a friendly nudge on the shoulder.

"For what it's worth, when we beat the boss of this level, and make it up to the third floor - I am voting you to lead our guild. Take that into account. You're better at this whole 'leadership' thing than I am. You take care of people - don't lose that once you're in charge."

I blinked, and nodded.

This conversation had been a rollercoaster for sure, and I was reeling more than a little bit.

We waited for about 20 minutes that night for everyone to arrive. Ben and Caleb came with a couple new pieces of gear, which meant that their previous mission had been successful, and they looked like they had run almost the whole way. Saito had been down a little bit, so we took the time to make sure that he was fully healed as we explained the situation, what our goals were, and what the risks were - that we knew about. The little we knew about the minotaur-like beast that roamed the maze, and what it was likely to attempt.

Kanto arrived late, right as we were about to descend the mesa into the entrance, with some of the most basic- but still updated - gear that could be acquired from the Second Floor, out of breath, but smiling, a curved short sword gripped comfortably - and not too tightly- in one hand as he leaned against a shard of stone on the mesa that overlooked the cave, two of his friends standing next to him.

"Well Na'has, you called, and here we are - I hear that you've got a monster that needs killing, and that your fancy feet aren't quite going to do the job."

I actually laughed.

It was a good thing too -

There wouldn't be much laughing once we stepped inside.