Sword Apocalypse Online
Chapter 12
"Well, that's interesting," Argo noted as the group of level fifteen players reached the top of the stairway leading to the fourth floor.
"Yeah?" Lizbeth asked, the blacksmith nearest to her.
"The relief on the door's changed," Argo pointed, "Originally it was a figure walking in the desert, now it's someone in a boat."
"Kayaba changed things. Again," Asuna realized immediately.
"Almost certainly," Argo agreed as they pushed the doors open to hear rushing water.
"Rivers," Aiko noted as they advanced, "lots and lots of rivers?"
"Well, we need to figure out how to get to the starter town. I guess swimming is out?" Asuna asked Argo.
"You can," Argo admitted, "but it's very weird in VR compared to real life. Also if you're totally submerged, you lose HP steadily."
"Oh just lovely," Liz muttered. She looked around the rise they were on, frowning, "There's got to be an option, here..."
The group searched the small island, eventually finding a tree that produced dounut-like life preservers. Seriously. Inflating those gave them enough boyancy to 'safely' use the rivers and canals to travel to the beginner town.
"I'll leave a note for anyone who follows us up," Asuna said reasonably.
"WHY just in our underwear?!" Asuna complained as they headed south, then east.
"Well, the armor IS heavy," Liz noted. "It is weird that putting it all in storage negates the weight etc etc penalties for swimming."
"Try not to think about it too much," Argo noted.
Yuuki, Asuna, Liz and Argo had all stripped down to light tunics and underwear. Interestingly Aiko didn't even keep the tunic, calmly stalking around in bra and panties.
"What?" Aiko asked casually, "We're all girls here."
Argo noted her impressive bust, versus all their more modest bodies and fought back a sigh.
Liz gave her a sympathetic look, both shrugging slightly.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"WHY IS IT WATER?" Klein bitched loudly.
"Oh come on. You have to admit it's pretty," Sachi noted mildly.
Hera agreed, "Yeah. It reminds me of photos of Venice, Italy."
The starter town was all gleaming white walls and canals, where NPC gondoliers ferried you around. Annoyingly, for 50 col a trip. Which wasn't HUGE, you got more than that killing low level monsters, but it was annoying.
Harry-One looked at Klein, "Where to, boss?"
"Market. We need to see if better armor or equipment is out. And see if there's a Argo Guide out yet," Klein noted as they boarded a gondola.
"This is so cool," Hera beamed, clearly enjoying the ride.
Dynamm addressed the pilot, "Can you take us out of town too?"
"I can not do that," the pretty green haired woman said, "I only work in the town of Rovia."
"There's probably a quest we have to do for that," Harry One noted.
"Probably," Klein agreed.
They DID find the next set of available NPC made weapons there, as well as improved armor.
(As they had not done the Elf War Quest, they didn't have access to the better gear earned there. Nor did they want to go back to the Third Floor and try it.)
There was also a new Argo guide, with an even more blunt warning than usual on the front.
"Warning: this floor was completely redesigned?" Sachi read the front.
"Huh," Klein was reading, "ok, was originally sandy routes, not canals and waterways. So I guess it makes sense that her previous experience is iffy."
Sachi read, "Will revise, likely within several days."
"Huh. Do we sit tight until the revision gets done or...?" Hera wondered aloud.
"Do we want to wait that long?" Dynamm wondered aloud.
"It'll be more dangerous without the updated Argo Guide," Harry One pointed out.
"How about we stick close to town and do the quests around here first," Klein suggested, "then move out once the new guide is issued."
"Makes sense," Hera agreed as the others nodded.
Klein added, "I REALLY hope we don't have to keep swimming all over the level."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"That was SO much fun!" Asuna enthused after they and Argo had scouted around the town and it's waterways.
Yuuki gave her a surprised look, "Really?"
"I've always wanted to go to Venice and travel by gondola," Asuna admitted cheerfully. "It's been a dream of mine."
"The things you learn about people," Argo murmured.
Argo had also posted the 'warning' Argo Guide in the NPC shops. They had gotten resupplied and were looking at starting the Quests on this floor.
"It looks like the map of the town itself hasn't changed," Argo noted as they walked, "and the Quest NPCs should be where they were. There's just ONE new NPC we found."
"So we'll do the 'Shipwright of Yore' quest, since we'll need a boat anyway," Liz agreed.
"How much of a pain is this going to be to do?" Aiko wondered.
A LOT of a pain, it turned out. Asuna wanted the BEST GONDOLA EVER, and was determined to get it. Plus they needed one large enough for six, including Kizmel. So they would have to get the best materials.
First, Bear fat.
"GIANT BEAR!"
"Look out for the claws!"
"Aiko, YOU fight it!"
"WHY ME DAMN IT!"
"Look out!"
"WHY DOES A BEAR HAVE FIRE BREATH?!"
After a LONG fight, they managed to put the bear-monster hybrid (called Magnatherium, apparently) down. They got several 'Legendary' Bear Fats out of it, as well as claws and other stuff.
"Collect the lumber it knocked down during the fight," Argo noted. "It's probably going to end up a material we'll need later."
"That makes a weird amount of sense. Otherwise we'd need to pick up some kind of lumberjack skill," Liz noted as they put various logs in storage.
"Okay! Back to town for the next part of the quest!" Asuna declared brightly.
"Grrrr," Aiko, Liz and even Argo growled tiredly.
They unloaded almost everything they got (bear fat, lumber, claws and even bear pelts) to the shipwright, who promised them a ship in a day or so.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Wait... you can get SHIPS built?" Lind, head of the Dragon Knights, loudly complained the next morning. He and his guild had been swimming around, outside the city.
"Yes sir," Lux agreed, the young woman holding the updated Argo Guide. It explained how to find the Shipwright, the steps the quests took and so on.
Lux had joined up on this floor, and the blond haired woman was a little tentative. Still, they needed all the help they could get clearing levels, and she WAS pretty damn fast and agile. She carried her weight in any smaller team she went out with, too.
Lind VERY MUCH tried not to notice she was really, really pretty and well endowed, too. He was her boss (basically) and it was just ethically wrong.
"Sir?" Lux asked.
"Ah, right, sorry," Lind recovered. "We should get teams going and start collecting materials for the boats."
"The bottleneck is going to be there's just one NPC doing this for us," Lux sighed. "Want to bet there's going to be a line up?"
"Ugh," Lind nodded. Just a twinge bitterly he added, "And Asuna's guild is going to be racing ahead of us all."
"If we knew in advance, we'd do the same thing," Lux shrugged.
"Well, yes. Fair point," Lind agreed. And, he had to admit, he had been one of the folks that had turned on Argo, back on the first floor. If he had kept his head, maybe Argo would be working with them right now.
"I'll get together a team, we'll go into the south woods. Hopefully we can get all the materials in a few hours," Lux saluted and headed off.
Lind found himself watching the very curvy girl walk off, then shook his head. 'No no no! Bad!' he thought, sighing.
To be continued...
Notes: Lux is a character from SAO: Girls Ops, though her background is different than canon. No Laughing Coffin this time, so no being forced to work for them.
