Kirito finally awoke the evening after the defeat of the kobold lord. Apparently everyone was chalking it up to the difference in strength when he countered the ultimate skill of the boss monster. The raid party disbanded, but everyone was eager to try and work to the next floor boss together again.

In the mean time, Leafa and Sinon went ahead to do some material gathering on the new floor. After gathering plenty of as many drop items as they could gather from the new monster types, they returned in the evening while Asuna was using the kitchen of the inn to try and do some cooking. The smell of the cooking down in the inn kitchen was what woke Kirito up. He was confused at first that the room he was in had four beds, but when he thought about it, it made sense. The rest of the group might decide it wasn't bad because it was him, and they needed rest. And they forgot to disband the party before registering a room. The last option was the most likely as he got out of the bed.

The cloak he wore which covered his long hair as the reward for defeating the first floor boss felt very relaxing. He checked its statistics while he had nothing else immediately on his mind and noticed it had decent defensive stats and a resistance to stun. It also had a minor regenerative status. It was a very useful cloak he might end up using for a long time, especially as a tank.

He went through the rest of the inventory and finally started sorting through the drops from the kobolds to see what kind of effects those items would have went broken down. Weapons could be turned into scrap since they were unusable by players, and used for upgrading player weapons...tusks and tails could be used for antidotes for paralysis and poison. Kobold eyes could be mixed with that same valley herb from before to create a permanent boost item to detection stats. That was the most useful thing he noticed, and then something really caught his attention. Kobolds also dropped an item called a berry powder, but it could be ground into a spice. When he went through the process for one, he recognized the smell immediately.

"Pepper!"

"That's what it's missing! Wait..."

He recognized Asuna's voice and was confused it was so clear even though the inn door...was...not closed.

He hopped off the bed, held the pepper item in his hand and rushed down to the main floor of the inn. It wasn't familiar to him, so when he finally found the kitchen, Asuna was perplexed.

"But how can I get pepper in this game? There's nothing like that in the drops we encountered..."

Kirito had his argument and the item ready as he added it carefully to the pot she was cooking some stew of boar meat and other items we had been gathering before. It smelled good, but when the pepper item from the kobold drop was added, the scent felt like it could be the best the game yet had to offer together.

"Ah! Kirito! Did you finally just wake up?"

"I've been sorting through my inventory from the dungeon haul when I woke up...fifteen minutes ago. Apparently someone forgot to close the door to the room, and you heard me shout pepper. Go on...taste it."

She gave him a curious look, but going with his insisting, she scooped a bit of the broth into her mouth and it hit her.

"You added to it! You added pepper! Where did you get it?! How?!"

"The berry item from the kobold drop can be powdered and the inside of the berries becomes pepper. I knew it as soon as I could smell it. I'm just surprised the game didn't make me sneeze from smelling it..."

Asuna's eyes almost seemed to sparkle in response to the luck of what he managed to discover. Kirito was really the expert on item knowledge. He didn't let a single ingredient class item stay as it was without testing and mixing its abilities to see other effects they had.

"Ooooh, this stew just got so much better from a little pepper. Do you have some more? I think I had all of my drops being funnelled to your inventory because I don't have much more than my equipment and the healing items left from the boss battle and items Leafa and Sinon left for me to cook with..."

Kirito took another look through his inventory, and it was indeed a little overflowing compared to how it normally would have been.

"Ah, I'll change that right away so you get your drops properly. Although...it might be nice to have some separate storage to keep everything organized."

Asuna nodded her head in agreement.

"That's exactly...gosh, why are you a boy!"

It wasn't even worded like a question the way she said it. She must have felt awkward getting so excited about organizing and ingredients and cooking with a boy she'd only known for two days.

"Oh right, Leafa and Sinon noticed that a player opened up a temporary smithing location in the new town here on the second floor. They said it would be good for us to go see them tomorrow morning. You do know it's been a full day since the boss battle right?"

Kirito nodded his head. He couldn't believe how tired he was when he barely managed to activate the counter skill on the boss' ultimate skill.

"Oh right, how are others doing for levelling right now?"

"Aside the raid team who came up to this floor with us, other players are mostly nervous of coming up to this floor. Crafters have been paying stronger groups who have come up here to get help gathering items. If a player brings the materials needed for an upgrade, apparently it's just a small money charge for an upgrade, and about the cost of a normal piece of equipment if you have something made."

"Maybe I'll see about having this full stack of kobold iron from their gear turned into new equipment for all of us..."

Asuna seemed pleased with the sound of that.

"Anyway, the stew should be ready now."

She pulled open her menu and scrolled over to the contact screen. She pressed the option to alert Sinon and Leafa before closing it back up and removing the pot of stew from the stove.

"This...it's fun, but not as fun as really cooking."

Kazuto nodded his head. It was exactly as he thought it would be like.

"Ah, I might have enough time to make us something else for the meal. Stew alone might be a little boring."

Asuna watched on as Kirito summoned and cleaned a few different types of monster meat including kobold, boar and the bull cow from the butter quest. Those different meats were cleaned, seasoned with the pepper drop and a salt item he discovered while practising mining and had them sear in the oven before having Asuna separate a decent amount of broth from the stew before frying it the rest of the way through. Leafa and Sinon just arrived as he finished plating the steaks of different meat from the monsters with the stew Asuna had finished.

"I thought Asuna was only making a stew?"

Asuna gave Kirito a questioning look and then back at the table before she sat down.

"Kirito made the steaks in the time since I sent you the alert telling you the stew was done. He really knows how to use the cooking skill in this game."

"Uh, Asuna? Kirito hasn't had a kitchen yet."

Leafa and Sinon were surprised that Asuna was surprised by anything about Kirito at this point. He just kept on discovering things and being himself that he was mastering everything the game was throwing at him to learn.

"Kirito is...Is he a chef in real life? That was way too fast for someone who doesn't cook all the time."

Sinon and Leafa shook their heads and laughed before urging them to sit down before everyone would start eating. They knew already not to be surprised by how much Kirito loved cooking. If anything, that made him closer to his mother than anything. Sinon in particular wondered how his mother would react to such a fancy steak being cooked up so expertly in minutes.

"Ooh! There's pepper in this! What item was it?!"

Kirito spoke up as usual.

"The berry item drop from the kobolds. Remember how it was annoying that they were a rare drop that was just adding another space to the inventory? Powder them and it becomes pepper. Really useful right?"

Kirito was thrilled at how useful it was. How much the scent satisfied his nose inside the virtual engine. He grabbed up the cutlery that he had set with the rest of the meal as he finished cleaning up before Leafa and Sinon arrived.

"Let's begin eating. Thanks for the food."

After he said it, everyone dug right in. The taste that flowed through their mouths from the stew first was surprising to them. Sinon and Leafa were most surprised because they didn't think the pepper was in it, but Asuna couldn't help herself when she took a bite of the softened meat along with a remaining mouthful of the broth. The juicy and tender texture broke down in such a satisfying way, it was like really eating food. Everyone wondered how much work was put into creating all of the virtual copies of sensations. The creators must have had a lot of professional testers before the beta test launch. To make sure everything worked just right.

In between spoonfuls of the stew, everyone finally took their first bite into the steaks. Kirito felt a little underwhelmed because he expected a little more, but then he couldn't expect everything from a game's engine to copy real sensations. The meat was just tender enough that the knives went right through without having to slice through the meat in strokes. It was perfectly seasoned, and the taste made sure to touch every small bit of the mouth's sensory between the juice and the grainy meat texture. It was phenomenal. Kirito's underwhelmed reaction didn't stop the rest from enjoying it.

"This steak is so much better than my cooking teacher's steaks! Where did you learn to cook such an excellent steak with such simple ingredients?"

Asuna was thrilled and excited to learn the secret. Kirito's answer was as underwhelming as he felt it was for him.

"It's the way the seasoning is cooked into the meat. Remember how I didn't tenderize the seasoning into the meat? For this kind of method, you first sear the steak until it's just barely cooked on the outside, and the pores of the meat have opened up for the seasoning to flow through, that's when I used your broth to tenderize the rest of the way and then did final seasoning before doing the final touch in the oven. It's a sear boil broil method Mom taught me. It's nowhere near as good as the real thing though."

Hearing Kirito explain it, Sinon could recall how heavenly his mother's signature steaks tasted. She had to agree. In comparison, the steak they just ate wasn't nearly as satisfying. She wondered how Kirito was taking it, the memory of her still having him pursue her greatness. The game would separate their abilities for the time being.

"Well, I know I can do it the same when we get out of the game. Why not have a dinner party when we get out and I make the same steak so Asuna can taste what it's really supposed to be like?"

The girls were all in agreement that if it was for food, such great food, then it was definitely worth meeting again outside of the game. Kirito was happy just being with him. He already knew some others were thinking something opposite, but he really wanted to get out. To taste real food. To really feel the touch of his friends' hands and to see a world which he wasn't separated from by pixels.

"You know how there are some players who've been saying they don't want the game to end? Isn't that ridiculous? We have real lives outside of the game. Some of us want to do something important with our lives and help people, but while we're stuck in here, we can't do those things."

"You know, those people who wish the game wouldn't end might be the kind of people who can't find something like that. All of us have our reasons to go back, but what if someone is a gamer alone? If they don't have any talents or something they are deprived from they had in reality? Some people don't have family to return to, and this is a world where families can be registered. It's a little strange I admit, but there's the adoption system, the marriage system and other things to simulate living a fantasy life of dreams. The only thing for those kind of people is to avoid the powerful monsters which can end that time."

Kirito was being the melancholic type through the rest of the meal. He didn't even finish the food when he left the table. The girls all felt a little guilty about something they were feeling. Kirito wanted to get out of the game for many reasons. From Leafa's perspective, that was the happiest news about him in real life that she'd heard since before he moved in with her family. For Sinon, it was a little hit to her, but she also had reason to get back. She wanted to apologize to Shiro, and to see her parents again. She wanted to have a real chance at a real relationship with Kazuto. Asuna wanted to get out of the game too. Though she wasn't vocal about her reasons, she already admitted to wanting real food. She also wanted to experience life with real friends instead of the forced relationships of her life. She wanted to bring the strength her new friends were giving her and make her life outside of the game her own.

While the girls brewed over their thoughts and reasons to return to reality, another person in the inn restaurant sat down in Kirito's spot and started eating the food. It wasn't Argo who it wouldn't have been strange to see do such a thing, but someone none of the girls recognized.

"Uhm...hello? Why are you eating our friend's food?"

The woman who slurped up a gulp of the stew sighed in satisfaction before turning her confident gaze over them. She was tall, long legged more than anything for her height. She had the kind of build that she seemed likely to use for luring male perverts to do things for her. Wicked things. She had wavy hair like a model for it in a blood red colour and it was obvious she wore make-up before diving in.

"Beta crowd right? This would be your leader's food? She just left though with an expression as if she wasn't coming back down to finish. There's no need for the washroom after all."

"Kirito-"

"Said she was done for the night, you're right. It's very rude to just sit down and start eating food that hasn't been offered to you though. Care to explain to your reason for disturbing our meal?"

She took a bite of the steak, and picked her teeth clean with one of the prongs of the fork. Not that there was anything to clean out. It might just be a habit of hers from the real world. She sat back in the chair, crossed her legs and eyed up the other girls at the table. In comparison, she would be around her mid twenties. The rest of the girls were in their teenage years.

"I'm luring you girls out. Not for a fight or anything troublesome like that. The leader of yours has a lot of people after her and it would be best to keep your distance for your own safety. A group of people who join games like this for fighting other players has already been started. I can guarantee they wouldn't mind killing you along with that leader of yours."

Sinon stood up and positioned herself behind the woman who was setting a very bad mood for the meal. She pulled her dagger from the sheath and touched it to her avatar's opposite hand's finger.

"It's not an issue inside of safe areas. Kirito already explained all of the information and guides for this game anyway. She told us about how easy it is to track people, and how much easier it becomes when they have an orange marker. You know what the marker colours mean right? Green means they are passive and friendly, they haven't done anything wrong and aren't a monster trying to kill you. A red marker is a monster or other player currently fighting you. An orange marker...those belong to hostile monsters which aren't currently in battle, and players who have committed crime. Who have murdered, stolen or harmed another player without using the rules of registered duels accepted by both parties. Now...care to explain your marker colour to us? This world has only been launched for a few days. Are you the type who steals in other games? Kills people for fun? Need a reminder? What this world is? What happens when you do things that are morally looked down on by society and brands people criminal? Leave us be, or we'll have you locked in the prison in the Town of Beginnings so you can live your days in boredom until we clear the game. Be thankful of this generosity. You or your group of murderers you mentioned comes after us, remember that retaliation against someone with a red marker doesn't give a person an orange marker. If we have to protect ourselves, don't be surprised that our blades might end your lives forever."

The woman seemed to still be enjoying the atmosphere despite how frightening Sinon's tone was. If it were Kirito telling the criminal player his opinion on what she said, it was likely she would be locked up. Used to gather the rest of the criminals she was connected to and lock them up in the jail in the Town of Beginnings.

"Maybe I will join the murderers. Still don't have a guild I'm in. Was just suggesting to you nicely that it would be smart to go to other groups. You only have yourselves to blame when you find yourselves surrounded by a bunch of blood thirsty murderers. This is still a game to them no matter how much you sprinkle positivity over the situation and say how we're supposed to be working our way out of the game together. Those murderers-they don't want the game to be won. They want to have fun killing everyone here. You'll see what I mean. Eventually, you'll lose your minds with how many disgusting people managed to get into this game. You'll see in time what my play style is..."

She took one last bite of the steak and sighed in satisfaction before standing up, poking Sinon with a fork triggering the harassment policy notification, and walking out of the inn. When the door closed and she was no longer in the area, the notification went away.

"We need to tell Kirito about her and those freaks right away."

The rest of the food couldn't be put into their inventories, so they ate as much as they could before throwing the remainder into the bottomless trash bin and headed up the stairs to the shared bedroom.

"Kirito, we're coming in~"

Leafa was the one who let out the words of their arrival, but without knocking or time to give him a chance to make his state more acceptable, she opened the door to thankfully him being covered where it was important by his hair. Asuna shoved Leafa into the room and closed the door while trying to be as quiet from screaming as possible.

Leafa had a number of questions for Kirito, but her eyes wandered and she realized just how much his figure was feminine. Thankfully his boyhood was covered, but his chest had grown a little, possibly from all the training he had pectoral muscles, and his waist was incredibly thin. His hips were...well, at least they couldn't be referenced by a parent looking for many children to be perfect for child bearing. She couldn't believe that kind of situation came to her mind, but after staring for a while, she finally felt the shame running through her and she turned around. His figure stayed in her mind and she couldn't help but feel her heart beating so heavily it might knock the wind out of her.

"It's okay, I'm finished changing."

Kirito had changed to have the cloak reward from the first boss as his only torso gear aside a chest plate which only enhanced the feminine appearance of his figure, and light metal gauntlets. He looked ready to take on a fearsome foe. His hair wasn't hidden by the cloak anymore, and it seemed he might be happy that he wasn't hiding it. His expression was happy despite having been barged in on.

"You two can come in as well. I'm done changing."

Asuna made Sinon took the first peek in, but she just opened the door completely. She knew Kirito wouldn't lie about something like that.

"I...I'm sorry I over reacted like that. After all, Kirito has such a feminine figure it shouldn't have bothered me."

Asuna was still flustered over it.

"I'm pretty embarrassed too you know! I'm not proud of how little my body has filled in as a boy."

Leafa had her own opinion about filling in.

"Then what about your breasts? You almost have as much as Sinon. Or is that really how boy pectoral muscles work?"

"Leafa!"

Asuna didn't want to hear it.

"If he has breasts, then we might as well really call him a girl from now on... I can't believe I said that about Onii-chan..."

Sinon was more curious now and had the urge to have Leafa and Asuna leave while she would check. She used to see him down to his underwear a lot of the time when they used to switch clothes with each other. It wouldn't be that strange...although they had grown up some.

When the girls' attention returned to him, the expression that said he was fine with being walked in on was gone, and tears seemed ready to pour.

"Wh-why are you sad right now Kirito?"

Sinon sat beside him on the bed where he had been assigned and wrapped her arm around his waist. To her, it seemed a little smaller than she was used to, or maybe it was that her arm was longer...

"I...can't. I can't get used to this feeling at all..."

The girls looked at each other in confusion before getting closer as if he were about to go even more quiet.

"I missed it during calibration, so my settings are as a girl. I've been growing since the first day. Darn it...this game made me a girl for real. Sugu, Shino, please remember I'm really a boy outside of this!"

They were all confused.

"You...the game...what?"

Sinon whispered closely so that he might say it a little more easy to understand.

"The breasts. Are real. My boyhood. Is gone. I hope it's just an error and the game will fix it over time, but whenever I go into settings, where it says calibrated gender, there it says female. Why...just...why?"

Sinon's expression dropped. Leafa's as well. The boy they were in love with was calibrated by the game as a girl. Asuna didn't seem to have any problem with it. She did try to understand at least that it would feel strange and unfamiliar for someone to spend a length of time as if the other gender. Distressing even. She couldn't understand why it brought Kirito to tears though.

Eventually, he cried himself to sleep and Leafa tucked him in to the bed like she was used to in real life. Sinon and her watched him sleep for a while before going to their own beds. Asuna found herself doing some more soul searching about what her friends really meant to her.