He drew the heavy one handed sword from his back and dashed in with a trained precision to every bit of movement, slicing into the side of the giant bipedal boar and crossing the cut with a downward slash as he turned to face the enemy which he passed during the charge.
Kirito had gotten better and better against the regular enemies during the floor monsters between 26 and 30. At this point, Kirito was fighting floor bosses completely without the system's guidance for skill activation. Kirito didn't use the sword skills anymore, but still carved away relentless chunks from enemy hit points at terrifying speed. The gap between system skill activation and actual skill using the same movements was closing rapidly.
The boar boss of floor 30 was nimble, making efforts to dodge and leap to different locations. Enmity was mattering a little less with the AI of the monsters they were fighting adapting to player skill levels. The boar standing on its hind legs was proof of the destructive capabilities of the system adapting to the increasing abilities of the people trapped within Aincrad.
A raging stomp toward Kirito's head and he reacted swiftly in a precise arc of his sword to counter the attack, slicing deep into the leg which attempted to stomp on him. The cut inflicted bleeding damage on the boar, and limping status. Another follow up horizontal slice and Kirito cut deep enough to carve right through the leg, hacking it off of the boar. So early into the fight and already lopping off appendages. Kirito had become frightening in battle. A nimble beast swiftly hacking apart enemies mercilessly.
While the boar was staggered and struggling with the lost front leg, Kirito hurriedly hacked into the other leg. The strength and speed wasn't quite enough to hack all the way through. A chomp at him and Kirito got to work on stabilizing the movement of the monster. For being a landmark floor boss, it was a surprisingly quick fight. All of the fights were getting faster. Nimbly dodging every attack from the boar, Kirito had become a master at the one handed sword. After staggering the boar again when it returned to its hind legs, Kirito swapped to a crafted katana he had been using recently to make use of the one which had been dropped by the under floors boss he killed on his own.
With the katana, Kirito was able to deliver stronger attacks which sliced a bit deeper than the one handed sword. Using such an advantage, Kirito hacked the left hind leg off at the ankle. The boss staggered and fell on its back. The raid group pounced on the boss monster, delivering attack after crippling attack. In what was originally estimated to take at least half an hour to defeat, the boss was defeated in only 10 minutes. The effects of not being held back on crippling by the system was game breaking. A lost limb was a significant chunk of damage to a boss's hit points.
After the fight completed, the raid group fell in for a meeting and to talk over the swift completion of the fight. The guilds which were participating in the clearing were Alt, Knights of the Blood Oath [KoB], Holy Dragon Alliance [HDA], Fuurinkazan [FKZ], and finally a surprising name joined the clearing group. Midnight Black Cats [MBC] were originally Sachi's friends who she had been with in the beginning. She was usually a tank in other games they played together before SAO, but the fear of facing the terrifying monsters herself up close made her prefer being not the receiver of damage. Falling into the spear as her weapon of choice, Sachi was right at home in Alt. She also enjoyed practicing with the bow enough that she unlocked the skill for it. Recently she spent her time bonding with Sinon at the very back in fights, loosing arrows and depleting enemy health at a rapid rate.
The [MBC] already had a tank in their group, but he wasn't proficient as much at tanking in their group. After Sachi had left their group for a more safe environment, they worked on balancing themselves and working on catching up so they could fight alongside Sachi again. Their tank role was filled by the heavy ax user from before, and the atmosphere between them became a little more serious, but at the same time not too much. They were very responsible since the scolding they received.
"Very good work everyone! That was amazing how fast the hit point dropped. Are you using new crippling skills or something, Kirito?"
Klein's curiosity and praise melded together as he approached Kirito. Klein had become more and more flirty toward him of recent because of Kirito's maternal instincts and raising Yui spreading around to everyone. To Klein, Kirito was the most attractive person in Aincrad, and didn't shrug him off immediately like most of the other female population Klein reached out to in romantic interest.
"I turned off the system guidance for sword skills actually. It's interesting how much the system stops you from cutting through enemies. All my practice recently really paid off in this battle. I even got a no hit bonus for not taking any damage through the fight."
Kirito showed off the new katana which dropped. It had less stats and overall usefulness for Kirito. It was a beautiful katana though, and Klein had recently unlocked the skill to use katana.
"Have it. Mine has better stats because of the time I've put into levelling my katana skill. It'll help you get your damage up while you're levelling your katana skill."
Kirito's quick handing over of the katana and sorting through the rest of the items dropped from the raid handed out appropriate materials and equipment to different people in the raid group. The leaders from [HDA] and [KoB] were satisfied and moved on quickly, while the other parties decided to stick around as long as [Alt] stayed to finish sorting through materials. It was more Kirito checking the properties of the materials to check their level of usefulness.
After a bit longer, they all headed up the stairs to the next floor and explored in their large group. With 8 people in [Alt], 6 people in [FKZ], and 5 in [MBC], they had an interesting total number of 29. The floor they found themselves on was a winter themed floor. It would be Christmas in a few months, so they looked forward to what might be an interesting event taking place at the time if anything would happen.
Klein as well as some of the other men in the group continued to flirt but the girls followed Kirito's lead in teasing them without leading them on. The dynamic of relations between everyone was decent. Everyone was having fun in spite of the awkward atmosphere regarding the flirting and denials. True feelings had to be avoided since that would only make it more awkward.
Agil checked all of the buildings over to see if there was one he liked for relocating his store. While the alley shop he had reminded him of home and did the job it needed, it wouldn't hurt to have a more attractive and easy to reach location since they planned to expand the shop into a restaurant as well.
"It still frustrates me a little that you beat me to unlocking the katana skill, Kirito..."
Klein seethed a little as he poked at Kirito unlocking weapon skills faster than pretty much everyone as per usual.
"I got it by chance! Also it probably helps that I was doing kendo practice with system guidance turned off after floor 25's boss. I got the skill soon after starting that. I don't want to get rusty at kendo while we're in here. It would be nice to be able to go back to it when we get out..."
Leafa joined in with that sentiment.
"Definitely! I'm so happy that you're going to be doing kendo with me still when we get out of here. Are you going to go back to it too when we get out, Sinon?"
Sinon nodded her head with a shy smile.
"Of course. I also want to do archery of course. Are you going to return to archery, Kirito?"
Kirito nodded his head and giggled with a bit of a nervous expression turning up. They had become more intense toward each other over competing for his attention. He would like to get into a different hobby, which might lead into future work. He wanted to learn robotics and other forms of engineering, so that he could provide Yui a way of interacting with them outside of the game freely. So they could all have access to each other.
"Oi, this place is really nice! What do you all think of this place for the relocation?"
Agil pointed out a large lease plot for businesses at the corner of a fair sized intersection with a well about a five minute walk from the teleport plaza. The plot had 2 floors each having a big section of windows looking out onto the street, having a restaurant feeling from first look from the outside. It was a beautiful location, far more attractive than the current location he had. The whole crowd was in agreement for the location. Agil went up to the sign where a window popped up asking him if he would buy, relocate or skip. Tapping the relocate button on the window, the sign vanished and he looked at the crowd once before quickly opening the door and pushing in. The furnishings were bare which reminded him that he would need to redecorate with all his inventory being clogged by the relocation stuffing everything from his shop into his on person inventory.
"This is so much more spacious and nicer than the other location. Really good eye, Agil-san!"
Klein's praise followed by everyone else nodding and wording their agreements got Agil a little emotional.
"To be honest, this spot reminds me of home even more than the old location. That tiny spot in the alley was barely enough to be a pawn shop, while this is a fantastic location for a bar, cafe or restaurant. Did I tell everyone that I run a cafe outside?"
Kirito and a few others from [Alt] nodded, while the rest had a rare 2 nods out of them.
"My wife must be having a rough time taking care of the place on her own. We met through mmo games. We were both going to play this together but we couldn't afford the second console. I'm happy I was the one trapped in here, because...I fear what could have happened with her. I'm most thankful for having you guys around though. We make a heck of a team together, and I bet we'll make it back home real soon with our current pace. Let's keep it up! Now, who wants to help decorate the place?"
Everyone organized into either furniture crafting, inventory management for the store, and placement for the decorations. Kirito and Sinon crafted the wooden furniture for the place, Lisbeth crafted them the metal materials for the furniture, and they filled the decoration and inventory management teams quickly as the store came to life at blistering speed. 29 people made the work go by so fast, they were open for business by evening. Kirito and Asuna prepared them a lunch, and later a dinner service which was also open to the public. Other people from outside their group checked it out and praised the food, the service, and the location. It was a resounding success as far as the relocation was concerned.
There was a small attic which had a couple rooms, one of which was set as storage for extra items and expensive items that wouldn't be on display readily. The other room was made to be a bedroom with a few bunk beds. Since sometimes they might keep the location open very late and elect to stay there instead of go home.
"This is a remarkable place. Congratulations on the new shop, [Alt] guild. Could I get seating for 10 in your upstairs section of the restaurant?"
That request and greeting was from Heathcliff. It was strange for most present to see the tall and usually imposing man out of his armour. He felt more personable. Fancy clothing, but not the usual heavy armour. The sport jacket over a simple shirt and a pair of dress slacks with smooth leather shoes. It was an impressive appearance. But that impressive appearance was also bought custom made from Kirito so it didn't surprise him when he saw Heathcliff in the dressed up attire.
"Sure, I'll show you to some tables upstairs."
Kirito led them since Silica and Leafa were busy with customers at that moment and he was out of the kitchen. They were mostly caught up with food preparations, so it wouldn't put any extra stress on Asuna.
"And these three tables I'll combine together for you... There. Please be seated. What would you like to start with? Beverages and appetizers are listed on our menu so please tell me your choices."
The group from [KoB] took their time making up their minds on their beverages and appetizers. Kirito marked down everything they wanted and messaged them to Asuna so she could set aside any extra prepped ingredients for the order.
"Excellent, it'll be ready in a minute. I'll be right back with your starters."
Kirito gave a light bow and headed back to the kitchen to cook do touch ups on the order and serve up the drinks on a large tray which he expertly delivered up the stairs. After setting everything down, he set down a notification bell for them to ring to alert him when they needed anything.
"Have you made up your minds on your meal?"
Heathcliff stared at Kirito in wonder.
"You truly are a remarkable young woman. Did you do this kind of work outside?"
Kirito blushed a little and shook his head.
"No, I am still a student so the extent of work for me is helping manage clubs. I did grow up learning all kinds of things like this though."
"Interesting...who would have guessed that the brutality earlier came from such a delicate maiden outside of combat...I would like to duel you at some point if you wouldn't mind. I have this feeling that there's no point to it, but you intrigue me."
Kirito lost the blush and became serious.
"If it's not urgent then I can't oblige you any time soon. I'm very busy taking care of my guild and my child. There's also floor clearing. If you want to duel, we can do so before the next major floor boss challenge?"
Heathcliff nodded his head in satisfaction.
"That sounds good enough for me. Thank you for indulging my curiosity. Now, for dinner..."
Heathcliff started with the dinner orders and the rest of their group followed up.
"Dinner should be ready in about ten minutes. Please, enjoy your starters. Ring the bell if you need drink refills and I'll have someone come up to fill those for you."
Kirito was flustered. He got a strange feeling from Heathcliff, like he saw through him. His words didn't betray him if he was hiding that, but his eyes were sharp and calculating. It could just be because of the desire for the duel, but there was more to it as far as feelings went. Like...emotions. Heathcliff emotionally gave off the sense that he wasn't talking to a woman, but to a fellow man. Did he know? Aside Argo and the members of Alternate Feelings, Fuurinkazan and Midnight Black Cats, nobody knew of Kirito's true gender. Everyone outside of them genuinely considered Kirito female and had no second thoughts because of his femininity he displayed. The thing that might throw them off would be the brutality in battle, or maybe the level of no life approach that he did toward everything in Aincrad. But anybody could no life it and be successful as long as they mind their health and stability.
In the end, Kirito had accepted the challenge to the duel, and before Heathcliff left, he leaned in to Kirito's ear to whisper his duel conditions.
"If I win, how about we merge our guilds under mine?"
Kirito was baffled at the suggestion.
"Not happening. If you want conditions for a duel, something at least a little less extreme is better. I'm not doing a condition like that."
With a sigh he tapped his forehead once with closed eyes and opened them again to lean in for another whispered condition.
"If I win, I announce to everyone in Aincrad that you're male."
Kirito went pale with fright. He knew it. How did Heathcliff know? Why would he play around with such a thing after as much time as they had been fighting alongside each other? How long did he know?
"If I win...you tell me how you figured that out, and you are banned from saying any kind of outing me."
With other patrons getting angry and jealous from the close exchanges between them, nearly looking like they were kissing from many angles, Kirito backed away from him and glared.
"Thank you for your service. Take care of yourselves."
After saying it, he curtsied and swiftly stomped back to the kitchen. When he arrived, Asuna was blushing.
"That was...so bold..."
"Whatever you think it was, it wasn't."
Asuna stared at Kirito.
"So you weren't kissing?"
Kirito sighed and whispered to her.
"He was giving secret bargaining conditions for a duel when we have the time to have one. First condition is a no. He wanted to merge guilds under his if he won, which while I'm confident in myself, I'm not taking the chance he somehow knows something I don't about fighting other players and risking we lose our finalized guild to him. The condition we settled on is based on a secret of mine from most people in Aincrad...my outside gender."
Asuna went pale. She leaned over the diced bell peppers she had finished cutting just before Kirito got back to the kitchen.
"How did he find that out? Everybody who knows, knows that it's a secret..."
"I don't know, but my condition for the duel is that he tells me how he knows if I win, and that he's banned from revealing my outside identity to anyone in here."
Asuna fidgeted a little, still uncomfortable about what Kirito would have to face, but feeling better that there wasn't somehow suddenly an unexpected love rival. She looked at Kirito again to see if his face betrayed the comfort she had felt in him not introducing another love rival. Instead of him looking uncomfortable, he had the appearance that he might be plotting something. Or he was just thinking harder than Asuna was used to seeing on Kirito.
"Going to close up the shop soon, how are you doing in the kitchen?"
Agil's question brought Asuna and Kirito out of their mindset concerning Heathcliff.
"We're doing good. It was a nice and busy night. How much col did we get?"
Agil gave a wide grin.
"We made over 100k. Those people that kept ordering more after finding out the food here actually tastes pretty much real really made it easy to rake in a lot. People will pay a lot for a good meal."
They smiled in response.
"Mama, hungry!"
Yui had been visiting in the kitchen through the business hours and was getting tastes and appetizer dishes through the night but she hadn't had a proper meal yet. At some point she had tagged along with them through exploring and the 29 in their raid team had become 30. She was walking around a little more. She preferred being carried or watching activity in the kitchen to walking around on her own. She was still young minded though her appearance didn't really change.
Kirito brought Yui a dish with some mildly spicy curry and rice with a sweet berry jam held on the side for dessert. He had developed a happiness in just watching Yui adorably eat any food she was given. Her taste for spicy food went down a little, preferring more mild spice if she was having spicy food at all.
"Anyway, when do you think you're going to deal with Heathcliff's duel request?"
Kirito stood up and gave Asuna a glance before becoming sullen while continuing to watch Yui eat.
"I think I want to try out some duels against people. As much experience as I have fighting humanoid monsters and other monster, fighting people is different. I know pretty much how he fights because of how many times we've fought together through boss raids, but getting used to fighting other people through duels could help me get into the pvp mindset so I don't subconsciously hold back..."
Asuna realized how troubling the situation really was for him. Kirito hadn't attacked another person with the intent to kill, always holding back. A duel stops from delivering lethal blows and serious damage is reverted after a duel. So holding back was a bad idea in a serious duel. Especially subconsciously.
They didn't know how seriously Heathcliff would take the duel. Would Kirito need to be prepared to go all out? Would he have to use one of his secret weapons? Kirito hoped he would only need to display the best of his ability with a single one-handed sword.
