Once again, mad props to Lady Lily Anne for being an amazing partner in crime and beta reader. This one is more over arching plot development so no action this chapter, but fear not there will be plenty next. Also before anyone asks yes we're going to be jumping floors soon, as much as I want to add more Progressive content we're both itching to get to the higher floors. Personally I'm looking forward to Laughing Coffin, THAT is going to be a blast.
Anywho I hope you all enjoy and please REVIEW!
A disheveled ragtag group of players stumbled into Urbus looking exhausted beyond words after yet another long day of scouting the field boss. They were worn down, tired, and quite simply indifferent to the world around them while they marched on grumbling to each other, the setting sun casting long shadows on the buildings ahead of them.
"We have got to figure out some sort of permanent command structure, this is just getting ridiculous!" Klein whined plaintively yet no one corrected him for his outburst, they all agreed with his assessment after all.
"I blame Kibaou," Kirito stated flatly as she adjusted the strap of her sword's sheath laying across her shoulder, while Asuna just rolled her eyes at the declaration.
"You blame Kibaou for everything Kei-Kirito, it kind of takes away from the gravity of the situation when you use the same constant scapegoat to blame all your troubles on."
Kirito glanced at her partner a moment before drawling out, "Ok Wonder Woman, when was the last FUBAR situation during a group action not Kibaou's fault in some way shape or form?"
Asuna fell silent at that as she thought it over but was quickly saved by Diavel, "That...boar...demon thingy? Hogulous? The one that doesn't really seem to belong on this floor? That mess was Lind's fault, rushed in before everyone else. Complete mayhem, twelve people nearly died and the loot was crap, Lind insists it was all part of his brilliant plan even after the fact."
Klein tilted his head to the side at that looking confused, "I didn't hear about that one, what happened, and what was his brilliant plan?"
Kirito grimaced and spoke before Diavel could, "It was a minor field boss in the bramble fields, deep south of here. Think a really freaking huge and pissed off warthog on steroids. I didn't bother dragging us down that way because the loot drops were crap in the beta and finding the damn thing took us days."
Diavel nodded in confirmation as the weary party entered a tavern and they all plopped down onto the rigid wood chairs as they collectively let out a sigh of relief, finally they were in truly safe territory now.
Everyone removed their morality settings as they ordered as much alcohol as they could afford, and got to drinking. Downing half his tankard Diavel eventually sighed and slammed it onto the table in satisfaction before continuing where Kirito left off.
"We bothered with it because whoever got the Last Attack Bonus had a chance of getting a piece of tank gear, which obviously explains why Kirito and Asuna didn't care about it in the slightest." At this both girls lifted their tankards in acknowledgment before throwing their glasses back, downing the blessedly alcoholic contents held within.
"Anyway after six hours of trying to find the damn thing in these bramble fields it aggros on one of Lind's men, so what does he do? Does he form battle lines? Does he request reinforcements? No, he screams that everyone is supposed to group up and hit it till it dies."
Every player in the bar stared at him in wide eyed silence, eventually Kirito snorted as she ordered another drink, "Yeah ok, I take it back, Kibaou has competition in the 'Most Oblivious Group Leader' department. I'm sure his mother is proud."
"What happened after that?" Asuna asked curiously as she accepted her refill from the NPC barmaid, Diavel rolled his eyes to the ceiling as he leaned his chair back and kicked his feet up onto the table.
"Well after it gored half Lind's men we managed to draw aggro on Hogulous-"
"That is such a freaking stupid name," Kirito muttered as she shook her head in disbelief, Diavel could only laugh in agreement.
"-Anyway Hogulous turns and charges on us kind of like how Bullbous Bow did this afternoon," At that everyone, including Klein, Kirito, and Asuna groaned in frustration, Diavel didn't blame them in the slightest.
"So here we are trying to take this demon boar out, everyone dragging aggro off the tanks-," he ignored Klein's muttered 'Imagine that' as he continued, "-all while Lind's guys are chasing the damn thing screaming that we're all kill stealers. It was a mess...such a mess...and the kicker? The tank loot didn't even drop."
Much to everyone's surprise a new voice pipped up as a man with a rather distinctive cactus like haircut plopped down in one of the free chairs, "Those guys take themselves way too seriously, do you know he's already got a guild name? 'The Divine Dragon Army', pretty full of themselves eh?"
As the surrounding party stared at Kibaou Kirito eventually lifted her tankard in an awkward salute, "You did well against the field boss, I was surprised, thanks for covering the flanks." Considering she had at one point threatened this man with character assassination, that praise was rather...stilted to say the least.
Kibaou glared at her then sighed a few moments later as he clinked his tankard against her's before throwing it back downing the entire thing in a few gulps much to her surprise. It would seem she was in the presence of many truly dedicated alcoholics, she briefly wondered if she should feign being impressed but decided against it. She seriously had to get a grip on her inherent bitchiness, it was starting to get out of control.
Slamming his now empty tankard on the table Kibaou belched and then nodded, "Thanks for covering my back when those fucking giant bees showed up, hadn't been expecting them."
Kirito blinked in turn at the unexpected overture of peace while glancing to the equally surpised Asuna at her side, "Well, err... In the beta, it was dragonflies but I figured better to be prepared and all that."
Kibaou frowned and shook his his in disgust, "Dragonflies? That's stupid... I mean really? Dragonflies?"
Kirito smiled uncomfortably as she ordered another drink, starting to sway back and forth a bit thanks to her over indulgence, "I know right? Probably why they switched it to giant freaking bees. So anyway, any of you lot run into those minotaurs in the main labyrinth yet?"
Asuna shivered while taking deep gulps from her tankard of mead, placing it on the table she shook her head slowly with a thousand yard stare locked onto the far wall.
"Why don't they wear pants? I didn't need to see that, no one needed to see that!"
Klein grimaced while leaning back into his chair mirroring Asuna's head shake, "Yeah no kidding, I honestly think Kayaba had some hardcore perverts working on this game. I did not need to see a bipedal cow monster's two foot long swinging cod while I'm trying to kill it, loin clothes do not do a good enough job. Ya know?"
Kirito shivered in disgust while nodding in agreement, "What has been seen cannot be unseen..."
Diavel snorted shrugging lightly as he requested another drink, "We are after all stuck in a death game hosted by a sadistic sociopath, maybe making everyone uncomfortable on top of miserable gets him off?"
Kirito laughed at that as she tossed a pecan into the air and caught it in her mouth a second later. Chewing on her snack she washed it down with some beer before replying, "Yeah it's disturbing, but you're all looking at it in the wrong light. When you see a giant enraged, naked monster charging you, what's the first thing you do?"
Argo, who had not been there a moment earlier seemed to suddenly materialize herself in Kirito's lap, all while catching said girl's most recently tossed up pecan in her own mouth. A moment later she snatched the tankard of beer from the surprised swordswoman's grip and chirped out her response.
"Easy, stab it in the dick," chewing cheerfully on her purloined snack and sipping her stolen beer she ignored the openly incredulous stare from Kirito while grinning at Asuna's amused smirk. "What I would do anyway."
Every male present shifted about uncomfortably, not willing to meet the information brokers gaze as she helped herself to more of Kirito's pecans.
"Do you mind?" The younger girl asked sounding slightly bemused, Argo grinned but rather than quipping in return she hopped off of Kirito's lap and landed in the chair beside her.
Grabbing more of Kirito's pecans Argo began popping them into her mouth as she decided to contribute to the conversation further, "While the creepy potential bipedal bovine bestiality crap is a thing on this floor, the next one up has the opposite end of the spectrum."
The surrounding players looked at her in confusion while she just sat there continuing to grin while munching on her pilfered pecans; eventually Kirito sighed while in the same motion grabbing the bowl of pecans back from Argo who pouted in turn.
"Next floor you can start a series of quests with either forest elves or dark elves, the beautiful people of most all fantasy games."
Several people perked up at this, either intrigued or at the very least interested in free information.
"Really" Klein began, "Like, Lord of the Rings and all that?"
Argo and Kirito exchanged looks and then they both shrugged in mutual agreement, the information wasn't worth charging anyone for, "Yes you find a pair of elves dueling it out in the woods. A Forest Elven Hallowed Knight and a Dark Elven Royal Guard," Argo stated while snatching the bowl of pecans back from Kirito.
Her friend rolled her eyes as she continued for the now busily snacking information broker, "It's a pair of massive chain quests that leads all the way to the ninth floor while offering loot rewards and XP along the way. The elves are all beautiful, opposite of the minotaurs down here, funny thing is while the dark elves dress appropriately for medieval combat, the forest elves..."
Diavel began snickering as he nodded slowly, "Well lets just say they fit in most fantasy settings yes?"
Kibaou drained another tankard of beer before belching again while scratching his head, "So what, forest elves dress slutty?"
There was a collective sigh and rolling of eyes but eventually Kirito responded in a put upon tone, "Yes Kibaou the forest elves dress slutty."
He grinned at that while ordering another drink, simply nodding in approval at the revelation
Klein of course had to cheerfully throw out, "Know who I'm siding with then!"
Kirito rolled her eyes in exasperation as Asuna tilted her head so only her partner could hear her, "We're siding with the dark elves, right?"
Kirito smirked and nodded, "Right."
"The boys are screwed," Asuna chirped cheerfully as the pair bumped fists under the table.
Time went on and the tavern became more crowded, and while they hadn't had much progress on the field near everyone was in good cheer as they swapped exaggerated tales of their exploits, or just gossiped with the occasional bark of raucous laughter. Eventually a now quite tipsy Kirito noticed the arrival of a tall man with steel grey hair and a rather severe scholarly face, she grinned as she waved for the man's attention.
"Sensei! Join ush for a drink?" Heathcliff turned to assess the grinning teenager as she took another sip from her tankard, he raised a single brow while managing to keep a straight face at her antics which was admittedly, impressive.
"You realize young lady that you are in fact underage to drink alcohol correct?" Despite that he approached the table and took the seat Argo had vacated at some point while the dark eyed teen shrugged indifferently.
"S-s'ok, I won't tell anyone if you don't, k?" Before he could reply Asuna's inquisitive visage popped up from behind Kirito's head as she gave him a scrutinizing look.
"Who'sh the old guy Keiko?" Asuna stammered out in a half slur, not even noticing she slipped out Kirito's real name, which was at this time acceptable since she hadn't noticed either.
"Thish is Heathcliff, he'sh a programming professor and we've been talking shop the pasht few days! It'sh great to have someone know what you're talking about! Or...huh...empty. Barmaid, more beer!"
Before the NPC could comply Heathcliff sighed and took the empty tankard from her and placed it out of reach, "I do believe you've had enough tonight young lady. Over indulgence is unbefitting someone of your intelligence."
Kirito looked down at the table sheepishly but before she could say anything Asuna cut in, "It'sh not her fault. Keiko hash a low tolerance for stupid people, but it'sh all we've had to work with, can't get anything done becaushe thoshe stupid boys can't shtop postu...po..."
"Posturing," Kirito finished for her, having already reactivated her morality function, she quickly felt the haze of her buzz lift away before shooting Heathcliff a chagrined look. "Sorry about that Sensei, bad day."
He chuckled at that while waving it off, "I was young once too, I know how it goes. I do warn you though, drowning your woes in alcohol helps in the moment, but when you wake up in the morning hungover, you're still in charge of an entire department of incompetents. Just with a headache and feeling nauseous that is."
Both girls shuddered at this but didn't add anything to it as Kirito was gently guiding Asuna's hand to re-enable her morality function, not five seconds after it was activated her partners cheeks turned bright red in embarrassment. Crossing her arms on the table she buried her face in them groaning in shame, and while Kirito did feel a twinge of pity for her, it wasn't a very strong one.
As it ends up drunk Asuna is rather fun and generally amusing to listen to, but Keiko would never tell her that.
"So," Heathcliff began, "You're running into human resource troubles I take it?" It was an oddly clinical way of putting it but not wrong by any stretch of the imagination.
Kirito pinched the bridge of her nose nodding slowly, "Too many cooks in the kitchen. Even though Diavel was a damn good raid leader everyone with delusions of grandeur has splintered off and formed their own groups. Which is fine, since the second floor was intended to do just that so you'd be prepared to found your guild on the third floor. Problem is?"
"Everyone wants to be the boss," Asuna finished for her, cheeks still a bit red from her drunken antics but otherwise looking coolly professional. "Diavel has talent as a leader he just can't get all these egos to coordinate because most of them think they know best. Some like Klein are so laid back it doesn't matter, but the others? Ugh..."
Heathcliff nodded at that 'hmmm'ing contemplatively before responding, "Well, you could try finding other groups who could work together more reliably I suppose. Since I wasn't involved with it how did you get everyone to work together to clear the first floor?"
Kirito leaned back in her chair swaying it back and forth a bit as she stared up at the ceiling, "Combination of desperation, Diavel's charisma, and the training I'd been giving the newbies. The desperation is gone and replaced with ambition, unfortunately it's mostly the self interested kind so getting people to work as one cohesive unit is well...proving to be difficult."
Heathcliff tilted his head to the side a bit while cocking a brow, "So part of what led to your clearing the floor was the training you gave new players? Pardon but I took it from our discussions that you aren't all that fond of attention, especially the kind that can single you out like that."
Asuna nodded in agreement and spoke before Kirito could, "She hates being the center of attention, and has her reasons for it, but no one else was taking the lead so she did what she had to do."
Kirito shot Asuna a brilliant smile in thanks and turned back to Heathcliff missing the way it made her partner's already rosy cheeks darken further. After all, genuine smiles from Keiko without a mask being placed over them were a rarity.
"She's not wrong, I want out of this game, I want to go home, and just sitting in the Town of Beginnings wasn't going to get me what I desired. So yeah, even though I left my comfort zone I did what needed to be done to get what I wanted."
Heathcliff rested an elbow on the table and let his chin fall into his hand as he stared at his student for several seconds before speaking.
"Kirito, if what I'm taking from this is that no progress was being made until you took control, what are you doing now?"
She grimaced at that and deactivated her morality settings yet again ordering another beer, take a deep pull from it she cradled the tankard in her hands while staring down at her liquid reflection.
Eventually, she sighed, "I'm doing my part, I've already done more than my part really. I trained hundreds of players, I've saved anyone I could feasibly help, and I did it all knowing full well at any given point I might collapse in a panic attack... I figured... I figured that now that we have momentum, now that everyone knows we can actually win, that I could step out of the spotlight. Just, you know, help from the sidelines, let someone else deal with the bloated egos, stupidity, and crowding..."
Asuna placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze, which was appreciated, while Heathcliff silently analyzed her with his near disturbingly neutral gaze. They all sat there in contemplative silence for a time, lost in thought as the surrounding players continued to drink and banter with each other. Kirito noted with some mild amusement that Klein and his boys were teaching Diavel and his crew some very crude sailor ditty that probably shouldn't be sung around minors. Not that she'd stop them, they deserved to let lose now and then after all.
Before her thoughts could wander further Heathcliff broke his silence, "That's what you thought when you got onto the second floor, correct?" She nodded, "If that was what you thought before, what do you think now?"
Asuna felt that Keiko's expression was rather unique as the question was processed with all due consideration. It was something of a mix between a grimace, horror, resignation, and disgust, all in all a rather impressive display really.
"I think," she ground out between clenched teeth, "That if anything is going to get done I may very well have to use my connections and reputation to at the very least form up a core group I can rely on to follow orders. I think...ugh...I think I'm going to have to take a permanent leadership role if we want to make any actual progress."
She probably could not have sounded more disgusted with the concept if she had tried, glancing down at the half empty tankard in her hands she sighed and placed it on the table pushing it away. This had been something she had going on in the back of her head the past few days, the realization that if she wanted it done right she'd have to do it herself. Which sucked, because her social phobias coupled with her badly frayed ability to resist the urge to strangle the idiots surrounding her didn't make for good leadership qualities.
"Sensei, I don't mean to be rude but I think I'm turning in for the night, I have a lot to mull over." She stood and gave Heathcliff a polite nod, glancing over to Asuna her partner stood from her seat and stretched out a bit before smiling in turn.
"Yeah, I'm beat regardless, lets get some rest and think about this in the morning." Saying their fair wells the two young ladies left the tavern leaving Heathcliff on his own, he lingered for a few more minutes before heading back to his own lodgings. Ten minutes later, when he was securely in his room he opened his menu and logged out of the game.
Kayaba sat up from his bed grimacing as his back cracked, he was not getting any younger and while he was generally apathetic about most things even he disliked the aches and pains involved with aging. Removing his Nerve gear he dropped it on the bed and stood stretching languidly, walking over to the fridge he took a bottle of water out and sipped on it while contemplating tonight's events.
They had gone remarkably well all things considered.
His own frustration with the players failing to clear the second floor within the time frame he had allotted not withstanding, his primary goal for the evening had been completed. His chosen heir was a crafty one, not easily led about by others, and of the personality type that would dig in her heels if she thought she was being misled. It had been a delicate balance, to bring up her frustrations, what she wanted to do about it, what had worked in the past, and what she knew had to be done but wanted no part in.
It had worked though, he had gently led her into convincing herself she needed to be a leader in order to win, despite how little she wanted to do so. That had actually been a bit of fun really, after all it wasn't every day you could say you manipulated a naturally manipulative genius with borderline sociopathic tendencies into doing exactly what you wanted. Of course, being a naturally manipulative genius sociopath had given him an unfair advantage, luckily Kayaba had never cared much for fair play.
If Keiko had been an adult he would have been concerned that the one he'd chosen to carry on his legacy was too easily led astray, luckily for him she was not. At only fourteen she had years to learn, years to grow and become someone quite remarkable, and if his estimations were correct he'd have two of those years minimum to himself to properly groom her.
Sitting in his plush computer chair he turned the monitor on and began reviewing the various AI he was toying with in their boxed environments and observed them silently. CARDINAL was at its core one of the most advanced AIs in the world, if not the most advanced, and as the system changed and adapted to the players in Aincrade it evolved slowly on its own. This evolution had a bleed through effect, various other programs slowly becoming contaminated, changing, and becoming, more.
This had been the original purpose for locking the ten thousand players in SAO, or rather one of the primary reasons. He was after all a megalomaniac and would never lie to himself about it, rather enjoying playing god and all, but that was more of a side benefit to the true grand experiment.
Thousands of players, their minds trapped, CARDINAL observing their brainwaves, emotions, trials and tribulations, learning all the while. Thousands of innocent prisoners living their lives, fighting, surviving, dying, loving, hating, fearing, hoping, all the while CARDINAL learned what it was to be alive, to be human, and in turn let these observations change it.
Eventually, hopefully, this would breed a truly sapient and sentient AI, real life, a real consciousness, and when that happened?
Kayaba smiled, "I won't be playing god anymore."
I ALWAYS thought Kayaba's response to Kirito asking why he did it to be pathetically lackluster, I mean really "I don't even remember anymore." is not an acceptable answer. Now, the sociopathic megalomaniac with a god complex sacrificing thousands of innocents to create true artificial intelligence, true life? Now that's some villain mojo there. Hope you all enjoyed, and if you liked it, please review!
P.S. I really need to write those two drunk more often, it amused me almost as much as Argo's antics.