3 Years: 90 Days: 1 Hours: 22 Minute: 49 Seconds Remaining
Tonight has been an awkward affair, to say the least. After saving the lives of this hyperactive guild, who call themselves the Moonlit Black Cats, they invited me to dinner at their base (read inn on the eleventh floor). To be honest I'm not entirely sure how to react to them. I guess you could say that I've been set back a few steps in terms of interacting with people after disappearing for a month and a half. I mean it's not like I really knew much to begin with. I bluffed my way into becoming friends with Klein and his friends under the notion that all had to do is act superior. In fact, that's how I've been approaching a lot of interactions. To be honest though, I can't really do that anymore though.
"I must say Kirito, you were incredible fighting the golem. You must be pretty high leveled, right?"
The one named Kieta says this to me. He's the leader of this nearly doomed enterprise.
"I'm level forty if you must know." I reply.
"Wow, you're nearly twice our level."
I nearly spit out my food, which frankly, is the only reason I've actually stuck around for so long.
"You were trying to take on floor fourteen at level twenty?"
"Yeah, I wanted to try and push us to get better."
"Yeah, well, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing."
Everyone looks at me a little funny for a second.
"What do you mean by that", the one named ducker says.
I groan internally.
"Sorry, that made a lot more sense in my head. What I mean is that pushing yourself to do better is all well and good, but you can get yourselves in over your head if you're not careful."
"Yeah, I think our fight with the golem made that pretty obvious", the one named Tetsuo remarks and the group shares a little chuckle.
"So, given your high level, I'm guessing you're a clearer, right?", the one named Sasamaru asks.
"Sort of", I reply, not exactly wanting to let on how little I've actually been doing to help the clearers.
"Incredible, I didn't think a solo player could hold their own on the front lines", Ducker replies.
Well, normally you can't. Solo players can't usually keep up to players in guilds when it comes to level and equipment. Having multiple players makes it easier to get experience and to take on harder challenges. Nevertheless, don't underestimate my strategy of doing nothing but grinding for a month and a half in order to distract yourself from the maelstrom of your own thoughts. That's a bit of an exaggeration, but still.
"So, Kirito. It's been a long-standing goal of mine for our guild to rise up the ranks and starting helping on the front lines. Do you have any tips for us?"
"You're still going on about that Keita?", Sasamura chastises him. "We're barely able to hold our down here. The front lines are just a pipe dream."
While Keita's guildmates are taking the realistic approach, their guild certainly needs the help, otherwise, they're going to get themselves killed trying to fight more difficult monsters than they have the capabilities to.
"Well, to start you're going to do some serious leveling. I believe that level 20 is the bare minimum for exploring on floor 11. Most of the frontliners are beyond level 30. I'm a bit excessive in that respect, but I do a stupidly ridiculous amount of grinding. That said, there are several people on the front lines who are even higher leveled than I am."
I start looking through their basic character profiles for a second. The numbers aren't good. The highest leveled player seems to be Tetsuo at level 22. The others aren't far behind, with the notable exception of Sachi who is just barely level 19. Thinking back, I'm not sure Sachi has said a word this entire time. At the moment she's just staring off into space and lightly moving her food around with her fork. She looks really uncomfortable. I hope that's not my fault.
"Beyond that, I don't know much about guilds as a whole, but since you're small scale, all you're really going to be doing is forming a single party. Tell what you've got as far as party layout."
Keita answer, "Well out biggest problem is that we put most our skill points into tank builds. Our only real DPS player is Tetsuo. I've been trying to get Sachi to switch to a DPS build though. Right, Sachi."
Sachi looks up momentarily at the sound of her name.
"Oh... right."
Keita's feeble attempt to bring Sachi into the conversation seems to backfire and he turns back to me.
"So, what do you think?"
In SAO, there are generally two strategies for tank players. First, is to use a one-handed sword and a shield, or to just use a sword. As a tank, your goal is to occupy an enemy's agro and to take most of the damage. Most of the time you put player stat points into constitution and strength. As a shield user, you generally use your shield to block an attack. Without a shield, you usually attempt to deflect attacks. To former requires more constitution while the latter requires more strength. From the looks of it though, none of their party uses shields. More skilled players can make that work, but I have a sneaking suspicion that they just put points wherever they wanted and are playing however they want. Interestingly enough, Tetsuo is using a spear, which is difficult to pull off offensively. If he was a player in a top level guild, I'd probably be impressed, but as it stands, it only serves as evidence for my theory that they aren't very well prepared.
I decided to do what I can to advise them and say, "Well, it looks like with the exception of Tetsuo, you're all using a sword defensively. If that's the case, I'd advise putting as many points into strength as possible, as well as several sprinkled into constitution. Additionally, as you mentioned earlier, your party is pretty imbalanced. If you really want to get to the front lines, one of you needs to switch to DPS. Tetsuo, a word of advice, you're also going to want to put a lot of points into strength, but also into speed. That's what most frontline offensive spear users do right now. If you do that, your party should be a bit more balanced. It won't get you all the way, but it should help."
"Well", Samasura says between mouthfuls of food, "You seem to know a lot about party composition for a solo-player."
"I almost feel like we might be able to rise up the ranks a bit more", Ducker says.
"Yeah, well, I play a lot of MMOs and RPGs. Even if this one is a far cry different from your average game, there are definitely some common threads out there."
"Well, thanks for the advice, Kirito!", Kieta replies.
"Well, I should probably take off now. Thanks for the food!", I say, deciding to take the opportunity to bullshit my way out of this conversation.
"Oh, well, we'll see you around then", Ducker says.
"Thanks for all the help", Tetsuo chimes for the help.
"Yeah, thanks!", Samasura says.
"No problem", I reply, hoping my voice doesn't sound as uneasy as I feel.
"You look out for us on the front line", Kieta proclaims. "And feel free to drop by any time!"
"Yeah", I say, getting up and head for the door.
As I pass by, Sachi looks up a bit and gives a weak wave. I'm taken aback for a brief moment before I continue out of the door, the rest of their guild waving me off more enthusiastically.
The inn that the Moonlit Black Cats have made their temporary base of operations is in the main settlement of the eleventh floor, a town called Taft. I only vaguely remembered the town from the beta considering that we reached it right before the beta ended. From what I remember, it has remained basically untouched between the two versions. The town is composed completely of a variety of brick houses. The houses are all painted pretty brightly and there's almost always no space in between them. After sitting down on a bench in the square of the town, I open up my menu and notice that I have a couple of messages. One from Iota and one from PoH. Both of them said something along the lines of: Where the hell were you and why did you take so long to contact us once you rejoined the world of the living? Seeing as I really didn't have anything planned and it was only like nine-thirty, I send a message asking both of them if they wanted to meet me in Taft. Then I noticed something. My friend request list was clogged up. To my horror I discovered that in the month and a half I was gone, upwards of a thousand friend requests had been sent by… TommyBoi420. I've basically been ignoring all of his messages since he first sent me a friend request on the first floor and well, that backfired. I browse through my message history for a moment. It seems he went from annoyed, to desperate, to full-blown psychopath since he sent the first request. My personal favorite was one that read, "I don't know why you haven't responded to my messages, but if you don't, I will find you and I will kill you." Just then I noticed that both Iota and PoH have responded that they're taking care of something really quick and that they'll be down in a few minutes.
While I wait, I think back to my conversation with the Moonlit Black Cats. They all seemed to be good people, Keita's lofty goals aside. Even so, it seemed they all wanted to do some good. They're like Klein's guild, expect less competent and poorly organized. I don't know why, but Sachi really worried me. It seemed to me that she had completely closed herself off. I don't know if Keita and the others noticed or not, but regardless, he seemed pretty insistent on shifting her to a DPS position. All of a sudden, I noticed a person standing in front of me, Keita.
"What are you still doing out here. I mean, I know the cold is virtual and all, but it doesn't exactly feel great."
"Oh", I say, a little flustered and surprised, "I'm just waiting for a couple of people."
"You should have stayed inside then."
"I didn't want to be a bother."
"Dude, you saved our lives. That's the last thing you needed to worry about."
"Yeah, well, I also didn't want things to drag on."
"I guess that's fair."
Keita sits down on the bench next to me.
"Look, I wanted to apologize for Sachi. Once you get to know her, she's great, but she lacks self-confidence. I wanted to put her up on the frontlines in order to help her out, but she seems pretty resistant."
I'm a little taken aback at this. I decide to tell a small lie to help him out.
"Well, all you can do is encourage her."
"Look, from what I can see, you're all pretty naturally talented. You just lacked the experience and know how to properly take advantage of that. If you keep it up, you all could be great players."
"Wow, thanks! Can I tell that to Sachi?!", Keita asks.
"Uh, yeah, go ahead. I don't really have a reason to stop you."
"Well, yeah, but anyways, thanks again for today, and drop by again sometime!"
"Yeah, sure."
Keits gets up and walks back into the inn. I suddenly realize why I was worried about Sachi. She reminds me of myself. I was just like that before SAO. Completely closed off from everyone. Maybe I'm just projecting myself onto her, but Keita's plan to put her on the frontline might help. Once I got into SAO, my skill in the game, along with all of my new friends, helped me gain the confidence I needed to act like a normal human being again. I remember how terrible it was for me before I got stuck in this game. Maybe that's why it felt like such a relief for me be trapped here. This is a world where I can let who I truly show. A world where I can truly have confidence in myself. In all honesty, I think the Moonlit Black Cats would be better as a small-scale guild that just has fun. Although they have some talent, I highly over-exaggerated it to Keita. I just hope that it will get them to work hard to get better.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the teleport circle activate. Iota, PoH and Johnny Black appear. They notice me on a bench and walk over.
"There you are, I was wondering where you had been, FOR THE LAST MONTH AND A HALF!" PoH shouts.
"Sorry, sorry. That was pretty immature of me."
Iota takes his turn next, "Kirito, remember when I spent like a month drilling self-confidence into your head and telling you not to blame yourself?"
"What do you know, I went and did just that", I reply laughing, and the rest of them join in.
"Seriously, I kinda didn't realize what a big help you were until you were gone. We've gotten by just fine though", Johnny comments, and then his face lights up, "Also though what's your level right now, I want to see if after a month of inactivity, I've finally surpassed you."
"Forty", I reply, with a sly smile on my face.
"F-forty! How the fuck! You disappear from the front line for a month and a half and you're level forty."
"Hey, don't underestimate the power of grinding away on cannon fodder for twelve hours a day."
"Twelve hours a day! That's almost even more surprising", Johnny replies, shaking his head in disbelief.
"Your patience for the most insufferable things never ceases to amaze me Kirito", Iota says.
"Yeah. And you know what? I almost missed your Kayaba philosophy lessons. Almost!", PoH exclaims.
"Good god, we're going to have to deal with that again aren't we", Johnny states.
"Yup", I reply laughing. "So, what have you guys been up to lately?"
"Well, besides the clearing and grinding, the campaign is actually really cool. I know you probably haven't caught up yet so I won't spoil anything but it's been fun so far", PoH mentions.
"Oh also, we started a guild!" Johnny exclaims.
"Nice", I reply.
"You interested in joining?", Iota asks.
"Uh, I don't know, maybe."
The three of them look a little confused for a second.
"What are we not good enough for you?", PoH asks, sarcastically.
"No, it's not that, it's just..."
What was it then? I'd been good friends with these guys for a while. There weren't really any detriments to joining a guild. Logically speaking, I had no reason to say no. Why did I still feel reluctant then? Was I afraid of something, was I pushing them away? Well, I needed to stop that. I finally had friends, I wasn't about to turn them down.
"Actually, sure I'll join!"
"Nice", PoH said, "I'll send you an invite."
"By the way what's it called?", I ask.
"Laughing Coffin", Iota replied.
3 Years: 90 Days: 0 Hours: 41 Minutes: 5 Seconds Remaining
"Wow, that's kinda morbid", I reply.
"Actually, it was Xaxa's idea. We were planning to make the guild a while ago before, you know...", PoH remarks.
"Yeah…", I say, trailing off.
"He loved his grandiose names", Johnny comments. "Red Eyed Xaxa was always his favorite gamertag, followed by Sterben. That's German for death apparently."
"Yeah, I can see him doing that that", I say. "Still though, even if I didn't know him for that long, he was a good guy."
PoH nods to himself and sends the guild invite to me. After a brief moment of hesitation, I accept. All of sudden I remember something a certain red-haired (not) samurai said to me.
"You know, maybe we could make a grave for him. Give Xaxa a proper send off."
The other three look at me with surprise for a second.
"Huh", PoH says, "Maybe that would be a good idea. I hardly think a crossed off name on the Monument of Life is a proper way to remember him."
3 Years: 89 Days: 14 Hours: 23 Minutes: 57 Seconds Remaining
Iota, PoH, Jonny and I meet up the next morning on the eighth floor. I asked Klein what he used as a headstone for Dale's grave and he referred me to an engraving NPC shop on floor thirteen. The headstone currently resides in my inventory and we begin to walk toward the fallen elves ambush location. When we arrive, the sun still hasn't quite risen yet. I take the headstone out of my inventory and clumsily put it in place at about the place where Xaxa was crushed. The inscription reads, 'Here lies Red Eyed Xaxa, yet another tragic result of the Sword Art Online incident. To any who read this, remember to keep moving forward no matter what. Kayaba wants us to give up and we can't let him win.' Cheesy, sure, but it gets to point across. I don't actually know how many people will actually see this considering that as a whole, the Elven War Campaign is over now. From what Argo told me, the campaign ended with the two sides agreeing to equal representation in the council and even letting the fallen elves have some representation despite what they did. I'm still trying to figure out what Kayaba was getting at with the ending to the campaign. Maybe a message about benevolence. Kind of an ironic message for someone who trapped ten thousand people in a video game.
The four of us climb up to the top of the fallen snow and gaze out over the horizon. Slowly the horizon starts to climb above the edge of Aincrad. Softly illuminating the sparkling snow that covers the eighth floor. Out of habit, I avert my eyes from the sun even though it can't do any damage my virtual or real eyes. Then again, I wouldn't put it past Kayaba to stop the NerveGear from transmitting visual data to the brain or something equally frustrating.
"To Xaxa", PoH says, bitterly.
"To Xaxa", the rest of us say.
We all sit in silence for a moment more.
"You know, a part of me wants to blame Klein and his party", PoH reveals. "I know how you feel about that Iota, but at the same time..."
He trails off for a moment.
"Sorry, it's just I kind of get what you and Kirito have been talking about. How shifting the blame just makes thing worse. I want so much to blame them, but I guess that would really only make it worse."
"It's tough isn't it", I say. "I mean, in my case, the problem was taking the blame, but I know just as well that taking your anger out on someone else never helps."
"There's nothing we can do about it now except move forward in his stead", Johnny says, resolutely.
The sun finishes rising and then the whole eighth floor is illuminated once again. In SAO, a general ambient light remains in the air even if the sun is nowhere to be seen. Thinking about it, I guess that's another flaw of Sword Art Online. I guess he had the idea for a massive castle before he actually thought about how it was going to be lit.
"Got some Kayaba philosophy for you if you're interested", I mention.
"I swear to God, Kirito", PoH says chuckling.
"Yeah okay, I won't say anything. On a lighter note, what do you say we bury the hatchet and go on some questing?"
"That", Iota says, standing up, "Sounds like an excellent idea."
We all get up and trudge back to a settlement, leaving behind the memory of Xaxa.
3 Years: 87 Days: 10 Hours: 13 Minutes: 49 Seconds Remaining
The floor fifteen boss is some sort of hybrid between a spider and an abominable snowman. The snow spider is covered in a sort of blanched white hair and its legs are made of razor-sharp ice. Its attack patterns consist mostly of downward jabs its legs and jumping around the boss room, both of which are quite frustrating to deal with. It's much harder to keep the aggro away from recovering players when the boss won't stop jumping right on top of them. The chamber for the boss room is made completely of nearly transparent ice and several large pillars to support the whole thing.
The abominable spider takes off with another jump leaving the raid party scrambling to attack. Along with the couple other people who seem to have discovered the skill, I jump forward with a "Vorpal Strike", which helps me close the distance between the boss and I. After landing the skill, I pull into a "Horizontal" strike, which allows me to strike the monster's leg once again. I'm unable to pull off another skill though and I end up in the post-skill movement lock. However, the recovering players have gotten the chance to relocate and the rest of the active fighters have caught up. Iota and the rest of my newfound guild pull up next to me.
"Nice one! As long as we can keep this up, we should be able to pull this off", Iota shouts to me.
"Yeah", I reply.
As soon as I can, I launch into another skill. I unleash a series of four strikes to the abominable spider's legs, successfully completing a "Horizontal Square" skill. I transition out with a backward dodge and let the rest of my party have their turn. With a screech, the spider is reduced to its final phase as its last health bar drops below fifty percent. It jumps straight up into the air, but instead of sailing to another portion of the room, it falls right back down, inflicting damage onto many of the players below. The spider repeats this attack twice more, but fortunately each time fewer people are hit by the attack. I take a split second to judge whether or not it will jump again and then use a "Vorpal Strike" to rejoin the fray. The spider doesn't throw us any more surprises and in a final push, we are able to whittle away the last of the monster's health. It fractures into polygons and the door to the next floor is opened.
"Whoo, another boss defeated", Johnny says, breathing heavily.
It's kind of weird to think that even though all of this is virtual, our brains are still following their fight or flight responses. I start to wonder how that would look on the other side. Definitely some form of increased heart rate. I wonder how the doctors and nurses who are looking after our bodies on the other side react when it happens. Do they wait with bated breath or something similar? I'm drawn back to Earth (or Aincrad more accurately) by the approach of another party. Asuna and Agil's to be more specific.
"Kirito", Asuna says. "It's nice to see you're back on the front lines."
"Miss me?", I ask, sarcastically.
"N-no", she replies. "I will admit though that you've been a big help, though."
"You can drop the stoic act", I say and Asuna sighs.
"Geez, how exactly do you expect me to act after you disappear for a month and a half."
"Yeah, man", Agil chimes in, "You had me worried. And although she won't admit it, I think Asuna was worried as well."
"I was not!", Asuna says exasperatedly.
"You're not fooling anyone", another one of her party members comments.
After a hmph, Asuna turns back to me, "Look, suffice to say, I think we were all worried when you went missing. I saw what happened on floor nine. It seems weird to be saying this after you went around preaching it for months, but you can't blame yourself."
"Yeah, yeah", I reply.
"On another note, you need to stop showing off. You're going to get yourself and others killed if you don't stick to the plan."
"I didn't see the jumping spider sticking to our plans. I was adapting to the situation."
"No..."
We go on bickering for a moment before PoH comments, "Well, it's nice to see that things are back to normal. Why don't we go open up the teleport gate? Take a first look at the sixteenth floor."
"Sure", I say returning my attention to the door. "It's been a while since I've done this."
Several groups have already filtered through the door revealing a dimly light icy passage. Our two parties make our way up to the door and into the passageway. As we go the ice seems to melt away revealing stone wall that seems to be slick with moisture. As we emerge into the next floor, the sun temporarily blinds me. I slowly take in my surroundings and I can't help but let out a low whistle. The entire floor is covered in what looks like a bunch of terraced waterfalls. Different rock formations protrude from the base of the floor, which is completely covered in water. They range from thin spires to massive chunks of granite but water cascades down all of them indiscriminately. Where there isn't water there's vegetation and incredibly rendered rocks.
"Oh, great", Agil says, "A water level."
And then we all bust out laughing.