Chapter 3

The sun was just starting to disappear behind Tent City's outer wall when I arrived at Fountain Square and sat on the ground, joining the crowd that was gathering around a single player standing above the rest.

"OK, if everyone's ready we'll get started now."

No one moved or made a sound. The plain-looking player in a blue shirt and brown pants standing on the edge of the fountain took that as his signal to go on.

"The bottom line is this: we're running out of money. At this rate, the Campers will be bankrupt before the end of the month, which will leave us unable to buy food."

"Camper" was a term that came into existence recently to describe the players who chose to remain in the safety of Tent City rather than go out questing and trying to clear the game. As of now, I fell into that category. And I, like the other Campers, was running out of money.

"That's true, Hiro," another player said, "but does it really matter? You don't actually have to eat to survive in this world."

"You're not wrong," Hiro replied. "You don't technically need to eat to sustain your body in Sword Art: Legacy. However, the ExcelRig does simulate the feeling of hunger. If that gets bad enough, morale will start to decline, and we can't let it get any lower than this…"

"You've got a point, there…"

I looked around at the sunken faces of the avatars surrounding me. A symphony of rumbling sounds came from their stomachs to emphasize Hiro's point.

"That's why I've called this meeting. We need to find a way to raise money so the Campers can continue to eat."

"What about quests?" one of the players offered. "There are some relatively easy ones in the areas just outside Tent City."

"True," said Hiro. "But the Col yields are low. We wouldn't be able to sustain the population with just a few people repeating the easy quests over and over. In order for that plan to work, every Camper would have to do the quests for themselves, and that would involve fighting monsters. If everyone were willing to do that, we wouldn't be having this conversation."

"True… Sorry."

"Most MMOs have crafting systems that allow players to make items that they can sell, or, in some cases, even make their own food," another player said, mostly to himself. "I'm sure Legacy is no different, but at this point in the game there aren't enough crafting recipes or ingredients available to us."

"Right." Hiro nodded. "So crafting our own food or means to pay for it is out."

"Dammit! This is hopeless!" A player dressed entirely in black stood abruptly and stomped on the ground once. His teeth were gritted and his fists clenched, and he stared at the ground, avoiding eye contact with anyone. "I say we all just give up and be done with this nightmare. We run out into the fields and let the monsters do the rest. That way that bastard Hirata doesn't get the satisfaction of watching us suffer!"

A murmur kicked up like a cold autumn breeze and my breath caught in my throat as I heard a few hushed whispers of agreement.

"Please, calm down, everyone." Hiro hushed the crowd with a raised hand. "There's no need to resort to that. We're going to get through this—all of us, together. We need to stay strong."

"Hiro," a player called out, raising her voice to be heard over the droning mob. "You must have something in mind already, right? You wouldn't have called this meeting otherwise."

"Yes, I do have a plan of my own, and I apologize for withholding it until this point. I kept quiet because I had hoped that we'd be able to come up with something better."

"Well, let's hear it," said the player who'd first suggested giving up. "Let's hear this grand plan of yours, oh, wise leader."

Hiro ignored the black-clad player and cleared his throat. "If you travel northwest, past the field and through the forest, you'll come to a lone cottage belonging to an old miner. He's an NPC—a questgiver, more specifically. He offers a quest in which you track down and kill a giant, spotted kobold. Unfortunately, there isn't much information to go off of other than that. While the Col reward for completing the quest is high compared to what you can get around here, it's lower than some of the other quests you can pick up on the other side of the forest, and the EXP yield is minimal. For those reasons, the Assault Team and info brokers largely ignored it."

"Let me get this straight," the same black-clad player from before stood up again. "You want us to go fight some monster that even the Assault Team doesn't have any info on? And what the heck is a kobold? I've never heard of that. So that means this thing is completely different from the monsters around Tent City. Did I miss anything?"

"Yeah," said another player. "What if this thing is, like, crazy strong!?"

I couldn't help but agree with them. I knew what a kobold was, but it wasn't that word that concerned me. What bothered me was the word "spotted." When I thought about it, Hiro probably said "spotted kobold" instead of just "kobold" because that's the way the questgiver phrased it. I'd never seen a kobold in this game before, so for all I knew they could be spotted by default. But if they were, why would the questgiver specifically mention that it was spotted? My guess was that this particular kobold, the one with the spots, was a unique variant. Maybe even a Named Monster.

"I'll admit it's not the safest plan," Hiro said patiently over the others. "But I believe it's our best bet at the moment. If anyone has a better idea, I'm open to suggestions."

The square fell silent.

"In that case, we'll go through with my plan. Are there any volunteers?"

The square remained silent.

"I was afraid of that. Everyone, I'd ask that you please stand up."

We did as Hiro asked and rose to our feet.

"Now, would anyone who has not been on a quest after day one please be seated."

Right off the bat, most of the players in Fountain Square sat back down and I did not like where this was going.

"If you have never been into the forest past the fields, please be seated."

Another sizable chunk of players took their seats, leaving only three players standing. My stomach started doing somersaults.

"If you have no experience fighting Named Monsters, please be seated."

Now only one person was left standing.

Hiro approached me. "Your name is Nanashi, right?"

"Y-yes…"

"Nanashi, I'm not telling you to do this, nor am I asking you. I'm begging you. Please, for all our sakes, will you do this?"

"…I will," I said, not feeling that I had much choice in the matter.

After that, the meeting was adjourned. The players gathered around Fountain Square picked themselves up and shuffled off in every direction while I stayed back for a bit and Hiro told me how to find the questgiver. He warned me to be careful, saying that my life was more important than the money, but his eyes were pleading, begging me to be successful. I nodded, and Hiro and I parted ways.

As I started down the path toward the inn I was staying at someone grabbed my wrist and pulled me back.

"Huh…?" I turned around and blinked at the black-clad avatar from earlier.

"Nanashi, was it? What exactly are you trying to pull?"

"What…?"

"What are you playing at by volunteering for that quest? If you're so talented and experienced, why don't you just stick to easy quests and fend for yourself? Or, better yet, why not join the Assault Team? What do you stand to gain by helping the rest of us?" He stared me down and I stared back, unable to move or look away. His eyes were cold pools of black. They reminded me of black holes, the way no light escaped them at all. I felt a shiver go down my spine and tore myself away from his gaze.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I muttered.

"Whatever." He let go of my wrist and stuffed his hands in his pockets as he turned his back to me, then stormed away. "Just one last thing," he called over his shoulder. "I'd stick to minding my own business if I were you, 'hero.'" He turned a corner and disappeared.

"What the hell is his deal…?" I wondered aloud.

"Don't listen to him. I think you're really cool!"

"Aw, thanks. Wait—what?" I spun on my heel and looked around, then down. Standing there, smiling up at me with sweet, innocent eyes and short, messy, chocolate-brown hair was a small girl. By my guess, she was maybe eleven years old, twelve at the oldest. However, I didn't want to assume that after meeting the disproportionately tiny Nezumi. "Oh, hello…miss…" I said awkwardly.

"Hiya, mister," she chirped back. "I'm Himeko! I just wanted to say you're really cool for for going on that mission!"

"Cool…? I don't know about that."

"You are, though! You stood up and accepted that request without any hesitation!" Himeko struck a pose and lowered her voice to sound like a hero from a cheesy action movie. "'I will… I will go, beat the monster, and save everyone'—like that!"

"I didn't say anything like that. I'm not doing this because I want to, you know."

"Yeah, I know. It's dangerous to go alone, after all. That's why I'm going with you!"

"Wait…what? No way. Out of the question."

"Aha! But it wasn't a question, dummy!"

I groaned and started to feel a little more confident about my estimate regarding her age. "There's no way I'm taking you with me. If something happened… I don't want to have the death of a kid on my conscience."

"Ah, ah, ah," she scolded, wagging her finger. "Don't go underestimating me just because I'm young. Kids can be good at video games, too, you know."

She had a point. Still… "The answer is no, and that's final."

"Hmm… OK, I won't go with you. I'll just head in the same direction at the same general time as you. When are you leaving?"

"…Nine o'clock."

"Roger! Oh, and I hope you weren't planning on giving me a fake time. Because if so, I'll have to go into the forest alone and look for you. And I could die in there! You wouldn't want a kid's death on you conscience, would you?"

"…In that case, meet me by the main entrance at eight."

"Teehee, that's what I thought."

Before heading back to the inn, I found a merchant selling tents and bought the smallest, cheapest one they had. After the Secret Medicine of the Forest quest I had just enough Col to buy that and a few rolls of bread. I bought the bread from another vendor and stuffed it in my inventory, then made my way toward the inn and marched up to my room, pushed through the canvas door flap, and dropped myself on my bed.

I closed my eyes and tried to get to sleep, but my mind raced with catastrophic predictions about how the next few days would unfold.

Eventually, I did drift off to sleep and morning came. I got out of bed and equipped my boots through the menu and headed downstairs. I sat at the wooden counter and ordered a piece of black bread from the NPC waitress. When it arrived, I pulled out the little jar Nezumi had given me and quickly smothered the bread with cream, careful not to let anyone else see. I scarfed the bread down and stood up, pushed through the big canvas door flap and into the oppressive sunlight, and made my way toward Tent City's main entrance.

I had hoped that Himeko would have changed her mind last night and wouldn't show up, but, sure enough, there she was.

"Hi, Mister Nanashi!" Himeko waved with a bright smile and equally bright eyes.

"Morning," I groaned and lifted my right hand in a sad attempt at a wave, then used the same hand to stifle a yawn.

"Let's work hard together and beat this quest!"

"Yeah, let's."

"Well, what're we waiting for? Come on!" Himeko turned away and started skipping down the dirt path away from the city.

"Hold on just a sec."

"Come on! What's the hold up?"

I opened my menu and clicked on my equipment mannequin, then quickly dragged my gloves, belt, leather chest piece, Coat of Midnight, and Annealed Blade to the appropriate slots, then closed the menu. In a flash of light, the items appeared on my body simultaneously, the hem of my coat falling dramatically to my feet.

"Whoa!" Himeko gasped. "That was so cool! You look so cool!"

"It's not all that cool… At any rate, where's your weapon?"

"Hm? Oh, right. Don't worry about that. It's kind of a pain to carry around, so I keep it stashed in my inventory. But it's OK, I can get it out super fast. You'll see."

"If you say so." I figured it didn't matter too much. If I had it my way, Himeko would stay behind me while I handled the fighting. Of course, things hardly ever went my way…

"Anyway," she chirped. "Let's get going!" She skipped merrily down the trail and I walked briskly after her.

. . .

"Whoa!"

"Whoa" was right. We had been walking for a good forty five minutes and were deep in the forest when three Dire Wolves appeared out of nowhere. They caught us off guard, so I wasn't able to react in time to keep them from calling in backup. But it didn't matter. As the Dire Wolves leapt at me in turn I swatted them away with my Annealed Blade. One hit was all it took to turn each one into a cloud of colorful, translucent polygons. No Sword Skills necessary.

"Mister Nanashi!" Himeko shrieked. "That was uh-may-zing! You are the absolute coolest! I can't believe how strong you are!"

Himeko was looking at me with her jaw hanging open and her eyes, which were considerably large by default, were bulging out of their sockets. I was looking down at the Annealed Blade in my right hand with the exact same expression. This thing is awesome! I screamed in my head. Is it really OK for me to have this? Ultimately, I didn't care whether or not it was OK. This Annealed Blade was my new best friend.

"Awesome!" Himeko cheered as I destroyed another wave of Dire Wolves with ease.

"Amazing!" Himeko cried as I eradicated a horde of Nepenthes without breaking a sweat.

"So cool!" Himeko squealed as I annihilated a pack of boars in the blink of an eye.

We made it through the forest in a little under two hours. I had been prepared for the trip to take a lot longer, and I was so grateful to my new sword I could kiss it. But I didn't, of course, because that would be weird.

"Where's the little cottage that Hiro mentioned?" Himeko made a visor over her eyes with her hand and scanned the area.

We had exited the forest into another plains area. Instead of a rich green, though, these plains were dusty with patches of faded, dead grass blotting the landscape. The area was littered with the crumbling remains of quaint-looking brick houses, but aside from those ruined structures the area was ominously empty. No mobs or NPCs in sight.

"I don't see it. But there's a path here along the edge of the forest leading west. Maybe it's that way?"

"Maybe. Let's go see."

We started down the path and walked for twenty minutes, enveloped in uncomfortable silence. There were no ambient sound effects playing like birds chirping or squirrels chattering. The only sounds were those of our footsteps and the wind, which blew quietly and deliberately as if agitated by our presence.

At the end of the path sat a wooden cottage. The smoke puffing out of the chimney suggested that someone was still living here. "This must be the place," I said.

"So cute. I want to live here."

I chuckled at Himeko as I stepped up to the door and knocked. After a moment the door opened with a loud click and a heavy creaking sound. An old man with a scrawny build, a long, silver beard, and a one-eyed scowl stood in the door frame. A yellow cursor and the name "Old Miner" hovered above his head. The old man looked at us without saying a word, and the three of us stood in silence for what felt like a very, very long time.

"Uh…" I started. "Hello, sir…"

"…" The old man didn't reply.

"H-how are you today…?"

"…"

Himeko nudged my ribs with her elbow. "We're on a mission! We're not trying to sell cookies!"

"Shush." I thought for a moment. I figured I'd have to say something specific—a certain question or statement that the NPC's AI recognized—in order to trigger the quest, but it was anyone's guess as to what that was. "What're you doing living out here all by yourself?"

"…" The old man glared up at me, his expression unchanging.

"Uhm… Nice place you've got here. Can you tell me about it?"

"…"

"Uhm… What's your story, old-timer?"

"…"

"…There're, like, no people or animals around here. What's up with that…?"

"…"

"…"

"You were so reliable before, but now…" Himeko looked at me with a mixture of pity and disappointment.

"I don't see you coming up with anything."

Himeko snickered and turned away from me.

"Hrrrm…" I crossed my arms and closed my eyes, flipping through the images in my mind that I thought could be relevant to the situation and, finally, I had something. "Could you tell us about the ruins to the east?"

"So ya wanna know 'bout the ruins, do ya?"

"Aha!" My heart leaped, forcing me to hop with it, and I pumped both fists in celebration.

Himeko snickered again. "…Adorable."

"Ahem." I cleared my throat and tried to ignore the burning sensation in my cheeks. "Yes, please tell us what you know."

"Come on in here, then. Siddown."

Himeko and I exchanged skeptical glances before stepping into the cottage. The old man produced two wooden chairs and ordered us to sit. We sat. He then spent a few moments by the stove and came back with two small cups. "Drink," he said, shoving the cups into our hands. I was cautious at first, but the liquid in the cup seemed to be tea, so I sipped it politely, as did Himeko.

"You wanna know the story behin' the ruins, eh?" the old man repeated himself. "Well I'll tell ya. It's all thanks to the Kobold Lord 'n' his army. Or what's left of it, anyway."

Kobold Lord? I thought. I wondered if that could be the spotted kobold Hiro sent us after.

"The Kobold Lord's sent his minions to pillage the town for generations. After a while it became too much for folks. They up 'n' left, now I'm the only one who's still here. Ain't no mangy kobold gon' drive me off o' my property."

"You're really brave, staying here even though those nasty kobold are so close by," Himeko said.

"Hrmph." The old man rocked back and forth in his chair.

"So," I said, trying to move the quest along. "Would it make things easier for you if we got rid of this Kobold Lord?"

"Pffft," the old man spat. "Naw. The kobold 'round these parts haven't answered to him for years. Them's a splinter cell, y'see?"

"Oh…?"

"These kobold answer to a commander by the name o' Death Spots."

"Death…Spots…?" Himeko and I said together.

"That's right. I know his name 'cause I'm the one who gave it to 'im. Ol' Death Spots is a big kobold—bigger'n all the other kobold, but smaller'n the Kobold Lord—an' he got dark spots all over his fur, an' catchin' sight o' him means certain death! That's why I gave 'im the name 'Death Spots.'"

The monster this old geezer was talking about was definitely the spotted kobold we were looking for. Moreover, based on this description, "Death Spots" was definitely a Named Monster.

"So, where can we find this 'Death Spots,' sir?" I asked, leaning forward in my chair.

"Hold on, sonny! I ain't finished yet!"

"Right! S-sorry!"

For the next thirty eight minutes I sipped my tea calmly and politely while resisting the urge to find the nearest solid object and bash my skull against it repeatedly. Apparently, before we could accept the quest, we had to sit and listen to this old guy regale us with the tale of his many encounters with Death Spots, how he'd just barely escaped with his life on numerous occasions, and how his last attempt to take down the spotted kobold had cost him a whole party of fighters from the now ruined town. All of this was very tragic, but the sooner he'd shut up, the sooner we could go avenge him and his friends.

"…an' to this day I stay here, waitin' for a chance to get back at that spotted demon. An' now you folks come along, 'n' I get to thinkin' maybe you can give ol' Death Spots what's comin' to 'im in my place."

"Yes… We'd be glad to…" I sighed. "If you could just tell us where…?"

I stole a glance at Himeko who, despite her age, was showing remarkable patience. She rocked back and forth in her chair slowly and sipped her tea, then let out a contented sigh.

"You can find ol' Death Spots by headin' through the ruins 'n' followin' the trail through the rotted woods. You'll come to the mouth of a big ol' cave that looks like death itself lives in there. Which it does, 'cause that's where you'll find ol' Death Spots himself."

Finally!

"Right," I said, jumping to my feet and practically leaping to the door. "Come on, Himeko, let's get out of here."

Himeko leaned back in her chair and finished the rest of her tea. Then, she leaned forward and handed the cup back to the Old Miner. "Thank you very much for the tea, sir. It was delicious!"

"Hrmph. It ain't nothin' special. I'm glad ya liked it nonetheless."

"And thank you for the story. Don't worry, we'll take care of that mean old kobold for you. Your friends can rest easy."

"Agh! Go on, git!" The Old Miner's face turned red and he swatted the air as if trying to fan Himeko away. "Git along now, li'l missy. And you take care now, y'hear?"

Himeko laughed. "I will. You, too, mister."

Himeko's face went from sweet to sour the moment the door closed. "Ugh," she sighed. "I thought he'd never shut up."

"What's with the sudden change in attitude?" I asked as we started along the path. "You two seemed to be getting along just fine."

"Well, I didn't want to be rude. Just because he's an NPC doesn't mean I'm gonna forget my manners…like a certain someone."

"Ahaha…"

The eerie silence returned as we neared the ruined village, so I started to talk again to ease my own nerves. "So, Himeko, why did you want to come with me, anyway?"

"Well, I was starting to feel a little guilty just sitting around the city and waiting for something to happen, but I was way too scared to go out on my own. I would've gone out with a party or something, but of course all of the people who were willing to leave Tent City are long gone."

"So you wanted to go out into the field and put yourself in danger?"

"It's not that I wanted to put myself in danger. I wanted to help. I just don't feel right sitting on my butt when I could be doing something more, you know? I can't just sit back while people like you risk their lives for my sake."

I felt a pang of guilt as she spoke. I don't know where she'd gotten this image of me as some kind of hero, but she couldn't be more wrong. This little girl, who wanted to be out here, who was willingly putting her life on the line for others, had ten times the guts that I did.

"You're an inspiration, Nanashi!"

"Listen, Himeko, I'm not—"

I stopped mid-sentence and strained my ears. The ruins weren't quite as silent as they'd been before.

"Hm? You're not wh—"

"Shh…"

I could just make out a sort of snarling sound on the other side of the crumbled wall to my left.

"Watch out!" I grabbed Himeko's collar and jumped backward, just barely avoiding a small, anthropomorphic canid creature that had jumped over the wall swinging a hand axe.

"Nice save," Himeko huffed.

I drew my Annealed Blade and pulled it back, queuing up Rage Spike, and trained my gaze on the Lesser Kobold. As soon as the skill activated, I thrust the blade forward and dashed past the creature. As soon as the post-motion delay ended I spun around and swung my sword twice, taking out the rest of the kobold's HP. A second passed and the kobold lost all of its color before exploding into a million pieces.

"There's more!" Himeko cried as I was starting to sheathe my sword.

"Dammit…" I drew the blade again and faced two more Lesser Kobold that had just appeared from behind another ruin. "Stay back, Himeko…" I backstepped one of the kobold's axe swings, then waited for the other one to get close and hit them both with Horizontal. The skill took a little more than half of each kobold's HP. I just had to be careful and wait for a chance to—

"Nanashi!"

I twisted around to look at Himeko. She was pointing to yet another ruined building. Three more Lesser Kobold were climbing over one of its walls, snarling and glaring in our direction.

"Are you kidding me…!?"

I turned back to the first two kobold and lashed out twice. I managed to hit them both, killing them, but not before taking a hit from the closer of the two.

I grabbed Himeko's hand and started to run back the way we came from, but I'd barely started moving before two more kobold dropped from the walls on either side of the path and blocked the way.

"So that's how it is…" I hissed through clenched teeth. "I'll have to fight, then," I said to myself. Despite those words, my hands had already begun to shake. I gripped my Annealed Blade with both hands, my eyes darting side to side as I backed into an alley with Himeko behind me.

"You can do it, Nanashi!" she cheered.

The kobold were closing in, and with each moment more of them showed up. I let three of them get close to me—as many as I dared—before unleashing another Horizontal and sending them flying. Two of them hit my exposed flank while I was caught in the post-motion delay. My breath caught in my throat, but I choked back the panic and tried to think.

I only had three Sword Skills, but I couldn't risk using Rage Spike under these circumstances. I'd shoot past my target, leaving Himeko exposed. Slant could only hit one target, so it was all I could do to fend off the kobold while I waited out Horizontal's cooldown period. But that wouldn't be easy. After the fiasco with the Nepenthes in the woods I'd reached level four. But these Lesser Kobold seemed to average at about level six, and I was severely outnumbered.

I braced my blade with my free hand to block an incoming overhand swing from one of the kobold and kicked it back, then parried another blow from my right and made two wide cuts to force the kobold to back up, but the others were getting closer and my breathing was starting to accelerate. I used Horizontal again as soon as it was ready, but I only managed to hit two of the kobold this time. I took three more hits from the other kobold and my HP turned from green to yellow.

"Rrk!" I grunted. I had been about to swear, but somehow, even in this situation, I had the wherewithal to remind myself there was a child present. That's right… It's not just my life that's at risk. If I die here, then Himeko…

I growled as I lashed out at the two closest kobold, then used Horizontal again, pushing back another three. Two of them lost the remainder of their HP and shattered, but just as I allowed myself to smile my relief was replaced by fresh despair. More and more kobold were pouring into the street by the second, and there was nowhere left to run. I was fighting a bit more carefully now, allowing only a few nicks to get past my defense and carefully timing my Horizontal to hit as many kobold as possible, buying as much time as I could for my recovery, but we wouldn't last long like this. And then, to make matters worse…

"What the…?" I stood in the starting position for another Horizontal, but, as the kobold closed in around me, nothing happened. "What's going on? Why won't it work!?" I checked the skill icon in the lower right corner of my vision. Horizontal's icon had disappeared, meaning the cooldown period was over. "So why…?"

"You have to watch your SP gauge!" Himeko screamed.

"M-my…my what!?" I shrieked as I held off three of the little monsters.

"Your Stamina Points! The purple bar under your HP. Don't you know that already…?"

"Uh…" What purple bar!? I scanned the upper left corner of my UI for the gauge Himeko was talking about, but I didn't see anything. No… Wait. There was a bar after all. I almost didn't see it, because it was so completely empty, but there was a tiny sliver of purple beneath my dwindling HP bar. Dammit! I cursed myself. All this time there had been a stamina cost in addition to the cooldown periods when it came to Sword Skills and I'd had no idea. I wanted to curse Nezumi for not telling me. Some info broker, I whined. But the reality I didn't want to face was that this was my fault. That bar had been there all along. All I had to do was look, and I would have noticed it dropping every time I used a Sword Skill. I hadn't been paying attention, and now I was going to die because of it.

A choked gasp leaped out of my throat at the sight of my HP bar turning from yellow to red. "Himeko…I'm sorry," I said, squeezing my eyes shut. "Run away the first chance you get, OK?"

"No, Nanashi. It's OK."

"…What?"

"Just hold out for a little while longer. Everything is gonna be OK."

"What're you…?" I cast a glance backward at Himeko who was now waving her fingers in midair, focusing intently on the space in front of her. What the hell is she doing? I wondered. At first I thought she might be casting some kind of spell, but Legacy didn't have magic. But if she wasn't casting a spell, then what was…

"!"

It hit me. She wasn't casting a spell. She was using her menu. She was looking for something. I didn't know what, but I didn't have a whole lot of options, so I decided to put my faith in her.

"Rrrraagh!" I growled and shoved against the kobold that were trying to push my sword away, then swung my blade from side to side in a frenzy and took a few steps forward until I reached the mouth of the alley. My eyes went wide and I stood frozen for a moment, gaping at the swarm of kobold that had amassed.

"Nanashi! I'm ready!"

Himeko's shout snapped me out of my daze. "OK…!" I took one more step forward and used Horizontal, clearing a space for Himeko. "Switch!" I shouted.

Himeko dashed forward, ducking under my extended arm and coiled her body.

"What the…!?" I choked at the sight of her.

The tiny girl was holding a sword. Not a one-handed sword like my Annealed Blade, though. It was massive. The blade's width was about the same as her body, and its length was easily over twice her height.

As the horde of kobold closed in on the girl, her blade began to glow a deep green. "Hah!" she breathed as she stepped forward and swung her giant sword from right to left. With that one swing, Himeko hit five of the kobold around her. Every one of them lost all of its HP in the blink of an eye. There were still seven kobold left, and they lunged toward Himeko. But her blade was still glowing—the Sword Skill wasn't finished. "Hiya!" Himeko spun on her heel, swinging the sword in a full circle in the same direction. All seven of the remaining kobold were caught in the swing, and all seven burst into a sea of polygonal shards.

Himeko turned to face me, beaming. She drove the point of her sword into the ground and leaned on it lazily. "Not bad, huh?" she sang.

"Well… I can see why you keep that thing stashed in your inventory…"

"Yeah, it's kind of a pain to carry around, you know?"

"Yeah… Even so…could you maybe…"

"Hm?"

"…Could you maybe just keep it equipped for now?"

"Oh," Himeko laughed and scratched her cheek. "Yeah, I guess I could do that."

From that point on, getting through the ruins was easy. We had a system. Himeko would take point as we ran, knocking groups of kobold out of our way with her Blast and Cyclone Sword Skills while I stayed behind her and took care of any that made it around her attack or snuck up on us from behind. If Himeko ran out of SP or her skills were still on cooldown I would move up front and clear our way with Horizontal, which bought her enough time to recover. We made it through the ruins in no time flat, shared a celebratory high five, and pressed on without any more trouble.

We walked for about twenty minutes along a dirt trail through a forest full of dead, leafless trees. The occasional band of Lesser Kobold jumped out at us, but, no longer confined to the tight spaces of the ruins, we had no trouble taking care of them. I worried a little when a group of five kobold appeared while we were already fighting a group of six, but I managed to shake off the initial panic and keep a clear head. After all, I wasn't alone. Himeko, with her sword that was bigger than her, was quite the force to be reckoned with. I was glad she was on my side.

"One hundred Col says Death Spots is in there," I said as the trail ended before the mouth of a cave.

"It's so dark!" Himeko said. "Seriously! I can't see inside at all. It's like the cave is eating the light or something."

"No, I don't think that's it." She was right, though. Even though the sun was behind us, shining directly on the cave's mouth, I couldn't see inside no matter how hard I squinted. "I think this cave is its own cell."

"Cell…?"

"Yeah. In other words, it's not part of Sword Art: Legacy's world space. It's probably an entirely separate map that's connected to Legacy. We can't see inside because the details of the cave haven't been rendered, and they probably won't be until we go in. We might even have to sit through a loading screen or…why are you looking at me like that?"

"Did you spend any time outside back in the real world?" Himeko was looking up at me with that same mix of disappointment and pity from earlier.

"W-well…the real world doesn't matter since we're in Sword Art: Legacy. Let's hurry up and beat Death Spots, OK?"

"You dodged the question. Guess that means 'no.' Are you some kind of shut-in otaku?"

"Go easy on me…"

Himeko giggled. "Thanks for that. I feel a little better now… Are you ready?"

"Yeah… Let's get this over with." I took a step forward toward the pitch-black cave entrance.

"Wait…" Himeko reached out and took my hand. "OK, now I'm ready."

I nodded and squeezed the tiny hand in mine, then Himeko and I stepped into the cave.

It was complete darkness at first, but after a few moments the walls and floor of the cave started to materialize. I couldn't tell if that was my eyes adjusting to the low light or if it was just a snazzy rendering effect. I looked behind me at the cave entrance. It was perfectly, blindingly white with a glowing visual effect around it meant to look like sunlight. As I'd expected, I couldn't see anything outside the cave. Not the trees, the dirt path, or the sky—nothing.

"Yup, it's another cell, alright."

"But I didn't see any of those loading screens or whatever you mentioned."

"Maybe there was one, but we just weren't conscious of the time we spent in loading limbo. The ExcelRig controls our brains, after all. It's not impossible that it could alter the way we perceive time."

"OK, Mister Nerdy Pants. Let's get to work!" Himeko started forward, tugging me along behind her.

"Wait."

"Hm? What is it?"

"Well…it's just that…" I looked down at my hand, still clasped in hers, then looked away, scratching my cheek. "We're gonna need those."

"Right, ha ha…" Himeko let go of my hand.

"I'll take point from here on out," I said, walking ahead of her. She'd never heard terms like "cell" or "world space" before, so I figured she wasn't too familiar with games that had dungeons. "Watch my back, OK? I'm counting on you."

"Roger!" she chimed.

I became aware of certain ambient sounds as we walked deeper into the cave. Things like drops of water hitting the rocky floor or the occasional squeal from a bat. I never saw any bats, just heard them. There was also this strange, low, constant humming sound. I couldn't really compare it to any real sound. I thought it might be the wind or something. It was just one of those ambient noises that caves and dungeons tended to have in RPGs. The further away we got from the cave entrance, the only source of light so far, the darker it got.

"That's weird," Himeko said.

"What is?"

"Even though there's no light, I can still see. I mean, I can't see much, but if there's no light you'd think I wouldn't be able to see at all."

"Yeah. My guess is the system ensures that you can always see at least a little bit when you're in a dungeon. A brightness setting or something like that."

"That's good because I didn't bring a light or anything. Guess you didn't either?"

"Nope."

"Thought so."

"I find your lack of faith disturbing…"

"We haven't seen any monsters for a while, huh?"

"That's true. I would've expected to see at least a few kobold or something."

"Yeah. But, you know, that actually kind of makes me more scared…"

"I know what you mean. The anticipation in situations like this can be unbearable sometimes."

"Do you think that's on purpose?"

"Yeah, I do. We've been walking for a long time now. The path twists and turns, and it seems to go on forever, but it hasn't branched off or anything. I think it's just one long path to Death Spots. No mobs, no treasure or anything. Just a long, quiet, creepy walk to our doom."

"Hey!" Himeko shrieked, stomping her foot.

"What?" I stopped and looked back at her, blinking.

"Don't phrase it like that! Idiot! Are you trying to freak me out!?"

"S-sorry! I just meant—you know—it's spooky and stuff!"

Himeko stopped walking and a few seconds of silence passed.

"Himeko…?"

At first she chuckled, but then she doubled over, holding her gut and laughing until her eyes teared up. "Ha ha…" she huffed. "'Spooky and stuff.' Somehow being with you makes this whole thing a little less scary."

"Glad I can help a little bit," I said, offering a smile. "We're almost there. Looking at the map, there's a huge open space just ahead of us. I think that's the boss room."

"OK… I'm ready. Let's go kick that Spotted Death's butt!"

"…I think it was 'Death Spots.'"

"Oh, whatever. Let's go already."

"Right."

We walked just a few more meters in silence and came to the end of the long corridor where the cave expanded into a huge room that was forty, maybe fifty meters across. Pushed up against the wall were all sorts of clutter items like broken crates, barrels, bones, and even bits and pieces of treasure. Lying dead center in the room was a huge kobold with white fur covered in dark purple polka dots. I focused my gaze on the kobold for a moment, prompting the system to display a dark red cursor along with a nametag that read "NM: The Death Spots."

"There he is," I whispered.

"It looks like he's sleeping," Himeko said.

"Yeah. Sounds like it, too." There was a low, deep, constant growling sound wafting across the room that I assumed had to be what a kobold sounded like when it snored.

"Let's sneak up on him!" Himeko started to shuffle across the room toward the huge kobold.

"Wait!" I hissed, grabbing her hand.

"What?"

"I'm down for trying a sneak attack, but we have to be careful. It looks like it's asleep now, but it might be scripted to wake up once we get close."

"Scripted…? Like a play?"

"Uhm…yeah, something like that." I said. Himeko looked willing to listen, so I let go of her hand and explained. "If you think about it like a play, getting within a certain distance would be Death Spots's cue to get up and attack us, so we have to be prepared for that."

"Oh… OK."

"Get your weapon ready," I said as I drew my sword from my back. Himeko followed suit.

As we tiptoed across the spacious room with our weapons in hand I couldn't help being reminded of this really old cartoon I saw a while back, and it took every ounce of my self-control not to imitate the hunter character and say "be vewy, vewy quiet."

Death Spots didn't so much as stir until we got about ten meters away from it, and then, suddenly…

"Tch…!" I clenched my fists and gritted my teeth as Death Spots began to rise, lifting a huge sword from behind him that I hadn't seen before. The sword looked to be made of bone with animal hide wrapped around the grip and spikes protruding along the edge.

"Let's go!" I shouted, breaking into a sprint. I thought that if I ran fast enough I could leave the fear behind. I told myself that if we attacked first we could still somehow have the upper hand.

"Right behind you!" Himeko said, following at my heel and holding her huge sword low to the ground.

Death Spots roared. Visual effects accompanied the sound, including rippling sound waves which came from his maw and blurred my vision when they reached me.

"Rrraaaaagh!" I roared back, my heart pounding in the back of my throat as I pulled my Annealed Blade back by my right shoulder and charged toward Death Spots with Rage Spike.

Death Spots swung his sword downward, but by the time it made contact with the ground I had already flown past him. While he was stuck in his post-motion delay, Himeko hit Death Spots with Blast.

I took another step forward, twisting my body and spinning on the ball of my left foot while activating my Horizontal Sword Skill. As I turned to face Death Spots I unleashed the skill, cutting deep into the huge kobold's fur-covered back. Death Spots wailed in frustration. The same sound wave effect played, blurring my vision and causing my ears to ring.

"Get back!" I called to Himeko.

We got out of Death Spots's range just before he began a slow, three-part Sword Skill that looked like it had a huge AoE. I had no doubt it would have done massive damage, too, if we had been caught in it. Death Spots turned to face me and raised his sword high above his head. I held my own sword low by my left side and waited, watching Death Spots's sword carefully. As soon as it began to descend I used Slant and our blades collided, leaving both of us reeling from the shock.

"Switch!" I called.

Himeko had a Sword Skill of her own cued up before I said anything and unleashed it as soon as Death Spots was open. Then, Death Spots roared again, using the same three-part Sword Skill, reaching three hundred sixty degrees around his body. Himeko and I jumped out of the way again, just in time. I glanced at the two HP bars floating above Death Spots's head. Even though we'd hit him with four Sword Skills already, Death Spots had only lost a small fraction of his first bar. But still, it was something. And Himeko and I still had all of our HP. It will take some time, I told myself, but we can do this.

Death Spots took a moment to recover from his AoE attack, and I used that time to circle around him, joining Himeko. "Let's stay close," I said. "I think we can prevent him from using his AoE attack if we're both on the same side of him."

"His what-now?"

"His 'area of effect' attack."

"In Japanese, please!"

"Just… Grrr!" I growled, stepping to the side to dodge a vertical swing. "Just trust me on this one, OK?"

"OK…fine!" Himeko grunted as she hit Death Spots with Blast. "Phew…" she huffed. "I trust you."

We took turns defending and attacking from that point on. Himeko didn't quite trust her timing, so instead of blocking Death Spots's Sword Skills with skills of her own, she blocked normally. This meant she took a bit of damage each time she defended, but it wasn't much. She was able to recover it with potions while I covered her, though she did complain about their bitter taste. As I expected, Death Spots stopped using his AoE attack since Himeko and I were both in front of him, so the only time we had to stop attacking was if we ran out of SP or Himeko needed to heal. After about twenty minutes, Death Spots's first HP bar was nearly empty.

"Switch!" I called as I knocked the huge sword away with Slant.

Himeko dashed past me, twirling and cutting Death Spots twice with her Cyclone skill and draining the last of Death Spots's first HP bar. The second bar turned from green to yellow.

"Careful," I said. "Now that his HP is at half, his attack patterns might change."

As if on cue, Death Spots roared louder than ever before—loud enough that we had to cover our ears, and the sound wave effects made it impossible to see for a moment. The huge, spotted kobold's eyes began to glow red.

Death Spots glared in my direction and swung his sword without warning.

"!?" I gasped as I raised my sword in front of me, bracing the blade against my left hand.

The next swing came just as quickly, but this time Death Spots attacked with the claws on his left hand. He followed up with another swing from his sword, then slashed with his claws again, then finished the combination with a powerful overhand swing.

In just three seconds, just five hits, my HP bar had gone from completely full to more than half empty. If I take one more attack like that, I'll

"Get back and recover!" Himeko screamed over her shoulder as she swung at Death Spots.

"Huh…?"

"Nanashi! Hurry up and drink a potion!"

"Oh… Right…"

I shuffled back a few steps and reached for the pouch hanging from my belt. My hands were shaking so it took a moment to undo the clasp, but I got the pouch open, pulled out a potion, and chugged. Then, with my HP steadily regenerating, I shook my head and clenched my fists.

"OK, switch," I said.

Himeko used Cyclone as Death Spots began another Sword Skill. She took a bit of damage, but her second swing hit Death Spots's giant sword, cancelling both skills. I took advantage of the opening and used Slant, sending Death Spots reeling backward.

Himeko downed another potion and turned to me. "Bleh… OK. Since my sword probably has higher defense than yours, I'll handle defending. You step in to attack every time he finishes a move. OK?"

"No. Sorry. I'm not comfortable with that."

"What?" Himeko raised an eyebrow.

"If you're blocking regularly instead of using skills to defend, then your HP will go down."

"Yeah, but I've still got plenty of pot—"

"It doesn't matter. We can't treat our HP like some throwaway resource that we can recover whenever we want. It's our life, and if you're too careless with it you'll lose it."

"I get what you're saying, but…what choice do we have? That thing is too fast. There's no way you can block it with a skill in time!"

"I don't have to be fast. It's subtle, but Death Spots telegraphs a bit before he attacks."

"Tele-what-now…?"

"Don't sweat it. Just leave defense to me."

"OK… If you're sure. Let's finish this thing, then!"

"Right!"

I ran straight up to Death Spots and readied my sword, then, when he bared his teeth, I cued up Horizontal and prayed that I was right…and I was.

Death Spots swung his sword immediately after showing his fangs. It would have been the same five-hit combo from earlier, but I managed to stop the first hit with my own Sword Skill.

"Switch!"

Himeko took my place and used Cyclone, hitting Death Spots twice. As soon as I could move again I swung my sword twice at the kobold's flank to ensure I'd draw aggro for the next attack. This time, Death Spots used one of his original attacks, lifting his sword high above his head and bringing it straight down. I cancelled the skill with Slant and signalled for Himeko to switch. She dashed in and slammed her blade into Death Spots's rib cage, and I hurried to pull aggro again.

Death Spots leaped backward about ten meters and roared, then bent low to the ground.

"Move to the side!" I shouted. I dashed to my left while Himeko ran to the right, and Death Spots got on all fours and charged. He ran straight past us, easily covering twenty meters.

"A straight charge attack… Himeko! Watch for when he jumps backward! It means he's gonna charge!"

"Got it!"

We were extremely careful. I parried his attacks and Himeko followed up with a skill. We watched Death Spots's attack patterns closely, but nothing new showed up besides his five-part combo and charge attack. Finally, after another twenty minutes of fighting, Death Spots's HP ran out. His model glowed white and burst into countless, harmless, polygonal fragments.

"Finally…" Himeko said, dropping to the cave floor and leaning on her sword. "What's the drop? I'm too tired to check…"

"Five…" I mumbled.

"Huh? What'd you say?"

"Thousand…" I muttered.

"What? Speak up, Nanashi. I can't hear you."

"Five…thousand Col!?"

"Ow!" Himeko covered her ears. "Jeez… You're louder than Death Spots. Wait… How much did you say it dropped?"

"Five thousand! It dropped five thousand Col! A loaf of black bread only costs one Col… With this much, you could feed half of Legacy's population for a day! I mean, they wouldn't exactly be eating like kings, but they wouldn't go hungry."

"And that's not even counting what it dropped for me! Let me see…" Himeko heaved herself off the ground with a "hup" and checked her drop list. "Same for me! Five thousand! That's ten thousand between the two of us. Also…what's this thing?"

"Hm?" I looked at Himeko, but of course all I could see her pointing at was the empty space in front of her.

"It looks like Death Spots's sword, but I can't equip it."

"Really? Can I see?"

"Sure." Himeko made her window visible as I walked behind her to look over her shoulder.

"It's called 'Death Sword.' That's…original. It's a miscellaneous item, not a weapon. Strange. Oh! I see now."

"What?"

"It seems like you have to get it modified by a player blacksmith before you can use it. Only thing is, there aren't really any of those around yet, and I doubt any of them would have a high enough skill level to pull this off…"

"So I should just sell it, right?"

"Nah, hold onto it for a while. Maybe someday you'll be able to use it."

"Maybe. I bet it'll have really high stats!"

"Yeah, probably. At any rate, we made a lot of money off of Death Spots, but it's not quite enough to feed everyone in Tent City for any real length of time. I'm gonna hang around until he respawns and beat him a few more times. Can I count on your help?"

"You betcha. Now that we know what to expect, we can beat him easy."

And so, Himeko and I spent the rest of the night fighting Death Spots. Over and over and over and over again. Himeko got more comfortable defending with skills, so we went through fewer potions, but I was still the main defender during Death Spots's second phase, just to be safe. His five part combo was easy enough to defend with repetition, and the charge attack was predictable, so we had no trouble beating him. It was tedious…extremely tedious, but not difficult.

"Phew," I huffed, dropping myself on the cave floor beside Himeko. "How many times was that?"

"Dunno… Lost count…" Himeko was panting, but she was otherwise fine.

"We've got plenty of money now. I think we can call it a night."

"Finally… I'm beat."

I pushed myself up off the ground and extended my hand to Himeko. She grabbed it and I helped her stand, and we made our way back outside the cave.

"I can't wait to tell that old man that we beat Death Spots," Himeko said as her tent unrolled itself.

"Oh, right. That." I closed the little popup menu on my tent and it unrolled, pitching and staking itself to the ground. "I totally forgot about him."

"Of course you did. All you care about is the rewards, huh?"

"It's not like I'm out here for myself. We came to get money to feed the people—real people—back in the city. Their needs come before that NPC's."

"Yeah, that's true. But still, I'd feel bad if we never showed up to tell him we avenged all his friends."

"No worries, the Old Miner's cottage is on the way back. Besides…now that you mention rewards, I'm wondering what he'll give us in return for beating his arch nemesis."

Himeko chuckled. "Of course you're worried about that. Anyway, I'm going to sleep. Good night, Nanashi." She pulled back the flap on her tent and vanished inside.

"Good night," I said, crawling into my own tent. I opened my menu and unequipped my sword, gloves, chestpiece, belt, and boots, then closed my eyes and fell asleep almost immediately.

. . .

"Y'all actually went 'n' did it!"

At first, the Old Miner didn't believe that we'd defeated Death Spots. But once we showed him the sword that Himeko had gotten from completing the quest, his mood changed. Actually, it may be more accurate to say his entire personality changed.

"I can't believe you youngins went 'n' beat ol' Death Spots! Color me impressed!"

"It was nothing," Himeko chirped. "That mangy old fleabag was just a big push over."

Despite my moment of terror after Death Spots's first five-hit combo, I couldn't help but agree. Once we'd figured out his attack patterns, Death Spots was fairly easy to deal with.

"I can't thank ya enough, kiddos. I don't have much, but here—take this. I reckon it'll do ya more good than it will me."

A notification appeared in front of me and I clicked it. It read "Quest Cleared!" and listed the Col and EXP rewards for finishing the quest. The Col reward was one thousand, and the EXP was minimal. I could see why the Assault Team had skipped over this quest.

"That ain't nearly enough to thank ya fer givin' me some peace o' mind, so I'll tell y'all what. Listen here, an' I'll tell ya everything I know 'bout the Kobold Lord."

"That's alright," I said, already reaching for the door. "We're just glad to help." The Old Miner didn't listen to me, of course. He wasn't programmed to answer to that kind of response, so he just start droning about some massive, red kobold with a big axe or something.

"Nanashi!" Himeko squealed. "That's so rude! You can't just leave while he's talking!"

"Sorry, but we really need to get this cash back to Hiro."

"Alright…fine. Let's go. He probably won't notice, anyway."

In all likelihood, she was right. The old man was still babbling despite our argument, paying us no mind.

Himeko and I left the Old Miner's cottage and made our way through the forest. Between the two of us, we were able to handle the Nepenthes and Dire Wolves that popped out with no trouble at all. I'm pretty sure we didn't lose a single hitpoint between us on the return trip, and I allowed myself to believe I was starting to get good at this game.

I sent a message to Hiro as we travelled, so by the time we got into town he was waiting for us by the fountain at the center of Tent City. "Hello," he said, smiling ear to ear. "Nanashi, I'm beyond relieved that you made it back safely. And who is this?" He said, looking down at my companion.

"This is Himeko," I said. "She came along to help with the mission. In fact, if it wasn't for her, I think I might have died before I ever made it to the spotted kobold."

"Is that so? Well, then you have my thanks, too, Himeko."

Himeko puffed out her tiny chest and beamed. "No sweat! I'm glad I could help."

I opened my menu and sent a trade request to Hiro. "Here's everything I made off farming the Named Monster," I said, moving one hundred thousand Col into the trade window. "It's not much, but it should keep everyone fed for a few days."

"No!" Hiro blurted, his eyes bulging. "This is plenty! I can't believe you managed to make this much!"

"And that's not even counting my share," Himeko sang. "Whatever amount you see there, go ahead and double it."

"But how did you manage to get all of this? Surely the spotted kobold didn't drop all of it."

"Well," I said, scratching the back of my head. "Not all at once. The first time we killed him he dropped five thousand, but each time after that he only dropped one thousand. I'm not sure how many times we fought him to get that much… I just know that the sun was starting to come up when we left the cave.

"You put yourselves through a lot for our sake," Hiro whispered. "Again, thank you. Both of you."

"That's not all," I said. "I've got some info on the spotted kobold and the surrounding area. If you put together a small group of volunteers, you can make a routine of fighting it and feed the whole city that way."

"Seriously…?" Hiro's eyes widened. "You'd just tell me? Couldn't you profit off of that information if you brought it to an info broker?"

"Maybe, but you guys need it more than I need cash."

Hiro thanked me once, sometimes twice, after every single sentence as I filled him in on the details regarding the ruins, the kobold, Death Spots, and all of his attack patterns. Then, just for good measure, he thanked me another three times when I'd finished.

"By the way, Nanashi," Hiro said over his shoulder as he turned away from me. "Someone was looking for you. Said to meet them at the inn as soon as you got back to town."

"Oh? Who was it?"

"They didn't give their name, but they said you knew them. Just be careful, OK?"

"I will. Thanks."

"No, thank you."

"Alright, already! You're embarrassing me with all the 'thank yous'…"

Hiro laughed and waved over his shoulder, no doubt heading off to spread the good news.

When I turned to Himeko she was staring up at me, smiling.

"Wh-why're you looking at me like that…?"

"I can't believe you gave him all the money you made from Death Spots. You didn't keep any of it for yourself. Not even the measly one thousand from the old guy!"

"Well…yeah. But it's no big deal. I mean, you did the same thing, right?"

"Yeah, but I don't usually go out on quests and stuff. I just hang around Tent City like all the others… Not like you, though. You actually do things, go on quests, get new gear. You could use the money. 'Cause you're gonna join the Assault Team, right?"

"Whoa! When did I ever say anything like that!?"

Himeko giggled. "I can just tell. Anyway… I guess this is goodbye for now. You've got some kind of meeting, and I'm gonna go see if there's anything else I can do to help out."

"That's pretty cool of you. I wish I could be responsible like you," I said, smiling.

"It's no big deal…" Himeko blushed and kicked at the dirt by her foot, then she looked up at me again. "Hey!" she cried. "I know! Let's be friends! That way we can message each other and stuff."

"Sure thing. Message me if you get yourself into trouble and I'll come running. I owe you, after all."

"You don't owe me," she said, opening her menu. I got the friend request a second later and accepted it. "If anything, I owe you… You showed me what it's like to help myself instead of sitting around waiting for help. Even better, we helped others together! So thank you, Nanashi."

"Ugh," I groaned. "If I hear 'thank you' one more time, I think I might explode."

Himeko laughed. "Still, thanks… You're my hero."

I didn't have a response to that, so Himeko smiled and waved, disappearing into a crowd of people while I stood there, my cheeks hot, feeling both pride and guilt. Of course I was happy she said that, but even after hearing those words for a second time I still couldn't feel like I deserved them. I thought maybe I should have said something like "no, you're mine," since I meant it when I said I would have died if not for her, but she was already gone. But that was probably for the best, because it would have been a bit corny and more than a little awkward if I told a twelve-year-old girl she was my hero in the middle of a crowded town square.

As I made my way west toward the inn I noticed that people were staring in my direction, and it occured to me that I was still wearing my Coat of Midnight and Annealed Blade which would have made me look like part of the Assault Team, or, rather, someone who did anything other than sit at the inn and mope all day. I didn't think it was right to go parading around as something I wasn't so I opened my menu and stuffed my coat, armor, gloves, and sword back into my inventory before I reached the inn.

When I got inside I looked around the tavern, but I didn't see anyone that might've been the person Hiro mentioned. I ordered a water and sat down at a table in the corner to wait for them to show, and just a couple seconds later, a familiar, hooded figure with a familiar, nasally voice plopped down in the chair across from me.

"Ya sure it was OK ta give away all that info fer free, kiddo? I woulda given ya a good price for it."

"I'm sure. Like I said, they needed it more."

"Nyaha, ya did say that, didn'tcha?"

"Mhm. I take it you're the person Hiro was talking about? The one who wanted to meet with me?"

"My, my. When did you become such an astute detective?" Nezumi's whiskered smirk was all I could see beneath her cloak's hood.

"What is it that you want? Another quest? You can count me out."

"Not exactly, kiddo." Nezumi reached across the table and snatched the cup of water I'd left unguarded, then took a few chugs. "Thing is," she said after wiping her mouth with the back of her sleeve. "We found the Area Boss."

. . .