Dreamers of the Day - Book One - Part One - The Swordsman IV
Coper's plan wasn't anything complex, like the other swordsman had said, this was a loot and scoot, get in and get out. If anything, it reminded Kazuto of raids in older games where the players were under a soft time limit, a rising water level, infinitely respawning enemies, or an invincible monster stalking the dungeon.
There was a difference. In those games, the worst that could happen was losing some progression. No big deal, try again. The penalty for failure, now, would be the ultimate one.
A corner of Kazuto's mind was calling this insane. He wasn't a Swordsman of Castle Aincrad, he was a sixteen year old high school student of Saitama Japan. And besides school, a borderline hikikomori. The only place he'd ever been worth a damn in a fight was inside his video games.
But Aincrad was one of those games, whatever else it was now, waking within his Avatar had been like finding himself wearing a familiar second skin.
It was the MUSE system. It had to be.
Kazuto had experimented, once, after the beta had closed, offering to spar his sister in their small family dojo. He'd been thoroughly trounced by a nationally ranked Kendo-ka, but it hadn't been his skill that had let him down, it had been his body.
That was Coper's logic as well. Kirito, Coper, Fern, Oryx, and Morte, they were all former Beta Testers. For three months they had been let loose across Orignia, and specially curated zones of the higher floors, all the while learning from the MUSE system and honing their skills. If any of the marooned players could do this, it was them.
And so, they had waited for dusk, the narrow window when the setting sun would peek beneath the ceiling and above the lip, bathing the floor in its late light, and briefly dazzle the unprepared. The five of them had crept into position, Kirito stretched out on a day warmed boulder like a dark lizard, while beside him Oryx drew his bow from a crouch, total concentration on his munchkin features.
Coper's plan wasn't anything complex, but it was well thought out. The four of them had spent the last couple days keeping watch on the minehead and carefully counting the sentries. There were always exactly a half dozen standing guard around the entrance, and a seventh that Morte had spotted up above the mine, hidden, no doubt insurance against exactly this kind of scenario.
"The place we want is about two hundred meters in." Coper explained. "It's a large gallery that serves as a staging area to descend deeper into the mines."
"Apparently the Dwarves like to do everything under a rock roof." Oryx had added, "By treaty, all the land under Orignia's 'sky' belongs to men, while everything beneath stone belongs to the dwarves."
Kirito smiled tiredly, "But that's just flavor text, right?" Oryx' expression turned unreadable, his ears twitched and his tail lashed.
"I got the layout from the same dwarves I negotiated with for our anneal weapons." Coper explained. "It's safe to assume it's accurate." The swordsman had used the tip of his blade to sketch a rough layout in the dirt. "The Dwarves also said this mine connects to the others across Orignia. This is just an outpost, which is why the presence is small. The Kobolds prefer to defend from positions deeper underground, and they only move out after nightfall."
"So the plan is to catch the sentries at the end of their shift." Kirito concluded, "Get in and get out before the ones deeper down start waking up."
"Pretty much." Coper agreed, "Any questions?"
"Yeah, just one." Kirito looked his fellow swordsman in the eye. "What if things go to hell?"
Coper shrugged, "We book it and try something else. You got a problem with that?"
"Nah, guess not."
The blonde man stood straight, dusting off his pants. "Oh, and Kirito, one more thing, just to be clear." Blue eyes met black. "Don't take this the wrong way, but if things do go south, I won't screw you, but don't expect me to stick my neck out for you either. I expect the same from you. We're allies, not friends." The other's all nodded soberly. Not that surprising, none of them probably knew each other IRL. In fact, Kirito couldn't even say what these people really looked like. It sounded cold, but it was sensible not to get attached.
"That's fair." Kirito had agreed.
Back in the present, the orange disk of the sun peaked beneath the ceiling. A kobold standing watch atop one of the dilapidated barracks hissed and raised an arm to shade its eyes.
"Ready?" Kirito whispered.
"Not yet." Oryx answered, drawing his bow taught, his breathing slowed, and a faint glow, almost a flame, caressed the tip of his arrow, the same light coming to life in his eye. The archer held his draw until a distant bird call echoed down from above the minehead, the overwatch sentry had been dealt with.
Oryx loosed his shot, the bow string -twanged- and the arrow traveled a seemingly sedate arc that perfectly plunged through the throat of the kobold atop the barracks. At almost the same instant, a kobold on the far side of the minehead dropped as an arrow caught it through its yawning mouth.
"Go!" Oryx hissed.
Kirito had needed no further urging, bolting from his vantage and sheltering in the ink blackness of evening shadow. With the sun like it was, the kobolds' normally keen night vision was rendered momentarily useless. The swordsman used that vulnerability to fall on the sentry just rounding the barracks. It was over before the reptilian creature had even realized. To his right, Coper had done the same, clamping a kobold's snout shut before plunging his sword through its back, and then holding the creature as it died.
Two left. One, from Fern, an arrow through the eye, the other, Oryx had risen from his vantage, loosing three arrows in rapid succession into the chest of the last sentry. Before the startled creature could gather its dying strength to cry out, daggers had been unsheathed and plunged down into the rib cage from above the collarbone. Oryx twisted sharply, held, and then released. The body was already dissolving as it hit the ground.
"Nice work." Kirito whispered as Oryx flowed past.
"Likewise."
Morte was already waiting for them when they reached the mine entrance, his sword resting across his shoulder. He lightly tossed a collection of pebbles in his free hand.
"Took ya long enough." He jumped down from his vantage, lighting almost silently in a gust of spectral Faerie wings. He hooked a thumb over his shoulder, "Shall we?"
"Point of no return." Coper murmured, "Anyone want out?" There was only silence. Coper gestured for Morte to lead the way and reminded everyone to keep their eyes peeled for traps. "They especially like to string'm high and low."
Two hundred meters didn't sound that far, until it was two hundred meters into near pitch black darkness. Luckily, this had been a dwarfish mine, once, and the colonies of bioluminescent cave lichen still put out just enough feeble light to see by, barely. Kirito kept close enough to Oryx to feel the archer's tail brushing against his leg, while recalling their prior conversation.
It was after Coper had gone over the plan, Morte had just departed to deal with the overwatch, and the rest of them were preparing to move out.
Oryx offered Kirito a canteen. "Hope you don't take it personal."
"Huh?" Kirito blinked, "Take what personal . . . I mean, personally?" He accepted the drink, and then regretted it as something tried to burn its way down his throat. He managed to swallow and suppress the ensuing cough, which caused Oryx to grin.
"Coper's little line about not sticking his neck out." The Pictish explained. "He gave it to all of us."
"And you're okay with it?" Kirito had asked, carefully.
Oryx's grin had widened as he shrugged. "At least he's upfront about it. Honestly, it's how I feel too. Don't get me wrong, I'll have your back if there's a scrap but . . ."
"Don't expect you to die for me, is that right?" Kirito asked, Oryx simply nodded, Kirito smiled back. "Like I said, it's fair." After all . . .
"I mean, it's not like we're bad guys for thinking that way, right? We gotta look out for ourselves first, right?" Kirito was slow to answer, for one thing, Oryx' grin had grown suddenly tense when he looked closely.
"That's right." Kirito nodded, "I don't intend to die in this death game. You shouldn't either."
"Except . . . I'm not sure it is a game anymore," Oryx murmured, "Not even a death game." A chill ran down Kirito's spine. Oryx was just saying out loud what he'd thought to himself. But the effect was completely different when the words were out in the open air.
"Are you going on about that again?" The voice of Fern questioned as the green haired woman checked and rechecked her bow and quiver of arrows. "What else could it be?"
"I don't know." Oryx admitted deliberately, he held up a hand, examining the fine hairs of his arm, "But what we're experiencing is beyond the limits of the Memeosphere, isn't it? And the NPCs . . . "
"What's with that?" The swordsman murmured.
"You noticed it too, huh?" Oryx asked. "It's weird, they act like you expect, until suddenly they don't. And all of them have NLP authorization, even random townies."
"It's that whole 'Welcome to my World' speech." Fern said testily, "You're letting that bastard Kayaba get into your head. You're seeing what's not there. Maybe Kayaba was just lying about SAO's full capabilities, ya think of that, he must have lied about plenty of other stuff to pull this off."
"Yeah", Kirito agreed mechanically, that had to be it. Verdelle and Gervaise, they couldn't be real . . . Those thoughts had stuck with Kazuto as they descended into the mines.
The main tunnel split off twice, but they kept to the minecart rails until, suddenly, the walls and ceiling had widened away from them. The bioluminescence was a bit stronger here, or maybe Kirito's eyes had adjusted. They were in a vaulted underground chamber. The floor was covered in crisscrossing iron rails leading into further tunnels. Mine carts were parked, dozens, maybe hundreds, fading off into the darkness.
It was a depot yard, Kazuto realized. Carts from all throughout the mines were probably brought here. Their ore would be offloaded and sorted, and then taken up to the surface to sell to the Town of Beginnings. Maybe the mines here really did connect to others across the floor, and to deeper shafts sunken into Foundation. They could be a whole sub level!
A week ago, he would have been elated by this discovery, the potential for a whole hidden world within that of Aincrad itself would have set his imagination on fire. Instead, Kirito looked about cautiously, eyes keen for any sign of movement, and ears cocked for trouble. They only had a short time before the kobolds deeper within would start to become active.
"So how do we . . ." Oryx began.
"Ssshhh!" Coper hissed, covering the Archer's mouth, he gave the chamber a long once over and then, when satisfied they were alone, took his hand away. Then more quietly, "So how do we even know what this ore looks like?"
"Here." The leading swordsman produced a small silvery metallic stone. "I thought the same thing without the inventory screen, so I got them to give me a small sample. Don't look at the color, you'll have a hard time in this light. Besides, the ore down here will have oxidized. Pay attention to the shape, and the pattern, the texture, this is what we're looking for. Got it?"
Kazuto examined the sample, committing the details to memory. Some kind of hematite, he thought. Curiosity had once inspired him to look up what kind of ores went into the making of steel. The Dwarves who gave this quest would mention that the trace elements of this ore vein were essential to the making of an Anneal weapon, something about controlling its temper in the forging process.
After that, the group spread out, each of them taking a different row of minecarts and examining the contents. Crushed stone, tailings from the mine, what might have been coal, and . . . something that looked almost yellow in the weak light, the faint scent of something almost sulfurous . . .
Kirito stared at the heaping cart before a hand shook him on the shoulder. It was Fern, she hooked a thumb to the far side of the chamber where Coper was kneeling down. He opened a canvas satchel and produced five more from within, handing one to each of the others and instructing them to load from the line of mine carts that contained their prize.
"You found it quick." Oryx observed as he filled his bag carefully to avoid making noise.
"Not me, Morte." Coper nodded to the Si man working quickly to fill his own bag.
"It was pretty easy actually." Morte muttered, "Y'see, the Dwarves told us they tried to retrieve some of this themselves."
"Yeah?" Oryx asked.
Morte nodded to the scattered lumps of gear on the ground, only looking at them closely, they weren't lumps at all. It was the rare Aincrad Dwarf that lived among humans. Most of them kept to themselves in their own enclaves dug into the hills. When this type of dwarf was seen, they were bedecked in protective clothing, heavily quilted armor like medieval bomb suits, masks designed to filter noxious cave gasses covered in intricate arrays of lenses both to gather weak light in the depths and to protect their eyes on the bright surface.
So it wasn't at all surprising that the remains left behind after the Dwarves had been killed resembled more the husks of insects than the piles of discarded gear left by slain Outlanders. Scattered satchels of their attempted bounty spilled across the ground. A piece of hematite glittered dully beside Kirito's boot.
"Caved in." Coper muttered, he glanced at the collapsed helms and breastplates. Whatever had killed them had done it with the same terrible strength wielded outside. "Hurry up."
"Yeah." Kirito agreed, he wasn't lacking confidence, but anything that could take out a dozen fully equipped dwarves was going to be a problem for less than half as many beta testers. They were almost ready to go when they ran out of time . . .
"Shhh!" Morte raised a hand sharply to still them all. The Si pulled back his cloak, a long ear twitching as Oryx did the same, the latter's ears pivoted like small radars before dialing in on the tunnel entrance.
"Move!" Coper breathed, with nary a sound the group made a break for it, that was when Kirito saw it, a shadow within the shadows. Big.
The party scattered, taking shelter among the minecarts as the sound of heavy footfalls, and the faint moving of metal against metal, and the labored sound of deep breathing filled the silence.
It emerged into the gallery, standing up as tall as the stone ceiling would permit, clad in battered plate and chainmail. It had a twisted, unnatural, way of walking, standing on the wide taloned tows of its long feet, the muscles on its lean body seemed at once both too much, and overstretched, as if the creature was poorly put together, twitching and rippling beneath leathery red skin. Its snout was peeled back over its yellow teeth in a perpetual snarl, nostrils flaring as it scented the air, ears twitched and pivoted. Bloodshot eyes seemed to glow red.
A Rune Kobold Knight. Kirito cursed inwardly, not daring to so much as move his lips as the monster stalked its way across the chamber. This was not a fight they could afford!
Coper seemed to agree, the swordsman made a couple of simple pointing gestures. No complicated pantomime, just a simple and unambiguous explanation of what he wanted them to do, move around the Rune Kobold and get out without being spotted.
Easier said than done, the monster seemed hyper aware of the smallest noise, it's head cocking with each step that Kirito took. He half expected it to turn on him at any second, to leap over the mine cast and crush him under its weight. But that didn't happen.
In the corner of his eye, Kirito sensed movement, Morte had put himself as far from the rest as he could manage, not that Kirito blamed him, he was just looking out for himself. After all, if the rest were caught, Morte might still escape, and if he was caught, the same was true for them, it was a fair risk to take in this deadly game they were playing. Until the sound of stone striking stone brought everything to a halt.
It had come from Morte's direction. If Kirito were to guess, a piece of ore had slipped loose from his satchel and struck the ground. It was a small noise, almost imperceptible, but enough for the Rune Kobold to round on its source, striding across the chamber and sniffing at the air in that eager and vicious way, like a hunting hound. A great clawed hand rested on the edge of the minecart behind which Morte sheltered, the other reached to unsheathe the sword, more a sharpened metal club, that the kobold wore on its waist.
Kirito's eyes darted to Coper, the other swordsman was getting ready to break and run, so were Fern and Oryx. Another inward curse, Kirito got ready to sprint when Morte was discovered. It was just bad luck . . .
-Booooonnnnnggggggggg-
Kirito's heart threatened to leap from his throat as the minecart beside him resonated like a bell. Had something hit it?! The sound went on for what felt like a horrifically long time, bouncing off the chamber walls and leaving Kirito sharing a terror stricken look with Coper.
Maybe the Rune Kobold wouldn't be able to tell where it had come from . . .
Kirito had only a split second warning as the Minecart began to tilt towards him, tucking into a roll, the swordsman was pummeled by loose ore, his satchel flying as he was half buried. The Rune Kobold Knight roared as it spun on Oryx, the archer dove, narrowly missing a swing aimed at his head.
On the far side of the chamber, Kirito glimpsed the dark cloaked shape of Morte breaking for the entrance, he shook his head, blinking the starts from his eyes as he started digging himself free.
Oryx had shirked his bow and quiver, drawing iron daggers as he tried to dive past the monster that was now barring their way to freedom. A trio of arrows struck the Knight's plate, one lodging itself uselessly in chainmail.
Fern cursed, shifting her stance, eyes glowing as she prepared her next shot at full draw, the posture and activating gesture for Pierce the most basic of Bow Arts, but with the potential to break through the kobold's armor. The tip of her arrow came alight and when she loosed, it traced a pure dazzling line in the darkness between her bow and her target. The Kobold Guard roared as the arrow sunk through plate like it was made of paper, shaft splintering under the force of impact.
Oryx' daggers licked out, drawing blood from the Knight's exposed lower legs before he was caught by a sweep of the monster's talons and thrown against a minecart. The Kobold Knight seized Oryx by the throat in one hand, and the lip of the minecart with the other, turning as it heaved, upending the empty cart and sending it tumbling across the room towards a startled Fern. The archer barely rolled out of the way in time to escape being crushed, but not in time to escape being being pinned against the ground.
For Orxy, it was too late.
Kirito had barely finished extracting himself when he witnessed a sight that would be with him until the end of his days. The Pictish man, kicking and struggling, his Avatar Body twisting and fighting to break free as the Rune Kobold Knight's grip tightened around his throat. His daggers slashed wildly, but the long arm kept anything vital beyond his reach as his struggle slowly weakened and failed. Oryx twitched, trembled, and hung limp.
The man who had shared his speculations with Kirito, who had sought assurance from him, was gone . . .
As if the world itself was ordaining it so, he began to dissolve in much the same way as the kobolds Kirito had witnessed before. Pale blue particles evaporated off of the body as it melted away like ice. Oryx' equipment rattled to the ground piece by piece until the kobold grew bored and threw the dwindling remains aside.
Next, it turned its eyes on Kirito as the young swordsman staggered to his feet. It loomed over him, two and half meters tall, at least, and blocking the path to escape. At that moment, Kazuto was filled with fear of the creature that had ended Oryx' life. And loathing for the creature that had ended Oryx' life.
He breathed as he drew his sword, the urge to survive welling within him, and vowed that he would not die.
Battle was met in the darkness of a forgotten dwarven mine, the primitive short sword of an Outlander clashing with the battered long sword of a Rune Kobold Knight, and barely, Kirito managed to hold his own.
Oryx and Fern had done some damage, they'd slowed it down at least, but the patterns weren't anything like in the Beta, the Rune Guard's movements were far more unpredictable. 'I have to think of it like a human opponent, '' Kazuto reasoned. That was what it was, a thinking being that wanted, with all its might, to make him dead. He would have to want the same. Easier said than done.
Kirito survived the Rune Kobold's crushing blows by dodging, deflecting only when he absolutely must. With each turned blow, the edge of his sword became more shipped and bent. The iron couldn't hold up, it was going to break!
If it was going to break, there was no use holding back, he had to gamble it all on a single attack, he just needed the room. Jumping back, Kirito lead the kobold over the toppled ore it had buried him in, taloned feet splayed out, finding purchase, but there was a moment of instability, exactly what Kirito needed as he assumed the starting stance, his eyes, and his sword, glimmered and then glowed.
It was different this time, or maybe it wasn't, when he'd used an Art against the wolves, his adrenaline pumping, there had been barely any space left in his conscious mind for anything but survival. This time though he recalled the sensation, an electrical charge that raced from the base of his spine down nerves to the palm of his hand, connecting him to his sword.
It was going to break, it was definitely going to break, and Kazuto didn't care. The Kobold Knight lunged for him, and at the same moment the Swordsman Kirito kicked off. He was inside of its reach, but all of the vitals were too high.
Not for long.
First cut, inside of the thigh, all the way to the bone, bringing the kobold's upper body into his reach as it sank to one knee. Second cut, links of chain snapping and flying free, slicing into the stomach and causing the monster to bend forward. Now withing reach, third cut, the glowing blade flickering as it carved into the breast plate, leaving a path of twisted steel and a spray of red particles that ended in a shower of iron shards. The Kobold roared in agony as Kirito stood, holding only the hilt of his shattered sword.
He'd messed up. His gambit had depended on bringing the Kobold down in one go, but the final cut had ended short of the gorget, and the throat behind it. And now, Kirito was unarmed, well within sword reach of the crippled, but still very alive monster, its eyes full of hatred for the human that had caused it so much pain.
The only thing that saved him was, badly crippled, the Knight's swing was clumsy, Kirito was able to fall out of the way as the kobold levered itself to its feet, raising its sword high to finish the job . . . then staggered, issuing a hiss of fresh pain as Coper's sword slashed it across the back of its good knee.
"Kirito!" The other swordsman shouted, "Move it!" The kobold dropped its sword, long arm tearing at Coper, trying to do to him as it had done to Oryx. An arrow caught it in the eye, Fern contorting herself to fire her short bow prone, and still it didn't stop.
'No. Not one more!' Kirito thought, hand curling around the kobold dagger on his belt. Not even one more! He'd thrown himself onto the Knight, fingers hooked around the edge of the gorget as he leveraged himself face to face with the monster, the man killer, hissing and spitting, its rancid breath blowing into his face.
The Rune Kobold glared with a single baleful eye, Kirito glared back as he plunged the dagger down into the base of its neck, and with all his strength pushed the metal until was sunk to the hilt. The Knight bucked him at the same moment it released Coper, both swordsmen falling to the ground as it clawed madly at its throat. It tried to roar but only a mist of red and weak gagging issued from its open jaws. It seemed to take forever for it to die, and even longer for the body to begin to waste away.
Coper helped Kirito to his feet, then both of them quickly ran to the upturned mining cart where Fern lay pinned.
"Hold on, we'll move this!" Kirito told the trapped woman, the two swordsmen took up positions on either side, but lacking the Rune Kobold's inhuman strength, they succeeded only in shifting it and caused Fern to groan in pain. As her voice faded, something much less human, and all together more sinister, echoed from the tunnels that lead deeper into the mine. Their fight had not gone unnoticed.
"Shit!" Coper hissed, the swordsmen redoubled their efforts. If they could just get her free . . .
"I don't want to die." Fern whispered fearfully. Her eyes went wide. "I don't want to die. I don't want to die. IdontwanttodieIdontwattodie!"
That was right, none of them wanted to die, Kirito thought, they'd all agreed, it was fair. They were all there to survive, but none of them were there to die for the others. None of them expected to be the one that was dying. If he'd been in Fern's place, Kirito knew, he'd be the same way.
It was because he knew this that he didn't resent Coper for abandoning them as the sound of approaching Kobolds grew louder, the high pitched calls of the common monsters, and the deeper roars of the Rune Kobold Guard.
He didn't resent Coper, because after only a few more attempts, Kirito looked into the fearful eyes of Fern, tears streaming in terror as she realized what he was about to do. She grabbed hold of his wrist . . .
"I'm sorry!" Kirito cried out. She'd let go, he told himself, she'd let go, he hadn't ripped free, she'd let him go.
He'd run, scooping up one of the satchels of the fallen dwarves as he did. This couldn't be for nothing. He'd run as fast as he could, praying that the sounds of the pursuing kobolds would drown out Fern cursing his name, and Coper's, and Morte's, as she died. The cries of monster chased him, arrows skipped and broke against the cavern walls.
It was only a small miracle that he could find his way out, eyes blinded by tears. The tunnel had a minor slope, he just had to keep running upward to reach the surface. When he did, breaking free under the glittering artificial stars of Aincrad's night sky, he'd kept running. He ran past the ruined barracks, past the tree line, past the hiding place where an hour before, he and Fern and Oryx had talked.
Of Morte and Coper there was no sign, but he didn't blame them. They were all just trying to survive. He couldn't hate them for that.
Kirito didn't stop running until he'd left the environs of the mine well behind, and even then, only because his legs gave out on him. He'd collapsed in a heap, spending the last of his immediate strength dragging himself into what shelter he could find. Then he had lain there in the brush, staring up at the night sky until his ragged breathing had slowed and his mind came back from the blank space of sheer survival.
It was only then that Kirito checked the satchel and began to truly weep. He'd assumed, from what Coper had said, that the dwarves had been there for the iron ore as well, and just the iron ore, but all sorts of things could be useful to the dwarves.
Pieces of quartz, and chalk, hunks of graphite, substances that Kirito didn't recognize, but certainly not iron ore, and not likely to be worth a sword in trade. He'd clawed through the bag, almost laughing hysterically as he realized he had nothing to show for the death of two people and his own second near death experience.
Kirito had fallen back then, bitter tears burning in his eyes. He wanted to curse this place, this beautiful trap. He wanted to curse Kayaba Akihiko, the mastermind behind their imprisonment within the world of Aincrad. He wanted to curse himself, the weak, cowardly child within him.
"Shit." Kirito whispered.
He lay in the dark with only the night noises of the forest and his self loathing for company until his fingers brushed on one of the stones. It had a strange texture, brittle, and oddly light. At a whim, he held it in front of his eyes and squinted. When he breathed in, there was a faint whiff of sulfur . . .
Slowly, Kirito sat up, he looked at the stone, he looked back at the bag. Then, emptying the rest, he found more. Two, three, maybe four kilograms worth.
'There's no way to tell for sure.' He told himself, he'd only seen the small sample in a vial.
'I'm unarmed, in the middle of the night.' Kirito thought.
'They're just NPCs, they're not . . . real . . . '
In Rere village, it was the depth of night when Kirito staggered to the door of the now familiar cottage and hammered desperately to be let in. A few candle lights still flickered in the window. Given her duties, and the condition of Gervaise, it was safe to assume Verdelle would barely sleep.
His theory was proven as the door was opened, the Medicine woman looked exhausted, but not at all like she'd been sleeping.
"Kirito?" Verdelle asked, eyes widening as she took him in. "By the Origin Light, Kirito! What happened?!"
The swordsman tried to speak, only to begin coughing. He was pretty sure he'd hadn't torn open his old wounds, it just felt that way. What he really wanted to do was throw up, but his stomach was mostly empty. Running non stop through the night, sweating every second that he'd aggro something deadly without a weapon to defend himself. Fearing that he'd take a wrong turn in the unfamiliar blackness.
He wasn't sure what was keeping him on his feet, other than adrenaline. But before he fell over, he had to know. He held up one of the stones from the half empty satchel.
Verdelle had stared at it for a long while, its true significance dawning on her only slowly, but when it did, Kirito had the answer to his first question. And he knew his second.
"Verdelle, that Dwarf pharmacist you knew . . ." Kirito panted "You know where he lives, right?"