December 2nd, 2022 – Roughly 4AM AST. Kirito and I had been going for extra hunting late at night, on the upper floors of the first-floor labyrinth. Thinking about it, it was kind of wonky to establish a floor system for the main area designations, while also having a floor system inside each of those floors themselves; it was really hard to describe things that way. Eventually, I decided to use a form of shorthand to refer to a labyrinth's 20 floors, to differentiate them from Aincrad's 100 floors.
We had been meandering around 19F of the first-floor labyrinth for five hours – 19F being my own shorthand for the labyrinth's own 19th floor, based on the shorthand used in single-player JRPGs.
We were only even this deep through this tower-style dungeon, because there were still missing readings for the map's layout – we had to manually cover ground in a dungeon in order to get its information to share with other players. Although, I also had much to gain from being up here, as I was primarily targeting monsters which dropped a Rapier known as the Wind Fleuret.
We'd only opened the 19th floor the day before, but that still gave me roughly 10 hours up here, at least up to this point. And this was one of only three days since the Field Boss was defeated in the prior weeks, that I had seen Kirito again – or anyone else who helped open the northern half of the floor, for that matter; both of us had split off to do separate things, while everyone else stuck with each other, for the most part. I helped to map out the first 11 floors of the labyrinth in the prior week, and I spent the last few days just tagging along to hunt monsters behind the players who mapped out the rest.
It was quite the coincidence that my mind was on rapiers at the time – because as Kirito and I made our way out, we saw a player using one on a «Ruin Kobold Trooper», a Level 6 monster. Except, we could only tell by the usage of Linear; we couldn't see the blade when it was moving. We paid close attention to the fencer after they dodged three of the kobold's axe attacks, and yet we were only capable of seeing the light coming from their usage of the skill, and the flash of the sword's path through the monster. We figured that the player was adding their own physical motion into the attack, behind the assistance system that would otherwise carry their arm through the skill motion.
We had already seen multiple usages of Linear in earlier days of official service, but only this time could we not see the blade itself when this player attacked. Likewise, we hadn't seen the first floor's kobold enemies attacked so viciously.
The fencer repeated this process of dodging and executing that skill three more times. Without a single scratch, and still with a full bar of HP, the player stumbled back into the wall and slid down as the fallen enemy – one of the toughest in the dungeon – proceeded to burst into polygonal shards.
The player, breathing heavily, had not noticed the two of us standing 15 yards away in a tunnel intersection. Kirito and I, though we had done a handful of things together in the first week or so, considered ourselves to be solo players in the game. The only time he would go out of his way to assist anyone was if they were in mortal danger while battling, but I, on the other hand, was always eager to help in any given scenario. And after word had spread of the stance that I'd taken back in Horunka, most players showed me gratitude for my help.
But this player didn't need our help, it seemed. They flinched upon hearing our approaching steps, but had no other reaction, assured by our green cursors that we weren't monsters. The fencer was dressed in light armor, like us: deep red leather tunic under a light bronze breastplate, tight-fitting leather pants, knee-high boots, all under a hooded cape in a stronger, 'bloodier' red than the tunic. The hood was up, hiding the player's face, but other than the cape, our outfits were similar in their defensive capability – fencers and pace-setting swordsmen mostly had to use light armor. With no class system, all player builds were pretty much custom; Kirito and I went for DPS builds, which meant that we needed to stay on the move, weighed down enough by our swords that we had to keep ourselves otherwise light for mobility.
Of course, other players did have tank-style builds that suited heavier, bulkier armor, but that was not for us. We twisted our bodies around too often to have that be limited.
The fencer, head behind knees, seemed to have a lightweight physical build. Kirito and I could read from the sitting position that this player didn't want attention, but I saw Kirito stop, and so did I.
"A little bit overkill, if you ask me," commented the boy beside me.
The hood of the figure shifted back an inch or two, revealing the glare of two light brown irises that pierced us like the player's rapier thrusts, the rest of the face remaining hidden from our vision. Although, the fencer's head tilted slightly to the side, as if questioning Kirito's sudden comment. It wasn't hard to tell how reckless this player was – taking such limited evasive measures, just enough movement to avoid an attack, without moving too far away to counterattack the enemy.
On one side of the argument, consistently dodging instead of blocking and parrying saved wear and tear on equipment, as well as the aforementioned ease of counterattacking. But in a worst-case scenario, a successful hit on the player could apply a stunning penalty for the attempt to dodge. The game being the way it was now, if a solo player was stunned, they were as good as dead.
Strategy aside, the issue that Kirito perceived was more in offensive tactics than defensive. Just as he took a breath, though, I decided to speak up.
"Your final attack on the enemy does a lot more damage than it requires. After your second Linear, the kobold's HP was measured in so few pixels on its bar, that a plain strike could kill it, without the need for a Sword Skill."
Kirito looked at me as if he was about to speak much more eloquently. But in a dungeon within a death game, there was no need for formalities.
"Is there a problem with doing too much damage?" asked the player in front of us.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kirito's expression change. We had just come across a female player, deep in this dungeon, at a time of the morning that even I thought was absurd.
In other MMOs, players would have reached the initial release's level cap and found most content within the launch month. But here in SAO, the best players even now were roughly around Level 10 with no knowledge of the cap, if there even was one. And we couldn't convince many more players within this floating castle of Aincrad, to risk their real lives against the game's dungeons, monsters, traps and the like.
On launch, when everyone's avatars were changed to resemble their real selves, everyone was also forced into their biologically-assigned gender, meaning the 'female' demographic was cut in half.
Though female gamers were not unheard of by the 2020s, they were still a minority in the market; finding one so far from the Town of Beginnings on the complete opposite side of the floor, so deep into a dungeon, would not necessarily be unusual… Except for the fact that this one was here, this early in the morning, alone, and clearly not a beta tester. This lady was making Sarako's simps look like absolute p██ies by comparison – a thought that rang so strongly inside my head, that I heard a censor bleep over my internal, mental vocalization.
In the early 2010s, when female gamers became widespread knowledge, the males in MMOs could barely contain themselves. It was fairly difficult to find them at the time, and it was common for females to just receive tons of free stuff from other players.
Even now, general internet presence – nevermind gaming – by females would draw attention from males in both material and financial expression. These desperate types came to be called 'simps', pouring out most of their livelihood for mere acknowledgement by females. Of course, it still held true in MMOs as well, if Sarako hadn't made that clear enough.
Back to the matter at hand, the player did seem a little confused about the overkill. Kirito seemed ready to open his mouth for another semi-verbose explanation, so I jumped in to abridge it again.
"You could do that, and it can be fun to do, sometimes. But you'll use up a lot more physical and mental energy by focusing and executing the skills. Spare some stamina to make it back home."
"…Get back home?" The voice in the hood was a ragged monotone, seemingly exhausted just by asking that question.
"It's an hour out of the labyrinth, and another half to the nearest town," I proceeded to explain as I glanced around to see if anything was spawning, "There are studies comparing fatigue to levels of blood-alcohol content. 20 hours awake, for example, is often compared to .05 BAC. You're going to start feeling drunk without good sleep. You don't want to be remembered by the survivors as being akin to a drunk driver when they escape the game, do you?"
"Escape?" Her voice seemed to hoarsen. "Survivors…? No… There are none of either. Not after all is said and done. Two thousand have already died in a single month, and the first floor is still yet to be cleared. There is no way to beat the game, only to decide when and where you die…"
She slowly, and unsteadily, climbed to her feet using a single gloved hand, her other hand dangling her rapier as heavily as a claymore. "And to your point about sleep… I get it at the safe area."
"Well, the game does let you drift off wherever you like," I interjected again, "But with the growling and footsteps of monsters outside those safe rooms, you could only get an hour at best. And not a quality hour in the slightest."
The safe areas – small rooms in the dungeons where monsters couldn't spawn – were very easy to distinguish by colored torches in each corner. Useful for hunting or mapping, but with no doors or beds, only the hard, cold floor to lay on, and the sound of the monsters outside, it could only really qualify as an equivalent to classic-style Save Points in singleplayer JRPGs.
Kirito finally got a word in. "You also can't get any new potions there, or repair your equipment."
"Don't need potions if I don't get hit, and I bought five of the same swords."
"You will be hit sometime today," I fired back sternly, "Your cape is tattered and you'll eventually come to find yourself stumbling around like a college girl on New Year's Eve."
In the moment she turned her gaze towards me, I could swear her hazel-looking eyes seemed more like a pale, piercing red, for just a second as she began to step towards us. "Listen here, you…"
She seemed to trail off as her voice became hoarser, before Kirito and I saw her quietly crash to the floor, her face landing right at our feet.
"…Huh. At least none of Sarako's boys are here."
Kirito glanced in my direction. "Don't plague yourself with the thought."
I nodded in agreement. "Let's just do what we know they wouldn't think to consider."
We spent a majority of the morning out in the sun, sitting a few hundred feet from the tower from whence we came. No hunting, no treasure, no shopping, and we only spoke one-on-one.
"1600, right?"
"Yeah, that's when it's being held. 4PM today."
We then noticed movement from the grass nearby, in the middle of the day. The woman we kept watch over for much of the sun's time above, slowly opened her eyes, and sat herself upright.
"Hey, you. You're finally awake."
"Please don't," Kirito immediately interrupted me.
"Oh, please. She probably doesn't even know."
"Know what?" growled the fencer, as we turned our attention to her again.
I leaned back against a tree. "I was about to reference an older game."
"You're probably right." She sighed as she pushed herself to her feet, then looked toward us once more as her voice sounded a little clearer. "But why save me?"
"An opportunity has arisen for us to prove you wrong," I haphazardly answered, "About the game, that is. Your claim that it was unbeatable."
"What is this opportunity…?"
"A meeting at 4PM today, in the town square of Tolbana," Kirito answered more calmly than I had attempted the previous question, "We're going to plan out how to beat the boss of the first-floor labyrinth there."
"Speaking of the labyrinth," I jumped back into the conversation, "For all the time you were there, you probably have a lot of map data, right?"
The fencer tilted her head. "Well, I had been there for three or four days. And you really think it'll actually help, after so long without any progress?"
I blinked. "Three days…" I shook the confusion out of my head. "Y-Yeah, you should have a lot after that long."
"Huh… Alright," she shrugged and opened her menu, "This meeting sounds promising, so I guess I'll humor you for a day, by seeing how it plays out."
She found the map interface in her menu, pressed a button to copy the info to a parchment scroll, then hit another button to materialize the scroll as an object. She tossed it to Kirito, who caught it.
"4PM at the town square, did you say?"
Kirito and I nodded. The fencer didn't say anything else, simply nodding before slowly heading back toward Tolbana. We followed, passing through the town's northern gate, prompting a message to display in purple, «Safe Haven», to indicate that we were properly inside of the town. The weight of effort throughout the morning suddenly pushed down on us, and yet the fencer ahead of us was walking just fine.
Kirito simply glanced at me, before staring at the fencer again, and I did the same to him.
"You talk way too fast, SAUER."
I chuckled softly at the boy's comment. "I speak faster in English."
"Strange girl, yah?" What a blunt comment from behind us. We turned to see a player who was an entire head shorter than Kirito, dressed in light armor like us. "Seems to be on death's door, but never dies. Clearly a newbie, but her moves are sharp as steel. Who can she be?"
We may not have known who the fencer was, but we knew who this girl was – Argo the Rat, author of «Strategy Guide by Area». She'd told us the day after launch, that she'd write this guide book, publishing it a couple weeks later and having it distributed at NPC shops.
"So, you know then, right?"
Argo snorted at my inquiry. "I'll make it cheap, 500 Cor."
It was a bit of an exaggeration to say that a conversation with The Rat costed 100 Cor for every five minutes, as I'd hear from others; her information was always verified and sourced. The accuracy of her product always made a difference between life and death.
"I don't believe either of us intends to pry into a girl's personal life."
Argo chuckled at my answer as Kirito nodded in agreement. "Good mindset to have. So, to other business, then?"
Kirito nodded and took Argo out of my sight, as I continued through town. From what I was able to discern from previous interactions, it seemed that Kirito and another player had been relaying Argo back and forth to each other about Kirito's Anneal Blade +6.
All that I knew about Kirito's enhancements, was that he had two separate parameters increased. Sword Art Online only showed the total modifiers on a weapon's name, such as the +6 on his. The specific parameters could only be seen from the item properties; for example, three Sharpness and three Durability would be spoken in shorthand by players as '3S3D'. NPC blacksmiths were also very bad at enhancement, so the few players who took the Blacksmithing skill had little competition.
Different parameters required their own kinds of materials, and higher investments increased the success rate. I was always stubborn in obtaining enough materials to bring the success rate to its maximum possible rating, which was never 100%.
After Kirito came back to me, we went to get a bite, and then at four, we went to the meeting. But nothing important was said, and the meeting was cancelled a few minutes in. A crucial piece of information was missing – the whole 20th floor of the first-floor labyrinth, let alone the location of the boss room on that floor. Until all of the game's cards were seemingly on the table, no-one was ready to discuss a plan that could fall apart so quickly once all the pieces of the puzzle were there.
At most, all that was discussed, was simply the goal of finding the boss room. Another meeting was agreed upon for the same time tomorrow, or whichever day all information was ready.
"Well, at least I know we're headed somewhere," the fencer sighed as she, Kirito and I exited the square soon after we got there, "Although, now I need something else to do."
I pointed at the tower containing the labyrinth. "You use rapiers, right? There are monsters in the dungeon which drop a better one. You can enhance its attributes when you get it."
She glanced in the direction I pointed, and silently nodded, heading off as we quickly followed.
The evening wasn't exactly eventful – I'd told the girl what we were here for, and that was what we focused on for the time we were there. She eventually got a Wind Fleuret to drop, and we told her about the materials she would need for enhancing weapons. By the end of the night, she had the materials for the first enhancement, and throughout the next morning and for some of the early afternoon, we would help her get more for another three; she chose Accuracy three times, and one enhancement to Durability – thus, her new rapier would be called a Wind Fleuret +4 (3A1D).
After that, we finally went to the re-scheduled boss meeting at 4PM. The fencer, Kirito and I made our way up to the back of the ampitheater, where the meeting was relocated in lieu of the square.
The blue-haired man standing at the bottom clapped twice for attention. "Okay, people! Now that everyone's here, let's get this meeting started!"
The three of us didn't sit all the way at the back, but a few rows down – the female some distance from Kirito and myself. I couldn't see everyone, but the head count was less than 50.
"So, anyway," the man continued, "I wanna thank everyone for coming. Good to see you. My name is Diavel, and in this game, the job I rolled is Knight!"
Laughter sprung up from the small crowd. "Dude, there's no job system in this game!"
"You guys wanna hear this or not?" After a few more chuckles, it was quiet again.
"Right. Anyway, here's the deal: our party found the boss room at the top of the tower today."
Immediately, Diavel had everyone's attention again. "First, we need to defeat the boss, and make it to Floor Two. The next step is, we have to tell everyone waiting in the Town of Beginnings, that it is possible to beat this game!"
I couldn't help but shrug at this statement. How would re-clearing the first ten floors immediately prove that the game was beatable? Let alone just the 1st floor? The 10th floor of the beta wouldn't come anywhere close to the 25th floor, so why compare it to the 100th floor of the full release? Especially since we should have been able to reach every nook and cranny of the first ten floors' labyrinths by this point - why had we only just filled out the first, even while being cautious with the one chance we get?
"Fact is, it's our duty as the most capable players here. Do you agree, or not?"
Many of the players looked at each other in agreement, and then applauded Diavel's speech, some even adding a whistle or two – something that would hurt my extra-sensitive ears if pain existed. Nonetheless, Kirito looked pleased, and I knew I had to be as well.
"Okay! Glad to hear you're all with me on this. Now, let's figure out how we're gonna beat the boss."
"First off, we'll team up into parties of six." Kirito flinched at Diavel's advice as people already began conversing with each other. "A typical party doesn't stand a chance against a floor boss. We need a raid group, made up of multiple parties."
I tapped Kirito's shoulder to stop him from glancing around at other players, and pointed to our left, towards the hooded girl we saved yesterday, about ten feet away. We immediately shuffled closer.
"You got left out too, huh?" assumed the boy now sandwiched between the girl and myself.
"Not even," she answered without moving, "I wasn't left out. It's just, everyone seems like they're already friends."
"So, you're solo, too," Kirito concluded, although I thought we'd realized that already, "You wanna form a party with us?"
The girl turned her head slightly toward us as Kirito explained himself. "You heard what the guy just said – we can't beat the boss on our own. And it would only be for this fight."
The girl in the hooded cloak silently nodded, and Kirito then sent an invite to both her and myself. After we both accepted the invitation and joined his party, their HP bars appeared below mine, along with their names – Kirito, and Asuna.
Asuna. That was definitely a name I had heard at least once in a significant context, in the latter half of the year.
Diavel began to speak again. "Alright! Looks like everyone's teamed up. Now then…"
"Hold up a sec!"
Everyone looked up at the back row, where a man with spiky, sienna-colored hair stood, before then running down the rows and leaping from the lower third, down to the floor.
This wasn't a typical definition of spiky. This player had a hairstyle called a cactus. Literal spikes, like the round, conical spikes you see in video game pits – he looked like how someone would visually describe their interpretation of a 'prick', before it came to mean what it did.
"My name's Kibaou, got that? Before we take on the boss, I wanna get something off my chest."
Kirito leaned forward in curiosity. "We all know about the 2000 people who've died so far, yeah? Well, some of you need to apologize to 'em right now!" Kibaou pointed into the crowd, sparking murmurs all around. Kirito stared attentively at this man as I correctly assumed who Kibaou was referring to, before Diavel began to answer.
"Kibaou… I think I know who you're referring to. You mean the ones who are ex-beta testers, right?"
"Course I mean them," Kibaou answered to Diavel, "The day this stupid-ass game started, the beta guys just up and vanished, right?! They ditched all us beginners!"
"What, you expect less than 1000 people to all have the patience, to consistently hold the hands of nine thousand others at all times?"
Kirito jerked his head to look at me as I added myself to the conversation, but I directed all of my attention towards Kibaou.
"Don't try to derail the point!" News to me – he had a point? "Anyway! They snagged all the good hunting spots. And they grabbed all the easy quests, too!"
"How were the beta testers supposed to know quests would have ridiculous cooldowns in the full version of the game?" Now, I was getting invested in his argument.
"Stop distracting me, kid!"
"I don't know if you are older than me," I began to retort while walking down the stairs, "But age doesn't correlate with maturity. Now, what are your other points?"
"Right, cooldowns aside…" Kibaou discarded pertinent details, "The beta testers were the only ones gettin' stronger in here. This whole time, those assholes have ignored us like we're nothin'."
"Assholes, huh?" I chuckled as I reached the bottom where he and Diavel stood, "Consider the fact that it's been a month. Roughly 28 days, give or take a couple."
Kibaou blinked. "What about the time, huh?"
"Consider how quickly things change in just a few minutes," I began to explain, cupping my hand beneath my chin, "Such as your interruption of a boss meeting, to call out beta testers. Are you honestly that confident, that not a single one has died in all of that time? Maybe even, say, roughly three hundred?"
"Three hundred?" Kibaou snorted as others mumbled in the stands, "Has the knowledge they hide made them that arrogant? Hell, where's that number even coming from?"
"It came from money," I answered straightforwardly and calmly, "I caught wind that someone had commissioned that information. After seeking out the player and the one they spoke to, I'm able to conclude that while pointing fingers is a rather unhealthy habit, the two confirmed that this was the case as I revealed here. Of course, it's not a solid number, but again, roughly."
The first couple of sentences in that statement were a lie – I had been present when Kirito bought that information from Argo. But she came back with an answer after only three days.
"Well even if that's the right number," Kibaou began whining again, "Those who did die, they knew what they were getting themselves into, but not the rest of us. They kept it all for themselves…!"
I sighed, shaking my head, as he turned to the crowd again. "Hell, I bet there's some of 'em here! Come on out, beta testers!"
I took a moment to yawn as he continued to rant. "We should make 'em apologize to us. And we should make 'em all give up their money AND the items they got! They can't expect the party to trust them when they don't trust us. Why should we?!"
"Could you imagine, maybe, that they know how to beat the boss?" I sighed sarcastically as I briefly glanced up at Kirito, who I could see was trying his best to stay quiet. "This would likely take a few more meetings if at least three or four beta testers weren't somewhere here. Surely you think they want to escape too?"
"Can I say somethin'?" Everyone, including Kirito, looked in the direction of the rich baritone voice, seeing a tall, dark-skinned man whose only non-eyebrow hair on his head, was on his chin. He took down the hand he had raised to signal his voice, and approached the three of us at the bottom.
"Hey. My name's Agil," the man introduced himself, "Kibaou, right? I wanna make sure I'm on the same page. You say the ex-beta testers should be blamed for the rookies' deaths because they didn't help 'em… And you want 'em to apologize and give up their winnings. I leave anything out?"
"No, you didn't…!" Kibaou, like most Japanese people, had clearly never seen a black man in person before, to give such a quick, attitude-filled response.
"The item store hands these out for free," Agil continued as he pulled out a small handbook, "It's a guide book. You got one, didn't you?"
"Sure, I got one. So, what about it?" Wow, this cactus-head really is a cactus, huh?
"You know who was handin' these out? The ex-beta testers."
Murmurs came from the crowd as Agil spoke. "Cool story, bro," I heard someone say – at least, the Japanese equivalent of that phrase – seemingly directed at Kibaou.
Yeah. Cool story, I thought as I contained a chuckle.
Agil turned to the crowd. "Listen up – everyone had equal access to this information. Even so, lots of players still died. Now, I didn't come here to point fingers at anyone. I'm here 'cause I wanna learn from those players' deaths. I'm here because I wanna find out how we're gonna beat the boss!"
Kirito breathed a sigh of relief as I glanced up at him. I then turned to Kibaou to speak again as Agil turned toward him as well. "You know, if you had read it, you would have seen information which would have been impossible to obtain, had there not been a closed beta."
With a look of defeat, Kibaou then walked over to the front row and sat down, then Agil sat beside him as I made my way back up to my party.
"Okay... Can we get back to the meeting now?" Diavel's inquiry was met with nods, and then he held up his own copy of the book. "For info on the boss, it's all in here – the latest issue of the guidebook you just heard about."
Sure enough, Kibaou leaned forward slightly, as if this was news to him.
"According to the book, the boss' name is «Illfang, the Kobold Lord»," Diavel continued as he read along in the book, "Also, he'll be surrounded by his minions – the «Ruin Kobold Sentinels»."
Diavel continued to paraphrase the writing. "Illfang carries an axe, and a buckler. He has four health bars, and when the last one turns red, he switches to a curved sword-type weapon called a talwar."
I also briefly had my book open to review, just in case I forgot anything from the beta. Better to be safe than sorry – although, there wasn't much time to feel sorry before death; roughly ten seconds.
"He can change his patterns of attack, too." The players began to talk amongst themselves for a moment before he closed his copy of the book. "That's it for the briefing. As for the distribution of loot, money will be divided equally among everyone."
The players listened attentively. "The party that defeats the boss, gets the XP. And, whoever gets an item, gets to keep it! Any objections?"
Mumbling followed, and then presumably, everyone agreed. "Good! We leave tomorrow, at ten in the morning! Meeting adjourned, people!"
Some players got up and left, as others stayed to talk amongst themselves. Kibaou and Agil went to speak to Diavel. Kirito then looked back at Asuna, who was leaving as well, and I got up to depart as I briefly glanced down at Diavel just as he glanced up at us – though, Kirito was focused on Asuna.
I went with Kirito to meet with the fencer again, to ensure that we were prepared for tomorrow.
"Your voice was a lot clearer today," I told her as we caught up, "See what a proper rest gets you?"
"I guess you could call it a 'proper' rest," she answered with a sigh, "Of course, the inn rooms in this place barely live up to the name. They're like tiny boxes with a bed and table, and they expect you to pay 50 Cor a night? I don't care about food, but the sleep you need is real, so they could at least give us better accommodations."
"H…Huh? You think so?" Kirito was surprised, for some reason. "You know there are better places available if you search them out, right? They just cost a little more."
"How hard do you have to search? There are only three inns in town, and they're all the same."
"Oh, I see," Kirito realized, "You only checked the places with the big 'INN' signs, right?"
"Well, isn't that self-explanatory? An inn is an inn."
"Yeah," my fellow swordsman continued, "But that only refers to the cheapest possible places to spend the night here on the ground floor. The inns aren't the only place to pay Cor for a room."
"W-Well… Why didn't you say that earlier?"
I saw Kirito smirk at Asuna's frustrated answer, and gestured to him that I had his back on this one.
"He's been staying on the second floor of a farm, you see," I began to explain the example that I had also personally seen, "He pays 80 a night, but it comes with milk, a comfy and spacious bed, and the view is something to take in after a dip in the bath."
With speed akin to her execution of the Linear rapier skill, she gripped the collar of my coat, almost hard enough to set off the anti-criminal code, as she pressed with a steely, menacing voice.
"What did you just say?" She repeated herself, glancing briefly at Kirito as she did so. "What did you just say?"
"All the milk to drink?" I answered.
"After that."
Kirito contributed. "C-Comfy, spacious bed and a nice view…?"
"After that."
"I believe it was a bath."
The three of us turned to see Sarako, who had found yet more replacements for the boys she'd lost throughout the last month – four males of varying age followed closely behind her, all of whom I'd seen at the meeting.
"How close were you to hear that?" I asked her.
She smiled. "Around the corner."
I glanced behind her. "But the closest corner is 15 feet away."
"Don't give yourself a headache over it. I just heard you."
After I shrugged, Asuna resumed the initial topic. "Anyway, you said this room was 80 a night?"
Kirito slowly nodded. "That is… What I'm paying, yeah."
"How many extra rooms does this inn have?"
"Ah, but see, that is where the problem lies," I interjected, shaking my head, "You see, he has the entire second floor. It's not exactly a 'room'. Nothing to rent on the first floor, either."
"Wha… Then, the room's all…"
"Unfortunately, he also bought the maximum length of stay in advance – ten days. Transactions like that can't be cancelled."
Asuna took a second to process my exposition before turning to Kirito. "…Let me use your bath."
I shot a glance at Sarako as I heard her gently inhale a few feet away.
The farm was at the edge of a small field to the east, with a stream through the corner of the plot of land pushing a small waterwheel. The two-story house was occupied on the first floor by an NPC farming family, the grandmother in a rocking chair having a '?' over her head to indicate a quest.
Up a set of heavy stairs was a short hallway with a single door at the end. Kirito touched the knob and it opened automatically with an unlocking click sound – nothing could be done by other players, even with lockpicks, to a door leading into a player-rented room.
Kirito pushed open the door and gestured to the fencer. She stepped inside, and she almost lost her balance at the sight of the place. "It's so big! What… And this is only 30 Cor more expensive than the place I'm renting? It's so cheap…!"
I chuckled at her initial phrasing. "There's a skill available later on for finding things like this."
Kirito pointed to the door in the west, with an obvious sign on it. "Bathroom is over there."
I then caught the boy with my arm as he was about to sit on the sofa. "Why don't we give her some time to really feel the place out? I want to make sure the Illfang fight gets me my twelfth level."
"You wouldn't just leave her alone in here, would you?" asked the e-girl who followed us.
I smiled and shook my head. "Well, you being a woman, you're more trustworthy around her."
Kirito gave me a look as the woman laughed. "That is a very fair point. And, I can lend you my boys to keep you safe while you get that extra bit of XP to ensure the boss puts you over."
"Your… boys," the teen male beside me sighed, "Now I get all the jokes SAUER was making."
Sarako giggled softly. "These fine gentlemen have heeded my wisdom and leadership for the past couple of weeks. They'll be happy to help if I give the word."
"Sounds like a plan," I accepted her offer, "Gives you some time to relax, too."
"You know it."
"Oh, by the way," Kirito alerted the fencer as he took a step, "The NerveGear doesn't handle liquid sensations that well. So, don't expect it to be the same as in real life."
"As long as there's plenty of hot water, I'm not asking for anything more." The fencer then opened the bathroom door, slid inside, and pulled it shut, as Sarako sat on the sofa.
Kirito and I took the female beta tester's 'boys' with us, out of the farmhouse, to head toward the labyrinth for what would likely only be an hour or two. More than enough for the girls to get cozy, while not letting them sit idle too much.
For now, though, it was an evening 'with the boys', as it would be said in English.