Yo, time for chapter 9.

January 7th
Aincrad Third Tier, Inn

Kirito woke up the next day strangely calm. He had expected to have another chaotic night filled with harsh dreams. However he wasn't plagued with nightmares, something he was very grateful for. Lazily scanning his loot, he tried to decide on a course of action. He knew he could continue heading farther north. The Hynafol Highway already pointed where to head to.

'But the journey north will only continue to take longer. Then again I don't know the areas in any of the other directions and I could waste time just wandering around trying to find someplace to level. If the progression continues as is, where the higher level content is farther and farther each time, there won't be any time to level at all!'

Still undecided, Kirito remembered how after the last event the horse vendor had suddenly appeared. It made him wonder whether there would be anything new in the city this time. With an adventure to plan, Kirito roused himself from bed, and realized he had yet to spend any of his level up points. So he quickly slotted them into place as he was now level 41.

From the fight at Graig and the whole second event Kirito had managed to level from 37 to where he was now. He believed that he was the highest level player in the game but he was worried about how he was even going to keep his lead. As he rarely interacted with other players, it was entirely possible someone else was a higher level.

Eventually he made it out of his room at the inn and was given a complimentary breakfast by the npc matron downstairs. Happily snacking away, Kirito was interrupted by the notorious,

Bing!

Argo had once again summoned him to her tea shop. Deciding that visiting her might help him further his plans, Kirito set off to ‹‹Teattle Tales››. He then remembered promising to meet up with Klein and co. later for lunch and he sent off a message while walking, promising to arrive at the same location of their previous lunch at 1:00 pm.

While it was a late time for lunch it was already 11:30 am and Kirito had just eaten breakfast. He had time to kill doing whatever with Argo, a visit to Liz's and a stop at Agil's. He also needed to stop off at Arisawa's and with Liz's help get some more javelins and some throwing picks. Sadly he had forgotten to check in front of the gate last night. Not that he expected any of his weaponry to have stayed over the length of the battle. But he had hoped.

Walking through Aincrad Kirito observed how happy people seemed. Players could be seen strolling through the streets smiling and chatting about the event from yesterday. For the most part everyone within the game was still naïve in the aspect that they hadn't witnessed dozens of players get killed at the same time. Only those who fought yesterday or a month ago could comprehend how today should be a day of sadness and grieving. A victory was won yesterday, but at a high cost. While he didn't particularly care about those who died. He knew the public should acknowledge the sacrifices made.

Walking to Argo's didn't take much longer. And upon entering he saw her chatting with a hooded player. Kirito caught her eye and waited. Within the next minute Argo finished her business and dismissed her informer, at least Kirito assumed him to be an informer, one can never be sure with the information business.

"Hi there Argo, business is well this morning I take it?"

Kirito greeted.

"Ahh Kirito don't let my little rat bother you. He is just a pair of ears. Nothing to be concerned with. Now anyway, down to the matter at hand. Still no fish big enough to buy your prize. Perhaps if you would let me slip out that the "Great Black Hero" wants to sell it? Think business will pick up?"

"No!"

Kirito exclaimed. Then with a mutter he continued.

"Never say that Argo, I hate that title and want nothing to do with it. I hope people will start to forget it. I didn't do anything especially heroic this event. I spent most of my time off on the side clearing away the rampaging mobs that broke through the lines in front of me."

"Well look Kirito,"

He noticed she used his actual name there.

"I have a business to run, this tea shop doesn't actually sell much tea. I have more plans to expand my business. But one of my competitors is starting to gain ground against me because of all the time I have spent trying to sell bow. I need more col asap. So whatever I need to gossip, or need to leak, I am going to. If I have to even leak who the almighty black himself is, I might just."

Argo seemed to be serious. Kirito was quickly scrambling his brain to come up with one of a thousand reasons why Argo should not do such a thing. Unfortunately his lack of social skills left him speechless. Instead all he managed to get out was a series of strangled noises.

"Puh... Mrrh. Well... Ahhh..."

Then he fell into silence. A frown marring his features. Argo quickly spoke again.

"Kirito I am serious. I have wasted a lot of time with this bow situation. I thought it would pay off much sooner. ‹‹Derrik›› ‹‹The Dirt›› himself is taking away lots of my clients. He has lots of popular information about big names. And people are visiting him more and more often. So I need something now. To play this field I either need to sell the bow now to minimize the loss of profits or I need to have some large scandal or a juicy bit of information. In terms of numbers that Dirt bastard is ahead of me now."

Still silent Kirito didn't know what to say.

'Information wars aren't my thing. I don't understand people enough for such things. If I was Argo, all I would sell was hard information facts. Like how much an item costs of something.'

"Alright that's it Kirito I am going to have to go public with who you are. Or you pay me 25,000 col."

Gob smacked Kirito sat there and didn't notice as he dribbled tea on himself.

"Are... Are you trying to well, you know blackmail me?"

Was all he got out.

"Yes."

She succinctly replied.

"You know how I operate Kirito, business above friends. I am a rat after all."

She had a feral smile in place and her eyes were drilling into Kirito. At that moment the situation snapped into place for Kirito.

"Wha- are you serious Argo? 25,000 col is a ridiculous amount of col. I have gear to buy. I can't afford that. And besides you can't be serious I thought we were friends..."

Trailing off Kirito noticed her eyes still focused onto him. He ducked his gaze and saw the tea in his lap. His face began heating in embarrassment.

"Business is business Kirito, you contracted me to sell your bow and my profits are suffering from it. I need recompense now."

Her attitude toward this situation was really pissing him off he realized. The shock of this whole thing was wearing off and his anger was starting to flood his veins. His growing rage demanded a response. He jerked to his feet and slammed a fist onto the table.

"You know what Argo, this is bullshit! I clearly misjudged you."

Kirito yelled at her. Thankfully Argo couldn't see that there was a damp patch on his black shirt or she would have laughed at the poor guy. His small frame and feminine features didn't cast much of an intimidating aura. But Argo maintained a straight face in front of his anger.

Then she merely stuck her right hand out and rubbed her fingers together in a recognizable gesture. Kirito glared hard at her. His anger rarely surfaced but he couldn't take one of the few people he thought of as friends doing this. He never took rejection well.

"ARRRGH! FUCK!"

He exclaimed and swung an arm harshly through the air. Argo still showed no outward reaction.

"You dam bitch! I can't believe this shit. Fine fucking take the dam money. But you better not tell anyone what you threatened."

He materialized 25,000 col into its coin form and started tossing it about. The coins thudded everywhere on the wooden tables and floor as Kirito turned his back and strode toward the door. Where he turned around to say a final parting.

"Oh yeah Argo, you can forget about selling the bow. Maybe I will go see if Derrik the Dirt can do better business."

Kirito stormed out of her shop his rage full tilt. He knocked into someone's shoulder hard but kept walking. He ignored their startled cry. His thoughts were in a crazy flurry, jumping about fueled by his distressed state. He realized he needed to meet Klein soon.

"That is not going to happen."

He all but growled under his breath. The blow up with Argo had brought back several memories he would rather forget. He wanted to be alone and meeting Klein and his cheery friends wasn't something he would be able to manage. He snapped open his menu and typed out a quick message.

Klein,

Sorry, but something has come up and I can't make lunch. Good luck.

-Kirito

His plans for the day were thoroughly ruined by this event the more he thought over it the more his anger continued to stew. An old memory from his childhood was attacking his thoughts and he couldn't stand it. He really needed to be alone. Even the people on the street looking at him was too much at the moment.

He quickly called Midnight and watched as his companion rode up the street toward him. He fed the horse and mounted him. At a quick trot he set off to the North Gate. He had no intention of spending any more time in Aincrad. He was in the plaza before the third tier's north gate and was about to ride out when a player caught his attention. He couldn't tell if it was a boy or girl as their head was between their knees as they sat huddled in the gateway. Kirito made a split second decision.

"Hey,"

He called out.

"You in the gate, catch."

He tossed the materialized bow at the figure and without looking rode Midnight out onto the plain surrounding Aincrad. There was no new building adjacent to the horse salesmen Kirito noticed. Hopefully he would be able to calm down as he rode farther and farther away from Aincrad.

'See you in 29 days Aincrad.'

-[S]-[A]-[O]-

Argo POV

'I can't believe I did that to him. He looked really pissed... Fucking Derrik!'

Argo mentally ranted as she sat calm and composed before a shifty looking player wearing attire similar to her own. Dark brown hooded cloak, silent shoes and very dark neutral colored clothing.

"Ahem."

He coughed to get her attention.

"Did you bring what I asked for Rat? Or does it have to go public?"

A sneer crossed her face. She pulled a sack out from in her cloak.

"As discussed, here is 25,000 col." She handed over the sack. "Don't try me again Dirt, or I will end you."

Without another word between the two, Argo stood up and strode away.

-[S]-[A]-[O]-

Liz POV

Today had started differently for Liz. She had woken up from the obnoxious bing telling her she received a message. Honestly why was there no option to lower the volume or mute the notice when sleeping. She needed her beauty sleep. But SAO didn't really seem to care. Liz never let a message sit without reading it. She had done this one morning and lost a regular customer for it. Not wanting a bad reputation she know responded to customers at all times of the day.

'Gamers and their dam odd hours of playing. Why does someone need their favorite dagger repaired at 4:30 in the morning? I swear. Just sleep like normal people!'

But she realized this new message came around eight. She should probably get up. The day after the last event had seen lots of business. Today should be no different. She opened the message and read.

Attention Blacksmith

Today marks the return of the illustrious Blacksmith's Guild, attached are directions to our headquarters. To continue smithing beyond the basics, all smiths are required to appear at the guild meeting at 2pm on this day. Failure to comply will demand you reacquire your smithy licensing. Let us hammer up some camaraderie later today.

-Guild Head ‹‹Long John Steelver››

'Whaaa..? A mandatory meeting. I didn't know there were crafting guilds. This might actually be fun. I may be able to get more recipes. Ohhhh I love new recipes!'

The next 3 hours passed slowly for the smith as no one entered the shop and she was put off by that. Why was her show getting passed over today! Finally 1:45 pm rolled around and the over eager smith with her hair dyed pink set off to the new headquarters. It was located within the smithy section of the 2nd tier. She could actually recall the building. It was large and wooden. No one had been able to purchase the property. Which had vexed several smiths who believed themselves great enough to use it as a store.

She arrived to see another smith she recognized entering the building. Liz knew there were about 30 other full time smiths. She had met most of them, as occasionally in the month before the second event they had met up to discuss the way of the smith. The three meetings had been very informal and unofficial and mostly turned into players bragging who crafted the best what. She hoped with an npc leading this meeting that perhaps something worthwhile would happen.

As she entered, Liz realized that this building had no forge within. The lack of chimney should have alerted her earlier. It was a two story building with a large open bottom floor. Chairs were placed before a small podium she counted 32 chairs filled with 25 smiths. The building seemed much like a meeting hall. Which made sense she thought.

Looking around it seemed that most everyone had already arrived earlier. There was a non-responsive npc standing behind the podium, she knew it was non responsive because three players were in front of it trying to gain its attention with no such luck. She seated herself next to the only other female smith. Liz had spoken with her several times and found the women to be very strong-willed, and opinionated. There was no haggling with her in her shop. But they got on well enough when discussing their craft. Several minutes later the last chair was filled and the npc sprang to life.

"Greetings all, I am ‹‹Long John Steelver›› head of the Blacksmith's guild. I request you refer to me as LJ. Now my absence these past two month has been troublesome, the craft of smithing had nearly died out in Aincrad when I left to go to the annual smith guild convention in ‹‹Tywodach››. Now I come back to find a mass of new smiths and no guild for them. I hope you accept my most humble apologies. I spent many extra weeks in Tywodach as I believed my presence here wasn't required."

LJ seemed like your arch-typical old man. Long gray hair hung limply down and his long gray beard hung even lower. Liz noticed it moved as he spoke and couldn't look away.

"But news reached my ears and I sped back with all haste. Now we have gathered and I must tell you all that to continue your craft within the city you must join the guild. There are no requirements, fees, or rules for the guild. Other than membership is required, and you must attend at least one meeting per year. Here in the guildhall is not a place to practice nor peddle your craft. This is a place for colleagues to discuss ideas, and admire each other's skill. Once a month there will be a meeting, with a small tournament where I will judge your crafts and the winner will receive a prize. I do this in the hope none of you become complacent as smiths and continue to explore our trade."

He held up a scroll that materialized into his hands. Clearly some kind of recipe. And Liz instantly decided to do whatever was necessary to get it. She needed more recipes, she just couldn't live without ever one she could get. Then she listened as the man resumed.

"I hold vast experience and knowledge when it comes to smithing. The guild has separate ranks to that of actual blacksmith ranks. There is a way to increase rank within the guild. You may be considered Journeyman smiths now, but in the guild you are all initiates. By completing challenges to show me specific, higher and higher difficulty items, I will increase your rank. And as higher ranked members of the guild I will share more of my knowledge with you. So I look forward to getting to know you all. Welcome to the Blacksmith's guild."

The npc had gone on for a bit, and Liz paid attention the whole time. She especially liked the idea of winning prizes with her crafting skill. She could only hope the guild head had recipes to share with higher ranked members. With the meeting over she went to find out the first guild challenge. LJ was crowded by eager smiths.

-[S]-[A]-[O]-

Throughout Aincrad, members of the different crafting sects had received similar messages requiring them to attend similar meetings in similar buildings across the second tier. In total, the blacksmiths, the woodworkers, the jewelers, and the tailors each had a meeting. But there were other unknown craft professions that came back into town today. Among them were the construction engineers, the siege engineers, the potioneers, and the joint pair of rune crafting and enchanting. In areas of the city that had been empty of activity ever since the first day, they now teemed with npcs. The npcs were going about their normal scripts for the day but for the citizens of Aincrad it was a whole new routine.

Within several days of the second event ending, these professions would find many eager hands to have a go at the craft.

‹‹Construction Engineering›› is the skill that allows players to build, repair and augment structures and infrastructures. So immediately several players had set off to rebuild the two damaged gates from the first and second event. Several players had taken it upon themselves to rebuild the burnt out buildings from the first event as well.

‹‹Siege Engineering›› is the skill that allows players to build, repair, augment, and operate siege equipment and weaponry. Unlike most crafts, siege engineers need to work in teams, the smallest team is a two man, while some of the largest projects can require many players. It was quickly found out that you couldn't just acquire the skill and build yourself a trebuchet.

A siege engineer had to spend many hours grinding out the small pieces like gears, winches, counter weights, and other important infrastructure, that would later be used to put together real siege machinery. After several days players discovered that these two guilds had set up a joint project of rebuilding the main road that used to run north through the forest to the town of Graig.

The npc guild heads had initiated the project. No one was sure why Graig was chosen to have its road rebuilt when people had managed to discover one other town as well. In fact no one within the city could claim to have ever been to Graig.

So with this joint project in the works, players could grind out skill points working on the road rather than assembling gears, or in the construction engineers case, it just gave them an easy activity to grind out points with. As you could grind out large beams and such, but there was no room within Aincrad proper to assemble them together.

‹‹Potioneering››is the skill that allows players to mix and brew potions. Such as health potions, status effect cures, and at high levels, potions that temporarily boosted stats and ability. The opposite side of potioneering is creating poisons, acids, and status effect inflicting potions. These could be applied to weapons, or for some of the acids and status inflicters, they could be thrown.

The ability to create health potions, even if only the basic ones that healed 100 hp, is having a huge effect on the Aincrad economy. Most players do not want to risk travelling out to farm for the potion mats, so the pots were limited in supply while there demand continued soaring. Everyone wanted as many health potions, as strong as they could get them. The first player to craft the +200 hp potion had to go into hiding as his shop was nearly the scene of a riot.

While it was possible to get random potion drops, no one ever sold those and they had been heavily protected. During the first and second event Diavel and gotten hundreds of donated pots and spread them out among front line fighters to help them heal during battle. So the constant influx of strong pots was wreaking havoc.

‹‹Runic Enchanting›› is the skill that allows players to carve runes into objects, then by taking the power out of other objects, transfer it to power their runes. In essence magic. No one was really sure how far this craft could be taken. It was mostly a mystery and its popularity wasn't very high once people realized it had no immediate effect for them. So the enchanters spent lots of time carving basic runes to grind xp.

To carve a rune, the system would provide you an overlay of sorts that allowed you to follow the pattern and carve the rune into whatever you were attempting to carve. But the player still had to actually carve the rune themselves. So it required a high degree of real skill. Another reason this craft had a smaller following then the others. But those that stayed were diligent and continued to learn.

-[S]-[A]-[O]-

Besides the new hustle of bustle of all the crafting. The first tier also found itself with new additions. A collection of buildings gained npcs. These were the first npcs to take positions within the top tier besides the guards that patrolled it occasionally. These npcs had a lot of attention on them. For several reasons, first being that they are in the top tier, second they allowed for players to create guilds, third they allowed players to buy tracts of land on the plain that surrounds Aincrad, and fourth they could teach players a new skill.

‹‹Leadership›› is the skill the npcs in the top district would teach players who were at least level 30, had been a guild leader at one point, and had killed at least one event mob. Kind of strange requirements but there was nothing the players could do about them. The skill itself passively gave a small bonus to players within the leader's party, and eventually to the leader's raid. Players could command groups of npcs to fight for them. But this feature was strange. The Aincrad npcs would not leave the walls if commanded. And no one could control more than five at one time.

Another feature of the leadership skill was ‹‹Banner››. Banners were an equip-able item, which someone with leadership could wield. They increased the passive effect that a leader had. Often creating a larger effect radius and amplifying the player's effect. Some banners weaken the opponent while others strengthen the leader's allies. The banner's design was customize-able. Not a largely popular skill as not many players could learn it.

Guilds had sprung up across Aincrad. Smaller guilds like ‹‹Fuurinkazan›› mostly kept to themselves, as they had already functioned like a guild prior to the actually being able to. These guilds spent their time out of the city, leveling up and questing. These were players that could be categorized as either mid-low level guardians or up and comers. That is they were either considered to be part of the elite core of players who stood at the fore front of each event, or they were on their way to being such.

Since the second event, and with the increased amount of proper parties since the formation of guilds, the amount of up and comers had received a large increase. Before the second event about 3,000 players had been participating to help defend Aincrad. Many more players, now about 20,000 in total, had taken to the field, either as warriors fighting to level up or, craft professionals working to improve Aincrad. Since dozens of players with no combat ability were trying to venture into the north forest to work on the road, they needed to be defended.

A man named ‹‹Thinker›› had stepped up to provide the service. He had a large guild composed of lots of up and comers. Players who were eager to get out and help. Thinker named his guild, the ‹‹Aincrad Liberation Force››. This guild spent a lot of time providing aid, they helped grind mats for players, they defended them while they worked on the road, and their more experienced members even spent time training and teaching those over eager players battling boars all day long. This led to the clearing of the plain, in that players had finally left the boar massacre and were now out battling around the fringes of the plain, into new territory. So the ALF provided many helpful services, they promised to help, train and feed anyone who joined. ALF's numbers were rapidly growing.

Now with Diavel's new guild ‹‹Knights of Unity›› recruiting large portions of the mid and high level players. This left most players in a guild. Either one of the two larger ones, a crafting guild, the merchant's guild, or a smaller one made up of people they knew or that had a common goal, focus, or idea. Solo player's decreased heavily in number. The KoU had gone as one large group and moved in mass southward. Presumably to level up.

With so much change going on, Argo had no time to dwell on her fight with Kirito. She was working hard every day. There was lots of new rumors and facts floating around, and people are a curious bunch after all, so the information selling business was booming as well. Argo had started this in a worse spot then her larger competitor. But her cunning had narrowed the gap between the two. A silent war was raging between the Dirt and the Rat with no side ahead.

-[S]-[A]-[O]-

POV Change
Aincrad Third Tier, North Gate

A hooded figure sat there contemplating her fate in life. She had lived an unenjoyable life for the majority of her time. Shunned and scorned once people realized her true nature. She had tried again and again to be strong, but nothing had worked for her. She thought that if she was able to stare a dragon down and win, maybe she would be able to translate the courage to her real life. So she had bought a copy of SAO. Her fear had returned strongly with Kayaba's announcement. So much so that she had spent the first month holed up in an inn, too frightened to associate with the outside world.

She had counted down with dread the 30 days till she presumed the end would come. But somehow, miraculously the first event had been overcome. And the girl had gained the courage to travel outside the city and begin questing, she had gone south and there was a water mill that was a quest hub. She spent the entire second month there leveling up. She had made friends with a player who fancied himself a warrior of great skill and renown. But she knew otherwise.

Foolishly the player had wormed his way into the second line of defense during the second event. He had fallen during the first arrow volley from the mounted scouts. She had learned from that day, witnessing her first death in the game, which was her friend's, and then the subsequent large amount of death that had followed. That she must become ice, emotion created problems for someone in a combat situation. By becoming like ice she could deaden herself to the world and fight to her true potential, but this revelation was blocked in her mind by yesterday's experience.

During the battle she had found herself atop the wall hurling throwing picks left and right. She preferred ranged combat but the motion of hurling a weapon over and over didn't suit her much. With no alternative she dealt with it, melee combat was no something she wanted to be involved in.

When the battle ended she had wandered all over the city in a lost haze. Her one friend was dead and she had watched as players who tried even harder than herself failed and died. She was so lost she hadn't realized when she had sat down in the gate arch and got lost in her thoughts even more. She hadn't slept once over the course of the night.

Rather she was in a trance like half-awake state. Hours later the approach of a horse could be heard, not by the girl as she was lost in her mind, but all the same the clop clop of a horse approached. A voice could be heard calling out then a slight whoosh of air as something was thrown. A thump as the object collided with its destination and then resumed the clop clop of a horse riding away.

Asada Shino aka ‹‹Sinon›› was wrenched from her despairing thoughts when something collided with her head. She jerked up and saw someone riding away on a black horse. She then noticed what had hit her, it was a large black longbow, and Sinon had no idea what to think.

Yahoo! Chapter done.

Ok so in effect magic will exists. It is in the form of potions, runes and enchanting. It will really play more of a support role within the story. There won't be players casting any spells.

Thanks for reading, I hoped you enjoyed this chapter please feel free to leave a review or write me a pm, I will try to answer any and all questions or comments.