Of Mouse and Man
Phase 11
..
Original Title: The World Only God Knows / 神のみぞ知るセカイ & Sword Art Online(ソードアート・オンライン)
Original Concept by: Tamiki Wakiki & Kawahara Reki
written by: wrathie
Author's Notes: A Crossover where Keima was not approached by the Weiss Capturing Squad and the Events of the Goddess Arc is non-existent.
Author's Notes: And to welcome my best reviewer and critic on to the bandwagon - Renascent for the beta of this chapter.
Thank you, and once again, Thank you!
Aincrad – Level 26
'Hmm... Is Agil starting his own harem of sorts? Counting Liz aside, I didn't expect the leader of Atelier to be joining us. How are you today dear, Ashley, Clorica?'
Argo smiled and greeted the members of their alliance, the leaders of the Merchant's Guild and Atelier. Agil hadn't been the overall leader of the Merchant's guild until around the 15th floor when the guild too big to be managed by just one individual working full time.
Like Nezumi, the Merchant's Guild had started managing their guild in different levels and in specialities/departments. It was an arrangement that was practised in normal business operations as well and amongst the group of individuals the only person who had actually run a business was Agil, and thus he was the overall head of the Merchant's Guild.
Despite his own hesitation and annoyance at being selected as the overall head and thus was forced with all the paperwork, Agil found that in his new position of power he could keep a close eye on the Merchant's Guild and to mold the guild's members to a more honest way of doing business. Doing business was less about unscrupulous competition and more about providing the best possible service at the most reasonable prices. It should be a win-win situation and merchants should never hold their customers hostage. That was one rule that Agil swore by, and was supported by his allies from Nezumi and Atelier too.
It could be argued that it was Agil's insistence and philosophy on this point that formed the bedrock of how sales were conducted within SAO.
Only Nezumi hadn't been totally won over, the sale and transfer of information had always been different from the tangible products that Atelier and the Merchant's Guild members were selling.
But that was a story for another time.
'It's nice to meet you, Argo-chan. Glad to see that you still like the customized outfit I made you.'
Ashley, the leader of Atelier was a flamboyant character well known in Aincrad for not only being the leader of Atelier - but being the best seamstress and fashion designer around. Her boutique, which was own separately from Atelier, was the best selling fashion brand in Aincrad. The prices of the boutique were also outrageous and being separate from Atelier, allowed Ashley to dictate her own rules with her own unique criteria in making customized outfits for the people that she found interesting. Those clothes were never sold in her boutiques and were specially made for them. And when it came to clothing design, Ashley was the best.
Up-to-date she had created specialized outfits for only a handful of individuals. Keima and Argo were amongst the numbers and for some odd reason, Klien and Ikumi have been gifted with outfits as well.
When Ashley's boutique was first set up, there were issues raised on how she could place and command such outrageous prices until it became clear that Ashley's items were a luxury item and it was the player's choice on whether they would wish to buy from her in the first place.
Agil had found himself flabbergasted at Ashley's audacity before he roared with laughter and agreed with her. There were no obligations for players to actually buy Ashley's items unlike essential equipment and thus there was nothing wrong with Ashley setting those prices. Other shops had rose to try and capture the same market as Ashley, but Ashley remained the top of her game, the most expensive boutique for the highest quality of products. Ashley's branding was complete before others even got into the market and her position was set for life.
'I totally dig the mouse ears you made for me, Ashley, why wouldn't I? Business is booming as always huh? You're always sold out... it's impossible to get another set in the first place.'
Argo pouted cutely while Ashley giggled.
'If I didn't need to spend so much time on all the paper work at Atelier, I'll have more free time to come up with more designs! It's not like it's as simple as following a recipe like the NPCs does. The guys in the Merchant Guild would understand, right? The best equipment are the ones you customize and improve by hand and not through the system.'
Ashley puffed her chest out proudly, and it was quite a bountiful chest indeed as Argo's eyes followed it for a while together with some of the other guys that were present in the meeting.
All of the items that were sold by Atelier were designed and made by hand – they could not be made through recipes and had to be hand crafted. Amazingly, they were also considered 'costumes', a special class of equipment by Aincrad as they did not take up an item slot. It hadn't been that way at the start, Ashley's clothes were originally equipment in their own right but they were hilariously useless as armour due to the way Ashley had crafted their equipment – which left them with hardly any defense capabilities.
Nezumi had came to Ashley's rescue and together with the Merchant guild re-engineered the process of making 'costumes', another slot that was available for players to equipment items in.
The costumes that was available at that time were stuff like the barkeep outfit, the farmer's overalls etc.
The members of Nezumi had to scour Aincrad for the recipe to one of those items before letting the Merchant's Guild try and figure out how to make customized costumes with the recipe.
It took the better half of a month, but eventually they did it, allowing Ashley to cash into the market by herself. That was also one of the reasons Atelier had such a good relationship with the Merchant's guild. Only the three guilds know of the secret on making costumes and the three guilds had benefited from that monopoly of information, as bad as it might seem up till now where the status quo might be changing.
..
'As fun as it is to gossip more, we called the two of you here for a reason...'
It was Clorica who got everyone's attention. Clorica was the cheerful second in command of Atelier and who had the same fashion sense as her leader which made her wildly popular as well. However Clorica was also known to be a stickler of rules, and that separated the two of them. Clorica could be said to be the person who was running Atelier by herself instead of Ashley.
Clorica was born in Japan but had inherited the looks of her mother, who was of Eurasian descent, meaning she didn't look the part. As a result, as frustrating as it was, Clorica did not command as much respect as their guild leader partially due to her looks and partially due to how strict she was.
As much as Lisbeth liked to gossip, she agreed with Clorica however in this instance and the group of players quickly settled down in the meeting place, an empty room in the Merchant's Guild headquarters.
'We'll get to the point now, Keima-kun, Argo-chan. Heathcliff's new guild, the Knight of the Bloods right? He's trying to pull some of our members to join his guild.'
The news didn't seem so bad till one took into perspective that up till now, the clearer guilds had nothing to do with the members of the support guilds. Also, the three founding and core support groups had always been accepting members instead of losing members to others. There was just no competition to be had for membership between the three guilds.
And yet now, Heathcliff was trying to change that.
'It could be that Heathcliff wishes to make his guild fully independent as compared to being dependent on the three support guilds. If that is so, they'll need their own group of blacksmiths, scouts and perhaps even their own scribes and all to give instructions to their men.'
Keima's hypothesis made the other leaders worried at the implications. The status quo like Keima had mentioned was maintained and enforced due to the clearer guild's reliance on them, if they broke that choke hold, the clearer guilds would be allowed to roam free.
'It isn't necessarily a bad thing.'
Argo was the first to make that suggestion with a thoughtful look on her face. Keima could tell that the other leaders were torn, really torn as it would change the entire way SAO's trade system worked. It would also signal the end to their era of dominance. Even if none of them had ever had the intention of really abusing or acknowledging the monopoly of strength that the three guilds had, it was also recognized that the three guilds were very powerful in their influence within SAO.
Honestly It was a good and bad thing altogether – but sometimes change was required or it would just start to stagnant.
'…'
None of the gathered members were sure of what to say after Argo's comment without possibly sounding selfish. The leaders themselves weren't power hungry, but it was also true that all of them were used to having more than just a little bit of leeway when it came to transactions and negotiations between the other guilds.
Nezumi and it's allies was a powerful force but would it be right to keep the status quo in this way? And how much were they all be willing to do to keep it that way?
'Argo is right, it might be a good thing to break the status quo and to stop the players from being over reliant on us'
Keima spoke up and he waited to see if everyone understood his train of thoughts. From the blank looks around, not everyone did. Argo was giving a small smirk of her own and Ashley looked thoughtful with a small frown. But since the two of them did not raise any objections, Keima knew they were being objective still. Good, they understood.
'The worst thing that we can do in this world is to lose sight of the goal. One way of doing just that is to become disillusioned about the task that all of us are doing. For many of us within the large guilds, our roles are clearly defined due to the clearly set and established rules of our organisation. Things have to be done in a certain manner to ensure that our products our information is collected and used in a timely fashion. That by itself is a good thing, as shown by how our influences and efforts has made Aincrad remarkably safer.'
Keima paused and continued only after the other members nodded their acknowledgement and his point.
'When SAO began, the land of Aincrad and the players were plunged into chaos and disorder, the exact opposite of our society which we were familiar with. That caused many deaths as no one knew the limits of our own strength and our weakness. To counteract that, Argo and I helped identify, established and publish the rules of Aincrad that all players were bound by. Following which, we also established and encouraged other necessary rules to ensure that players do not cannibalize each other. All this lead to the establish of a society and a culture that we are currently operating in. But in order to do just that, we have to be very strict and firm with the same rules and regulations that we set and to not let another party intrude for their own self interest. In the end, this resulted in an overwhelming amount of power for us.'
Keima summarized the situation in the best way he could and was greeted with nods from the parties that he was addressing. As none of them was yawning or looking like they wish to leave, Keima chalked it up to a success.
'Now that players are used to peace and stability brought by our efforts, the efforts of Healthcliff and the very real possibility in his attempts to change the system that we established had brought us here. As long as he attempts to change the system we had established, the entire player base and core would be affected. However, it would only like a bad idea only if we are obsessed with keeping the power that we amassed.'
Keima paused for a moment before posing his question:
'Are we?'
There was an awkward silence all around. Keima was certain that none of them would admit that! It could be called a trick question in the first place anyway?
'I don't know, should we? I mean, we're doing a good job... and if they start stealing our guild members and we don't do anything about it, how are we going to stop others from leaving?'
'Players are free to do whatever they wish to do, Clorica. That is the most fundamental rule that I've encouraged and believe should exist within SAO. Have I ever once forced anyone to take up my suggestions? Have I ever forced them to read the Field Guide or to force even one person into my guild? I have not.'
'Keima's right about that, we have to screen people before we let them join Nezumi. Not to mention there are some guys who wished to join to try and get to know how we did, what we did.'
Argo gave a long suffering sign while Clorical looked like she had bit a lemon. Their recruitment methods probably hadn't been the best around. No doubt Keima and Argo knew exactly what those were, they were the leaders of Nezumi after all.
'My point still stands, if we have to use force to keep people in our guilds and to force them to do things that they are not willing to do, we are still not treating each other equally. Our society is one that embraces that, lives by it and although difficult to always uphold, always view it as a virtue that we have always taken advantage of. Here in SAO, were everyone's lives can be measured by statistics, effort and a certain amount of luck, it is even more difficulty to keep those rules and teachings with us.'
Keima shook his head and paused as Agil spoke up.
'I get what you mean, we're not supposed to become dictators or something like that, so we shouldn't stop him. But what if he is one person who would want that? We don't know much about Heathcliff... and it's still too early to tell. Are you saying that we should just let him do whatever he wants?'
'He has the right to do so, you know. Whatever he's planning, as long as he didn't force any one to do anything, we can't do anything about it. It'll probably end up being a bad mark against us, and might even strain relationships between us and KoB. I wouldn't want to go against Heathcliff myself, would you?'
Argo commented but became solemn as Keima spoke up again.
..
'Charisma happens in a time of crisis... The first great change of SAO was brought by the two of us. The possibility of the second great change in the history of SAO could be by Heathcliff. He definitely has the ability and the drive to do so... As for what his motive is, I can only say for certain that it would create waves within SAO itself. He is a rising star within the clearer group, and like it or not, all of us in the support core are linked to them. Not to mention how they directly affect the fates of all of us – whatever revolution that Heathcliff brings about, would affect us.'
'So, your suggestion on how to deal or work with this situation is?'
Ashley spoke up for the first time since the discussion and she looked, unsure about the whole thing. She was smart and she could understand what Keima was saying. But at the same time she could also tell that Keima was simply not getting into the point. He was holding back, and Ashley hoped that why Keima was doing so was what she thought it would be.
Keima was viewing Heathcliff as a threat and an enigma, but was not going to take action as it would be better to move only after his motive was ascertained. Ashley just hoped that it wouldn't be too late to act on it.
'We wait and adjust accordingly. It would be good for the three guilds to start regrouping ourselves in anticipation of shifts in the economy if KoB does start to absorb more than the clearer groups into their midst.'
'Should we bar our guild members from jumping ship?'
'Being overly forceful would only create discontent within your guilds... Truthfully even if members do start leaving for KoB, which is a small guild right now. I doubt their popular would grow that quickly or as there is a limit to how much members they could have before control started slipping. The members of our three guilds should remain constant except for some stragglers who might try to break away to form their own smaller guilds again. The main issue however would be KoB or the other clearer guilds starting to recruit, or to change their builds to be smithers, as unlikely as it could be.'
Keima replied patiently while Agil scoffed.
'Good luck trying, the build for a smithing player is something that would have to be tailored latest around level 10 if you wish to make decent armour or weapons. Any later than that and the other recommended builds would have skewed your stat distributions. It's a very fine thing, but it could be adjusted with around 10 level of differences, but that's 10 level of extra grinding just to be decent at it. Dedicated smithers would have a considerably edge, not to mention the time needed to get the blacksmithing level to a high level level to actually do something about it.'
'And there you have it, even with we might lose influence within the clearer groups, we would still be able to keep our position with our services and products. However, we would have to start tailoring the prices to match with the growing trend of the market and economy soon.'
Clorica frowned at that, the three guilds were the market leaders, the baseline for all items that were on sold from player markets that others took reference from.
'It has been barely one day since KoB started recruiting and all three of the support guilds had conveyed a meeting amongst ourselves in secret. Word travels fast, and if KoB wishes to stir the waters even more, this is a great opportunity for them to do so.'
Keima answered evenly before standing up, saying that the meeting was adjourn.
'Regardless of the erosion of our influence and power, we should always remember our goal is to clear the game with no casualties. Heathcliff agreed to that goal, and I am glad that it is so. The enemy of my enemy is my friend after all.'
Aincrad – Level 28
'Welcome, [Black Cats of the Full Moon], how could we help today?'
The staff manning the counter of Nezumi, Frey, welcomed the leader of the small guild with a smile that caused some of the boys to blush.
'We were hoping that you could direct us to the quests of this floor, I mean, we got the listing from the Field Guide, but we thought it would be best to hire a guide to get us through them.'
The leader, a brown haired man with the player name of Keita, explained the situation to them.
Ever since the Knights of the Blood had absorbed about a third of the clearer guild members, making them singularly the biggest clearer guild, the smaller guilds had found it harder to survive and to even keep up with the Front Line and the clearers.
That was supposed to be the case until Nezumi started offering additional services and discounts to smaller guilds to assist them to keep up with the clearer guilds. It was a move that really helped the smaller guilds and caused unhappiness amongst some members of KoB at the unfair treatment. It was a matter that was actually raised during one of the strategy meetings, a sub-leader of KoB questioned the Nezumi representative in their motives for doing so.
It was a very crude way of questioning and demanding answers, but the sub-leader of KoB was in for a rude awakening when instead of getting an answer from Nezumi, it was their leader, Heathcliff himself who apologized to Nezumi for the outburst.
He declared that it was a noble effort, a good one that would ensure that the number of players within the clearer group would continue to grow in strength. And like Keima had mentioned before, the enemy of my enemy was my friend.
Argo had been displeased by how Heathcliff handled that situation. As in one fell swoop Heathcliff had gotten another great boost in charisma and had created a tentative link with Nezumi without even trying.
If not for Nezumi already coming to negotiations with KoB on services that the Support Group would provide KoB with, they would be forced to make some concessions on their part for the trouble.
It turned out that Heathcliff was only interested in combining the forces of the Clearer groups together to consolidate their strengths and weaknesses. He had proven himself to be a brilliant tactician, to the extent that Keima's input were more improvements now rather than a total overhaul of the tactics that were suggested in other strategy sessions.
Heathcliff also led by example, fighting in the front lines and putting his life at risk every time. Lastly, he also took vested interest in maintaining relations with the other guilds, which made him extremely popular.
The smaller guilds who declined Heathcliff's invitation however, all looked up to the support guild's leadership as role models. They continued to support the players while taking on just the same risks as the clearer guilds did without complaint.
The land of Aincrad was becoming increasingly dangerous, and the dungeons were especially so. Having a teleport crystal on hand for scouting teams had started to be a necessity instead of luxury item for those exploring the new floors.
Rules were set to ensure that players were also only allowed to operate in a team of varied skills to help increase their survivability if they wished to scout a new area. One such requirement was the mastered search and listening skills and there were many occasions where scouting teams were saved by the skills.
Treacherous areas in dungeons were mapped by scouts of Nezumi even before the clearers did and they paid handsomely for pre-mapped areas that they would publish to the masses for a minimal sum anyway.
Both organisations were truly great in the eyes of many.
..
'So you would wish to have a guide to assist in the quest? Hmm... Considering the level and make up of all the members of your guild... let us see.'
Frey considered while looking through her records before her eyes spotted a particular name that could help them.
'We do have a player that would be able to accompany you through the quest. Her role would be that of a treasure hunter. Pardon my bluntness, but the level of traps that needs to be disarmed is beyond the level of Mr Ducker here.'
Frey smiled apologetically at the young boy but he shook his head.
'Heh, that's okay. The registration of all the players are doing well then?'
The latest initiative of all the major guilds was the registration of all the players skills and abilities into a database to assist with many aspects of the player's lives in SAO. For example during strategy meetings, joining of a party, analysis of skill and base stats and etc.
It was also a plan that was very difficult to implement and to ask others to contribute to. Nezumi aside, none of the other guilds were prepared to give up such their hard earned skills and abilities even if they might have followed the Field Guide's guides to character builds to the letter. It was about privacy after all, and even if that plan was agreed and mooted, there was hardly any enforcement. The database was maintained and compiled by Nezumi, but even the did not force others to contribute to it – they only encouraged players to do so by handing out booklets on why it would be a good idea to do so.
'It does help, but only if it is updated regularly. Please wait for a few minutes, she would be joining us soon.'
Frey smiled and invited the guild to have a seat before she served another group of players behind them.
'Welcome, [Divine Dragon Alliance], are you here to collect the reward for mapping the new area of the dungeon?'
..
'I wonder who the guide who would be helping us is? She's a girl, that's what Frey said so, right?'
Ducker grinned as he spoke to Sachi, the timid girl giving a small smile in reply before thanking the individual who had just offered some tea to all of them.
'Thank you very much, Asami-san.'
'Please enjoy your tea, Sachi-san, Ducker-san.'
One benefit of being in SAO, was that it was easy to know someone else's player name. It was also a double edged sword since Sachi had never imagined that using her real name as the player name would be so embarrassing.
Her guild members have never teased her about it, but she knew it was a rookie mistake.
She was just happy that no one ever questioned her about it.
'So is everything well in Nezumi, Asami-san?'
Ducker tried to strike up a conversation with the quiet girl but his efforts was thwarted when the door leading to the Nezumi headquarters was pushed open and another girl running to the counter.
'Silica here! I'm here to report for a mission!'