February 23rd, 2024 (Floor 35: Forest of Wandering)
The Hunters of Artemis were on the case much sooner than Kirito and I expected. The day after our talk about orange players, a man had come moving through the clearers, begging for help. His guild, the Silver Flags, had been attacked by an orange guild and he was asking for help getting his revenge. He didn't want them dead, though. Like Kirito, he wanted them thrown in jail for their crimes.
Upon hearing his tale, the Hunters were quick at work. Titan's Hand was a slippery bunch, though, and we'd been tracking them across ten floors. We moved through the Forest of Wandering, the wolves leading the way.
Suddenly, Nymer stopped. He straightened up, his ears pricked. I might not be able to directly speak to Nymer, but he and I had a very close understanding through the skill that tied us together. He hadn't found the orange guild but he found something much more pressing.
"Pack! Assist!" I decided quickly. The six rushed forward, sprinting in a different direction and I followed after them, calling over my shoulder to the rest of the Hunters. "Someone needs help!"
Nymer led us through two separate teleports before we wound up in a new section I was sure I'd never seen before. Illuminated by glowing egg-like formations, I could clearly see three drunken apes surrounding a small figure that was cowering under a tree. The wolves were immediately in the fight, with two working together to take down an ape. Between their razor sharp claws and teeth, the three apes were dead in seconds. As soon as the apes were defeated, the wolves retreated back to our ranks. I stepped forward with Blake falling in line as we approached the young girl the apes had been fighting.
She couldn't have been more than 13. Cradling a glowing feather and sobbing, her youth was only exaggerated. I knelt next to her, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Hey... it's okay now. My name is Riva and this is Blake." I could see her health gauge; she was in the red. As she continued to sob, I recognized her and froze. "S-Silica?"
Hearing me speak, the girl started and looked up at me, her eyes filled with tears.
"Riva?" she echoed distantly, as if she remembered the name from somewhere. I knew where she remembered my name from.
Silica had been one of Sasha's girls, one of the SAO orphans. She had been at the first training session and had impressed me with her dagger-work. She was one of the stronger kids that Sasha relied on to raised cor through hunting. She hadn't shown up to any of the other training sessions and I had assumed that she'd died. Here she was, though, somehow lost in the Forest of Wandering.
"Yeah, it's me." Blake handed me a healing crystal and I offered it to Silica. "Here. You need to heal yourself."
"What's that feather?" Blake asked softly, probably to me. Silica looked down at it sadly.
"It's... It's Pina," she answered. The rest of the Hunters approached, probably assuming that more people weren't going to scare the poor girl any more than the drunken apes. "My best friend..."
"You're a beast tamer too?" I asked, surprised. The skill was distributed at random, it seemed, and not many people had it. Silica would have been the only other beast tamer I'd met in all of the time we've been stuck in the game. I pointed towards the feather before pausing, looking up at the girl. "May I?"
"What do you want?" she asked hesitantly. I smiled softly.
"I just want to see if there's an item name." Silica glanced down at the feather in her hands and frowned thoughtfully. She tapped it and a menu opened up, describing the feather as Pina's Heart. "Kirito, did anyone ever verify Argo's info about the Hill of Memories?"
"It's Argo. Does the info need verification?" Kirito asked dryly. I shrugged. It was a fair point. I looked back at Silica.
"Silica, listen. There's a place on the 47th floor called the Hill of Memories. If a beast tamer goes there with the Heart of a lost companion animal, you can revive the animal. If you want, I can have a couple of us go with you to the Hill so you can revive Pina."
"No way, really?" Silica asked, looking as if she were afraid I'd change my mind. I nodded, looking around the group before looking back at Silica.
"Really. Like I said, it's on floor 47 so we'll make sure you get there safely. I'm a smith, so I can give you new equipment to help boost your stats just in case." I opened up my inventory and glanced through the equipment I had. I had more than enough for me but most of the gear was barunum build, which I had designated as Hunters-only. I had a few miscellaneous pieces to give her, though I did give her a barunum dagger to replace her current weapon. Just the weapon wouldn't ruin the Hunters' trademark of the equipment.
"Oh, this stuff is way too nice!" Silica gasped, looking at the item trade menu that opened in front of her. "Why would you even do this for me?"
"For the same reason we do the player training sessions," I explained with a shrug.
"We've all got bleeding hearts," Maisie clarified with a broad smile.
"Yeah, so you won't have to worry. We'll make sure that you get Pina back. You can take it on my word as a beast-tamer," I promised. Nymer trotted up to Silica and licked her face comfortingly. She laughed, playfully pushing him away, and I smiled.
The Hunters split up on the way back to town. Most of the guild was still on the hunt for the Titan's Hand but I accompanied Silica back to her inn. On the way, we ran into some of her fans and some not so friendly characters. In the end, though, everything worked out just fine.
As we teleported into Floria, I decided that it was weird being separated from the guild for so long. After over a year of living and fighting with the Hunters, being apart was just unnatural feeling. I found that I kept looking over my shoulder for people that weren't there and Nymer, as the alpha wolf, was helping direct the others while they track down the Titan's Hand.
"Come on, then. It'll be just like a training session," I said with a grin as we started down the path towards the Hill of Memories. Silica blushed, looking down.
"O-Okay, if you say-" Vines snaked out from under the ground and Silica was hoisted up into the air. The garish gerbera opened its jaws, fully intended on eating her, and for a moment I thought that it might. Silica was much more concerned with the fact that her skirt had fallen, revealing her underwear, than the fact that she might die a gross death at the hands of plant.
"You can handle it, Silica!" I cheered. Silica stopped screaming and finally seemed to remember that she had a blade at her disposal. She sliced the vines holding her and fell towards the body of the garish gerbera. Dagger sailing through the air, she sliced cleanly through it, when it shattered beneath her, she landed with a dark blush.
"Did you see anything?" she asked desperately. I shrugged.
"Nice work," I said, holding up my hand for a high five. After a brief hesitation, Silica's smaller hand reached up and struck my own.
We continued on our way, with me letting Silica do most of the fighting. She was pretty strong for a solo player who'd gotten such a late start but, as we talked, it became apparent that her real strengths were off of the battlefield. She was a strong person, unwilling to give up or give in regardless of what people thought of her. I like that in a person.
Over the course of the trip, Silica hit level 45 and was so excited that she turned around and gave me a hug. It felt nice, as if I had a little sister. Soon we reached the end of the dungeon and I smiled as Silica approached the pedestal.
"Go ahead, take it," I murmured as she stared at the beautiful flower that had bloomed in front of us. She took it in one of her hands and the stem snapped, allowing her to take the flower. "There are a lot of high level monsters in this area, so you should probably wait until we're back in town to revive Pina. Why don't you place the flower in your inventory for now?"
"Yeah, you're right."
"Let's go, Sil. There's a whole side of the dungeon where all sorts of plants are waiting to get destroyed!" I said cheerfully. Silica giggled and nodded her head.
Going back the long way had two benefits: it let Silica gain more experience in a safe environment and it bought whoever was following us time to see if they really wanted to press their luck. They circled around after a while and I had figured they'd left but, just before we left the dungeon, I was proved wrong.
We were crossing a bridge when my detection skill triggered a warning. Once orange guild started cropping up, I never unequipped that skill, just in case someone was hiding around a bend. I stopped moving. Silica, who was walking behind me, didn't realize that I had stopped moving until she walked into me.
"What is it?" she asked, oblivious to the danger we were in.
"Whoever's hiding out there, show yourselves. Now!" I ordered, my eyes scanning the trees. When the woman we'd run into the day before- Rosalia- stepped out, I resisted the urge to groan. Where were the rest of the Hunters? It seemed like I'd found the orange guild without them.
"Your detection skill must be awfully high for you to have seen through my hiding skill," Rosalia purred. "I can see that you were successful in attaining the Pneuma flower. Good job! Now... Hand it over, before you get hurt."
"I don't think so, Rosalia."
The air around Rosalia shimmered and Kirito appeared in front of her, holding a sword to her throat. The other Hunters appeared next to the trees lining the path and, weapons in hand, led Rosalia's guildmates out from their hiding places. Nymer and the other wolves were close at hand, nipping at the heels and growling at the orange guild members.
"Way to go, Hunters. I almost single-handedly caught all of them while you got a free vacation," I joked. Kirito took the sword away from Rosalia's neck to throw me a withering glance.
"They covered their tracks well, alright?"
"Wait. What's happening?" Silica asked, tugging on my sleeve.
"Rosalia is the leader of an orange guild called Titan's Hand. My guild has been hunting them down for over a week now. Ten days ago, they attacked a five-man guild called the Silver Flags. They killed four of the players, but the leader escaped and found us."
"But her cursor is green!" Silica pointed out, still confused.
"She might not have killed the players herself, but it was on her orders. She uses that green cursor to lure unsuspecting players into traps, just like she tried with you."
"Hmm... Silver Flags? Ten days ago... Oh, you mean the losers with no money. Who even cares? There's no proof that dying here actually means dying IRL."
"Well take it from someone who's died. It does. Round them up. Activate the warp crystal. Have fun in prison, Rosalia," I said dryly.
"You can't do this, I'm a green player! If you hurt me-"
"Then the Hunters will have a new legend about them, won't they?" The wolves shepherded everyone together and Kirito took it upon himself to activate the warp crystal. He disappeared with the orange guild members but I knew he'd be back once he ensured each of them was thrown in prison until SAO was cleared.
I looked over to Silica who looked more confused than scared and I took that as a good sign.
"Well then. We've got a lot to talk about, don't we?"
"You want me..." Silica was having a hard time understanding what I was telling her but, after talking to the Hunters about it, I was sure.
"I want you to join the Hunters," I repeated with a smile. "You've got a lot of spirit and a lot of ambition. While I wouldn't let you anywhere near the front lines until your skills match up with ours a little better, I think you'd benefit from joining us and we'd love to have you aboard."
"But, what about the party system? Only six people are allowed in a party," Silica reminded me a little sadly. I glanced at the others and shrugged.
"We'll just do two smaller parties of four and three. If anything, it'll be easier to level like that. What do you say?"
"I- I accept!" Silica decided. The Hunters immediately began cheering and welcoming her, with the wolves happily darting around and yipping. Maisie and Blake were hurriedly talking to their new 'sister' about all of the gear upgrades she'd be getting and how hellish the training would be, but also how worth it the entire experience was. Heidan clapped her on the back as Taka looked on with approval, probably glad to no longer be the weakest one in the guild. Pina flew around in the air happily, chirping as he sped around the inn room, and I didn't need familiar communication as a skill to understand what he was saying. All the while, Kirito and I watched the scene with matching serene smile. Sword Art Online might not be a perfect world and it might not be a good one, but it wasn't bad.
Updated 22:14, 1.27.2022