June 25th (Floor 48: Lindarth)

"Why are we here again?" Blake asked tiredly. Heidan glanced at her almost sadly, as if he too would like to return to bed.

"Because Riva feels the need to protect her fragile self-confidence as the best smith in all of Aincrad," Maisie explained brightly.

"I am the best smith in all of Aincrad," I reiterated hotly. "There's nothing fragile about that fact and, unless this Lisbeth has all her smithing stats maxed, none of you can question it!"

"Riva's a little sensitive about this, isn't she?" Silica asked Kirito in a low voice. He sighed, nodding his head when he thought I couldn't see. I grumbled but let him get away with it. At least he disrespected me behind my back. The nerve...

"Don't think you're done with training! You're still way behind, young lady!"

"That's not fair!" Silica whined. "You guys started off so much better than me, of course I'm way behind you!"

"No excuses! I want you to be level 75 by the next boss battle!"

"But that's eight levels! The boss battle is already being planned," Silica protested. I refused to budge on the matter. "I'll have two weeks, tops!"

Silica was put through several rings of hell since she joined the Hunters. In less than four months, she'd jumped up over twenty levels, putting her on level with several of the weaker clearers. Pina had grown as she had and the feathery dragon, while not growing in size, was now the owner of some very sharp claws. He had increased his healing ability as well, now about to heal 600 health in an instant. I wasn't going to let up, though. Silica had been forced to sit out all of the boss fights so far and it wasn't far for her to have to sit at the house while we were all fighting for our lives. I didn't want to spring her into a boss room too soon, though, which lead to this conundrum.

Coming upon the small villa, I didn't hesitate in opening the door. No one was inside the main shop area so I figured the punk of a smith was working on an order.

"Welcome to Lisbeth's Smith Shop!" a cheery voice greeted as I examined the rapiers in one of the many cases. I met the girl's eyes and she faltered for just a moment, her eyes catching our armor and weapons. "No way... Are you guys-"

"Hunters of Artemis. Name's Riva. Are you Lisbeth?"

"Uh- yes ma'am!" she answered quickly. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Hopefully." I eyed the girl carefully and Maisie elbowed me in the ribs.

"Stop. You're going to make the poor girl snap," she hissed at me. I grimaced but sighed, looking to Lisbeth.

"Okay, so here's the deal. I hear you're a great smith. Yes or no?"

"I mean, I like to think that I- Yes,' she said quickly at my look. Reddening, she puffed her chest and put her hands on her hips as if she felt threatened. "What about it?"

"I want a fair challenge. I want to see how you match up to me, blade for blade." I held my sheathed sword out, offering for her to examine it, and she scowled.

"That's so unfair! Do you know what I have to do to get materials? We can't all just run off and fight monsters to get rare ores. My weapons could never match up if they're being compared to barunum!"

"So pick an ore. We can either get it for you or you can try your hand at our line of work, if you're not too scared."

"I'm not scared of anything! I'm an expert mace wielder, you know! Floor 55, there's a dragon that eats crystals on the Western Mountain. According to the legend, it stores a rare metal in its body."

"Sounds fair. Floor 55 shouldn't be hard." I looked to the other Hunters. "Nymer, with me. The rest of you go work with Silica. If she doesn't make two levels in the next week, I'm volunteering us all for boss-scouting!" Everyone groaned and I smirked. It was difficult to bring up what happened at the 50th floor but we were mostly over it. Only Maisie was prone to violent mood swings at mention of it.

I turned back to Lisbeth.

"Ready whenever you are, Lizzzbeth."

"Shut up!"

I had laughed when Lisbeth met me at the teleport.

"You're going to freeze, you know. 55 is an icy, mountainous zone." I warned her, I really did. She snapped back at me, insisting that she'd be fine. Now, as I watched her shivering and sneezing as we walked along a snowy mountainside, I sighed and entered my inventory. Luckily for her, I was prepared for this sort of thing, but it was usually Kirito who was mopey and underprepared for a situation.

"Here." I held out the fur lined cloak for her to take. Unlike my silver cloak, the one I offered was black. Again, I was usually covering for Kirito's lack of forethought.

"Thank you," she murmured, taking it and throwing it around her shoulders. "Are you always prepared?"

"I'm a guild leader. It's my job to watch out for my friends, even if that means overpacking. Kirito, the legendary Black Swordsman, never packs his gear correctly. That cloak normally goes to him when we hit cold because he always forgets to have one on hand," I explained. With a smirk, I added, "It's like babysitting."

"You know, if you're trying to piss me off, it's working," she grumbled. I only chuckled.

"Good."

We made the way up the rest of the mountain with short silences broken up by me making a comment to get a rise out of the girl. It was really funny, even if Lis didn't think so. Once we were at the peak of the Western Mountain, though, it was back to business.

"You're not primarily a combative player so let me handle this part on my own, alright? I'll kill the dragon and the ore should drop. Until the dragon is dead, hide behind something. I don't want you to get its attention and risk it attacking you, understand?"

"Yeah, yeah... You make me sound useless. I'm not a noob, I can fight the dragon a lot better than-"

"Just shut up and listen for once!" I shouted. I immediately regretted it when Lis's eyes darted down angrily and I took a calming breath. "Look, I'm not used to having unknowns in a battle. I know that most of my guild can handle themselves but Silica is new so I'm holding her back for the big fights. It's the same here. I don't want to risk you putting your neck on the line for something that isn't worth it. This fight, this contest; it's not worth your life."

"... Thank you," Lis said softly after a long pause. I closed my eyes and smiled.

"Anytime." The peak of the mountain- a conglomeration of crystals- began to shift and my eyes opened. Nymer growled at my side and I placed a hand on the large wolf's back. "Nymer, hide with Lis. Keep her safe. Do not come out unless I call for you, okay?"

The wolf gave a nod, catching Lis off guard, and he grabbed hold of the cloak in his teeth and started tugging her away. When she was sufficiently hidden, I returned my attention to the massive dragon that had appeared in front of me and draw my sword.

The dragon took a deep breath and I prepared myself to deflect the breath attack. It was a technique that Kirito had developed but all of the Hunters knew how to use it by now.

The dragon offered a good fight, but it was nowhere near my level of battle. After fighting in as many boss battle as I have, this beast was only mildly threatening. It was big, though, and dealt wide-range attacks. With the duty of protecting Lis weighing on me, I had to take down this beast as quickly as I could.

With few precise slashes. I severed a large crystal from the dragon's head and cut cleanly through one of its fore legs, slicing the limb off at the shoulder. That didn't stop the dragon as effectively as I thought and, suddenly, Nymer was howling. I had no idea what was happening; all I knew was that suddenly Lis and Nymer were the dragon's new targets.

"Get out of there!" I shouted, but it was too late. The dragon released a breath attack and Lis and Nymer were caught in the crossfire. I leapt after the two and, making a heart-wrenching decision, I grabbed Lis's hand, shifting us in mid-air so she was on top of me. Nymer, my loyal companion, fell beside us. He met my eyes and simply nodded.

There were tears in my eyes as we fell into darkness.

We fell forever, it seemed, and I was half-relieved that there even was an end to it. I hit the ground first and my HP dropped, leaving me more wounded than I'd been in months. I could see Lis's HP bar, dipping into the yellow but she was alive. We both were.

I rolled her off of me gently and, with tears silently streaming down my face, walked to the other side of the pit where a faint glow lit up the darkness. I knelt next to it and took the glowing fang in my hands. I didn't have to open the item menu to know that I was holding Nymer's heart. I couldn't hold it in any more and the pit echoed my sobs as I cradled Nymer to my chest.

I had stopped crying by the time Lis came to, but I was still blankly staring at the fang.

"Is that..." She had come up behind me without my realizing and I jumped. I instinctively closed my hands around the fang, hiding it from her sight, before sighing and showing it to her.

"It's Nymer... I could only save one of you," I murmured, releasing a shaky breath. "He understood, of course. It's just... he's been with me since the second floor."

"Is there anything we can do to revive him?" Lis asked. I nodded slowly.

"There's a place on the 47th floor where a familiar revive item is spawned. Right now, this is his heart. After three days, though, it becomes remains and I can't get him back."

"So we just have to get out of here, right?" Lis asked hopefully. She looked around before pulling out her teleport crystal. "Teleport: Lindarth!"

Of course, nothing happened. I frowned, examining the walls.

"I could probably run out of here... The walls look pretty icy though... Maybe I could establish footholds?" I murmured to myself. I checked my inventory but, judging by how long we were falling, I had nowhere near enough daggers to establish a path up. It just wasn't possible.

"What do you mean, run out of here?" Lis asked. "Look at the height of these walls!"

"Well... I might as well try it." I pocketed Nymer's heart and jogged the the wall, giving myself as much of a running start as I could. I sprint towards the opposite wall, leaping up and running alongside the wall. As I had predicted, my foot slipped against the ice about a hundred feet up and I scowled, twisting myself around so I could land in a crouch.

"That was a good try," Lis said consolingly. She had a wry smile on her face and I withered.

"It's better than you could have done, I bet." Before Lis could protest, I continued speaking. "Oh well... It's going to be dark soon. We need to set up camp for the night."

"What? Do you actually have camping gear with you?" she asked incredulously as I entered my inventory. I didn't respond, instead materializing two sleeping bags and a lantern. "Wow... You really do come prepared."

I lit the lantern and climbed into a sleeping bag, getting ready to sleep. Lis followed suit but, instead of turning away from me as I expected, she turned so that she was facing me.

"You know, this never would have happened in real life," she said almost wistfully. "Going to strange new places at the drop of a hat. Meeting new strangers and sleeping next to them that same night... And you are strange. I mean, you actually tried running up that wall!" Lis giggled and I shrugged, turning to face her.

"I'm the reason we're out here. If it weren't for me, you'd still be in your smith shop, probably grumbling about lack of business or a mediocre sword you'd made," I said with a chuckle. I turned to look up at the night sky. We could hardly see it from down here. "If you die, your death is on me. I agreed to protect you when I brought you out here and I won't break that promise... I've seen too many people die to do that. Even if I die trying, I'd rather go out trying to help someone else than watch them go."

"You are weird. Not many people would believe in something like that," Lis said. Her voice was warm, though, so I simply shrugged again.

"The Hunters of Artemis aren't just a guild. We're a pack. We look out for each other and we'd die for each other," I murmured. "I've already died once."

"What?" she asked, her voice confused. "But you're-"

"We had been on a scouting mission the 50th floor boss. The doors closed behind us and we couldn't use our transport crystals so we had to fight... It was going better than it could have been, but it wasn't enough. At the end, I pulled a move to get the boss's health down to where he could be killed easily but I was left defenseless... Blake had a revival item we got from an event boss and she used it on me. I don't think Maisie's ever really forgiven me for it but I don't care. They would have been safe, even it it was just for one more floor. Right now... I figure that I'm on borrowed time. Anything I can do, any difference I can make, it's to make up for this time that I have now."

"You really are different... Aren't you?" Lis asked softly. I glanced up at her but she was looking at the sky. She smiled and turned her head towards me, holding out her hand. "Hold my hand?"

I didn't question her. I simply reached out to meet her hand, lacing my fingers with hers. Her smile widened slightly. She looked down, surprisingly shy.

"Riva?"

"Yeah?"

"Tell me about your guild."

"Well... There are seven of us. Maisie, Blake, and I met in the real world. The three of us have been friends for so long... When I got the beta, I was the one that got them all excited to get a physical copy. I met Heidan during the beta..." We continued talking long into the night but eventually my eyes drifted shut. Holding her hand, I fell asleep.

The sun was bright the following morning, nearly blinding me as it reflected off the ice and crystals covering the pit walls.

I was up before Lis and I started wandering around. There was no way that the game had put a sure-death trap here. It was brutal but SAO was almost always fair in that regard. I examined the walls and, once I was done with that, started digging down into the snow.

"Crystalline ingot," I murmured, opening the item menu on the chunk of crystalline metal I'd found beneath the snow. I dug a little deeper and there was more of the stuff, all in a pile. I grabbed as much as I could but paused, realizing why it was here in the first place.

The dragon made this metal in its stomach. Naturally, it couldn't stay in its stomach so it left the way all food does. This pit wasn't a pit at all.

"Lis, you have to wake up," I murmured, shaking the girl awake. She mumbled in her sleep and I shook her a little harder. "Lis!"

"W-What?" she yawned. "Just five more minutes."

"We might not have five more minutes- this pit is the dragon's nest and it's day time."

"But dragons are nocturn- oh." She snapped awake, looking at me with fear in her eyes. "What are we going to do when it comes..."

Her voice drifted away as she looked up and it was plain to see why: the massive dragon had appeared at the top of the pit, soaring down towards us.

"No time for a plan!" I shouted. I grabbed hold of Liz, glad I didn't have my staff equipped for once, and threw her onto my back. "Hold on!"

"What are you- Ah!"

I ran up the walls and, once we were above the dragon, I threw myself off, flipping so that I landed on the dragon's spiked neck. I gripped my sword with one hand and Liz with the other, stabbing as deeply as I could into the dragon's thick hide. The dragon roared and immediately began flying up. The speed threatened to rip my arm out of its socket but I held on, too afraid of the alternative's outcome to try it. As soon as we were above the ground, the dragon shook us off and we went flying.

We might have been falling to our potential deaths, but the view was so beautiful up here. I sheathed my sword and held my hand out to Lis who, after a moment, took it with a smile.

Lis's mouth was moving but, over the roar of the wind in my ears, I couldn't hear her.

"What?!"

Again, I couldn't hear her but it didn't seem to matter to her. She pulled me closer and hugged me tightly around the neck and I laughed. As we neared the earth, I knew we wouldn't survive a fall at this speed so I took out a teleport crystal, gesturing for Lis to do the same. She pulled one out of her pouch and, together, we shouted "Teleport: Lindarth!"

The two of landed in a jumbled mess on the river bank by Lis's shop, laughing as we tried to separate ourselves. As soon as we were put together and standing, I looked over to Lis.

"I think I'll have to delay our competition a little bit. I've got to go to the Hill of Memories to revive Nymer."

"I understand," she said, nodding slowly. I shifted my weight.

I wasn't used to being awkward! What was this?!

"You can come with me if you want. One more adventure," I offered. Her eyes lit up and my stomach twisted. I suddenly knew exactly what was wrong with me: somewhere along the way, that smart-mouthed girl got me to actually like her. Damn it.

"Of course!" She tackled me in a hug and I let myself laugh. It probably wouldn't work out, but I'd deal with that later. For now, all I cared about was that girl's laugh.

June 27th, 2024 (Floor 48: Lindarth)

The trip to the 47th floor had been interesting to say the least. I had somehow forgotten that the entire floor was filled with couples.

This is not a date. We're on a mission, I told myself repeatedly. With Lis reaching out for my hand to pull me to a new patch of flowers every few minutes, though, it definitely felt like a date. It wasn't all just flowers and laughing; once we started making our way to the Hill, Lis insisted on fighting each monster on the way. I didn't exactly play it fair, and often snagged myself a mob or two, and it soon became a contest of who could slay the most monsters by the time we got to the Hill.

"Aw, are you still mad that I totally kicked your ass?" Lis said with a grin. I scowled at her, returning my attention to the forge. Nymer's sides rumbled and I frowned at him- he was laughing at me!

"Oh, shut up."

"Why don't you make me?"

"Why don't I?" I challenged back, taking a step into Lis's personal space. She immediately blushed and I grinned. She was cute, but she was mostly talk. I looked back at the forge and, seeing that the ingot was red-hot, I pulled it out with Lis's tongs and set it on the anvil. "Would you like to go first?"

"I'll heat my own metal, thank you very much," she huffed. I rolled my eyes and picked up the hammer. I closed my eyes before letting the skill take over, snapping my eyes open and striking the hot metal. I hit the metal over and over again and, on the tenth strike, the metal glowed and shifted, becoming the sword I had intended it to be.

I opened the item's menu, studying it carefully.

"It's name is Dark Repulsor... I've never heard of anything like this." I exited the item menu, not letting Lis see it until she had made her best sword.

I watched as Lis work and it was true: she was a great smith. If I lost to her in this competition, she would have earned it in every sense.

"Brightroar... This isn't in the info-broker's directory either," Lis hummed as she examined the sword's attributes. She held the sword in her hands, frowning as she examined it before holding it out to me. "My new masterpiece."

I took the sword from her and examined it myself. The sword really was a beautiful piece of smithwork. I opened the item menu for the Dark Repulsor and quirked a smile.

"Brightroar and Dark Repulsor seem pretty equal if you ask me." Brightroar was lighter and therefore faster while Dark Repulsor was heavier and did more damage. I placed them both on the table for Lis to see.

"It looks like we have a tie, then, don't we?" Lis smirked, looking extremely proud of herself. I grinned and placed a hand on her head.

"Guess so. You know what that means?" I asked. She cocked her head and my grin widened. "You're going to be stuck with me upgrading raid party gear before big boss fights!"

"What?! But the raid party is made up of like 50 people!"

"Yep! How do you think I felt when it was just mean doing all of them? It was a nice source of income for the Hunters but we're already decked out in barunum gear and we have a nice house already. I don't need the orders anymore."

"What makes you think I even want them?!"

"Hush, little smith, everything will be-"

"Lis! I was so worried!" Someone rushed passed me and seized Lis in a hug. I stared at the figure's back, recognizing her after a split second.

"Asuna?" both Lis and I asked, surprised.

"Where were you last night? My message bounced back and I couldn't track you on the map!

"Sorry. I sort of got trapped in a dungeon," Lis muttered. Asuna gasped.

"A dungeon! You went all by yourself?!"

"No, I was with her," I jumped in a little sheepishly. Asuna looked at me, her eyes widening. Luckily for me, she smiled at me.

"Riva! I didn't know you wanted to check this place out. You should have told me."

"I'm sorry, do you two know each other?" Lis asked, confused. I nodded.

"Asuna used to be one of the Hunters. We've known each other since the first floor but I haven't seen her in a while thanks to her being kept busy at the Knights."

"That's right. Heathcliff has been having me run training sessions for the guild to make sure everyone's up to par before the next match. It's exhausting. I have no clue how you still keep up with the low level training sessions."

"It's a lot easier now. I think the lowest level player at the last event was fourteen or fifteen so there's not as much pressure to teach skills. Most people just like being able to hunt with a safety net."

"Yeah, I guess... You haven't been weird to my friend, have you?" Asuna suddenly accused. I rolled my eyes.

"No weirder than I normally am."

Asuna looked positively horrorstruck but Lis only laughed.

Updated 22:16, 1.27.2022