Sword Art Online

Worldwide

Chapter 8 - A New Blade

~A few months later, on floor 6. Celine's POV~

"Lisbeth! I'm taking 5 off!"

"Okay, but don't goof off too long okay?"

I sighed silently and laid the blacksmith's apron on top of the desk as I sat down and poured myself a cup of tea. Work had been harsh today, especially on Lisbeth. She had been split between working the oven and hammer, and tending to costumers all day today. Luckily she had me to assist in any way I could, even with my low smithing skill.

Even though we had only been in the game for a couple of months by now, Lisbeth had already managed to pull her smithing skill to a scary level, and she was one of the best smiths around. Everyone in most of the currently available Aincrad came to her for advice on weapons, or to have new ones created, and as much as she loved the business, the many costumers were wearing down on her.

Even I was starting to get tired, even when Lisbeth and I did our best to help one another as best we could.

"Celine, where are you?"

"I'm out in the back Lis!" I called back, taking a sip of my cup "Do you need anything?"

"Yeah, could you go and get some more crafting materials from the deposit?"

"Sure, just one moment"

I sighed silently and wiped my forehead of sweat as I stepped into the fresh air of the outside. The inside of the building was hot as all hell, and not only because of the smelting furnace. The sun was standing high in a cloudless sky, and even when the sun was just rising this morning, it was incredibly hot. I was thankful that I got a moment to catch my breath in-between forging weapons and armor.

I heaved a big crate of materials into my arms and kicked the door to the deposit closed behind me as a headed back to the forgery. More heat. Great. As much as I loved working with Lisbeth in the shop, I could live without all the heat by the smelter. I also had a feeling that Lisbeth only had made me work the forge so she could be free for the heat and stand at the cash register instead.

I was jealous, but then again, I was HER apprentice, not the other way around. She was the one calling the shots whether I liked it or not. I walked into the shopping area of the building and handed Lis the materials she had requested.

"Thank you, this should help immensely"

Lisbeth smiled as she accepted the crate.

"But Lis, why do you need materials?" I asked softly "I'm the one working at the forge right now"

"Well, you might just brace yourselves."

I raised an eyebrow in confusion. I didn't know what she meant, but I was about to find out.

I hadn't noticed the guy that had stood in the back of the shop and I widened my eyes and smiled as I realized who it was.

"Sebastian!"

He looked up and smiled once he saw me, and I ran over and gave him a quick hug.

"It's been a while, Celine"

I chuckled quietly and nodded as I stepped back.

"Yeah, I haven't seen you since floor 5" I said excitedly "What have you been up to?"

"Not much really" He said with a smirk "Mostly slacking to be honest, but at least I've managed to grow to level 20"

"That's pretty high though, right?" I mumbled in surprise "I don't know anyone else who's that high"

"You should see Kirito, Klein and Asuna then" He said with another broad smile "They're all level 30, 28 and 29 respectively"

"Wow" I looked at him, almost unable to believe his words "But what else could you expect from frontline players?"

"Good to see you again, Rintar" Lis said with a smirk as she stepped up to us "You seem to have been doing well"

"Nah, I haven't done all that much" he said bashfully "At least not anything of importance"

"What are you talking about!?" Lis said with a laugh "You're level 20 already right?!"

"Seriously, it's not really as amazing as you seem to think it is"

We all laughed as we walked up to the counter, where the crate of materials was waiting for us.

"Sebastian, not to be rude or anything, but what are you doing here?" I asked as I looked back at him over my shoulder "Judging from what I see, your equipment seems to be in tip top shape"

"Yeah, everything except my sword" He admitted as he showed me the broken blade of his former weapon "I broke it during a fight with a pack of lizards at the jungle of floor 9. I was hoping to make a decent replacement"

"If that's the case, why don't you let Lis take care of it?" I asked, as I gazed over at Lis "She has one of the highest smithing skills I know of"

"Really?" He asked, looking over at Lis as well "How high is it?"

Lisbeth's smirk widened of confidence as she quickly showed him her stats.

"4000 points boy!" She said with a smirk "I've been forging and mending weapons nonstop for ages lately. Bend down for your smithing master, muahahaha"

Sebastian just rolled his eyes and chuckled at her goofy laugh before continuing.

"It seems I can trust you with pretty much anything then" he said with a smile "Can I count on you making a sword?"

"What kind of question is that?!" She punched his shoulder playfully and took his sword to take a look at its stats "Do you want it to be stronger than your first one?"

"If you can just make it just as strong, I should be fine" Sebastian said with a smile "I don't need an excessive amount of power"

"Yeah, we don't want it to be too powerful either" I mumbled "If it becomes too powerful, he might not be able to use it"

"I see you've learned well, my apprentice" Lis laughed and nodded, before placing the broken weapon on the desk and rummaging through the material crate "A platinum ingot and some blue steel should be enough"

I nodded softly and waited for her to step back before grabbing some materials myself, including a little Rose Gem.

"Huh? You're gonna try too, Celine?" Lis asked with a smile "It's not that I don't believe in you, but I believe your chance of success would only be about 20 percent"

"Yeah, I know but…" I could feel myself flare up in a blush "Well, Sebastian's pretty much kept me alive for the first long while we played this game. I want to at least try to return the favor"

Lisbeth snickered a little bit as a blush ran up Sebastian's cheeks as well.

"Well, you can try first Celine" She said with a bad attempt at trying to hide her giggle "I won't stop you"

I nodded silently and tried to conceal my blush as I looked up at Sebastian.

"Just give me a moment please"

I twirled around and hurried out to the back before anything else embarrassing happened.

~Sebastian's POV~

I watched her, embarrassed and perplexed, as she ran for the back of the shop. What was that all about? She had been blushing and self-conscious too. Lisbeth just sent me a sly smirk.

"You do know she likes you, right?"

I almost tripped over my own feet. Celine!? Like me!?

"What the hell are you talking about, Liz!?"

"Trust me! I'm a girl, I know these things" She said with a smirk "Didn't you notice how happy she got when she noticed it was you? And how she was all shy about making you your new weapon?"

"T-That doesn't have to mean anything" I mumbled with a dark blush "And besides, we've only known each other a few months at best."

"So? Love isn't something you can control" Liz said with a smirk as she jabbed my ribs with her elbow.

Liz and I had known each other for a while, even before the time SAO started. We had been online friends for a long time, and we had even talked about hanging out sometime, though that didn't happen before we were both trapped in this place.

We had been talking about how we were both going to play the game on the day of release, but we never managed to find each other at the first very long while of the game. It was only when the frontlines had managed to battle their way to the 3rd floor that I had entered a random smithing shop, and had realized that Liz was the one standing behind the counter, greeting me when I came in. Since then Celine and I decided to part, her reasoning being that she wanted to be a help to the players besides being on the frontlines.

I think the role of shop keeper in town fit both of them perfectly. She was not always as determined to fight monsters as everyone else, and she often hesitated in fear when we approached a big monster or something particularly scary. Letting her make armor, weapons and items would seem like a perfect way for her to help the players work towards finishing the game.

Besides, it quelled my worries about Celine's safety quite a bit. I didn't always feel quite well with her battling monsters in the field. Not that I doubted her skills, in fact, she was a very skilled fighter, but her self-doubt and insecurity would often lead her to hold back, or hesitate when choosing what to do in battle, which of course would often leave her open.

A fighter often have to trust their instincts, and choose what would be most suitable for a particular situation on only a moment's notice, so her hesitation was actually putting her life in danger.

Letting her work at the smithies would not only provide her excellent protection from the outside world, but it would also free me from having to fear that she would die outside of town.

I was scared of death. That is only natural. I was afraid that I would never get to see my family again. But an even bigger fear I had, was to lose her. To one day open my (very short) friend list, and discover that her name was no longer displayed there, meaning in her death. Knowing that I wasn't there to protect her, to help her, and to shield her from the fear that she so obviously felt when she dared cross the city borders.

"Yo, Rintar!"

I snapped out of my thoughts and looked back up at Liz, who was looking at me with an annoyed expression.

"Oh I'm sorry, did you say something Liz?"

She sighed annoyed and smacked me on top of the head.

"Dude, you gotta listen when people talk to you" I pouted and rubbed my head as she continued "I'm not gonna tell you what to do. Just know that she feels that way"

She sighed and turned away from me.

"Let's go check up on her, and see how she's doing"

I nodded silently, my thoughts and my embarrassment making me fall silent. If she really did feel like that for me, did I want to give the opportunity a chance? What were my own feelings on this? This whole situation was a shock to me. I mean, it's me. A shut-in neet, who had no other redeeming quality than the fact that I was good at video games.

What could she possibly get out of feeling like that towards me? Was I even supposed to be sure that Liz wasn't full of it? I decided to push the matter aside for now, and go out to the back along with Liz to check up on how Celine's weapon crafting was getting along.

Celine smiled up at us, a hint of nervousness in her features, as she brandished the forging hammer that were required to start smithing.

"Oh, hey guys" She smiled and gestured down towards the glowing materials "I'm almost done. Not sure if it's gonna be a success or not though"

"I'm sure it'll come along fine" I said softly, giving her a pat on the head "And even if it doesn't, I'll just gather some new materials so we can start over"

She nodded softly and took a deep breath before continuing to strike the glowing-hot metal. You could practically see how the heat permeated off the surface, as it flattened out and got more refined with each strike from Celine's hammer.

"Hate to admit it, but as a gamer, I must" I mumbled, a grunt of annoyance escaping me "That Kayaba douchebag haven't held back at all when it comes to graphics in this game"

"I'm not sure the VRMMO genre will survive after something like this" Liz commented, her arms closed over her chest as she watched her apprentice "I mean, 100K people trapped in an online world? This is a tragedy no one will be able to ignore"

That was a thought that had crossed my mind as well. Who would be crazy enough to approve a project anything like SAO, when something like this happened for everyone to see?

"You're right, but let's not focus on that for now" I mumbled, sweeping the thought aside "Besides, I doubt a lot of us will ever go back to VRMMO's after this"

Liz nodded, but before she could abbreviate, Celine piped up.

"It's done!"

Liz and I began gathering around the forgery and I watched in awe as the flattened metal began to reform itself into the shape of a longsword. The glow slowly began to fade, revealing my new weapon in all its glory.

A silver-grey handle, along with a long shining blade. I swear I could see a dark purple glow to it as it finished forming, and I could basically feel the upgraded power push off it.

"Daaaamn…"

I mumbled this under my breath as Liz whistled in admiration.

"Not bad rookie" She smirked, bumping Celine's shoulder with her fist "It's almost as powerful as his old sword"

I smiled and slowly picked up the sword, gazing down at the insignia embedded in the middle part of the handle. A bright red rose was carved into the insignia, giving off a faint crimson glow as the sword connected with my hands.

A small menu window popped up, and I quickly gazed over the text:

"Please enter a name for your new +3 Petalburst Sword -

" "

"hmm… A name huh…?"

I frowned slightly in thought before smiling and quickly typing in a name, and putting the sword in my inventory.

"So… what did you name it?" Celine asked curiously, fidgeting curiously.

"Heh, that's a secret" I chuckled and patted her hair before chucking a handful of Col in Liz's direction "Here you go, smith. Payment for a job well done"

I could tell that Celine was pouting when I turned to leave.

"Have a good one, both of you. Celine, we'll have to catch up sometime"

"Huh? You're leaving?" She asked disappointed "You're not gonna stay here for a while?"

"I wish I could" I sighed softly, looking back at her with a sorry smile "I'll message you next time I'm off okay?"

I waved back at them as I exited the shop and took a breath of fresh air as I stepped outside.

"Alright. Time to get back to work!"