Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online. Reki Kawahara does!
Gravel crunched beneath his heavy plate boots as Slevin stomped across the rocky terrain. He was currently on the seventeenth floor at the Shale Rock Mine. With the last level the group had acquired a spare skill slot each that wasn't needed for any primary combat skills. After much debate they decided they would take up crafting. Normally a combat oriented player wouldn't bother taking up crafting, it took up a number of skill slots that they couldn't afford. But splitting the duties three ways they could work as a team doing a single crafting skill. After a bit of debate they decided on Weapon Smiting since it was one of the few skills all three could benefit from. Eleraan had won out on being the actual smith while Rolandox would be the one with the refining skill Smelting leaving Slevin with the worse of the three as far as he was concerned, Mining. Thus he found himself trudging along the mid level floor mine preparing to gather up massive amounts of raw ore.
He had been tricked, as far as he was concerned, into taking the gathering role by being lead to believe his massive strength would allow him to crush rocks and thus gather ore faster. As it turns out mining wasn't affected by strength at all, it was a set number of strikes from a pick axe based on the resources level. Still with his higher strength he could at least carry more of the ore in a single trip. He had just spotted a nice wide ore vein and was preparing to start his arduous task when a shrill scream echoed across the mine bouncing off stone. After a moments debate he turned and with a thunderous charge headed towards the source of the scream. Coming to the edge of a shallow slope he spotted a player cornered by a towering monster that looked to be made of rough stones magically attached into a humanoid form. An Ore Golem was a random spawn that would appear when mining ore, imagine that. Possessing a double health bar, extremely high defense value, and using high damage crushing attacks they were a danger even to players many levels over the floor they spawned on. Of course, they were one of the slowest monster types in the game so most people simply avoided them.
But for what ever reason the girl cornered made no move to flee. "Get out of there! Just run away it's slow!" The girl looked at him with pleading blue eyes and said something that was lost in the golem's roar, a sound like an avalanche of stone crushing against each other. Gritting his teeth and cursing noobs he charged down the slope, sliding more than running. Raising its giant stone arm the monster prepared to crush the player still standing before it. Damn it, If only I were faster. Where is that speedy asshole when I actually need him? Growling in frustration at his own limitations and realizing that he had more or less agreed that his friend would have been able to do something he with his chosen and heavily defended style couldn't. No, there is always a way. I don't need to be faster, I just need to stop it from attacking. Drawing his massive two handed hammer he prepared to use a truly last ditch skill.
With one final scream the girl squeezed her eyes shut bracing for the attack she was certain would crush her like a bug. The thunderous impact of the blow sounded out with enough force to vibrate the air in her lungs. Instead of the You are dead message she had expected there was a groaning sound like two massive stones sliding against each other. Opening her eyes she found the golem leaning to the side trying to regain its balance and a massive two handed hammer lying on the ground beside them. Looking up she saw a divot in its raised arm with cracks spreading outward from what she guessed was the impact site. The golem turned away from her no longer worried with the defenseless target before it and started a thundering charge towards her rescuer.
Well, that got its attention. Slevin gave a lope sided grin at the success of his Hammer Throw ability. It was a last ditch attack he rarely used because once he tossed his hammer he would need to retrieve it or take time to equip another weapon. Normally, he carried a spare weapon just in case. But since he was heading down to a lower level to mine with out any intention of fighting he had emptied out his entire inventory to make room for more ore. As the two opponents continued there thunderous charge towards one another Slevin glared at the Ore Golem deciding that being forced to use his Hammer Throw was the last straw.
"Don't look so cocky, you're not the first rock I've had to break with my bare hands!" as if to prove the statement his right hand,clenched tightly into a fist, took on a crimson glow. As the two charging opponentscollidedthe golem swung down trying to crush the slightly smaller fighter. Slevin reached up with his left hand and caught the attack; normally blocking an attack unarmed would have been a foolish move. But the golem's attack was classified as unarmed and since he possessed the Martial Arts skill he was allowed to block other unarmed attacks in a contest of strength. Stone shattered beneath his armored feet but even one handed Slevin won such a contest against the foot taller golem. With a taunting grin he swung his arm out hard. The right hook, angled high to strike the taller monster, struck hard with a crushing sound sending a spray of tiny stone shards flying free. Twisting his body he followed up with a left handed upper cut that flowed right into a shoulder slam that he used to push past the battered golem. Rushing forward he skidded to a stop leaning down to scoop up his hammer with a triumphant grin that fell away as he turned to find the golem right on top of him. Even you are faster than me? Are you trying to mock me! With that thought he gripped his hammer with both hands and gave a mighty upward swing powered by his anger. The blow caught the monster on the chin snapping its head back and causing it to lean back despite the attack not being a Skill.
His hammer took on an emerald glow as he activated the multi hit Pummel skill. Once, twice, then a third time his hammer crashed down into the behemoth's chest with enough force to knock it to the ground. A mocking grin spread across Slevin's face as he stared down at the prone golem. Oh you just wait til this skill delay is over. I got something for you! The golem was just starting to recover when his skill delay ended and he activated the Pummel skill a second time. But since his target was prone it gained a bonus becoming the Rain of Blows attack. Once, twice, and again a third time the blows struck with resounding force sending new cracks and fissures through the monsters body. But instead of the attack ending there Slevin raised his hammer high over head and held it as the hammer's head took on an ever brighter crimson glow. The final blow was a charged attack, the longer he held it the more powerful it would become.
He waited until the monster was half way done pushing itself up into a sitting position to release his attack. As his hammer arced down with sickening speed it slammed the golem back down to the ground with enough force to knock the nearby girl off her feet. As dust billowed out from around the prone golem it twisted its head letting out a pained cry like a handful of gravel being crushed together before shattering into sparkling polygon fragments.
Rolling his shoulders before letting his hammer come to rest on them he grinned "Ahh, I feel much better now. Just what I needed a nice punching bag."
"Um…" At the sound of another's voice Slevin remembered the reason he had charge in on the golem in the first place. Turning around to face the girl,who still hadn't moved from the spot she started at, she seemed to shrink back a bit within his shadow "Thank you." Was her response after a moment of shyness before looking up at him. At first glance the word plain came to mind, still he found himself looking her over more out of a habit of being a man than any real desire. She was neither skinny nor fat but simply average. Her blonde hair was cut not too short but definitely not long. Her outfit was odd for a girl within SAO in his opinion, with girls normally choosing one extreme or the other. Either showing off everything or hiding under some hooded cloak. Instead, she wore what he would consider pants and a blouse in the real world. Her face speckled with a few freckles seemed to round out the average package. His first impression of her seemed correct, that said with the limited number of female players he couldn't help but stare a little.
Still he didn't let the fact that she was one of a limited number of girls go to his head "Ugh! Why didn't you run? You could have been killed." He leaned forward towering over her with one eyebrow cocked waiting for her response.
What he got wasn't what he expected. She laughed. At his frown she waved her hand dismissively "Sorry, it's just normally guys I meet are so worried about impressing me or flirting I never expected you to scold me."
He shrugged "Sorry all that kinda stuff isn't my style. I call it how it is and you should have run, what would you have done if I hadn't been here."
"I couldn't run." At his scowl she explained "I wasn't paying attention to my inventory and mined well past my maximum weight. Since I have the "Encumbered" debuff I can't move. When the monster appeared I panicked and didn't have time to discard the extra ore from my inventory." He was still leaning over her frowning when she leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you for saving me. Even if you did scold a scared girl instead of comforting her." She grinned and gave a small giggle at his shocked expression. "Since you're here in a mine I am going to go out on a limb and say you were here to do some mining. Since I have to discard it anyways how about I give you the extra ore I mined as a reward."
"Sure that would be great!" He did his best to recover from the curve balls the strange girl kept throwing at him. As she manipulated her screen preparing the trade he realized he hadn't closed out the battle results screen. Glancing over it before he closed it he paused. While the experience gained was miniscule due to the huge level gap the loot caught his eye. He had gained a lot of raw ore for defeating that monster. That alone looked to have shaved hours off his mining. "Whoa nice. You get a ton of ore for killing those golems. Hopefully I get a few more of them!"
She giggled as she finished manipulating her inventory screen. "You're an odd one. Most miners pray not to get a golem spawn." With a final flourish she clicked the trade menu causing a menu to appear before Slevin.
He hoped his eyes didn't bulge out too much as he did his best to ask in a normal voice "This is all "Extra" ore?" The trade menu currently offered up more ore than he had expected, a lot more as in enough combined with the ore golem to put even his inventory at its limit.
Looking more than a little embarrassed she answered "I've been out here most of the day mining. I really wasn't paying attention at all; I had some… other things on my mind."
As he happily clicked the accept button on the trade menu he couldn't help but state "I'm not surprised your over the weight limit with all this. Even with my stats I'm at my weight limit already and I haven't even equipped my pickaxe yet!" He gave a bit of a chuckle.
Tilting her head to the side she gave him a funny look "You're not going to tell me you don't have an ore sack?"
Frowning down at her he asked "Ore sack?"
Chuckling she couldn't help but ask "Your just starting out mining aren't you?" She raised her hand to stop him from answering "No don't bother; the look on your face says it all. An ore sack is a reward from a quest on the third floor. All ore put in it is reduced in weight by seventy percent. The quest is silly easy so pretty much everyone who mines gets one."
At his flustered look she reached out to take his hand "Come on, I'll show you how to do the quest it won't take very long." She stopped still holding his hand and laughed "I just realized. I don't even know your name."
Giving a wide grin he chuckled too "Oops, guess I never introduced myself. My name's Slevin, of the guild Nephilim."
Smiling she gave his hand a slight squeeze "Nice to meet you Slevin, My name is Carah of the Divine Dragon Alliance"