Chapter Nine: A Not-So-Lazy Susan
July 30th, 2031
Edmond and Kitami followed Klein deep into the forest where they'd first met. It was kind of like a romantic repeat of their first night together. Minus the beauty and appeal of romance, and was more like walking, awkwardly, behind a friend who was dreading meeting their estranged ex-girlfriend.
After Thatch invited Edmond to be their twelfth Gunner, Edmond had filled him in on everything he'd been told on his latest visit to see Kayaba, beyond reality. Thatch had then felt it best to pursue the help of an old "friend" that used to be a tag along to the guild. She just so happened to be Klein's previous love interest, and had taken their sudden break-up very seriously. She went by the Avatar name: Suzzette the Brilliant, but had been labeled something entirely different by everyone in the Smoking Gunners Guild.
Suzzette the Brilliant, although a true name, seemed to imply such an eloquent and useful fighter of intelligence on the battlefield of gaming. What she actually turned out to be was a very bored and annoying burden in anything the guild wanted to do. Her interests somewhat differed in what people should be doing with their time inside a video game. Loafing around and gaining team experience through the kills of her party.
Although she'd only slain about seven enemies in her entire gaming experience, with the Gunners, that is, she was extremely high leveled due to the amount of grinding the Gunners did, and let her tag along to. Thatch was never particularly interested in her, and was thinking of telling Klein to cut ties with this "amazing asset," until he realized her particular skill level in hunting down special NPC's. Thanks to Suzzette's impeccable ability to find these NPC's, the Gunners were able to build a healthy arsenal, and cash pile, thanks to the enormous amounts of rare drops they received. Thatch found her to be, as he put it, "slightly more tolerable than spending outrageous amounts of time finding them ourselves." He then coined the name she would be forever remembered by: Lazy Susan.
However, as time went on, Klein began to lose interest in Lazy Susan, and decided it would be best to go their separate ways. She reacted by sending well over forty thousand spam messages to Klein, and attempting to, literally, kill his Avatar in his sleep, on several occasions. However, after being stopped, and slain, by Thatch (as well as receiving massive amounts of experience loss) time and time again, she eventually left the party, and was never heard from again.
Klein was a bit less than enthusiastic about finding her and begging her to help, as he was pretty sure she'd try to kill him. Which is why Edmond and Kitami had some along, to offer some protection…as well as a cake.
"So, Klein, how can we be so sure that she's even going to be where you say she is? From what I've heard, she seems to be incredibly unpredictable."
Klein stopped walking and turned to look at Edmond. He looked serious at first, but then lowered his head and placed he hands on his knees.
"Trust me, she'll be there. If there's one thing I've learned about this woman, it's that she hates change, and leaving the guild a massive stockpile of wealth that she helped find, is definitely change."
Kitami stepped up beside Klein and gave him a pat on the back.
"We're here for you Klein. The way Thatch sounds, she's really our only hope in finding a way out of this place."
Klein turned his head to look up at Kitami.
"Yeah, I guess you're right. But she's going to lose her mind when I tell her I'm married…with a kid."
Edmond walked over and stood next to Kitami.
"Hey, maybe she's forgotten all about everything. I mean, it's been a while right? This game came out in Japan well over a year ago…so, she's probably moved on-"
Klein leapt back up, from his crouching position. And pointed his thumb at himself.
"Look at me, Edmond! I'm dreamy, and practically every woman's fantasy! There's no WAY she's forgotten about me!"
Klein sat down and put his head in between his knees.
"Curse my amazing physical appearance and seductive eyes…"
Edmond and Kitami both exchanged glances and turned off in different directions as if they'd not heard what Klein had said.
"Klein, come on, it won't be so bad…think about it, if she can help us, maybe we can get out of here sooner than later. You can get back to your family! I'm sure she has something in the real world to get back to as well…don't you think?"
Klein raised his head and sighed.
"No, she doesn't, she's an extremely talented investor who made millions off of stocks. She literally has nothing better to do all day than to spend her day playing games…which, I suppose if you look at the current state of things, is exactly what we're all being forced to do, still, she never seemed like the type to have a booming social schedule."
Edmond shrugged. He looked over to Kitami who also had a look of defeat on her face. Maybe this meeting would be awful. Edmond though it would be best to stick to the task at hand, and attempted to change the subject back to something more constructive to their cause.
"So, how much further do we have to go before we're at the cave she's supposed to be in?"
Klein slowly looked up, sighed again, and swiped his hand. He pulled up a world map and moved his finger around to navigate.
"Uh…hmm…well this is strange, it say's we passed it…about ten steps ago, which means…"
Klein's eyes shot open. He sat frozen with a terrified look on his face. Edmond and Kitami exchanged looks as they saw Klein turn into a human statue, and slowly turned around. They quickly jumped back in fear and joined Klein, sitting, stricken with terror.
There, standing in front of them, just a few steps away, was a tall woman with purple hair, wielding a dagger with a black aura around it. She wore tight leather leggings that were pitch black, and a top made of the same material. She also wore plain, black rimmed glasses. From Edmond's position, he could see that her hair reached just past her backside, and her complexion was extremely pale. He also noticed that she was quite well endowed in the chest region, and had an extremely beautiful face. As Edmond scanned downward, he could also tell that she had wide hips. All in all, she was a very attractive woman, if not terrifying.
"Klein, to what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you again?"
Klein didn't respond. He merely stared straight ahead, mouth agape. Edmond moved only his eyes to look over and see that he was in shock. He elbowed him slightly, to bring him back to reality. Klein gulped and started a response.
"Well, y-you see. We have run into this problem, and, uh, we felt you might, possibly, if you aren't too busy, of course, be of use to us."
Edmond looked over to Klein with a look of disappointment, and shook his head. He then tried to stand up and make a better attempt than Klein.
"You see-"
"Don't move! Stay down!"
The voice was mature, and extremely pointed with anger. Edmond fell back down, hard, and stayed as still as night. He looked over to Kitami, who looked as though she was about to draw her bow, and shook his head urgently to advise her against it.
The woman slowly approached Klein and the others, keeping her dagger at the ready as she went. When she reached Klein she knelt down, slowly, and got extremely close to his face. Klein's eyes, somehow, got even wider. The woman raised her dagger, the black aura was now close enough to warm Klein's face.
Edmond slowly reached for his own dagger. Things weren't looking good, and he wasn't about to watch another Gunner be killed. His hand slowly wrapped around the handle of his weapon.
"Don't bother, kid. This one isn't worth my time."
The woman looked over to Edmond, slowly. Her eyes, which were also the same shade of purple as her hair, pierced like daggers into Edmond's nerves. Her gaze was so intense that it felt as though she was going to burn holes directly into the back of his skull. She looked over to the side, looking past him, and at Kitami.
"This must be your girlfriend, I presume."
Susan sighed and shook her head, before cracking an evil looking grin.
"Take it from me, girl, you're only setting yourself up for failure if you put any sort of trust in men."
Susan looked back over to Klein and tapped his chin with the broad edge of her dagger.
"Isn't that right Klein?"
Klein, who must have been moved to anger by this statement backhanded Susan's wrist, causing her dagger to fly free. She tried to strike him with her other hand, but Klein managed to deflect it. Susan then tried to reach for another weapon, but was promptly stopped by a foot smashing into her ribs, it belonged to Kitami, and it managed to knock her away from Klein, rendering her defenseless for a few seconds.
"Gah! Damn Kids-"
Susan, after leaping up from her defenseless position, attempted to draw her weapon again, but quickly saw that the futility it would prove to be. Edmond, Kitami, and Klein all had their respective weapons drawn and at the ready.
Edmond held his dagger facing down so that one quick swipe would be all he needed to render Susan completely useless, and possibly sever one of her limbs. He looked over to Kitami whose bow was trained on Susan's tight chest garments at nearly point blank range. Edmond looked over to his other side, at Klein, who holding a smoke grenade, ready to blind Susan as soon as she moved. Edmond, at this point, felt pretty confident that they'd completely their task.
Susan looked at each of her captors and clenched her fists. She looked as though she was about to go down fighting. Edmond pleaded to her in his mind, begging her not to make a drastic move. He knew how useful she could be, and he knew she might be the only way back into the real world. If only she could have heard him.
"Susan, listen to me, you know what Khale's doing, we know you have no idea how to get out of this place…but if you come with us, you can be a huge help to us."
Klein's voice was no longer scared like that of a school boy, and he now sounded like someone of authority.
Edmond could see Susan gritting her teeth. He could tell she was contemplating something. But then, she spoke through frustration.
"I would never help you, Klein. I'd rather watch every player in this world get blown to pieces! Do you know what it feels like to be completely used? Do you know how much wealth I brought to you directionless morons?"
Edmond watch the subtle movements of Susan's body, as he was sure she was about to make a move.
"Suzzette…"
Susan was caught off guard by this extension of respect. It was obvious she hadn't been called by her proper name in quite some time. It was Kitami who spoke.
"Suzzette, we're all in that boat, right now. We're being used as pawns in Khale's sick and demeaning game. But, that doesn't mean Klein doesn't owe you an apology…"
Kitami looked over to Klein with a stern look on her face.
"Isn't that right, Klein? Maybe you owe her an apology, and some thanks for everything she did to help to Gunners?"
Klein looked over and gave the sort of look that said "who's side are you on, anyway?" and then looked at Susan, bitterly.
"I suppose. Look, Susan, I'm sorry. Okay? You did a lot for us, and if it wasn't for you, we'd be in a lot worse shape than we are now…you're the reason the Gunners were able to become such a potent force in this game, and for that…I…guess, I thank you."
Edmond watched as Susan's body relaxed. He could no longer see the intensity of her muscles, clenched tightly in anticipation of attack. She sighed and crossed her arms.
"I appreciate that, Klein. That's all I ever wanted. You could've saved yourself a lot of spam and assassination attempts if you'd just said that from the beginning."
Susan walked over to her dagger, which was laying a few feet away, sticking out of the moist soil of the shaded forest. As she leaned down to pick it up, she immediately recoiled back to a standing position and gritted her teeth in pain. Kitami's kick had obviously done some damage.
Edmond looked at Susan, and then at her health bar, it was hovering just above the yellow mark. He felt bad for what had happened, but he quickly realized it was a necessary evil. Then, he remembered the cake that Kitami had brought with her.
Upon the global re-release of SAO, the developers decided to make food items restore a small amount of a character's health. Although it couldn't heal passive effects such as poison, paralysis, burn, or freeze, it did add some realism to the game. Naturally, if someone in the real world is deprived of food, they'll eventually die. It was this sort of realism that had initially drawn Edmond to the game.
"Suzzette…"
Susan looked over to Edmond as he spoke her name.
"Please…Susan is fine. Besides, everyone in the guild called me that."
Edmond nodded.
"Susan, we brought you something. Klein said you were a big fan of sweets…so we brought you a cake from the bakery in the Town of New Beginnings."
Susan's face lit up like a Christmas tree. She was obviously excited by this notion and smiled at Klein, who scratched his head and turned away.
"Well…yeah, you know, I thought maybe we should bring some sort of gift, especially if we're trying to convince you to offer life and limb for our cause."
Klein's statement caused Susan to squint in suspicion. She had obviously not been thinking of what helping the Gunners would entail.
"Life and limb? Just what exactly are you expecting me to do here? No amount of cake is going to convince me to put my life on the line. Not for you, not for anyone. I play alone, hunt alone, and make money on my own. I really don't need to risk my life for anybody. I could honestly survive in this game for as long as necessary."
Edmond, Kitami, and Klein all exchanged confused glances, each one trying to make the other plead the case to Susan. Eventually the three shrugged and realized that they really didn't have a good enough reason to ask someone they barely knew (and who had very little respect for them) to fight for a cause that they had very little confidence in, themselves.
Then, Kitami swiped her hand and navigated through her inventory. She reached the item she was looking for and closed her menu. Instantaneously, a cake appeared in her hand. It looked wonderful and was encircled with strawberries, perched on a delicious bed of chocolate frosting. She then gulped and slowly raised the cake towards Susan.
"It's made out of chocolate, if that makes any difference."
Edmond and Klein looked at each other in terror and shook their heads. Kitami stared forward at Susan who continuously switched her focus from the cake, back to Kitami's eyes, and then to the cake, again.
A long moment of silence followed. Susan slowly walked over to the cake and looked at it, suspiciously, as if she were checking it for booby traps, or something worse. She lowered her head, after shooting a gaze at Kitami that let her know that it would be in her best interest not to make sudden movements. Susan then inhaled deeply, taking in the wonderful scents of the wonderful pile of sugar, frosting, and pure unadulterated, coma inducing, bliss.
"It's not poisoned or anything, I promise."
Edmond spoke, but was quickly responded to with one of Susan's long fingers being shot directly at his face, stopping just short of his nose. His eyes widened in fear, as Susan slowly turned her head to look at him. Her face looked as though she'd just seen the very meaning of life, itself. Then, she spoke, through what almost sounded like tears of joy.
"D-don't ruin this moment."
Edmond scrunched his forehead and squinted. He looked at Klein who shook his head, not knowing what to even think, either.
Susan raised her head. She was biting her bottom lip, and her body shook ever so slightly. Then, without any sort of warning, she grabbed the cake and began viciously devouring it.
Kitami leapt back, slamming into Edmond, and almost knocking him onto the ground. Klein just stood, arms crossed, shaking his head. Klein knelt down towards Edmond and gave a thumbs up. He put his mouth close to Edmond's ear and then whispered.
"Told you it would work."
Edmond and Kitami were still in shock at the display that had just played out in front of them. The situation had gone from deadly, to ridiculous almost instantly.
After Susan's incident with the chocolate cake, and the three promising not to mention it to anybody. Susan allowed Edmond, Klein, and Kitami to make their cases for why she should join them.
Klein spun a fabulous tale of victory, with the world outside, finally realizing that gamers were people, too. He also plead his case for desperately wanting to be back in the real world to be with his new family. Surprisingly, Susan didn't react negatively, and showed signs of not even having feelings for Klein, anymore.
Edmond calmly explained that thousands of innocent children were either trapped within Aincrad, or back in the real world, missing parents who happened to be gaming that particular night.
Kitami's case was the most emotional, and eye opening. She depicted a horrible existence for thousands of families, burying those whom they loved and cared for, and never knowing exactly what happened to them. She finished on a much less serious note, explaining that the gaming world would never recovery from such a serious hit, explaining that they, if they could defeat Khale, could finally give a voice to the survivors that were ridiculed for saying that they actually experienced the horrors of death, and had seen their friends destroyed in front of them.
Susan, after weighing the odds and walking away to think for a few moments, to consider her own reasons, returned with her verdict.
"I'll be perfectly clear with you three. I despise people, I really do, and it's not from the experience of being completely used and then thrown out by your guild-"
She looked at Klein, harshly.
"Klein, that'd be you. Also, let me be clear, in this, too. I dislike people, not because I distrust them, but because I cannot deal with their emotions. Tears and turmoil drive me away. However, I do have fears of what my body may be going through, back in the real world. The thought of doctors and nurses prodding and poking me with needles and other medical devices, makes me sick. Luckily for you, my dislike for my body being touched without my permission outweighs my hatred for peoples' emotion. So, I'll help you, provided it doesn't put me in the direct line of fire."
Edmond took a deep breath and smiled at Kitami and Klein. They were also sighing in relief.
"However, before we go, I suppose we should take what might be useful from my humble abode."
Susan pointed to a rocky area, with a large boulder in the middle. In front of the boulder were trees and vegetation, blocking the view of anyone who happened to just be walking by, which explained why Klein had completely missed it.
"Follow me, oh, and mind the rocks. They're quite easy to trip on."
Susan walked toward the trees, and shimmied her way between them, pushing aside the green growth that had be placed there by developers, to look like it'd be left untouched for many years. Edmond heard the sound of a wooden door opening, and then the sound of feet clapping against a hard surface, such as stairs.
Edmond looked at the rest of his group, and nodded, giving them the go ahead to follow. They made their way through the same vegetation as Susan, and came out the other side in shock. When the three had made it through the barrier of plant life, they were astounded at what they saw. There was an open trapdoor, made of wood, situated in the middle of six torches. It was situated just in front of the large boulder that was visible from the outside. The entire area was completely invisible from beyond the wall of trees, but offered plenty of space to someone wise enough to stumble upon the settlement.
"Pretty cool, huh? Susan found this place when we were all relatively new to the game. It housed a low level boss that dropped pretty decent stuff for characters up to level twenty, or so. Thatch thought it would be the prime place to store the guild's goods, however, it didn't factor in that me and Susan might, some day, "part ways." Who knows how much equipment is down there?"
Edmond looked at Klein, and nodded. He was too intrigued by the game's use of hidden areas to really comprehend what Klein was saying to him. But, he did have one question.
"You said it housed a boss? What happened to it?"
Klein shrugged.
"Who knows, really? The developers probably stopped it from spawning when we continuously killed it for loot. I suppose camping a monster for hours on end isn't fair in their eyes. Although, I could be wrong, so your guess is as good as mine."
Edmond nodded and then turned to Kitami who looked a little bit fearful of going down into the earth through a tiny trap door. He walked over to her and smiled.
"You and I can hold hand if you want."
Kitami blushed and took Edmond by the hand. The feel of her avatar's skin quickly brought him back to his conversation with Kayaba. He wasn't entirely sure of Kayaba's accuracy in his prediction of Edmond being in love, but he was beginning to feel…something. He shook the thought from his head and smiled at again, leading Kitami down the stone steps, following Klein.
When the three got inside to underground chasm, they were shocked beyond belief. It was unlike anything they'd ever seen before. There were elegant torches hanging from the ceiling, creating a warm and cozy environment that was extremely well lit. The room, itself, was huge, almost twice the size as the lobby of the inn they'd been so accustomed to. There was a bed, and a table with a crude wooden chair that in the far corner of the room. At the other side of the room were two doors, both made of by wood that looked flimsy, yet functional.
Edmond walked in a bit further, letting go of Kitami's hand and taking in the majesty of the room before him. Nothing he'd seen up to this point was this elegant. It made the inn look like a prison cell by comparison.
"Normally, I'd say something like, 'it's not much, but it's home,' but I'm anything but modest, so, I'll be honest. Drink it in, people, it's taken me a year to complete, but this is my dream home. Are you impressed?"
Edmond, Kitami, and Klein all looked at Susan and nodded, too shocked to respond with words. After taking in the beauty of this hidden underground palace, Edmond's curiosity returned to him. He looked over at the two wooden doors, hiding something, which he was sure, would be worthwhile to ask about.
"Susan, if you don't mind me asking, what's in those two rooms, over there?"
Susan, who had walked over to her desk and pulled out a red potion, then held up her finger to signal that she would tell him in a moment. She drank the red potion, and Edmond watched as her health bar returned to a vibrant green color, filling the empty space that had been created by Kitami's boot. Susan licked her top lip and sighed a sigh of relief as the potion did its work. She then dropped the empty vial, allowing it to smash into little shards.
"Well, the first door houses my massive stockpile of trophies from hunting down enemies, camping mobs, and just hoarding whatever item is hot on the market after any given update."
Edmond was extremely impressed. Not only was Susan supposedly a great investor in real life, she was an amazing gamer. She knew the checks and balances of holding specific items that would be popular, and therefore expensive when the time came for a specific game update. He could only imagine what amazing treasure were waiting, just behind the door.
"The other door, is a bit of a secret. I'll show you when I'm ready. But first, we'll need find out what items would be best to take along with us, to start clearing floors. From what I understand, Khale has done a sort of "roll-back" on the system, erasing any progress of cleared floors from the past year. That sure was nice of him."
Edmond remembered the brief conversation he had with Thatch, about the plan to clear the first ten floors. It had just reoccurred to him that the game had been out an entire year for Japanese gamers.
"How many floors were cleared before Khale took over?"
Edmond asked Klein under his breath, as to not interrupt Susan.
Klein leaned his head over and spoke through the corner of his mouth.
"Thirty-four if I remember correctly. The Gunners participated in a lot of the clearing missions at first, but as soon as Khale started harassing players, Thatch took us off of the front lines to keep Khale from scaring off new gamers. Besides, nobody really minding reaching the end of the game too quickly. There was no point in getting to the End Game so early. It was all about fun, and less about competition. It was less about getting there, and more about being there."
Edmond did the calculations in his head. Klein's assumption meant that the players were clearing a floor almost every ten days. Edmond thought of how long it would take to reach Khale at that rate. It would have taken a snail's pace of at least a thousand days. That was almost three years…There was no way he could wait that long. But what choice did he have?
"So, anyway, I just started putting it all down here, and now I have quite a stockpile."
Susan finished talking and noticed Klein and Edmond staring off into space.
"Are you even listening to me?"
The two snapped out of their respective trances and quickly nodded their heads in recognition.
"Men."
Susan said this and rolled her eyes as she opened the first wooden door. Edmond's mouth almost hit the floor when he saw the massive stockpile of daggers, long swords, shields, armor, powdered and smoke explosives of every shape and size, bows, both cross and otherwise, and then a load of cosmetic accessories that could be worn for fun or festivity. It was as if they three has stumbled into the room where the game developers theoretically kept every weapon they could ever imagine, and it was wonderful.
"I like hunting, if you didn't notice. Something about stalking my prey and taking the loot it provides is so satisfying to me. But now I suppose since I'll be abandoning this little trove of treasures, at least for a little while, it's best to share my wealth. It's not fun being rich if nobody knows it. So, take what you can, some of the weapons are good enough until level forty-one, if I'm not mistaken. I managed to snag those off of some of the higher floors before Khale came and ruined everything for us."
Edmond finally felt the effects of being able to use any weapon and adapt to any class. He looked around at some of the blades that Susan had accumulated. Some glowed blue with the same aura as Edmond's dagger, some glowed other colors. He decided to pick up four daggers, each a little stronger than the last, to have something each time he out leveled a specific one.
He opened his menu and stored the daggers in the non-existent satchel known as his inventory. The daggers began to glow in his hand, and then disappeared into his inventory. After doing so, he made his way over to the bountiful supply of ranged weaponry. He looked at all of the bows, daggers and other such projectiles. He came across a blue bow that appeared to be made of crystal. Its string was made of silver, and it shined like the sun. He called Kitami over and she was instantly infatuated with it. She held it up to Susan.
"Go ahead, take it, it's not like my class can wield it anyway. That one's special. It's a really rare drop that can be found by any boss in the game, low or high leveled. What makes it so special is that it can be upgraded as you level up, so you never have to replace it. It's gets a bit pricy at higher tiers though, so be warned."
Kitami smiled and looked the bow up and down. As she reached over to the table to reach for the arrows that came with it, she found nothing but the cold wooden surface that it had sat upon.
"Oh, cool thing about that one, too. It requires no ammunition. You just pull the string back, aim at your target, and an arrow, of what I assume to be pure energy, will appear, just before you fire…It kind of makes me jealous that I can't use it. So, be careful with it."
Kitami nodded and slung the bow across her back, replacing the crude wooden one that she'd gained from questing.
Edmond decided to take other weapons for Thatch and the other Gunners. He filled his inventory with a variety of smoke bombs, more stylish and effective gasmasks, and all manner of elusive and tough leather armor. He even took some "off class" weapons and armor he felt he might need.
Klein did the same, making sure that each Gunner would be outfitted with whatever they needed to tackle the first few floors with relative ease. He was delighted to find a specific dagger that he pointed to and showed to Edmond.
"Hey, check it out!"
Edmond looked at the dagger, which looked to be a very low leveled item. It was nothing more than a crude, curved, blade with a typical handle on it. But he could tell it meant something to Klein.
"What is it, Klein?"
Klein looked the dagger up and down and closed his eyes, as if he were remembering something from the distant past. He smiled and nodded his head.
"This is the dagger I started out with, all those years ago, in the original Aincrad! Man, does this hunk of junk bring back memories. I mean, this is DAY ONE stuff, right here."
Edmond smiled and looked over to Kitami, who also had a smile on her face. It was good that simple items could inspire such joy and nostalgia to anyone in such a position of Klein's. Even Susan managed to crack a smile from the radiant beams of Klein's chipper demeanor.
But then, as Klein attempted to pick up the dagger, he was unable to, due to the restraints of his class. The present swept back over Klein as a tidal wave of depression. Realizing that Engineers could only wield explosives and crossbows reminded Klein that he was no longer in the pleasant memories of a decade passed. Instead, he placed his hand on top of it as it lay there on the table.
"I guess some memories really can't be relived. Not the good ones, at least. I wonder every day, how I could have possibly let myself get back into this situation. Talk about lighting striking twice."
Klein lowered his head and took a deep breath. Edmond could tell he was fighting back tears, so he slowly approached him and offered him a hearty pat on the shoulder. Hugs were beyond the question now, he had no intention of drawing any unnecessary tears.
"Klein, just because you can't wield it, doesn't mean you can't at least hold it in your inventory, right?"
Klein looked over to Edmond after he said this and smiled.
"Nah, it's not that important, besides, there's only so many inventory slots, and we need everything for the guild."
Edmond looked down at the dagger, and then back to Klein, who appeared to be purposefully looking away from it.
"Are you sure? I don't think one extra slot is going to hurt anyone."
Klein waved away Edmond's attempt at changing his mind and continued looking around the room at other items.
"Those are memories I'd like to forget, most of them, anyway."
Edmond didn't say anything else and allowed Klein to walk around the stockpile as he collected his thoughts. He was sure he'd grabbed everything he could hold that would be useful to the Gunners, and made sure Kitami was properly stocked as well.
Kitami, in addition to her bow, had also grabbed several new outfits, which offered ranged bonuses to the archer class, as well as a few cosmetics that she quickly deposited into her inventory before Edmond could see them.
"What's that? Did you find some suitable ranging gear?"
Kitami quickly turned around, and blushed. Edmond was caught off guard and threw his hands up.
"Whoa! I didn't mean to sneak up on you. I'm sorry!"
Kitami shook her head and then smiled awkwardly.
"Oh no, it's just some stuff I thought was…cute."
Edmond felt the strange pressure he felt, when he was with Kitami alone, in his stomach. The so called "love" sneaking into his mind and causing him to feel strongly for Kitami, as Kayaba had described it. He quickly took a deep breath to get rid of the feeling and joked with Kitami.
"Girls and their clothes. Some things just don't change, even in a completely different universe."
Edmond winked as Kitami turned away shyly.
"Oh, quit it, you two are going to make me puke all over everything."
Susan's harsh reality check snapped Edmond out of his "kissy kissy goo goo" moment with Kitami, and reminded him of how silly he must have just looked. He quickly picked up another, random, item and began looking it up and down in a desperate attempt to make it as though the last twenty seconds never happened.
"So, Susan. Klein says there used to be a low leveled boss in this cave. How did you manage to permanently kill it off?"
Edmond's deflection worked. Susan smiled from ear to ear in the most excited way. She clapped her hands together and quickly accessed her menu, making, what looked like a hunk of boar meat, appear in her hand.
"You mean Chester!"
Edmond looked at Klein and Kitami as if they had some inkling as to what Susan was referring to. Surely she hadn't named a boss she'd used as a loot farm.
"That leads us to the secret from earlier! The other wooden door. Come on, I'll show you."
Susan enthusiastically frolicked out of the treasure trove, prompting the three, confused, players behind her to follow. As they all slowly exited the room, Susan stood with her hand on the knob of the other wooden door. Edmond, nor his friends, had no idea what to expect.
"Everyone, I'd like you to meet my pal, Chester."
Edmond looked over to Klein who had apparently figured out who "Chester" was. All of the blood, once again, drained from his face. Klein then tapped Susan on the shoulder.
"Y-you didn't, I mean, you couldn't….could you?"
Susan winked at Klein and slung the door open. Immediately, the entire cave filled with the terrifying roar of what sounded like a dragon. Edmond, Kitami, and Klein all threw their hands over their ears in sheer terror.
"Chester! My big fluffy, baby!"
Susan ran into the room, arms flailing in happiness. Edmond peered inside after her, and was astonished at what he saw. It was, in fact, a black dragon. Edmond could see that its scales shined and glistened in the light of the torches that encircled the room. He also saw that it had two massive legs, and small arms, wielding claws, reminiscent of a T-rex. As he continued to examine, he could see that the dragon was being restrained by large metal bars that trapped him in a corner of the cave. He looked anything but happy to see Susan, and was lashing its claws at the bars the imprisoned him.
Susan held up the large hunk of raw boar meat and showed it to the dragon, who quickly stopped roaring, and resorted to a low growl. She then spread her arms as wide as she could, and the dragon responded by flexing its wings, completely apart. Wings that Edmond had not at first seen. She then clapped and threw the boar meat into the dragon's mouth, cooing and speaking to it as if it were a puppy, or a baby, or, anything other than a vicious dragon, really.
"How did you do this, Susan?"
Edmond said as he slowly walked into the room, treading quietly as he tried as hard as he could not to get the attention of the massive fire breathing behemoth in front of him.
Susan turned around and shrugged.
"I have no idea! But I'm not questioning it, it's amazing! You have no idea how hard it was, getting him trapped in there, though. It's too bad I'll have to leave him here, when we go."
Edmond, intrigued now by the massive beast, walked over and looked at it, as it ate. Chester caught glimpse of Edmond and began to growl, but never stopped crewing on his hunk of boar. Edmond then looked over, near the entrance, and saw a small pile of meat sitting in the corner. He walked over, picked up a sizable piece, and then walked back over to the metal bars. He looked at Susan, then at the meat, and then over to Chester. He smiled as a thought entered his mind.
"Maybe not. There's a class skill I've been wanting to try out."