Chapter 5: Setting the Record Straight

December 8, 2022

Floor 2

"Well, I hope not. I'd never be able to finish it if they did that. I don't think they did, though."

Rosalind glanced up from her menu to where Renee and Ashe sat leaned up against the side of shack. The little ramshackle structure was one of very few things in the small clearing alongside an equally small spring, the lone tree Rosalind had propped herself up against, and the enormous boulder Renee was supposed to be trying to break.

It had already been a full day since Renee had initiated the quest, but her face was still marked by three dark lines on either cheek. An increasingly familiar sight on Aincrad's information broker, they looked wholly ridiculous on their party leader. But Renee's embarrassment over her appearance had faded over night, much like her confidence that she would clear the quest in half the time she'd taken in the beta.

"If the durability regenerated on its own over time I wouldn't be able to sleep. I don't think I have enough points in strength to keep up with it otherwise," Renee said.

Renee had been dutiful enough about keeping at it, or at least keeping up the appearance of effort, Rosalind thought. The girl had slumped down for a break the moment they'd entered the little clearing to check her progress. That break had since stretched for the last twenty minutes, and her and Ashe's conversation had been gradually ratcheting up in volume.

"So, then, what?" Ashe asked. "You just have to keep hitting it and hope that the next one finally wears out its durability?"

"Pretty much," Renee answered, then seeing Ashe's skeptical look added, "You'll learn to hate these quests soon enough."

"I already do."

"It'd probably go faster if I had put a few extra points in strength. Rikki could probably do it."

"No thank you," Rikki said flatly.

Rosalind huffed and gave a small shake of her head. He had spent the better half of their conversation trying his best to look disinterested and had been caught thrice already poking his head into the shack to look at the NPC monk sitting on its tatami mat.

A wide grin crossed Renee's face as she leaned to look around the corner at him. "What, you don't want your face painted? We could match!"

"Definitely no," he answered and made a point of stepping away from the shack.

Rosalind lowered her eyes back to the holo keyboard under her fingers and resumed her typing. The habit of logging each day's events was already so ingrained as to make her fingers itch when she sat idle. And despite the early hour, Rosalind had already managed to fill half a page's worth, detailing the long trip here from Urbus and the monsters encountered.

As a party they'd engaged in dozens of brief fights in the space between the second floor being unlocked and Renee holing herself up in this clearing. And although she hated to admit it, the notes Rosalind had accumulated since the first day had been grown larger with constant revision in that time. As a relative newcomer to these sorts of games, Rosalind didn't trust herself to remember everything, and without the security of a respawn point to make trial and error a viable choice she had reluctantly accepted Renee's help, offered under the guise of brushing up on the information for herself and given with an air of surprise that Rosalind hadn't already figured some things out already.

"I don't play a lot of these games! I wasn't even supposed to be playing this one."

The argument had the intended effect of quelling Renee's thinly veiled teasing. And perhaps out of sympathy for their shared circumstance as prisoners inside the game, the older girl had made an honest attempt at answering some of her questions.

She had gotten an idea about Sword Skills before she'd even put on the helmet, but only gotten a grasp on them after watching other players from the gates of the Town of Beginnings. And she'd figured out before long how much experience was offered by a select few types of mobs. That information she'd weighed a little more heavily in her risk calculations over the first month. Some other basic mechanics she'd figured out through the 'Help' tab available in her menu. Now she'd added in notes on the behaviour and possible drops of some of this floor's creatures, a supplanted description of equipment enhancement and the more nitty-gritty details of the game's combat mechanics. She'd even gotten a hashed out plan for distributing her stat points for the next few levels, assuming she kept with her current skill set.

With all of that she'd managed, with help, to take on one of the «Trembling Oxen» out in the north fields, though she'd rather not do so again until she'd raised her level some more.

That had raised another question for her. Renee had confirmed that the approximate level cap for the second floor was higher than the floor below. Despite that and the slightly increased levels of the mobs available, none of them had advanced much farther in the day's since the floor's opening.

Frowning, Rosalind looked to where Ashe and Renee still sat talking. "Is there any way to level up faster?" she asked.

For a moment there was no answer. Then Renee, belatedly realizing that the question had been directed at her shrugged her shoulders. "Nothing that's available to us." She went quiet, the whiskers painted onto her face scrunched up and a moment later she added, "Best option right now is the «Windwasps» on the other end of the floor."

"Across that gorge?" Rosalind asked. Already she was trying to do a quick mental tally of the time it would take her to make the trek out that way. It had been a little more than a thirty minute walk here from Urbus. And the gorge was about another ten minutes out from the other end of town.

Renee nodded once. Rosalind closed her window and stood to go, checking her mace and shield as she turned. "You're leaving now?" Renee asked.

"Beats watching you do nothing."

Their party leader appeared stung by that but made no move to get up and resume her own quest. And when Ashe and Rikki each voiced their own concern she said, quite simply, "Even at her level she'd be hard-pressed to die against them. So long as she keeps clear of those cows on her way over she'll be fine."

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Since Rosalind had to stop in Urbus anyway she thought it would be best to stop at the market square and pick up a few extra regenerative potions. She selected the amount she wanted from the vendor's menu, traded him the appropriate sum of cor, and then she was back on her way.

Or at least she should have been.

"I can add you to our party, what's your name?" asked the gangly-looking boy now blocking her path. "It's dangerous to go out there alone, you know? We can keep you safe." Three others standing behind him each voiced their own assurances as well. Not a one of them looked to be higher levelled than she was.

"I'm fine," Rosalind said flatly, just as she had the last three times he'd offered. The eastern exit was only a couple blocks away; she went to step around them. Again, he stepped into her path, and his party followed his lead, effectively blocking her from leaving.

"Come on," he urged. "It'll be fun."

Rosalind refrained from reaching for her mace. Within the town's borders she wouldn't be able to hurt him any, but he'd feel it. A solid swing would stun him long enough for her to get around, and the act might distract his friends long enough to let her get away.

One of the other boys, quiet until now but for his muffled laughter, made his own attempt to sway her. "I could give you a few pointers on how to use your shield, too, if you like? What do you say?"

Her fingers twitched toward her weapon's haft. "I'm. Fine." When the group still showed no signs of leaving her be, she reached for it. Even if it didn't work as planned, a part of her wanted to do it anyway out of spite.

The leather grip was in her hand when a fifth voice called, "Ah! There you are."

The boys looked past her, confusion and annoyance writ large across all their faces. Rosalind turned her head to look and spotted another boy she'd never seen before jogging toward them, his straight pepper-black hair, plain axe and shield bouncing with each step. He came up beside her and without introduction or clarification grabbed her wrist and kept running, nearly wrenching her arm as he pulled her along.

"H-hey!" Shouts of protest went up from the group behind them.

"Sorry!" the boy called to them over his shoulder, "our friends are waiting!"

He rounded a corner, the group vanished from sight, and he dragged Rosalind nearly two blocks out of her way before she dug in her heels and brought them both to a jarring halt. She yanked her hand back and the boy nearly off his feet, his own arms wind-milling as he hurried to right himself.

"Phew," he breathed and beat the dust from his weather-beaten leather armour before he turned to face her. He wasn't any taller than she was, and he looked about as old, if even. Dark hair fell in a short untidy mess over his face and partially obscured his eyes: they were the same shade of black but shone as bright as the smile he wore. "Sorry about that, it looked like they were bugging you. I'm Okazaki, by the way." Recalling his manners belatedly, he extended his hand to her.

Rosalind took it with some hesitation. "Rosa."

Okazaki either didn't notice or didn't care, but he'd no sooner let go of her hand than she was looking to remove herself from further interaction.

"Thanks and all, but I need to get going," she said and took a step backward for emphasis.

"Oh, yeah. Of course. You mind if I ask you a quick question before you go, though?"

"I already have a party," Rosalind said.

His cheeks rounded out in another smile and he shook his head. "Not that. I've got one, too. Or part of one, anyway." Here he hesitated and coughed into his hand to cover it. "I was just wondering, you looked like you knew where you were going, so I wanted to ask-"

"I'm not," she cut him off, already in her head having figured out the rest of that sentence, and neglected to mention the fact that a beta-tester was the leader of her party. "We just came up here when the floor opened. I've had a few days to figure it out." The statement was not in the least a lie and it seemed enough to convince him.

Okazaki nodded and rubbed the back of his neck. "Right. My bad. Lag and I just came up today to try and raise our levels some. He went off looking for something and I've been getting turned about all morning. Ah, but I'll leave you alone now." He gave a quick wave of his hand and turned to go.

"There's a guide for the floor back in the town square," Rosalind said, pointing back the way they'd come from.

He stopped, smiled, and dipped into his inventory. The little bundle of papers materialized in his hand a moment later, stamped with the Rat's mark. "Yeah, I found it. I wanted to take a whack at those bee things, but I don't think I can't get past the bulls by myself yet."

The boy's equipment didn't look like anything special: his axe and shield, though shiny and new, looked like the lower tier stuff available for purchase in one of any shops on the first floor, as did his spent leather armour. And if her own gear was of no greater quality, careful maintenance at least ensured it was in better condition.

"I'm heading there now, if you want to come," Rosalind offered. Although she liked little the idea of repeating the experience, he had helped her by getting rid of one headache. Helping him reach the «Windwasps» seemed appropriate. And she wouldn't mind another shield should she encounter one of the «Trembling Oxen» on her way over.

He stopped again, halfway through a step, and said, "Sure, if it's alright with you."

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Luckily for her they managed to reach the stone bridge without having to fight anything. But the «Windwasps» on the other side were an unnerving sight to behold, for her and Okazaki both. The creatures bore an almost complete resemblance to their real-life counterparts, save for their colouration - black striped with mint green - and their size. Where a normal wasp could fit on the end of her finger, these creatures stretched to the length of her arm and were nearly twice as thick around.

Out the corner of her eye, Rosalind caught Okazaki giving his shield a dubious glance. She couldn't blame him for it either. At the sight of the wasp's stingers she found her reinforced buckler suddenly inadequate.

Her skin crawled at the mental image of the mammoth insect's stinger punching through the metal like tissue paper and she had to suppress a shudder.

"The guide says they're supposed to be easy," Okazaki said. They weren't yet in range to draw the creatures' attention but the boy took a few steps back onto the bridge before pulling out and flipping through the little book. "I'd feel better if I had a bigger weapon," he said a couple minutes later when he rejoined her, looking only slightly improved and clutching his hand-axe awkwardly in his right hand. He moved as if to grab it with both hands and was stopped by the round shield already strapped to his left forearm.

"Your friend is on his way?" Rosalind asked. He'd messaged the other boy shortly after they'd left Urbus and made only a passing comment since then about receiving a reply.

"Yeah," Okazaki answered. "He has a bit more shopping to do first, though. Do you mind if I stick with you until he gets here?"

Again, Rosalind found herself open to the idea of a second shield, even if not as an actual party member. And in Rikki's absence, Okazaki was the only other one around.

"Go ahead."

He took that for the answer it was and matched her step for step into the field.

For all that the wasps nurtured in Rosalind a sense of aversion, the guide did not lie when it said they were easy mobs. Their health and attack stats were mediocre, which made her earlier doubt of her shield seem silly. Even better, they followed a simple pattern consisting of just two attacks: a bite or a sting. It made them easy to block or avoid once she was able to distinguish between them, and her weapon's limited range ceased to be a problem once she started letting them come to her.

In the span of ten minutes she'd settled herself into a steady rhythm: the wasps would dart in for one of their two attacks, Rosalind would block and then hammer it down with a basic skill. At her level it took three cycles of that to kill one. She didn't have the accuracy to consistently hit the creature's weak point, nimble as they were. But by the steady flow of experience the wasps provided she expected that a good day's grind could bring up her level enough to drop that number.

Alerted to another wasp at her back by the mad buzzing of its wings, Rosalind spun on her heel, shield raised against it. The insect's body coiled forward, stinger poised, and it charged. Rosalind hopped back; she felt the stinger against her shield as a twinge going up her arm, easier by far to bear than the lancing impact of the giant oxen. Her mace lit up with the light of a skill and largely automatically slammed into the wasp's side. Its health was still slipping into the low green as it shuddered and sped backward, only to come rushing back seconds later. The wasp met her mace again, and then once more before it broke into bits of blue glass. A small screen read out the cor and experience gained and was dismissed before the fragments had fully gone.

A streak of red cut through the fading blue and she watched as Okazaki lunged forward with his axe and missed a retreating wasp by more than a foot. A quick look at both their health bars showed damage enough for a glancing blow to each. Okazaki's dropped again when he couldn't get his shield up in time to block the creature's stinger. He staggered back and then froze, balanced awkwardly on one foot with a peculiar yellow line encircling his head.

The wasp came back around straight as an arrow to bite him and dropped his health to half.

Rosalind rounded on it. Two quick steps brought her within striking distance and she brought her mace down in a hammer blow on its back. The wings were in the way, preventing a critical blow, but its health fell by a third and it was distracted long enough for the boy to recover from his stun. Okazaki's arm lashed out again, seemingly without a care for where he struck so long as he hit the wasp somewhere, though at this distance he could scarcely miss. It was a basic skill, the only one she'd seen him using since they'd begun, and wasn't enough to finish it. Rosalind caught it with a second upswing and the stubborn bug finally burst.

"Break?" Okazaki's breathless question came a moment later. Rosalind turned to see him already looking about the wide expanse for some place that the wasps weren't.

"I'm level seven now," Okazaki admitted when prodded. "That last one bumped me up. Thanks again for that."

They'd managed to find a small space of ground that if it wasn't a registered safe area, it was at least out of the range of the «Windwasps'» wandering without quite entering into the territory occupied by the «Jagged Worms» to the south. A small collection of rocks and thin trees offered a bit of shaded seating.

But at level seven he was two levels below her, and she was already pushing it.

"I keep thinking it should be longer, or hit harder," he said, and gave his axe another experimental test swing. "And it still feels weird holding it with just one hand, you know?"

"Is that not your main weapon?"

"Nope. But it will be." He swung his wrist to bring up his menu and a few quick taps saw his hand-axe and shield replaced by a hefty two-handed battleaxe, its scuff marked metal and haft a proper match for his armour. "I'd gotten pretty used to this one, but Lag and I decided it would be easiest and probably safest to change weapon types sooner than later."

Rosalind blinked at that. She'd chosen a mace as her own weapon on the first day because it had seemed like something fun and different. Now she didn't think she'd want to risk using anything else. She'd need to sink too much time into a new weapon skill to make the attempt worth it. Even with the security of a full party she probably wouldn't even consider it. Yet he said it so evenly, as though it didn't bother him in the slightest.

"Is it just you and this other guy?" she asked, suddenly curious.

Okazaki nodded, but his smile was gone. "There were others. We wre going to start a guild together. They're gone now. But what about you?" he added a short moment later, thankfully since Rosalind, sorry to have asked, had gone quiet. "You've got a party, too, yeah?"

Rosalind shrugged. "Only for the last few days."

"That's how everything starts, isn't it? A little bit at a time." He got to his feet then, and with a wistful sigh pulled up his menu to swap out his battle axe for the smaller hand-axe and shield again. "I think I'm alright to keep going now. Sorry if I made you think you had to wait for me."

"You could probably still use your other axe for now. If you level up more first it'd give you more buffer room in case you mess up."

Okazaki needed no other coaxing. With one last look at the cloud of «Windwasps», he closed his menu, the larger two-handed variant still in hand with its blade resting in the dirt.

And its effects were clear. Even without the occasional critical hit on their weak points, his increased skill level and the weapon's own basic stats helped him to cut in half the time he spent on each mob. And there were no further misses from misjudging distance.

At some point in the following hour, when the haze of bugs began to thin and they'd each gained another level, Okazaki's friend finally joined them.

Lag wasn't a tall boy by any means, and was rather stout. Without a direct comparison she couldn't be sure if he was any taller than Renee but she doubted it. He had a young rounded face, the familiar sort that pricked at the back of her memory, with short brown hair parted evenly down the middle to fall to either side of his face. His eyes darted back and forth and he clutched his short sword – not the quarterstaff Okazaki had mentioned – tightly in his left hand as he navigated his way around the wasps toward them, though he looked more annoyed by the effort than nervous.

Okazaki jogged over to meet him and she stepped back from her own fight to watch him go. It had lasted longer than she'd expected, but this marked the end of their temporary party.

And then the wasp was buzzing angrily again, its body coiled inward to prepare another charge. Rosalind caught it on her shield and hammered away at the last of the creature's health. She turned to try and find another one, and instead saw Okazaki trying to wave her over. He became even more enthusiastic when he saw her looking.

"Lag and I were wondering if you wanted to join us for lunch," he said when she made her way over. Rosalind glanced around him to where his friend was busy going through his menu. Lag caught her looking a moment later and nodded acknowledgement. "As thanks for helping me. Lag's been practising cooking; he's getting pretty good now. You don't have to if you don't want to, though."

"Anything's better than the bland stuff they sell in town," Lag muttered. He came up beside them now, a sandwich in either hand. He gave one to Okazaki and offered the other out to her. "If you don't like it, just let me know. I can make something else. Over there is safe, right?" He jerked his head toward the area she and Okazaki had used for their break earlier.

Lag pushed the sandwich into her hands and started toward the spot, leaving her and Okazaki still standing.

"Like I said, if you don't want to–" Okazaki started.

"It's fine," Rosalind said. Truth be told she was beginning to feel hungry. Her last meal had been a quick breakfast back in Urbus early that morning, and that not as filling as she would have liked.

They sat down in a line with Okazaki in the center to enjoy their lunch. Lag produced a small blanket after they joined him and laid out an assortment of other food stuffs and small bottles. Rosalind could smell fresh-cooked beef as well as some spice she couldn't name, not quite strong enough to sting her nose, but almost.

"Sorry for the lack of variety. The oxen up here drop a lot of meat and I ran into a few on my way here. Makes for good practise, though," Lag said before starting on his own sandwich. He got one bite in before his face scrunched up and he looked at Okazaki. "Does yours taste weird?"

The other boy had already torn halfway through his, and in two more quick bites finished it off. He gave no answer but a shake of his head and Lag leaned further forward to direct the question at her.

Rosalind looked down hesitantly at the yet untouched sandwich in her hands, unsure of which boy's reactions to take as truth. But under Lag's expectant stare and with encouragement from her own waiting stomach she managed a mouthful. "No, mine's fine," she said. If the meat was a little more gamey than she was used to, it was no issue.

Lag was not encouraged by that and frowned as he reached out for one of the bottles containing a gross yellow liquid and poured it liberally on his sandwich. "So you fought those oxen on your way here?" she asked, curious.

"Oh, right," Okazaki began as he reached out for to the blanket for some sort of pastry, "is that what took you so long?"

"Yeah, they spawned too close to me halfway here," Lag said and frowned as he turned to address the other boy. "And what took me so long was getting your upgrade materials."

"They?"

Okazaki had only been level six this morning, and she didn't imagine Lag to be much higher. As she still had her own share of difficulties taking down even one of the «Trembling Oxen», she had to wonder at how this boy had managed multiples.

He nodded. "I got some help from a couple other people, if that's what you're wondering."

Here Okazaki jumped in, his face brightened by the statement, "You think they'd help us with that guild quest too, once we find it?"

Lag gave a noncommittal shrug of his shoulders, one that failed to satisfy either one of his company.

"You mentioned guilds earlier," she said, "what's the difference between them and a regular party?" Besides the general number of players involved and a new tab in her inventory, she couldn't think of any worthwhile perks.

Again, Lag shrugged. "Nothing confirmed yet."

Rumours, then. Still, she would have liked to know about them, that she might put them to use if they proved true.

"It's mostly basic stuff," Okazaki began only after he'd polished off a second pastry. He was not so disinclined to share. "A separate guild inventory and treasury, an extension of the friend tracking feature. We're more interested in the buff, though. Apparently it's supposed to grant a small boost to your stats and experience gain."

"Nothing confirmed," Lag said again, more sharply this time.

Ignoring him, she turned eagerly toward the other boy. "Where did you hear that? Argo?" The info broker was her first thought. Renee certainly hadn't mentioned anything about this, and Rosalind had asked something in a similar vein just that morning. Okazaki shook his head and cast a glance sidelong at his friend. Lag had hunched his shoulders in close and gotten very quiet. And abruptly she understood.

"There's nothing in the guide for this floor or below, but Argo wouldn't sell us any info from the beta about it when we asked her," Okazaki continued in his lighthearted way after a moment, saving them from an uncomfortable silence. "Something about a reputation. She wouldn't even take our money."

"And you don't know where to find it?" He shook his head. "I think I know someone who might."

Rosalind hadn't expected an especially prompt reply after she'd sent the first message, but she had expected an answer. Renee couldn't avoid so direct a question – at least not forever. And though it took some time and a few choice messages, eventually a response was forthcoming.

Sure, I'm a liar for not mentioning a thing no one can do yet. Next floor up. Knock yourself out if we get there.

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Next Time: The Minor Bear

I can only claim laziness as my reason for not finishing this chapter sooner... I didn't like any earlier versions I'd written and got so frustrated with the rewriting that I just put the story aside and ignored it until a couple weeks ago. The timing kinda sucks since I'm leaving for school in another couple of weeks (Senior year of uni. Scary!) but I'm going to try and avoid making a habit of these long gaps between chapters.