Chapter 3: The Breadwinner

i luv niki4444

Two hours later found them running toward the imposing forest lying between them and Breadwinner, with a filled in Klein. After learning that they had taken three non-betas under their wings, he'd taken an immediate liking to Kimiko, and by extension, Diavel.

More than that, the man seemed a little obsessed with the kids. Before they had taken off, he'd constantly tickled and poked them, trying to keep the two laughing to ease their terrified minds. It was heartwarming. Even now he made quiet conversation with them, occasionally including Wes, who ran behind him.

Kagome looked away, brought up her main menu selected to lock her health and stamina in vision for the time being. Her stamina bar was half gone, and they were coming up to the trees.

Stamina, like most things, worked differently in SAO. Similar to the mirror trick, her father had made them answer a hundred questions with the NerveGear on their head, so that if they lied it would detect the jump in pulse and brain frequencies. Their answers decided their basic strength and endurance stats, and from that calculated what their base speed would be. She knew that her beta friends would be fine, Diavel worked in construction part time and Kimiko was a talented tennis player, but all she really knew about Klein was that he liked women and teriyaki mayo pizza.

She craned her neck to eye him as they slowed to a stop. He looked like he was in pretty good shape… she stopped walking, her head snapping forward. She felt horrified, sick, holy hell…

I just checked Klein out. That wasn't even a quick look- in fact, she had focused rather blatantly on his biceps. What if someone saw? This shouldn't even matter. I don't care, there's nothing strange about what just happened.

There wouldn't be, if she'd only been sizing up his stats. Her guilty conscious knew that wasn't the case. Focus Kagome, remember him howling about his balls on the ground. See? So much less attractive…

She stopped walking. Once again horrified, and an arm slapped around her shoulders, "So this is it eh? It doesn't look all that intimidating." It's like Klein sensed her moment of weakness and pounced. There was a huge grin on his stubby face, and she considered, possibly for the first time, that if he continued leveling he would make an intimidating rival one day. I need to get out of my head. I'm driving myself insane.

"Say that again when we're overwhelmed by wolves," she teased, holding a cautionary hand out when he moved to approach. They were still about a hundred yards away, "Everyone. Let your stamina bars recover. It's unlikely we'll catch a break once we're in there."

"Won't health potions fix that," he whined, cutting off whatever answer Diavel was about to give.

"Health potions won't fix anything besides health," she deadpanned, "Stamina potions aren't available until you reach level ten."

"Why?"
"Akihiko wants us to work for it."

"As depressing as that sentence is, she's right. And the last thing you want is to die because you ran out of stamina." Diavel told him.

Klein moved to argue but then seemed to make better of it. Tobi and Aiko were talking quietly behind the rest of them, the former of them had sat down and was rolling his neck free of kinks. Aiko nearly glowed as she spoke to him.

Wes stood alone, away from the group only a few feet. He looked so uncomfortable that it felt like much further. He didn't seem like the silent type, but more that he didn't know what to say. Normally, she might have went out of her way to make conversation, but she felt mentally drained after the long day.

Instead, she mirrored Tobi's position, letting Klein chatter and tease her. His cheerful, kind personality was refreshing after a month of being alone. She treasured the seconds she had with this group.

She needed to leave, and soon.

"How are we doing guys?" The response was a resounding 'ready when you are'. "When we're in there, keep your eyes open. Wolves are a pack animal, so if you see one, there are probably more."

With that in mind, the group headed out.

The trees that enveloped them were a hundred feet tall, thick with foliage, and eerily quiet. Every hair on her arms stood as her feet raked against the gravel road that traveled through its center. An overwhelming, nearly unbearable smell clung to her lungs with every breath.

Diavel stopped suddenly, and tugged on his girlfriend's wrist urgently, "Kimiko stay behind me." He breathed.

"Dia-"

"Did you hear it?"

Kagome strained to hear movement against grass, or panting breaths; anything that would give her a clue what he'd heard, "Nothing."

"Be careful."

The warning was something that couldn't be taken lightly. From experience, she knew that behind the seven foot tall bushes, angular rocks were conveniently positioned to allow attackers to jump onto low hanging branches.

Diavel kept a hand on Kimiko's waist as they started walking again. The girl sent her an exasperated smile and mouthed something like 'he's overreacting'.

Kagome saddled up to the blue haired man, keeping a close eye on the bushes around them, "Hey buddy."

"Why do I get the feeling I won't like whatever you're about to say?" her friend asked.

"I've not a clue."
"Convenient."

"So, buddy." A heavy sigh interrupted her, "don't you think it would be a wonderful idea… to keep Kimiko the same or a higher level than us?"

"Are you trying to get her killed?"

"She's inexperienced, not incompetent." Was the swift answer, "Come on, you can't always be there to protect her. And what happens when we're fighting level twenty Mother Moths and she rushes in headlong to save your ass? At level two in combat, I might add."

He had that headstrong, pissy look on his face that came only when someone questioned him – and made sense. He was clearly thinking along the same lines, but his first impulse was to protect the girl he cared about.

He blanked for a second, eyeing the area, "Only if we're sure we can keep her safe. Not wolves."

"What are we getting ourselves into here?" Wes huffed, stomping closer to them. Then, "Holy shit!"

"Wes?" "Wes?"

"Where is it?"

He smacked into the ground as the rest tried to find the threat, "W-What was that?"
"Did you see a wolf?" Diavel pushed.

"No, not it was… some kind of monkey," A monkey? What on… "with red eyes. It was huge; you can't tell me you didn't see that. Come on didn't anyone see that?" he pressed.

Kagome wearily evaluated the treetops, taking a few nervous steps toward Tobi who was tucked in near Klein. "I didn't see anything, it must be fast." There were large baboon-like creatures on level 84. Her father may have done a level scramble at the last minute so that the betas wouldn't know what to expect.

Even as the thought came to mind, the feeling that something wasn't right nagged at her. We didn't have any reason to scramble the creatures on the levels, not to mention that they were in their natural environments…

But that feeling gave her pause. "Something's different. Diavel, Kimiko, did you notice?"

"I can't put my finger on it. The environment's the same – but monkeys? The bushes don't make sense if they're in the trees."

"The canopy isn't thick enough. The area's a wolf's haven."

He nodded shortly. They had a pretty good view of most of the branches, and monkeys don't live in pine. Say what you will about Akihiko, he liked authenticity. This whole thing felt off.

"I don't remember it smelling this badly before. Maybe we should have been able to tell there were monkeys around." He joked half-heartedly.

Kagome grimaced, "Aren't they about as cleanly as humans?" she looked to Kimiko for support, but the other girl was sniffing the air daintily.

"It didn't smell like this before. The area should smell like pine…" The putrid odor was again called into question.

"Why the hell are you sitting there talking about fragrances?" Wes shouted, his sword equip, "It's right there!"

Kagome's head snapped in the direction he was waving his sword, "It's gone again."

"Are you blind?" he shrieked, "It's right there!"

"There's a hallucinogenic in the air." Kimiko realized aloud, "They usually don't have overwhelming scents, but they can be recognized pretty easily if you know what to look for." She paused, "So he put something stronger in to hide it from more experienced noses."

"What about the wolves?" Klein asked.

"They're here... Akihiko must have moved their territory further into the woods. He was probably hoping that we'd turn around when we started seeing things."
"So what do we do?"

"We're sitting ducks," snarled Wes, "I thought you said this was going to be an easy in and out Diavel!"

"You gotta calm down man," Klein cut in, standing between the two men. Wes looked crazy enough, in that moment, to do something stupid, "we'll think our way out of this."

"And then what?" Wes hadn't calmed down in the least, and tears pooled in his eyes, "There's a hundred levels filled with this shit! We're all gonna die! There's no use even fighting it. There's nothing we can do." Her heart dropped into her stomach as he fell to his knees like a marionette with no strings.

She didn't hesitate sit down and pull him into her arms. He sobbed against her shoulder, holding on tightly as though he was a child. With a start, she realized he was probably only fifteen.

You're fourteen. She reminded herself; though she didn't really feel like she was. She sat with a teenage boy crying into her and another eight year old looking like he was about to be. "It's okay. Hey, you're okay." She took his face into her hands and tried to smile encouragingly, "We need to fight. I know it seems hopeless right now, but you need to trust us. We'll get you out of this."

He shook his head, "It's just staring at me, and none of you can see it. You must think I'm crazy."
"Not particularly no." replied Klein, "I just wish you'd chosen a better time for the mental break down we'd all love to be having."

Wes snorted; Aiko screamed.

And just like that, the fight began.

Kagome had been a little worried that they wouldn't be able to see the wolves, thankfully, that wasn't the case. Or at least for her; Aiko was shouting about a clown with scissors for hands and Wes had huddled up on the ground.

It was probably for the best.

Red eyes glared at her, and a beast easily eight feet in length tore out of the bushes. It knocked the wind out of her as it connected, her back slammed into the ground, and once she caught her bearings she tried desperately to tuck in her chin. Her hands were balanced awkwardly on its paws as she tried to push it, and it's snapping jaw, away from her face.

She'd never been very strong, and her hands crushed painfully against her chest after what felt like hours but was only a few seconds. She screamed; tears started in the corners of her eyes.

Until a piercing light split the wolf in two, and it shattered into blue sparks.

For a moment she could only stare at Klein's outstretched hand, mouthing incoherent words. He grinned, "Hey, come on now you're alright. Just look, it's dead!"

"Klein. I've never been so happy to have met someone in my life." She told him seriously. She took him hand, and he pulled her into a brief hug.
"Does this mean you're in love with me?"

She looked past him and saw Diavel fighting off a dark brown wolf. Beyond that, a pitch black wolf had hid on a low branch ripe with needles, ready to spring on Kimiko's head. The woman was distracted with a little girl punching and kicking to get away from the 'clown monster' created by her own mind.

Kagome equipped her sword and lunged at it. It met her halfway, and she felt a little dizzy as their head's collided. They landed painfully on the ground, and she could feel her heart racing as they rolled. They stopped alongside each other, with her leg crushed painfully under its own. Through sheer force of will, she managed to force herself on top of it and activate Stab . Her sword pierced its skull and it shattered into a million shards.

Congratulations! You've earned 30 EXP!

Fuck that, she cursed as she barely rolled in time to dodge the paws of another predator. Her chest heaved and she stared it down. It met her gaze unwaveringly and snarled, snapping its jaws at her.

In response, she crouched, planting her feet and then rolling up on them with her sword in front of her. It advanced slower than its predecessors as the game adjusted to what it knew wouldn't work on the player and planned another strategy. "Right, I forgot how badly dad wanted to kill me." She muttered. "Well, come on then! DO IT."

The monstrous creature pounced and she fell to her knees with her sword held at chest level. The blade sank into its chest and she struggled to tear it out through the wolf's side. It whined and spit out mangled snarls. Its claws tore into her stomach, and she saw stars. She barely registered anything but pain as she felt them big into her face, chest, and arms. It desperately wanted to survive.

Congratulations! You've earned 35 EXP!

xx

Items Obtained
* 3x Tiny Health Potion

Warning: Critical Health

As she lay there, choking on her own breath and staring at the cheerful warning, she wanted nothing more than to punch Kayaba Akihiko in the face. Just one good hit, and then she'd let the rest of the world have him.

"Kagome would you stop daydreaming and get your ass moving?" Diavel yelled, "We need you!"

She groaned, "Five more minutes." As she spoke, she used a health potion – 78 percent health. Definitely not dangerous to go into another fight with 78 health.

"Kagome!"
"I heard you the first time Mom!"

After standing, she knew why he was so desperate. One of the wolves had gone after Kimiko. Her health was less than fifty percent, while the creature was still in green. She had little Aiko clasped in her arms. Diavel was holding off two wolves, and couldn't get to her.

Not far away, Klein and Tobi were occupied with yet another one. Tobi was on red, but he had a sword in hand. "Tobi, health potion!"
"I will!"
"You better."

She was blocked from her brunette friend a large white beast that had to stretch at least twelve feet across. "Look buddy, you do not want to be standing there right now." She snarled, "It's a really really bad idea."

It growled lowly, prowling across the earth. Its claws dug into the gravel and ripped it up in a flurry of dust.

"Hey Diavel! How's this for a controlled environment?"

She rolled forward, and when the wolf launched it landed behind her, but Kimiko was right there. She patted her shoulder once, "You good?"
"Now I am."

Kagome turned to see the white wolf pacing around her in little half circle again. With Kimiko backing up for protection, she couldn't just roll. And the one that originally had been attacking her friend seemed intent on the new blood. It rushed her.

She activated Slice and the blade lit up, "Use a health potion if you can." Her skill dug into the wolf's neck, and she pulled the sword out to stab into its eye. Another notification appeared to let her know her EXP gained.

"I'm the doctor here."

The white wolf seemed cleverer than the others; it watched distrustfully as she attempted to fake left and carefully maintained its distance. It shifted on its haunches, while it did so, and she suddenly got the impression it was afraid.

"It's too late for that. You're the 100th floor boss, and the game registers you as a piece of it."

It is afraid of me. Somehow, it was registering her; she imagined if it wasn't also registering her level, it might have fled.

She kept that in mind as she charged it. It snarled warningly with its ears low on its head, but she paid that no mind. Facing it down made her sure that she was the more dangerous predator. Her sword sank into its hind leg as it tried to escape and she used the traction provided to pull it back towards her.

It struck out with its claws, taking off twenty-five points from her health. She shook loose her sword and pounced on its back; her sword locked around its throat and she pulled it towards herself until the creature shattered.

Congratulations! You defeated White Fang in combat.
You earned 68 EXP!

xx
Items Obtained

*White Wolf Pelt

xx
Quest Unlocked

*Graveyard Gamble – NPC 300yd east, 100yd south

xx
Congratulations! You've reached level 3!

The onslaught of message was a little overwhelming, and she knew she'd have to find a way to disable them in the future. That appeared to be the last of the wolves – for now- but if so many message boxes had appeared in a chaotic battle it could get someone killed.

Aiko stopped struggling, and Wes started to stand unsteadily. "It's gone."

"Aiko says the clown is gone too." Kimiko told them, "I think the hallucinations are a warning that the pack is near. Someone must have killed the alpha."

Diavel nodded stiffly, summoning a health potion, "We'll have to do it again when the alpha respawns. We should be on our way."

They set off again, this time at a faster pace.

Kagome was fairly certain that Diavel and Klein had levelled as well. So, between the seven of them, they were sure to take down one level five Giant Bee. The smell that plagued the forest grew worse and worse as they moved.

The wolves reappeared, downing Klein and Kimiko with hallucinations. Kimiko cried as her parents screamed in her face, and Klein refused to let them know what he was seeing. Instead, he told them to hurry up and kill the alpha.

It was easier now that she knew what to expect, and if she missed a critical hit -heart, neck, head- her blows did more. She fought beside Tobi, and together they took down five wolves. Wes and Aiko averaged three, and Diavel managed three as well. When the alpha came, Tobi made him their sixth kill.

She ruffled his hair as he glowed, "Did you see that?"
"You were fantastic little man," she replied, hugging him tightly, "You must be pretty close to leveling after that display."

"42 more EXP!"

She wondered why the amount of experience gained was so high; she remembered the Giant Bees being 25 EXP.

The last time the wolves appeared, she reached level four. Tobi and Diavel had fallen prey to the hallucinogenic, and was beginning to think it picked the two people whose stamina was the lowest at that moment.

After her time in the feudal era, she'd built up quite a bit of endurance, and, after her father had taken her during the beta test, he'd informed her it was the highest base stamina stat in that group.

During the fights, her bar hadn't dropped much more than halfway.

"Look at the light up ahead! We're almost to the exit."

The forest opened into a field of rolling hills that stretched out of sight. They were exactly as she remembered. The ground was littered with flowers for the bees to pollinate, and she could make out the outline of the hive from her position; it was about an hour's walk. Even in the evening light, the grass held a mysterious glow that she knew couldn't be found anywhere else on the levels.

"What does breadwinner mean daddy?" Kagome sat on her father's lap as he typed up long strings of numbers and letters. He'd told her that those were commands for the quest she'd been begging him to make.

Back then, she'd been so desperate to spend even a second with him. Kayaba Akihiko had always been more invested in his game than in his family. It took her mother pitching a fit and threatening to leave for him to approach her. When he asked for her help with creating the very first quest for SAO, the little girl couldn't say yes fast enough.

She had come to see it during the beta test. The map dropped off just before the forest came into view, and so she'd had to make sure he hadn't taken it out.

If she'd stopped 100 paces before the forest's edge, and walked two hundred paces west, she would have found a large oak tree in a sea of pines with "K & K" carved in the middle. Along with two vows of "I love you".

When she found that tree in beta she could think of nothing else to do but cry. She would always wonder if he left it there because he still meant it, or if he just couldn't be bothered to take it out.

"The breadwinner brings home food and supplies for the rest of the family."
"Like mama?"

He paused, looking down at the little girl in his lap. She had asked so innocently, "Well, your mother and I both do our part. I suppose the difference is that I don't need to leave the house to win the bread." He tapped her nose, "and that my daughter helps me out."

She hugged him, "You'll put the wolves in won't you? And the bees; the rocks?"

He chuckled, "It'll be just the way you want it. We can work on it together."
"Promise?"
"I promise."

"Wow; this place is gorgeous.' Kimiko said aloud, startling her from her reverie.

Wes, who had seemingly recovered from his earlier, concerning fears, seemed just as awed, "It really is. I wonder if he based any of this off of real world settings."

"He probably did. We should take a mental note of some of the nicer areas and try to find out where their inspirations were from," Kimiko eagerly agreed, "Well, when we get home."

Wes blushed, looking a little uncomfortable as he flashed her a smile.

"Are the giant bees around?" Tobi asked, he looked nervous and a bit put out that he hadn't been able to level in the forest. Kagome was sure he'd be at level three shortly, so she winked at him, mouthing 'you'll be fine'.

"They've probably gone in by now. I'll set our party up with the NPC, if you guys are willing to make a start toward the hive." She pointed to it, and scanned the hills for the quest's NPC. She wasn't far off, so it wasn't long until she found her.

"Would it be alright if I went with? I've never seen a quest started." Tobi told her.
"I wouldn't mind in the least."

The others agreed to start toward the hive, leaving her and little Tobi to begin the short trek. The NPC was a teenage girl in fanciful clothing whom heaved and huffed as she made her way across the field. As soon as they came into range, she stopped and ran to them. "Miss! Miss, you gotta help me!"

"What seems to be the problem?" was the smooth answer. Tobi looked between them curiously.

The NPC swallowed hard, "My brother ran out on me to go on some crazy adventure for our neighbor's daughter," she spilled, "and, well, I wasn't very kind about the whole thing. I certainly didn't spare him any of my thoughts, ya know." She sighed, "He'll be back tomorrow, and I feel awful. Do you think you could fight off five Giant Bees and bring back some honeycomb; he's always loved it, and he's sure to forgive me if he comes home to some."

"My party is more than happy to help."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Said the NPC, biting her lip, "I don't have enough money to pay more than one." She paused, "And I've been told expressly to only deal with you, Kagome Akihiko."

Kagome froze, "By who – and did they say why?"

"I'm not really sure why. Are you still willing to help me? I'll pay you well for your trouble." The NPC leaned in and whispered low enough that only Kagome could hear her, "I found a weapon in the field; I've never seen anything like it."

Although many questions still circled her brain, she figured that for some reason her father wanted her to get ahold of the mentioned weapon, and had altered the quest to assure it would come into her possession. She was starting to understand why this area wasn't on the map, "Of course. Where can I find the Giant Bees?"

"In the northwest portion of the forest. Be careful though, there's a nasty pack of wolves lurking."

i luv niki4444

I'm sorry to cut it off there, but so much will happen in the next chapter and I didn't want to keep adding and adding. This chapter's already 20 pages. :D

Anyway, there's a lot of breadcrumbs hidden in this chapter so if you liked it feel free to go back and search for them! I'd love to hear from you guys if you'd be so kind as to leave a review or PM me, especially if you have an inkling of what's to come. I'm also a huge fan of constructive criticism (because let's face it, no matter how many times I go over a chapter there's always one it's in place of an its... :"( ) I'm not trying to beg for reviews or anything like that, but when it's this quiet I get worried that I'm putting in all this time for nothing because what if no one likes it?

Anyway, sorry for rambling. I guess I'm getting a little self conscious :') Regardless, the next update will be out next Friday at the latest! Thanks for reading annndd I hope you enjoyed it. :D

Xx Niki