Caenor and Kirito stood in front of the opened chest, staring into the empty container. Even the distant roar of monsters lurking the halls could not draw their eyes away from what sat before them.
"This is the place you wanted to show me? It's just a normal hidden treasure room."
"It means a lot more than that to me." Kirito let out a long breath through his nose. "It's a pretty long story."
"We have time, I think. You probably need a breather."
"Alright. Let's see… I don't know if you already heard about this, but I wasn't always the solo player that I'm now known to be. I used to be in a relatively lower-level guild." A bitter smile tugged at Kirito's mouth. "It didn't last very long, though."
"The guild split up?"
"Definitely not, the members were close friends in the real world. I was the only outsider. Yet I was the only one who lived to tell the tale, all because I preferred to save them from the truth, rather than from their deaths."
"What truth?"
"The truth of a Beater; the truth of my identity. Beta-testers for this game have a poor reputation, as you're undoubtedly aware. I was twice their average level at the time, but I hid that fact from them because I knew what they'd think if I told them. I was a lot stronger than them in battle, but I always toned it down a little so that they wouldn't notice. Yet I was still useful enough for them to feel brave enough to try something a little harder than they would've done had I not been there, and that… that's what ultimately killed them." He patted the lid of the treasure chest. "This treasure chest was rigged with an anti-crystal zoning trap and a monster spawn trap. No escapes, no antidotes, no instant heals. Not even a message we could leave after we'd died. Just mob after mob after mob."
"I'm sorry to hear that, but… weren't you strong enough to fend those mobs off on your own?"
"I originally thought that I'd see if we could fight our way out without me having to reveal too much. But when the first person was killed, I… I froze. I couldn't do anything. I felt like my limbs had been locked in place, and I could only watch as they were cut down, one by one. I don't really remember anything after that. All I remember are their faces."
"You made it out somehow, so you must've found the strength to fight."
"I suppose. But it came far too late for me to save them." Kirito looked away. "I guess I'm the last surviving member of the guild, if you could call me that."
"So, that's why you were acting so enervated. I get it."
"I'm glad." Kirito chuckled nervously. "You know, talking about this to you was a great help. You're not the first person I've told this story to, and it's been a year since the incident. But at some point, people expect you to get over it, and yet…"
"It stays with you, doesn't it?"
"It does. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I know how you feel. I'm sorry for your loss, too. I heard about your friend's passing from Asuna."
"Don't be. I…" A numbness began to spread through Caenor's chest, but it was not an entirely unpleasant feeling. Perhaps the emotions he had been subconsciously repressing were finally being laid to rest. "I do feel a little better now. Thanks."
"You know, that's also one of the reasons I wanted to help you out. We're kindred spirits, in a way. Those who have watched people close to them die share a connection that those who haven't can never explain or experience. Those who have taken other people's lives, even more so."
"You've killed people before?"
"Out of necessity, yeah. Sometimes you find yourself in a situation where it's either you or them, and your body moves before your mind wants it to." Kirito shrugged. "Better to live tainted by that mark than to die clean. Even more so if you have people you want to protect. You do, don't you? Like the girl who was with you."
"I would if she needed any protecting. I haven't seen her face since I woke up, or any part of her body for that matter."
"I don't blame her. Exposing herself to the world is probably the last thing she wants to do right now. Anyway, maybe we should get a move on. We've stalled here for long enough."
The coast outside the room was totally clear, save for the barely audible trundling of elementals as they patrolled the hallways. A good time as any to make some progress.
The dark dwarves proved to be not much more of a challenge than the elementals, and soon the now-reinvigorated pair were out of the Labyrinth once again, looted quest items in tow. As Caenor and Kirito made swift progress upwards through the quest chain, Caenor slowly felt his initial apprehension about Kirito fade. Such was his personality that he tended to be cynical about people whose reputations preceded them, given that many such people often had darker sides that they wanted to hide, but Kirito was as open and genuine a person as Caenor had ever met. He had his flaws, as everyone did, but he never hesitated to admit them or apologize for them – a rare trait in a world where the scale of one's power was often directly proportionate to the size of their ego.
As the day drew to a close, the final lap of their marathon approached: a group of Kobold Lords in the Labyrinth of the 58th floor. After cutting their way through the swathes of kobolds that inhabited the Labyrinth, which took the form of a dark, soot-filled abandoned mine shaft, they soon arrived at the Kobold Lords' hideout.
The Kobold Lords present were somewhat smaller in size than their counterpart skulking the Labyrinth on the first floor, which was reflective of their status as sub-bosses, but as a gang they still packed enough of a punch for the unwary. Yet such was the confidence and synergy that brimmed within Caenor and Kirito that they, with naught but a nod to each other, strode into the chamber and immediately set to work. Their arms swung in tandem; their swords flashed as one. None could withstand them.
With the raw mithril ore secured, they returned to the smith shop on the 40th floor, emerging five minutes later with a stack of phosphorescent mithril ingots that seemed to catch even the faintest of the moonlight, which had been obscured by a passing blanket of clouds. Caenor took one out of his inventory to admire its sleek, pellucid exterior, then handed it to Kirito. Kirito flipped it around in his hands and nodded slowly, as though silently appraising its quality.
"Let's hand these over to Liz before she shuts up shop," he said. Caenor readily agreed.
Before long, they were back at Lindarth and in the familiar, smoky environs of Lisbeth's Smith Shop. Lisbeth whistled as Caenor laid out the bars of mithril in a neat row, lining them from one end of the table to the other.
"Impressive. I thought it'd take you guys three days at least. It's not an easy quest chain, that one, even though Kirito is seriously over-leveled for it."
"Be that as it may, Caenor really pulled his weight on this one." Kirito slapped Caenor's back. "Wouldn't have made it through the whole thing if not for him, especially in the first Labyrinth."
"If that's the case, then I'll be sure to make you the weapon that you deserve." Lisbeth packed the mithril into a leather pouch and tied it up with hemp rope. "Just give me a few minutes. You can come in and watch, if you want."
The back room of Lisbeth's Smith Shop was considerably murkier and dustier than the relatively pristine shopfront, with tables, anvils and workstations scattered arbitrarily about the area. The two furnaces installed in the room were unlit, but with a flick of a rusty switch, the fires within were promptly reignited. Lisbeth unfurled the pouch on top of one of the tables, then grabbed a hammer and a pair of bellows.
"Let's see," she muttered as she fastened a pair of goggles to her face and pulled out the recipe. "Mithril and steel smelted together, then molded, then refined… Got it."
The mithril and a bag of steel shavings were deposited into a crucible inside the furnace, and Lisbeth rotated a crank located alongside the furnace, which brought the flames to a roaring, searing blaze. As the mixture melted into liquid, it poured out of an aperture in the side of the crucible and slid into a cast iron pot. Once all the metal had been collected in the pot, Lisbeth tipped the pot's contents into a waiting mold, before running a current of water under the mold to allow the metal to cool.
"Help me pump water through the mold, if you don't mind," Lisbeth said as she rushed to gather the other materials.
Caenor went over to the water wheel and began to turn it. The red-hot metal soon settled into a dull chrome gray, but before it was allowed to cool completely, Lisbeth pressed a second mold on top of the first. The external mold was lifted after a while, leaving a delicate pattern embossed on top of the metal cast, which was now increasingly taking on the intended appearance of a wrist-guard.
Lisbeth slid an unhandled blade into the slot that had opened up on the topmost surface of the metal, then hammered a spring-loaded retracting mechanism into place. She attached a bronze button via a piece of wire to the mechanism – upon pressing the button, the blade duly sprang out of the slot.
"Once the button is pressed, the interior wire tugs on the latch, which allows the spring to push the blade out," she explained. Caenor and Kirito nodded in unison.
The final touches, which included the gold leaf and red paint, were applied, and as the last of the paint was dabbed onto the surface, Lisbeth gave the weapon a quick tap with her hammer. The wrist-guard glowed, indicating that its creation as a piece of equipment had been finalized.
Lisbeth invited Caenor to equip it, and Caenor gave the wrist-guard a few good shakes, and the button a few good taps. The button, it seemed, not only extended the blade, but also retracted it if pressed again.
"It's excellently made," Caenor commented. Lisbeth beamed at the compliment. "All that's left is for me to start training with it, and maybe a bit of dagger practice alongside it. Hopefully, I'll have some Sword Skills down by the time we really get going – that is, if I can get used to these sorts of weapons at all."
"Not to worry," Kirito replied. "That brings me to the second person I wanted you to meet. Someone who knows the dagger as well as any other player."
The Drunk Ape was, pound for pound, one of the strongest basic monsters one could encounter within the walls of Aincrad. Their ponderous lumbering belied the unusual speed and agility with which they converged upon their prey, and their strength was evident from the sinews that bulged from the considerable muscle mass that covered their body. Like their real-world relatives, the apes of Aincrad tended to become aggressive when you made eye-contact with them; however, unlike real-world apes, Drunk Apes were typically neither shy nor gentle. They constantly skulked the forests, wooden club in hand, scouring the woods for their next meal.
Nonetheless, as in the real world, no animal was truly an apex predator when a well-prepared human was in their vicinity.
A shadow crept through the canopy behind the trio of Drunk Apes beneath its feet. The shadow was clad in a long robe, with only a thin steel breastplate and small pauldrons to provide any additional protection – an insufficient defence against the brutal swipes of a Drunk Ape, but a necessary trade-off in the sacrificing of steel for speed. After all, why guard against an attack if that attack could never come close to hitting you?
The branch upon which the shadow knelt creaked. The Drunk Apes stopped in their tracks and looked up.
The shadow made its move.
A silver stiletto was plunged into the neck of the rearmost ape. As it fell, the other two bellowed and beat their chests in fury, in an attempt to intimidate their latest challenger. But the shadow was not perturbed; it had seen this behavior dozens, if not hundreds of times before. As the beasts flailed about, the shadow latched onto their arms, climbing onto their backs. One dagger followed another, and the three apes drew their last breath.
The shadow sighed with relief, and pulled the hood off its head, revealing the face of a dainty-looking young girl with chestnut-colored hair and eyes. The girl could never help but feel nervous about her hunts, regular as they may be. One misstep could spell death, and in this particular game, there were to be no respawns – a fact of which all its players were painfully aware.
She checked the loot she had received from her quarries, then slunk back into the comfort of the shade, away from the auspices of the sunlight. Waiting for her in the darkness was a tiny blue creature, curled up in a ball, purring as its master stroked its head.
"You tired, Pina?" she asked.
The creature chirped quietly, then rolled over onto its belly and continued its siesta.
"Let's head home, then." Pina's master, Silica, placed her dearest friend gingerly on her shoulder, then crept between the trees and out of sight. Another day well spent.
Caenor did not know what to think of Kirito's next acquaintance. She was a short, mousey girl with a puffy pair of twin-tails and a constantly expectant look in her eyes, especially when she was staring at Kirito, a phenomenon that occurred once every ten seconds or so. The more she blinked and peered at the object of her affection, the more she looked to Caenor like a small animal. Which was to say nothing of the actual small animal perched on her head, a miniature dragon dressed in beautiful crystalline scales that seemed to share its master's affection for the Black Swordsman, but was understandably wary of his less glamorous lookalike.
"N-nice to meet you," she stammered as she switched her attention to Caenor.
Caenor stuck out a hand, and she shook it vigorously.
"This is Silica," Kirito said. "We met on the 35th floor, after I helped her out of a bit of a pickle. Drunk Apes, right?"
Silica nodded. "I've just come back from hunting them."
"You seem to hunt them a lot. I remember you were also looking for them last week."
"Well you know, I feel like I should help people out by thinning their numbers. They drop some good materials, too. Anyway…" She turned to Caenor. "You're Caenor, right?"
"Yes, I am. I hear daggers and other short weapons are favorites of yours."
"I wouldn't say that. It's an affinity borne out of necessity, if anything. I'm not quite tall enough to wield a standard longsword consistently, so I've been using short swords and knives for as long as I remember."
"Her low center of gravity means she can move quickly and dodge attacks easily," Kirito added. "She's definitely a good match for the dagger. I'm sure she'll be able to give you some pointers."
"I'm looking forward to being under your tutelage. So, what can you give me?"
"Hm…" Silica scratched her head, and her pet leant down to nuzzle against her finger. "That'll depend on how high your skill level is. What's your skill with short weapons? Daggers, throwing knives, or anything."
"Unfortunately, I've rarely used any of those weapons, so my skill gauges for those are pretty much close to zero."
"Then we'll have to grind a bit until you get them up to a reasonable level. No point thinking about Sword Skills for the moment. Tomorrow morning, I'll take you to my favorite grinding spot on the 35th floor. We can start from there."
And so, as the morning of the next day beckoned forth, Caenor made his way down to the 35th floor. It was a floor he would typically have little reason to go to, as his guild usually aimed to send its members to higher-leveled floors or floors with better material drops to boost the guild's coffers. The 35th floor was as average a floor as you could get in any way: the landscape was nothing but swathes of forest, leaving little room for sightseeing; the Drunk Apes that roamed the thicket were, in hunting terms, high risk for moderate to low reward; the loot that the forest's critters dropped consisted of the bare minimum that one might expect of other monsters of a similar level. Mishe, the floor's only town, had once been a hotbed for adventurers, but the unlocking of the higher floors had lured most of the adventurers away, leaving only the nostalgic and the helpless to remain. Clearly there was something that drew Silica to the floor, or she would have long since moved on to greener pastures.
Caenor assumed that it had something to do with Kirito, and he posed the question to her as they entered the forest. Silica blushed, but shook her head.
"I… I like Kirito, but that alone wouldn't be enough for me to stay here. After all, it would make more sense for me to join Kirito in the higher floors if I liked him that much."
"Then why?"
"You see, there's someone – or something – that I like even more than Kirito." She pointed at the miniature dragon that had glued itself to her hair, gazing quietly at the treetops and cooing softly. "My Feathered Little Dragon. I call her Pina."
Caenor stared at the dragon's beady red eyes, and instinctively reached out a hand to touch it, but retracted it before he could get too close. "Does it bite?"
"She doesn't, though she's not very trusting of strangers. She's a good judge of character, though. If you're a nice person, she'll let you near her." Silica rummaged in her inventory and fished out a peanut. "Here. This is her favorite food."
Caenor took the peanut and inched his hand slowly towards Pina. The dragon initially shrunk away as Caenor's fingers approached, but upon smelling the treat, Pina poked her head out, sniffed the peanut, and began nibbling at it. Caenor smiled, and sighed with relief.
"Has anyone ever told you that you look like Kirito?" Silica suddenly asked.
Caenor allowed Pina to hold the rest of the peanut in her stubby claws. "Where did that come from?"
"When you smile, you look a bit like him. Although your smile is a little more… sorrowful."
"Thanks for the compliment." Caenor wasn't sure what sort of shape to make with his mouth, now that he had abruptly been made aware of how he looked whilst he was happy. "Though maybe I get what you mean. Didn't Kirito tell you about what happened to me?"
"He did. I'm sorry to hear about your friend. Your friends, rather. One of them managed to survive, right?"
"Yes, one of them did. She's in no state to do anything, but she's alive."
"That's good. Keep her close," Silica replied somewhat cryptically. "As long as there's life, there's a chance to make things right. If a second chance is offered to you, take it with both hands, and don't let go."
What Silica said was ostensibly abstract, yet somehow it seemed eerily familiar.
"Have you watched someone close to you die before?" he asked.
"Yeah, I have. Not someone, though. Not in the sense of a human being, anyway." Silica lifted Pina off her spot on her head and stroked the dragon's head, staring at it forlornly.
"Your dragon?"
"Pina is the only one of her kind that anyone has ever seen. She took a fatal blow that was meant for me… and I would never have been able to live with the guilt of causing her death if Kirito hadn't helped me bring her back to life. It's no exaggeration to say that Pina and I owe Kirito our lives, but I also owe Pina to try and find other members of her species so that they might not have to suffer in loneliness. It's why I come to this floor so often – it's my only lead in my search for other Feathered Little Dragons. That's just one of a few reasons why we're here, though."
"What other reasons are there?"
Silica wordlessly pointed into the distance. Caenor followed her finger, and found a Drunk Ape sitting in the grass, its back turned to them, belching and burping as it took large gulps from the gourd its ilk always carried.
"Kirito says you want to learn how to kill other players. While I've never actually done so myself, I can tell you that Drunk Apes are perfect for player-versus-player target practice. They're tough, surprisingly fast, and move just like bigger humans do. And," she pulled out a dagger and raised it to her chest, "when all is said and done, they have the same weak points as we do."
Caenor equipped his wrist-guard, tightening the straps that fastened them to his arm until they no longer budged. He clenched his right hand into a fist. The button on his palm activated the wrist-guard's internal mechanisms, and the blade sprang into action.
"How confident are you feeling about using those?" Silica asked.
Caenor smiled, and this time, all traces of negative emotion were gone from his features, leaving only a fierce and intense gaze that told Silica everything she needed to know.
"We'll just have to find out," Caenor replied.