December 2nd, 2022
Nearly one month has passed since the start of the death game.
To some it seemed like eternity, and to others like a second. Even so, in such short time, 2000 players had died, most of the ones alive refused to leave the Town of Beginnings, still waiting for help from the outside, but hope had slowly dwindled.
Lyn has started to slowly overcome her fear of fighting and got much better at playing. In addition to Kirito's [Anneal Blade], Axel and Lyn had received the [Tempered Broadsword] and [Cold Spike] respectively as quest rewards. Three weeks were spent on reaching the 1st floor's second-largest town, Tolbana, and the Labyrinth's exploration has just begun and naturally, no progress in finding the boss room has been made.
Kirito and the two players has also started to venture into the dungeon. Meanwhile, someone else was hunting in the Labyrinth, and the events that were to follow and involved that person were definitely going to affect all the players, but more importantly, Kirito himself…
04:00
'Haaaa!'
A Ruin Kobold Trooper disappeared with a screech after a spear's [Straight Strike] pierced the monster's weak spot. The yell could be heard throughout the dark stone corridor, making the spear wielder shudder a little. She turned around to her companion, who was checking his map.
"D-do you have any clues on where Kirito-san went now, Axel-san? He got carried away a bit too much and ran away," the girl tilted her head.
"Not really, we haven't formed a party with him, so I can't see his location," Axel closed the map. "Plus, I don't have a [Tracking] mod on my [Search] skill, and even if I had, it would show his most recent footsteps," he frowned.
"Maybe he is just trying to avoid us since we are his classmates?" Lyn sighed.
"Well, that's hard to say. We kinda tagged along without considering his thoughts. But then, you don't see an honor student and some loser from your class in a game where you can actually die everyday," Axel replied. "Still, you haven't said anything about why are you here in SAO yet, Lyn-san."
Lyn sighed again.
"You see, being an honor student doesn't mean that you have lots of friends. People look up to you, but you still feel alone. I'm not really good at communicating with people, so even though I wasn't into games much, I thought buying a NerveGear and the game would help me become friends with someone. You basically create a new self and no one knows who you are, so befriending someone is easy. And then all of this started…" the frail girl explained in a sad tone.
"Oh…" Axel furrowed his eyebrows.
Kirito dashed through the dungeon, engaging every mob he could see.
Even he couldn't really understand why he was in such a rush. Something was luring him forward. Perhaps it was his drive to find the boss room before the others, perhaps it was the excitement of a game, that was still an irreplaceable part of SAO, despite its danger, or maybe his curious side wanted to find out if something was changed in the full version.
Reasons aside, a sound of clinging metal attracted the former beta-tester's attention. As Kirito peeked from behind the corner, an unbelievable sight unfolded before him.
A hooded player was locked in a fierce battle with a group of Ruin Kobold Troopers. No one has ever reached this deep into the dungeon, not even the most avid explorers. The player's weapon was a standard [Iron Rapier], and the equipment that Kirito managed to see from under the hood was basic equipment for rapier users. The equipment wasn't the point of Kirito's observations, the fighting style was.
The enigma first dodged the enemy attack and then KO-ed the monster with a [Linear], the most basic sword skill for a rapier, and then repeated the same steps a few times again.
Even though this strategy looked unreliable and repetitive, the movements reminded Kirito of a shooting star flying in the night sky.
Once the player finished off all the mobs, Kirito finally approached the player and spoke. "Hey, you kinda went a bit too far with overkills."
The hooded person didn't reply, not knowing what to say
"Uh, I mean, you used your skill to deal extra damage to enemies with low he-," Kirito clarified.
"It doesn't matter to me," the player cut him off abruptly in a female voice, much to Kirito's surprise. "We will all die in here anyway, the only question is how and when."
Just as the hooded girl was about to move, she fell on the floor unconscious.
"Jeez, we have finally caught up to you, Kirito-sa-…Eh? Who is this girl?" Lyn asked from behind Kirito, as she and Axel finally found Kirito.
"I have no clue either, but we'll have to get her out of here! She is unconscious," Kirito said nervously, picking the girl up with Axel's help.
"I have potions just in case!" Axel said.
"She doesn't need any. It seems she is just tired," Kirito replied.
Outside…
Meanwhile the group was waiting for the girl to recover, a ringing sound notified Kirito of a new message.
He opened the menu and checked his friend list, trying to guess who was the sender. Klein or someone else?
The message turned out to be from Argo, Aincrad's infamous information broker, better known as 'The Rat'.
Heeey, Kii-bou, I have some fresh info fer ya. Someone has found the boss room an' there's gonna be a meeting at 14:00 'bout that. Ya better hurry or somethin'.
"You two can go do some quests or hunt monsters, I'll handle the rest," Kirito closed the message. "See you at the meeting, then."
His two companions nodded in agreement, although somewhat reluctantly, and headed towards Tolbana.
The hooded girl grumbled and started rolling from side to side before raising her head from the ground.
"H-huh? You…saved me…?" she said. "But why…?"
The girl expected the boy sitting on the ground near her to say some nonsense about life being more valuable than ever in this game, at least in her opinion.
"…I did that because of your map data. It would be a shame if you died and lost it," Kirito replied.
The enigmatic girl hadn't expected such a direct and honest reply.
"Whatever…here," she swiped the air with her thumb and index finger, copied her map data onto a scroll and threw it to Kirito. She stood up, brushed off the dust on her skirt and was about to take her leave.
"There's going to be a meeting about the floor boss raid in Tolbana later. I hope you'll come," Kirito called out to her.
"…Hm?" the hooded girl stopped.
"Your skill isn't bad, give it some thought."
"…Fine," she turned to Kirito and headed towards the town.
Kirito watched the girl slowly walk past him and then ran up to her, as they made their way towards Tolbana, where the raid meeting was supposed to be held.
For the whole half an hour walk none of the two said anything.
I'll have to regroup with those two and maybe introduce her to them, but this girl probably wouldn't want to communicate with others right now, Kirito thought to himself while staring at the silent girl and then looked forward, where Tolbana's gate and houses could already be seen.
A/N: Heyo. The chapter is quite short and is basically a retelling of Kirito and Asuna's meeting, so sorry about that. Not much development for Axel and Lyn too. Still, I believe I have a plot on how to develop them. Stay tuned!