Sinon and Kirito's friends were -in Asuna's opinion- a rather eclectic group of people and they seemed nice enough in their brief introduction. Though she knew better than most that first impressions could be deceiving. One thing she did wonder about though was why one of them was named "Harry One" despite not being hairy.
That conundrum aside, she agreed to travel with them, at least until they had dinner; In order to fulfill her agreement that she had made.
They continued walking for a bit longer until they exited the canyon that connected the first floor labyrinth exit, and the entrance to the second floor. They were still rather high up and this granted them a great view of the floor.
The second floor, the party discovered, was one full of mesas and plateaus and other such geography you normally see in arid locations. It also had lots of dry grass growing on said mesas and plateaus; presumably to support the large cows that were basically everywhere on the floor.
Upon seeing the unusually large amount of bovines, Klein turned to Kirito with the most deadpan expression he could make "...Looks like we found the cow level. Do these ones say "moo" continuously whenever you attack them?"
"Yes. This is the cow level. No, they do not do that. The boss does moo sometimes though. Or at least it did." Is Kirito's surprisingly serious response.
"So is everything on this level cow-based? Does that mean there is going to be a lot of steak on this floor?" Dynamm interjects, eager for some (hopefully) decent steak.
"Also yes, there are a lot of places to get steak on this floor. Not everything is cow based though, there are other types of monsters. The cows are just the most common." Sinon answers instead, and then follows it up with another series of statements, but directed at Asuna
"Of particular note, are the wasp enemies here. Their drops are useful for upgrading more agility oriented weapons, like rapiers and daggers and such. So it would be good to farm them when we get a chance."
"My apologies, but what does agriculture have to do with the resources the enemies drop? Is that some gamer term I am unfamiliar with?" Confusion is unexpectedly apparent in Asuna's voice.
It appears to take Sinon a few seconds to process her question, blinking repeatedly as she does before she is able to give a clarification. "Guessing you haven't played many games then? Well basically, when someone says they are going to farm a monster; they are planning to repeatedly kill that type of monster in order to get a lot of experience points or item drops from it. Other terms that will probably come up at some point are calling monsters "mobs" for short, and shortening materials to "mats". Does that make sense?"
"Yes, thank you. I have not had much experience playing games before this."
"Glad to help, if you have any more questions I'm sure one of us would be able to answer them." She said with a small, but sincere smile.
The group continues to walk for a few minutes in comfortable silence before Anna raises a question "So…how do we actually activate the teleporter to this floor? The system box didn't really specify."
Once more Sinon and Kirito take a sec to process the question, and realize that it is technically true "It's honestly really simple, you just walk up to the teleporter -which are usually in the center of the town/city- and select the option to activate it." Sinon answers, followed almost immediately by Kirito adding "You can also set a small delay for it's activation, which is something I'd prefer we did."
Klein raises an eyebrow "Oh? And why is that? Not that I object or anything but I am curious about your reasoning."
"Well assuming it hasn't been changed, everyone will have received a notification that the first floor has been cleared and are likely waiting by the teleporter for the moment it activates and then start to swarm onto this floor like an unruly mob. It would be best to avoid getting caught up in that." They pause for a breath before continuing "Also, it would be best to avoid attracting any more attention then we already have. That, and I really don't like crowds."
"You and me both" mumbled Sinon, and prompted some approving nods from the others.
"Well, if we are trying to avoid detection then perhaps our acquaintance should change into something less conspicuous then a black cloak? The only cloaks people can normally get are the regular brown ones. Like, it's a nice cloak, but it does kinda stand out." Issun cuts in with a bit of snark.
The others look at Asuna's cloak with muted interest, it is as Issun said, a nice cloak but one that stands out compared to others. The deep black color of it almost seems to drink in the light, while also glinting off the silver clasp that is engraved with what appears to be a small star.
Upon hearing this, and perhaps realizing it herself, Asuna stops to look at the details of her cloak again and see if specifies how to activate the camouflage ability. When suddenly she feels an odd yet satisfying sensation, like something sliding perfectly into place in her mind, somewhat akin to remembering something you've forgotten at the moment it is most relevant; and then she knows how to activate and utilize it.
"Hold one second, I do believe I have a solution to that issue." She calls out to them in order to gather their attention. Once she has it, she activates the camouflage and from the silver grasp a brown color -the same of regular cloaks- spreads outward and replaces the previous deep black. Making the cloak nearly indistinguishable other than the special clasp.
Predictably, the others are shocked and surprised though shake themselves out of it in a few seconds due to being somewhat used to odd occurrences at this point.
Asuna, stoic wall that she is, doesn't react at all to their surprise beyond a simple comment. "I do believe this will suffice for our purposes? Shall we continue on to the city then?"
Kirito, having recovered from their surprise the fastest, has their head tilted to the side as if pondering something. "Guessing that is one of the special effects you mentioned it having? What are the other ones? And what do they do? If you don't mind of course. Don't want to pressure you into doing anything."
"Perhaps later, when we aren't on a time limit to avoid the local monsters."
A short time later, in Urbus' teleporter square.
"So what delay should we set it too? We can apparently set it up to 5 minutes." Klein asked the group after looking at the settings.
Most of them either shrug or don't visibly respond at all, leaving it to Kirito to answer.
"Uh…set it to two minutes. That should be enough time to get out of the way and get to an inconspicuous enough location to blend back into the crowd. Like that building over there" They point to a building much like the others, with a second story and a bit north east of them. "Unless it's been changed we should be able to get to its second floor easily enough."
With the plan decided they set the timer and withdrew to the building to wait. Shortly after they got their hiding place the teleporter activated and a portal opened. And as Kirito predicted, within seconds of it opening a swarm of people flooded through it; most of them engaging in some act of celebration and generally being rather loud. The din of it all even reached their position.
Drawing a grimace from Sinon as a result "Yeah…rather glad we are up here, and not down there with them."
Eventually after roughly 10 or so minutes the swarm died down to a more reasonable level of just "a somewhat filled city square" instead of "Tokyo square at peak hours"
"Well now that things seem to have calmed down, what's the plan for the rest of the day? Should we do that fancy special skill quest you mentioned a while ago, Kirito? Or just explore for a bit and grind the monsters? Perhaps both? Neither?" Kunimittz inquires, before looking at Asuna and decides to add
"Oh, and in this context 'grind' is basically synonymous with 'farm'. The connotations are a bit different, so it's not exactly the same, but the base meaning is the same…..hopefully that didn't sound condescending or patronizing or anything like that. Just wanted to preempt the potential question."
"Not to worry, I was in fact about to ask for that elaboration so it is most appreciated."
The group appears to ponder this for a bit, before deciding to explore the floor some more and kill monsters in the process.
Out on the fields of the floor
The party was currently culling a herd of the large, yet slow witted cows that were seemingly ubiquitous to the floor. The air was filled with the sounds of mooing and bellowing, with some light banter mixed in.
"Kirito. I thought you said these things didn't moo all the time." Klein grunts while sidestepping one of the bovine's charges…causing it to run straight into a different cow and damage both of them significantly.
"Hey, I only said they didn't used to moo all the time. And as has been established before, things are subject to change. …Though adding more cow noises does seem like something that would be pretty low on the priority list. Compared to you know, everything else."
They bite back but unintentionally change to a more confused tone partway through both their reply and the dismemberment of another member of the herd.
"Whatever the reason it would be really nice if they stopped doing it and just died already. It's getting on my nerves. We really should avoid aggroing another herd of these things. They aren't hard to kill but there's a lot of them." Then as if to prove Sinon's statement another mob moves to take the place of the one she just finished killing.
"Hey, at least we are getting a lot of beef from all of this. Hopefully it's good beef. And apparently cow hide, which will hopefully be worth some col. Not like any of us can use it after all." Dynamm adds, his desires being easily apparent.
"Yeah yeah we get it. You want to eat the cows. This has been established." Then looking over at Harry One Issun continues "Hey Harry, do you even know any ways to make steak?"
He pauses for a sec before answering "A few." Is all the man says before continuing the slaying.
An indeterminate amount of time later
Eventually they managed to kill enough of the herd that the remaining ones decided to flee into the distance; leaving the group to collect themselves after what basically amounted to a battle of attrition.
"Ugh, that took foooreeeveer. Let's never do that again, who's with me?" Klein asks while letting out a half-pained half-exhausted groan. And getting an answering series of groans and affirmative noises.
"Yeah…let's never do that again. Though I think we leveled a few times so silver lining i guess?" Anna optimistically says while sheathing her sword and rolling her shoulders to get some of the tension out. "Kinda want to go back to the town and take a nap. Maybe see if Urbus has a library and read a bit. Would be good to relax after today's…events. That good with you guys?
They spend a few minutes talking out their plans for the rest of the day since their original plan went as awry as it did, before eventually realizing that they hadn't asked Asuna what she planned on doing. And basically as one they all turn towards her.
"I have no plans currently, other than perhaps trying to track down some of those wasp monster's Sinon mentioned so I could upgrade my rapier. As such you are all welcome to pursue your own interests without me."
In the end it was decided that Kirito and Sinon -who were the only two that knew where the mobs spawned and also didn't have any plans or goals for the rest of the day- would stay with Asuna and help get the requisite upgrade materials. While the others would return to the town and do their own thing until evening.
Upon which they would all reconvene at the inn they were staying at to talk about their afternoon and eat the steak dinner Harry had been talked into making (primarily through the persistence of Dynamm) then retire to their separate rooms for the night. Which they booked in advance earlier, before activating the teleporter.
One farming session later; Urbus commercial district
The farming had gone reasonably well, and within a few hours the trio had managed to acquire enough materials to upgrade both Asuna and Sinon's weapons a few levels. They were now looking for a blacksmith to do the actual upgrading process.
A short time into their search they came across a girl that appeared to be about their age with short brown hair, wearing the starting equipment but in red, and was sitting on a cloth mat with some blacksmithing tools arranged on it.
As they got closer to her they were able to see that she seemed rather dejected over something. Sinon decided to approach and ask what was up and see if she could help.
"Hello, what's the matter? Maybe we can help?"
The girl, who seemingly hadn't noticed their approach, jumped a bit and turned towards Sinon's voice. "…Hello, just depressed because nobody wants me to upgrade their gear and are just using the npc's. You and your friends wouldn't happen to need a blacksmith do you?" Despite the bleak statement, or perhaps due to it, a note of hope is audible in her voice.
"Actually yes, we do need a blacksmith's services. Would you be kind enough to enhance our weapons? We brought the necessary materials." Asuna speaks up before Sinon has a chance to respond, to the surprise of the others.
It takes the girl a few seconds to process this, but when she does her demeanor suddenly brightens to a much more cheery state compared to the gloom of before. "Oh, of course. I'd be happy to, do all three of you need upgrades? Oh, and my name is Lisbeth. It's nice to meet all of you."
"Just me and her currently, though we will come back later when we have the materials and stuff. It's nice to see a player blacksmith around instead of just the npc's. Oh, and I'm Sinon, nice to meet you also."
"Asuna. Pleased to make your acquaintance."
"And I'm Kirito, and I will probably bring some of my friends along later as well. Not sure when though."
They all introduced themselves and got the upgrades they needed done to their weapons, though in the process of doing so Sinon remembered another thing she wanted to get.
"Hey, do you have the ability to forge throwing knives? It would be really nice if I had something more substantial then these small darts for ranged attacks. I'd definitely buy some from you if you did." She said while twirling one of her throwing darts between her fingers.
"Sadly I do not yet, but i'll look into making some of them for you. Might take a bit though. I kinda only started blacksmithing recently…" After the admission a small blush appears on her face and she focuses on her work to try and ignore it.
Giggling lightly at the display, Sinon tries to reassure her "Don't worry, considering the situation everyone is pretty new to all of this."
They engage in a bit more smalltalk while Lisbeth works, before exchanging contact information and heading back to the inn, as evening was fast approaching.
After Harry had requisitioned the kitchen from the nice innkeeper and began preparing the rather hyped-up food; the others had snagged one of the free tables and were conversing with each other about what they did during the day with various anecdotes about other tangentially related things sprinkled in. Some of those over the legal drinking age had also decided to partake in some drinks.
You could technically get drunk in SAO, but the feeling was rather unusual compared to getting drunk physically and the potential hangover was even more weird. So most people tended to avoid doing more than just casual drinking.
Asuna, who had put the hood of cloak down while indoors to be polite, seemed content to just observe the ongoing shenanigans without adding anything to it.
While Kirito was busy regaling the group about how they had managed to kill 3 wasps at the same time with one fireball, Klein decided to interrupt and ask if they did anything else.
"So, did you three do anything besides commit insecticide on the wasp populations? Perhaps find some more super secret loot or something? Maybe a quest that nobody else has done?"
Rolling their eyes at the interruption they continued "Hey, it's rude to interrupt people. You know this. I shouldn't tell you and just make you wonder forever, but I will anyway. We ended up meeting a player blacksmith who did the upgrades for us, seemed nice if rather downcast due to a lack of customers. Her name was Lisbeth and we traded info for later."
"If you hadn't told him, he could have just asked me, you know." Sinon helpfully adds
"True, but would you have actually told him what happened if I hadn't?"
"Ok, fair point. It would be funnier if I didn't in that hypothetical situation."
"Wait, back up a second. You said you met a player blacksmith? What was she like? I haven't seen many blacksmiths around so some details would be appreciated." Anna, who was rather surprised by the news, asked.
"We didn't talk for too long, just the few minutes it took to get our weapons upgraded. But apparently a lot of players avoided her and used the npc blacksmiths instead, and she looked to be about our age.
Any further conversation was cut off by Harry arriving with the main course assisted by two of the waitress staff in carrying the plates. Causing everyone to dig in with varying amounts of gusto, from the elegant and refined Asuna to the much more…energetic and unrestrained Dynamm.
Perhaps needless to say, but the food was enjoyed by all those in attendance, and even some who weren't part of the original group. The other inn residents, being both hungry and curious, asked what was going on and if they could have some as well.
And despite his initial reluctance to the idea, Harry did not like to do things by half measures; so he decided to make some for the other patrons as well using some of the leftover beef drops (of which there was plenty.)
Which prompted a round of festivities and shenanigans. Because after all, who doesn't enjoy good food and proof that things aren't hopeless and dark?
Though the less…socially inclined of the group did all retreat to their rooms after paying their compliments to the chef.
Asuna's room at the inn.
After making sure the door was locked and the curtains were drawn, Asuna allowed herself to relax a little. Not as much as she probably should, but some. Kirito and Sinon's friends did seem like a decent group of people, and there were none of the usual comments the general public liked to make towards her, at least so far. Which was nice.
And while the steak wasn't the best she has ever had; it being hard to top the extravagance her rich, image-obsessed parents engaged in. It wasn't bad by any means, with the main limiting factor being the quality of the meat itself. And it was certainly still leagues above the generic cheap food you could get on floor 1.
Though decent people they may be, the continual social interaction and energy of the group was rather draining to her. So she decided to shelve these thoughts for a later time and changed into her sleepwear then went to sleep.
A/N A bit of a setup chapter for later events but an important one none the less.