Dreamers of the Day - Book One - Prologue - Part III
Within the Steel Castle of Aincrad, on the first floor of Orignia, in a quiet corner of the Town of Beginnings, there was a back alley shop, Ogin's Blade Works Ltd. It was a truism of MMOs, and Sword Art Online was no exception, that the best gear was typically not found in shops. But for what it was, Ogin's was not bad, and on launch day, every Beta Tester knew it.
Which was exactly why Hosaka Carina Tomo, the Pictish Argo, or Argo the Cat as she was commonly known, had parked herself in an alcove beside the register, watching the people come and go, her small feline ears pivoting like parabolic radars.
Why go running about frantically when all you needed was to know the right spot and have some patience?
A bored red headed dwarf girl sat on a stool, yawning as she leaned on the tabletop. Presumably she was the daughter of the proprietor, Ogin, a more dwarfish dwarf one could not imagine, he was practically all beard, save for a large ruddy nose poking out like a beak as he puttered around in the back room, muttering to himself, and just inviting somebody to ask his business and discover the start of the Anneal Quest Line.
Some familiar faces were perusing the selection, Argo had already gotten their info. Further back, in the corner, a pair of new players were discussing the more exclusive weapons kept behind glass. One, a tall man with long gray hair. The other, a blue haired woman, approximate avatar age about eighteen to twenty, who had opted for a leather duster over her starting outfit.
"So this is what a gun looks like in a world of swords." The woman observed, sighting down the barrel of a crude pistol coolly. She didn't sound impressed.
"Well these are only the starting weapons, Shino, you can't expect to get to the good stuff so soon in an MMO."
"It's Sinon in this world, Spiegel, and I'm taking time away from the leader boards to try this game out. I could have sold this Memeosphere for a lot more money if I didn't open it first."
"Oh please, you weren't going to sell your prize. That thing could be a big advantage for you in the next SJ! Not everyone has one yet, y'know."
The door chimed as another would-be hero stepped inside. A friendly grin spread across Argo's face as she recognized the tall and handsome, lean and muscular build of a blonde haired and sky blue eyed man. Another catch to add to her tally.
"Put her there, Cope-kun!" A dainty hand was offered.
The swordsman, Coper, turned and blinked curiously down at the petite woman, her tawny features marked with painted whiskers and framed by luxurious locks of golden hair that spilled wildly down onto her shoulders, ribboned bangs resting atop the ample bosom of her ravishing figure.
Then he smiled and clasped in a firm handshake. "It's been too long, Cat."
"It has indeed, Cope-kun. But the wait is over. Here to pick up some gear before you set out?"
"An iron breastplate to replace this piece of junk." He tapped the hardened leather cuirass that his avatar had been spawned with. "Not gonna waste my money on these shit tier weapons when the Anneal Quest is right there."
"Then I got some bad news for ya." She raised a hand to silence any questions. "Free launch day promotional info." Just a taste so people knew what they were missing. "Got word that the devs have us all boxed into the starting area til 5:00PM."
The handsomely heroic face twisted into a gamer's indignation. "Oh you've got to be shitting me!"
"Fraid not." Argo confirmed. Kirito had let her know, and then told her he'd be hanging out with some noob teaching him the ropes until the barrier dropped and he could dash for the next town. Him and Coper were like two sides of the same coin.
"What can I say?" Argo threw up her hands. "R-A knows SAO is worth it. They got us by the short hairs."
"Feh, nothin for it. I'll just have to go kill some boar while I kill some time. It's bad enough those assholes at R-A reset our accounts. Thanks for that heads up, by the way. I was already late logging in."
"Don't mention it." Argo smiled, "But since you did actually mention it, that free info came about cuz of people like you. And of course, goin forward I'll have juicier tidbits for sale, at a reasonable price."
"So that's how it is?" Coper rubbed at his chin.
"Nyaturally." She snickered. "This game doesn't have an internal web API. So there's no checking the wikis while you're in here."
Kayaba had made it that way, he'd explained, in honor of some old school developer he admired. The man was a doctor of quantum-neuro-astrophysics, but game development was his real passion.
He thought it was better if players had to cooperate, work together towards a common goal, and speak to each other. Like back in the old days when kids would exchange the secrets they'd discovered on the playground. They'd bullshit a lot too, and make things up to seem knowledgeable, the source of countless rumors and urban legends. And that was where Argo came in.
Value added, she gathered the information, vetted and verified, then sold it to other players, or bartered with other brokers to expand her own catalog. It was a system that existed outside of the system, exactly as intended, and Argo loved it.
SAO was the biggest game of all time. And she wanted to know everything about it.
"You never change, Cat." He made a quick hand gesture and a friend request appeared before Argo's eyes. She accepted, and punted it to her Beta box. She had other boxes too for devs or suspected devs, and for promising players she happened to meet.
"Pleasure doing business with ya, Cope-kun." Then she frowned, ears pivoting, the gunslinger babe and her boyfriend had stepped out while she and Coper were talking. No use crying about a missed opportunity though. Checking her menu, she confirmed that Coper was the last contact she expected to get in Ogin's.
Then she pulled up her cloak, tucked down her head, and stole off into the streets, navigating ToB's back alleys by memory. The last minute whims of the devs had shot her plans full of holes too, but she wasn't complaining, much. Argo liked to stay flexible, and this whole festival thing they were rolling with got all the players milling around and talking to each other. That sounded like an opportunity.
Swiping through her messages and reading the all Players Announcement Once More, she grinned, she knew exactly where to go next.
In the SouthEast quarter of the Town of Beginnings, a plaza every bit as big as the Square of Origin fronted an imposing Colosseum fit to handle the entire launch day player base. A festival had gone up, conjured into being at the stroke of an admin's keyboard. Pavilions draped in colorful banners, tents containing games of skill and chance. Vendors selling everything from novel snacks, to novelty plushies that would do nothing but sit around and suck up inventory space.
Argo had noticed when she'd logged in that the starting col amount had been upped. A little day one allowance, courtesy of R-A, for the festivities no doubt. So Argo had bought herself some spiced nuts from a grandmotherly NPC vendor and set about watching all the ludicrously pretty people as she made her way leisurely towards the Colosseum entrance.
She made a game of it. That handsome boy was definitely a Random, his looks were too mathematically bounded, a little too safe, to really be anyone's exact tastes. That girl was wearing her real looks, brave, but with the mother of all glow ups to hedge her bets. And then there were the custom avatars, the expected collection of manga and game characters brought to life, a few obvious riffs on celebrities, a gaggle of suspiciously similar blonde haired girls, and the customs that weren't anything she obviously recognized.
That was right, Kirito said he'd redone his AS.
He'd fallen into the, 'I got it from a manga character' category, but knowing he changed it, she wondered if he'd used Mode One or Mode Four to role his new appearance. Some of the Beta Testers, not Argo, had started to murmur about Mode Four avatars, that they represented your 'true inner self' as seen by the mighty Cardinal System that underpinned this world's reality.
It sounded a lot like guessing personality by blood type to Argo. But she had to admit, they didn't look like randoms. And there was an underlying logic at play. Maybe she'd play around with it sometime on an alt account. Could be fun.
The crowd pressed in, players and NPCs, as Argo passed beneath the entrance arch, the roar of thousands of voices grew deafening. Stepping back into the light, she found herself on the bottom tier of the stands, within spitting distance of the arena floor where the spectacle had already commenced.
Players dueled each other, or monsters, while gigantic screens were projected into the air to provide a closeup of the action, information about the contestants, and the rules of today's tourney.
1. Simple elimination brackets.
2. Starter Weapons and Armor Only.
3. Duels were called at 1 HP and both players were instantly restored to full at the conclusion.
Pretty simple stuff, it was a show of the game system and the potential skills of a dedicated player. Unsurprisingly, most of the contestants were Beta Tester, but that hadn't stopped some brave noobies from taking part. The results were about what Argo expected.
A hulking man, body like a troll, straining with muscles, his hair a fiery red mane, a real bandit king archetype, had decided that the very best thing to do against the calm, olive skinned, broadsword wielder in front of him was to charge in and try whacking him with his short sword like he was a child with a stick. It ended quickly.
"PLAYER : KIBAOU DEFEATED, VICTORY GOES TO PLAYER : EUGENE!"
Looked like the old standbys were in fine form, the Broker noted. In an adjacent arena, a beautiful blue haired knight was leading his companions to victory against a trio of Kobold warriors. Diavel wasn't a supreme fighter, but he could hold his own with a sword well enough to lead from the front lines.
The one to really look out for was . . .
"PLAYER : LIND DEFEATED, VICTORY GOES TO PLAYER : ACHILLES!"
On the arena floor, a young man stood tall and heroic, brandishing his spear overhead as his opponent approached to bump fists.
Yeah, Achilles was the complete package in her eyes. Spear and shield was basic, but it was robust and practical, a good choice for a player who probably didn't have the spare time, judging by when he'd been logged in, to master something more technical.
Though amazingly, he had a knack for leaning into the MUSE system. He probably could have picked up something fancier, if his vanity had taken hold. Instead he'd honed his basic spearmanship into something really special. A three month absence had hardly seemed to dull his skills at all as the iron tip of his weapon danced and caught the light.
"PLAYER : ORLANDO DEFEATED, VICTORY GOES TO PLAYER : ACHILLES!"
A jovial looking noob with boyish good looks and fantastic hair had challenged the spearman and immediately fallen on his ass. He laughed at himself heartily as Achilles helped him to his feet and clapped him on the back with a lively grin. In seconds they were laughing together like old friends.
Skilled, pragmatic, and good natured. He'd be leading a great guild within a month. And she still hadn't gotten his contact info . . .
"YOU PIG!" Argo's tail bristled, her ears perked as they localized the nearby shout. "I AM A MARRIED WOMAN!"
The owner of the outraged mezzo was a Pictish girl, long tawny hair and green bangs, and the gorgeous face of a proud warrior princess. Definitely a custom, she must have been pretty skilled to blend the hair colors like that in the character editor. A veteran MMO player if there ever was one.
The target of her rage was a red haired man cringing and rubbing a glowing red handprint on his cheek. He was grinning, he probably thought it looked disarming, and to be fair, he had the sort of face you'd take pity on, but it only made the Pictish angrier, her ears rising and her tail fluffing as her legs locked straight in feline posture. "Y-you! I'll . . . I'll report you for harassment is what I'll do!"
"Wait?! What! Oh ah, sorry, sorry!" The redhead began to wave his hands frantically, it would suck to be banned on launch day, but he wasn't going to salvage this situation on his own.
"Atalanta-san, be reasonable." A stout man with thick dark hair, handsome in the humble from-life way of a well touched up scan gently took her by the shoulder.
"What seems to be the problem, friends?"
A shadow loomed up behind Argo, causing her reflexively to jump aside as a man, more of a mountain, strode right on by. He hefted a beginners two handed axe easily over his shoulder. His frame was well muscled, but in a way that was true to life, not the excessive chiseling of a complete fabrication. His skin was dark and the features made her hazard African American, which was an odd choice for sure. Warm and friendly dark eyes contrasted with a white toothed smile that would make children cry. A small goatee and long dark dreadlocks completed the effect of a big, friendly, and very scary man.
"Oh shit, uh I didn't mean nothin by it!" The redhead started to bow profusely. "I uh . . ."
"He hit on me!" The girl explained succinctly.
"And then?" The giant newcomer asked.
"And then I hit him!"
"Sorry. Sorry! I just thought . . ."
"Thought what?"
"Well, y'know I was just chattin you up and . . ."
"Oh my god, I was being NICE! Did your parents never teach manners?!"
"Okay, I see what's happening here." The big man put both arms between them to make some space. "My friend here's a big MMO junkie. But sort of a recluse in real life. He's not exactly the socially graceful type, and doesn't know how to talk to people. Especially people of the lovely female persuasion, if you catch my drift." She looked at him skeptically. "Now me, I assure you I am a happily married man. And he has always been a gentleman to my wife." The redhead stared blankly. "Isn't that right . . . you . . ."
"Oh, oh yeah, right, definitely!" The red haired man nodded furiously. Then taking the precious space he'd been given to breathe, he bowed deeply to the girl. "I am truly sorry. I would never knowingly hit on a happily married woman." The girl crossed her arms, huffing as she looked away, but the anger had been let out of her, Argo could tell, her tail was relaxing.
"Now then, we're all here to have fun and enjoy this marvelous world. I say we be friends, I'm Agil, by the way. And this . . . uh . . . What's your screen name in this game, friend?"
"Oh ah, Klein. The names Klein! Again, really sorry, uhm . . . "
"If you must know, it's Atalanta." Atalanta answered. "It's Greek . . . I think . . . Something like . . ."
"The heroine of the Argonauts." Argo provided as she saw her opening. "Who fired the first arrow of the Calydonian Boar Hunt and was an ally to the goddess Artemis." Atalanta stared at her blankly. "The name's Argo, from the same language and mythology." Specifically from the old constellation, the Argo Navis. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance."
Atalanta thought this over, and then reluctantly nodded. "Likewise."
"ARENA EIGHT PLAYER : PITOHUI VERSUS PLAYER : KIRITO!"
"Oh man, that's my guy!" Klein brightened up. So this must have been the charity case Kirito had mentioned in his message. Man, was he a generous soul.
Argo sidled up to the big man. "Nice work back there."
"Thank you much, little lady." Agil answered.
"Just wanna check but . . ."
Agil glanced to be sure Atalanta wasn't paying attention. "Never met him before in my life." Oh, Argo liked this guy already. He was so going on the list.
"So that's Kirito, now, huh?" Argo asked to the air. She was a bit surprised when Klein asked if she knew him. "Yeah, he's a Beta Tester. Changed his avatar though." It . . . weirdly suited him. Maybe a little bit effeminate, but the old one had been way too try hard.
"He's a pretty cool guy." Klein said, "Seems to know this game inside and out."
"Yeah, and he's about to go up against the King of Arms."
"Huh. King a what now?"
"Pitohui." Argo explained. "She's a Beta Tester too. And her nickname in the Beta Test was the King of Arms." Owing to the fact that, without a skill leveling system to restrict weapons, Pito was proficient with all types. She demonstrated that now as she casually selected sword and shield from the Arena inventory, the weapons materializing from particles into her hands. She gave a jaunty little wave to the audience, and then took a stance, shield forward, sword close to her body and ready to thrust.
"So you're saying Kirito could lose?" Klein leaned closed to listen. "Man, that chick must be badass."
"More like crazy." Argo supplied. "Wanna know?" Klein nodded eagerly. "I'll tell ya for 500 col. Special launch day discount. He hesitated, and then shrugged, guess he didn't want to know that much.
But from what Argo had teased out during some friendly dungeon delving, Pito had been involved back in the Alpha days. When Sword Art Online had just been Sword Art. When development had been set back, and the Alpha build had been taken down, she'd been distraught and taken to HEMA and other weapons courses to recapture the thrill of dueling in a magnificent virtual world. Apparently, she had a very successful career that financed her hobby. It was an open secret that at least some MUSE trained skills were transferable to real life. So it wasn't surprising at all that the reverse was true.
If Kirito knew what he was in for, he didn't show it, simply drawing his short sword, and presenting a narrow profile, blade held forward. Basic stuff, nothing fancy, Kirito was a brawler, not a fencer. The two sword fighters circled each other like wolves, adjusting, and then with Pito's first thrust, they were off.
"Damn, they're both good!" Klein slapped hand on the railing. "Damn, they're really good!"
It was clear Kirito was the faster of the two, his style was more dynamic and agile. But Pito knew not just how to wield a sword and shield, she was seasoned in the theory behind her weapons. The shield wasn't just moving cover, it was an obstruction to the eye. Not obvious from this vantage, but she was skillfully using it to obscure the movement of her body and her sword.
"So wait, does that mean she has the advantage?!" Klein sounded shocked.
"You're surprised from a sample of one." Argo held up a finger. "Kii-bou's real good. But he ain't untouchable. As for Pito, she should have the advantage but . . ."
"Yeah, I'm seeing what yer talkin bout." Agil stroked his goatee. "It's the same as with that Kibaou guy. It was real obvious with him."
"Oi! Could you fill me in?"
"In short," Argo answered, "She's short." Klein began to open his mouth and Argo added, "Her player, not Pito. Her movements are a bit off. Judgment of distance. Normally a player can compensate well enough for a few centimeters. And it won't stop you from playing just fine in PVE. But in PVP, against another top tier player, with that big of a gap between her real physique and this one, it's just enough of an opening for . . . that . . . "
Pito had pressured Kirito towards the edge of their arena, planning to pin him with her shield. The swordsman had fought valiantly, but had been unable to bypass her defense. His avatar shimmered with red slashes from the cuts he'd taken trying to break through. Then, just as she was making the final thrust, Kirito had dropped, and rolled.
"Huh! What's he . . ." Klein didn't get it, but Agil did.
"The shield's cover. And that means it works both ways. Pito controls it but . . ."
"She can't see through it." And taking advantage of that blindspot, Kirito had forced her to guess, and she'd guessed wrong. The sword delivered a fatal thrust from behind to where Pitohui's kidneys would have been, her HP bar dropped to 1 and instantly reset back to green.
"Pito's a master of all weapons." Argo explained, "But Kirito has fought against them all as well. Which means he knows all the counters."
"Hmmm." Atalanta, silent until now, wore a thoughtful frown. "Tell me. The MUSE system, I've heard, that is, from people I know, that there is some concern about the applicability of violent skills to real life. I can believe that now." She frowned. "How savage."
"Well, kinda." Argo answered. "But it's overblown."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, the MUSE system trains your motor functions. But unless you're an Olympic athlete in real life, trying to move your body like you're used to here will just have you falling flat on your ass." She shrugged, the real world was safe from the Great Argo and her mysterious ninja skills, for now.
"I see then." Atalanta had curtly nodded and retreated into her own thoughts. The duels had proceeded apace, the brackets steadily narrowing.
"ARENA THREE PLAYER : SAKUYA VERSUS PLAYER : ALICIA!"
It was like a study in contrasts, tall, long dark hair, and pale as the moon, against short, tawny, and golden dreadlocks. And the gap only widened as the feisty Alicia sank almost to all fours, tail rising and ears pressing flat, and the dignified Sakuya drew herself to her full height, her clothes rippling as four slender wings conjured themselves.
"Holy shit! She can fly?!" Klein looked at Argo as if she'd somehow betrayed him. "There's flight in this game?"
"Well, Sakuya's a Si after all." Argo answered, then the obvious follow up. "That's a Fairy. Si have the unique power of flight, but it comes at great cost." Argo had then elaborated. Faeries were not quite as physically strong as humans or Pictish, relying more on their Arts to do damage, and they were considerably more fragile in exchange for their superior agility. "Their wings are only good for short hops and glides. And heavy armor basically makes it impossible for them to fly. In short, they're a technical race."
One which Kirito had tried for a week, and then put down to go back to his more robust human swordsman, but which Sakuya and others had taken to like ducks to water. The Sylphic warrior moved as if she was born with her wings, keeping pace with the agile Alicia as if she were a hummingbird dueling with a feral cat. The fight was vicious, and short, but ended peaceably as Alicia stood straight and threw up her hands with a Cheshire grin. "I surrender!"
"PLAYER : ALICIA YIELDS, VICTORY GOES TO PLAYER : SAKUYA!"
"What! Just like that?!" Klein didn't get it, so Argo explained. "They do this a lot. The two are good friends. And they know how a duel is going to end pretty quick." Sometimes it was Sakuya who settled daintily to the ground and conceded defeat.
The brackets were getting tight now, and the number of Arenas was dwindling fast. She saw Eugene squaring off against Sakuya, always a good fight. And . . . "Oho this should be interesting . . ."
"Huh?" Klein looked where Argo pointed.
"ARENA ONE PLAYER : ACHILLES VERSUS PLAYER : KIRITO!"
"Pfft. He took that Pito chick with sword and shield. How different is spear and shield?"
"For one thing, Pito is only proficient with all weapons." Argo answered. Proficient, but not the master of any of them. "Achilles is a master of the spear."
"Whatever, my man can take him!" Klein decided, only to be met by a scoff.
"That ruffian?" Atalanta shook her head, fanning her long hair. "You must be joking."
"It's a bracketed tournament." Klein reasoned. "They've both done damn good. Kirito took that Pito chick."
"And Achilles has defeated each of his foes by a far greater margin!"
"Only cuz they're scrubs!"
"Ladies, Ladies!" Agil intervened. "Why not let the duel settle your argument, and maybe make it a bit more interesting?"
Atalanta frowned. "In what way?"
"I'm thinking something like this." Agil manipulated his menu and presented a prompt to Atalanta and Klein. Argo watched their eyes dart to where their total Col floated invisible in their own menus. Atalanta looked up, stared straight at Klein, and smiled as she pressed Yes.
"If that's the way you want it." Klein said reluctantly. "Just don't get mad at me when I take your money."
The bet was approved and they settled in to wait. It felt like all eyes were on Arena One, of course that couldn't be true, Sakuya and Eugene's duel was drawing gasps and cheers all the while. And the other exhibitions were still going strong. But it felt true.
'How far will you go, Kii-bou? A-kun? Which will it be this time?'
It started the same as the previous duel, a slow circling, the two fighters sizing each other up, and then, it melted into something completely different.
"They're fast!" Atalanta sounded surprised. In the span of a heartbeat the two had closed the distance, and now they were nothing but a whirl of motion and sparks, quick thrusts and slashes, quicker parries and blocks.
"Of course they're fast." Argo said. The two of them were Beta testers, and the realest of the real deal among them, both had learned to lean into and master the MUSE system, to use and discard it as needed as an extension of themselves that existed in this world. Argo's ear twitched as the other Pictish whispered something that sounded like :
"Ko . . . Achilles. He looks so . . . Alive."
Argo glanced at the screens, and sure enough, the two of them were grinning like fools. It was just some good clean fun as they tried to gut each other.
"The kids gotta stay close with that short sword." Agil reasoned. "Or he'll get skewered for sure."
"He can make it." Klein clenched a fist. "Oi, I got money riding on him!"
"I know, I'm holding the bet."
Kirito knew how to fight against spear and shield. But as a spear and shield master, Achilles knew how to fend off a swordsman. Suddenly, the spearman's feet planted, his shoulders shifted, the shield slammed into the black haired swordsman and sent him staggering back, opening the gap for Achilles' spear.
"No!" Klein grabbed at his hair.
"Yes!" Atalanta threw herself against the railing.
They were both wrong, Argo thought, a dull iron sword glimmered and then glowed, Kirito landed, coiling up cat-like, and then sprung off. Hate Spike the straight sword equivalent of the Rapier's Linear not as fast, or as elegant, but more than enough to close the gap once more, and as a Sword Art, it cut into Achilles' shield like butter.
The spearman was fast though, he doffed his shield, rather than trying to make do with the damage, using the falling cover to mask his movement as he got around to Kirito's side. The tip of his spear began to glow as it gained momentum Pinwheel blazed and was met by Trinity Strike the arts negating in a flash of light that sent a gasp through the crowd.
This was exactly what the Tourney was supposed to do, Argo thought, show the new players the very limits of the possible. Thrill them, excite them, make them eager to go out and do the same.
Wielding his spear like a polearm, Achilles fended off Kirito's relentless assault, their Avatar Selves were by now crisscrossed with grazing wounds, their health bars chipped down into the yellow. Then, turning his spear to catch a strike, Achilles pressed hard.
There was a -crack- and the crowd gasped as the spear was split.
"He did it!" Klein cried.
"Not yet." Argo shook her head. That had been intentional. Achilles had 15 seconds before his broken spear despawned, and he knew it.
Blocking with the broken shaft, and hefting the spear head as a knife, he counter attacked viciously, pushing into Kirito who found himself suddenly needing to keep distance.
But Achille's wouldn't let him, they were pressed right up against the edge of the arena, their movements growing closer, faster, and smaller, transitioning from sword and spear to a real knife fight until, in a flurry of slashes and thrusts, palm strikes and punches, Achilles' spear head expired, shattering . . . just after it had skewered Kirito through the side of the neck.
The swordsman's HP dropped like a waterfall, yellow to red, and then reset to green.
"PLAYER : KIRITO DEFEATED, VICTORY GOES TO PLAYER : ACHILLES!"
The crowd boomed as down on the arena floor, Achilles helped Kirito to his feet, the two shared a good natured fist bump, while Klein proved a graceless loser. "Gyaaah! What the hell was that? You can use weapons that are broken?!"
"For fifteen seconds." Argo confirmed. "Gotta pay attention to these things."
"Well then, Klein-san." Atalanta reviewed her winnings with a small smile. "That was . . . stimulating. It's been a pleasure meeting you." She turned and began to wander off towards the steps to the Arena, Argo pondered if the husband she'd alluded to might not be Achilles himself. Meanwhile Klein simply looked mystified.
"She seemed an awful lot happier right there at the end."
"That's not weird." Argo took pity on this luckless noobie with some free advice. "Girls like to win."
ARGO JOINTS THE FIGHT! - "Knowledge is power, Kii-bou!"
SINON JOINS THE FIGHT! - "So this is a gun in a world of swords."
SPIEGEL JOINS THE FIGHT! - "Wait until I tell my bro about this."
COPER JOINS THE FIGHT! - "Feh. I'm here to get results."
EUGENE JOINS THE FIGHT! - "The thrill of a proper duel."
KIBAOU JOINS THE FIGHT! - "Alright, I'll take you all on!"
DIAVEL JOINS THE FIGHT! - "I'd like to call myself a hero, but for now I am but a humble knight."
LIND JOINS THE FIGHT! - "Well met, my worthy foe."
ORLANDO JOINS THE FIGHT! - "Bwahaha! Come friends! Let us forge our Legends!"
AGIL JOINS THE FIGHT! - "Not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the . . . well . . . you know the rest."
KLEIN JOINS THE FIGHT! - "Aincrad's soon to be number one samurai has arrived!"
SAKUYA JOINS THE FIGHT! - "Float like an Allen, hit like a Falcon."
ALICIA JOINS THE FIGHT! - "Nyaturally!"