AN: When I said I'm adhering to the fortnightly schedule, I meant that there is a guaranteed update every 14 days. However, do be aware that updates may come sooner if I feel like it's a good time. So it may not be so pragmatic to just check in on an unfollowed fic every two weeks. Just keep that in mind.
"Hang on just a moment."
That was Orlando, leading the Legend Braves. December 14th, 2022 – 13:45 AST, in the safe zone outside of the second-floor labyrinth's boss chamber.
"We're here to fight the boss," he continued from under his bascinet visor, "If you want us to rotate around, I might understand, but we're not going to just hang back and deal with mobs."
Murmurs of "Who do they think they are?" and "Bloody newcomers," were passed around the raid group in response to the complaint. Experience was not distributed raid-wide, nor just to the party making the kill – the pie was cut by the damage dealt. Same with skill proficiency, and these guys wanted to ensure they had a slice. Their levels were below the average of the raid, and were likely hoping that the XP from this boss would catch them up.
Helping their efforts to argue, was the fact that highly-upgraded equipment had a faint glow to it, which the Legend Braves had on almost everything they possessed. No-one would dare let this situation grow beyond discussion.
"Alright. In that case," Lind conceded as expected, "Team G can join the fight against the boss. Now, according to our prior intelligence, the boss only has one accompanying mob that does not re-pop. Could I trust team H to be able to handle that alone?"
"It's more of a mid-boss assistant than a regular complement mob," I interjected with a wave of my hand to Lind, "The boss edition guide does say it's only one, but again, that information comes from the beta. We've seen how the game has been altered since that phase of development. Regardless, team H surely has the one down if that's all there is."
Lind nodded in agreement. "I have no intention of repeating the mistakes of the first floor. If we see any difference in the patterns listed in our prior intelligence, we will immediately retreat and then rethink our plan. If the attendant mob is too much for one party to handle, we'll send another team over to help. Will that do?"
I saw Agil wave from behind Kirito and Asuna. "We can work with that, sure."
Following that, was a review of the boss' attack patterns and a final check of the teams' individual strategies for the battle, leaving two minutes before the scheduled starting time.
"Alright, it's a bit early, but…" Lind began, hand raised, but was cut off by Kibaou.
"Now, hang on just a sec!"
Lind sighed. "What is it, Kibaou?"
"You been basin' everything on this strategy guide so far," the cactus head began to ask, "Now, all of this info is comin' from the info dealer who ain't even been in the boss room, right? Is that really enough for us?"
Lind shook his head. "I won't claim that it's perfect, but it's better than nothing, isn't it? What would your alternative be, to walk in there and check out the boss yourself?"
This time, the green-clad parties silently rallied behind Kibaou, as he gave a confident answer.
"What I'm sayin' is, we know we got a couple people here who've seen this boss for themselves. So, why not get their takes?"
I stepped away from the Legend Braves and approached Lind and Kibaou, as the latter lifted his hand and pointed at me.
"Let's be real: we've seen changes from the beta to the final product," I pointed out the mistakes we made on the first floor once more, "There's no way to know, until we're in there, just how much is different this time around."
Kirito stepped out from Agil's party to speak as well. "With that said, the regular taurus enemies we fought through to get up here are using the same attacks they did in the beta. It stands to reason, I imagine, that the boss will still have attacks based on those. As was discussed a moment ago, you'll want to evade when he starts his motion, but the important thing is how to react to the first hit; as the debuffs stack between both hits, you could go from a stun, to paralysis."
I pointed to Kirito in agreement. "That's right. Remain calm, watch the hammer, avoid that second strike from the boss. All that in mind, we'll have no casualties."
The players nodded in understanding, despite all of that already being in the written guide.
"Alright, everyone," Lind drew his scimitar and held it aloft, "Don't get hit twice in a row. If that's all we have to think about, we'll crush this boss!"
Our gathering roared in approval as he turned and shoved the door open, and we poured into the chamber where the boss would wait – Baran the General Taurus, accompanied by the midboss-tier enemy, Nato the Colonel Taurus.
As I was in team G with the Legend Braves, I had to fight Baran, while Kirito and Asuna assisted Agil and his party with Nato. The former taurus was twice the size of the latter, but also, the stunning shockwave from his hammer had twice the range.
Numbing Impact. A quick glance back revealed that no-one from team H was hit by Nato's attack, countering immediately with enough Sword Skills to empty the first of three HP bars after about five minutes in battle against him. And as Kirito guided them by the boss' attacks, so too did I for all the players attacking Baran after his Numbing Detonation, the head of his hammer roughly the size of a barrel as he lifted it and lightning coursed across the golden weapon.
"Move, move!" I called out to Lind's parties who were in the current rotation, as they surprisingly heeded my every word, his tanks and attackers alike pulling out as the hammer slammed the stone floor and released curling sparks in every direction around it. While Baran clearly telegraphed the attack, two players were caught in the sparks and stunned for three seconds.
After only two seconds, one of the two players dropped his short spear. A fumble, the secondary debuff that had a chance to occur during a stun. I immediately called out to him as his stun finished.
"Leave it for now, he's going again!"
The soldier heeded my warning and pulled back, narrowly avoiding the sparks from the hammer. Without my advice to postpone retrieving his weapon, he would have been paralyzed instead. This debuff, even from the weakest of attacks that cause it, would last a minimum of 10 minutes. Only a player's dominant hand could move, and even then, slowly.
This was demonstrated by seven other players whom had been dragged to the back wall, clutching green potions in stiff hands. Later floors would have crystals that were quicker to use, but for now, potions had to suffice.
"Now, get your weapon while they're hitting him!"
The player retrieved his spear and rejoined the DPS effort, bringing Baran's third of five bars to the halfway point.
"Looking good! We're halfway there!"
Lind's encouragement prompted his parties to pull back again for Baran's next attacks, and Kibaou spoke up from behind.
"Hey, you think we only keep going until another two or three get paralyzed? That should keep us motivated to go on, cause if we stop now after all the potions used, we'll need to spend another couple of days getting more of 'em!"
I waved back to him and Lind. "Three more. And let's keep an eye out when the boss' last bar is low this time, yeah?"
Kibaou roared in approval as he returned to his position, as Lind resumed command.
"Team E, prepare to retreat! Team G, prepare to advance! Switch at the next stagger!"
That was my cue, as well as for the Legend Braves. I glanced back just as Nato entered his final bar, introducing his charge attack with his horns. Meanwhile, I joined Team G as we moved in for Baran.
For my first move, I slung Convection upward, and the boomerang clashed with the General's horns. Most taurus enemies would stagger upon being hit in the horns, and these two officers were no exception, save for their height making it difficult to hit them. That was part of the reason that I had chosen to obtain a reusable thrown weapon, so that I could train the related skills at a practical rate and use that proficiency to hit out-of-reach targets.
I caught my boomerang and brandished Pressure Cell, my scimitar, alongside Orlando's party as we reduced Baran's final HP bar to yellow, shortly after Nato had been reduced to that state as well. Glancing back, I saw the Colonel turn purple as Agil's party continued to fight him. Two players also recovered from the paralysis and left the back wall to heal their HP and return to the fight.
"Alright, what's the catch?" I called out, almost directing my accusation of beta changes towards the General himself, "What could be so different that it takes this long to reveal itself, huh?!"
Ga-gong!
A crashing sound drew attention to the center of the chamber, styled after a coliseum. Three rings made of black stone rotated in the floor as they formed a stage of sorts. Then, the view of the wall ahead began to waver – the visual effect of something spawning.
The moving blurs coalesced into a humanoid form and grew two legs as thick as tree trunks, which thudded heavily onto the stage. Sturdy, dark chainmail covered its waist, but its torso was bare, and its head grew a long, twisted beard hanging over his stomach. Six horns instead of two, and a round platinum crown wedged in the center of them.
This new taurus, black as ink, leaned back with a roar as lightning coursed across his body, as six HP bars appeared by his head, under his name – «Asterius the Taurus King».
"That was the catch! Team H, do you have Nato?!"
Of course, I was outside of team H's hearing range.
Agil's party had engaged Nato near the entrance to the chamber, so that the rest of the raid group could push Baran to the back of the chamber. With Asterius spawning in the center, he was now between both bosses, and both separate battles. I heard Nato roaring, but I had to keep my focus centered on Baran for the time being. It was not possible to stagger a boss multiple times in a row using the same method, so while I couldn't hit the horns again, we could still counterattack the way we had been before I accompanied Team G into the fray.
As we did so, I contributed with my usage of Greaver, hitting Baran twice as I heard a digital screech from behind me, followed by a shattering sound. With only a few pixels left on Baran's HP, I warmed my fist and struck the General with the Martial Arts attack Flash Blow. In that hit, his body filled up with light and expanded, before exploding into blue glass shards. I glanced at the Last Attack Bonus barely long enough to close the popup, then turned around to see the sole remaining taurus in the room approaching – the towering King Asterius. He ignored the paralyzed players along the eastern wall of the chamber, moving in towards the raid group instead.
"Let's go! Team H, come up the back!"
Almost as if directly answering my call, I could see Agil's party past the high legs of the new boss. At the same time, I directed the Legend Braves to his front.
We only made it halfway towards him, however, when we saw him begin to reel back. At the same time, his massive chest began to grow, bulging out like his pecs were swelling.
"That looks like it'll be a breath attack! To the sides!"
All 42 players at his front, myself included, scattered in both directions away from the chamber's central stretch as the king's chest rumbled. And then, as we found ourselves close to the walls, he exhaled pure white lightning that covered its entire range instantaneously.
"I'm not a betting man, but I'd say that lightning this powerful will likely skip right over stunning and inflict paralysis outright! Steer clear when he inhales!"
As we pushed off of the walls, I curved Convection over Asterius' left shoulder with Outer Curve, my Sword Skill for arc-thrown weapons aimed to my right, and it bounced off of the king's crown.
As I had hoped, the crown was this boss' weak point instead of his horns, and as such, the king's big arms stalled as he lifted his hammer, causing him to turn in my direction as my first hit drew the attention of the boss. I caught my boomerang, and team H wailed on Asterius from behind.
Now, they had his attention. He shook off the initial shock from the crown hit, and firmly gripped his hammer before lifting it up again. Team H saw his grip tighten, and pulled back to avoid the strike.
"Alright, let's get on it," Lind resumed leadership of the raid, "Teams A and D, forward!"
After successfully executing an attack, Asterius' crown became vulnerable again, and so the called parties moved in as he readied his grip to lift the hammer. Right as he raised his arms over his head, another clang of my boomerang – thrown with Inner Curve this time – caused him to stumble back again with his hands tensing around the handle of his hammer.
The two teams got in their attacks before the next lift of Asterius' hammer, knowing it couldn't be interrupted this time, and team G was ordered to move in following the evasion of his Numbing Detonation similar to that of General Baran. They even stayed close when his next attack came, the upgraded armors protecting them better from debuffs.
I threw the last Inner Curve, and the Legend Braves reduced the king's final bar to red. Team E was ordered back after they had taken team D's position, and team H was brought back. Then, team B replaced team C after they had replaced team A.
The Legend Braves and I had Asterius at the right, team B had him in the front, and team H moved right in on his left. The king's skin burned like coal to indicate his berserk state, similarly to the other two defeated earlier.
As Asterius began to suck in air again, I shuffled back to aim easier, before sending up one last Outer Curve to his crown. Lightning blew out of his nostrils harmlessly as my boomerang returned. Surely, this tactic would be nerfed in a regular MMO after it was discovered.
It was a shame that these bosses would never respawn – once the next floor's main city was open, they wouldn't be in the way anymore, as players could warp between floors from the city plazas. Consequently, they could potentially be fought just for loot and XP. But unfortunately, that option wasn't given to us.
"Now, Asuna!"
After that call, Kirito leapt upward with her, the latter's hood falling back with the momentum, and her beautiful chestnut hair briefly distracted me, before I realized what they were doing.
Neither they nor I wanted the Legend Braves to get the Last Attack Bonus, or the prestige would elevate them beyond the state of their morals. They were on the path to redemption, but they still had to see a setback for the past.
Even so, I wasn't about to let Kirito get it – especially if he truly wanted to forget the whole 'beater' narrative anytime soon – so, I launched Convection once more with Inner Curve. Asuna struck the crown with her Wind Fleuret… immediately followed by my boomerang.
Kirito flinched as he passed through Asterius' frozen body, and I caught him in my arms. Then, I haphazardly dropped him at my feet to catch the boomerang as the Taurus King exploded into blue glass shards which flew out to every wall of the chamber.
After putting away my weapons, I pulled Kirito to his feet, as Asuna ran over to us.
"Congratulations," Agil said in English, albeit with a very subtle Japanese accent, before returning to Japanese, "You two sure do great things as a team. And usually, SAUER, I can say the same for you."
I chuckled awkwardly while scratching the back of my head. "I just wanted to make sure they got a chance to do their thing, I didn't know it was that close."
"Even so," Agil continued, "You really did a lot more than anyone else once the extra boss appeared. Your resolve held together in the midst of shock, as you prepared yourself for the mere potential of surprise this time."
Kibaou and Lind approached as well, the former speaking. "Yeah, even the alleged 'beater' didn't go rushing in upon seeing what was different. That's how I know this was genuine."
The celebratory vocalizations of 43 other players became directed at me, as I then closed the popup displaying Asterius' Last Attack Bonus.
"I couldn't let that rhetoric go on forever, after all. Kirito only went in for the kill because he thought staking a claim to the Last Attack Bonus would allow that identity to persist."
"SAUER…"
I turned back to Kirito with a grin. "They understand that the beta testers are just as much Kayaba's victims as the other 9000, by now. The advantage they have with guys like us around, will give them better chances later when we're past the point we made it to, before."
Lind nodded as he turned to Kibaou. "He's right. It's likely that Diavel wouldn't have been the only casualty against Illfang, if not for Kirito. And many lives here, are owed to SAUER now, too."
The prickly-haired crusader sighed. "Yeah, I gotta hand it to ya. You two are alright."
He then turned to Lind again, and the two shook hands. Cheers erupted from the group once again, and the two leaders of their own respective future guilds turned back to me.
"Ah, you're probably curious about the LA Bonus," I sighed with a smile, as I opened my menu and found the item, before equipping it as a thin-linked gold chain appeared around my neck, hanging down at the front with the shard of a bull horn resting just above collar-level.
"This is the Detonation Charm. It's not going to be the crux of any battle, really: it just increases the chance to stun an enemy on a critical hit."
That wasn't the full story – rather than increasing the chance by 10% of itself, like pretty much any other RPG, it added 10 to the chance percentage. In a sense, that made it much more similar to the effects of the Taurus bosses' Numbing Detonation sword skills used with their hammers – as long as my attacks hit the target's weak point, of course. Not quite as effective as a Numbing Dagger.
"Huh. Okay. Well, you really earned that one," Kibaou replied surprisingly, and turned back to the group in the boss chamber with us, "Now, let's get a move on! We've got another floor to see!"
The cheers of the players as they headed straight for the stairs up to the exit, told me that they had completely forgotten about the bonuses from the original bosses. Which was a relief, to me. And probably to Kirito, as well. I kept it, nonetheless.
"Oh, Agil," Kirito called out to the man who stood out among the rest, "I'd like you to come back to Taran with me for a moment; I have a gift I couldn't bring with me."
Asuna glanced back at him for a moment, and then walked over to me. "You know, I'm glad the LA Bonus doesn't go to the whole party. That's why Kirito went for it – to stop them from getting it."
I nodded. "I knew that. I just gave them the other reason since that was more suitable to put into more public words."
The fencer smiled as she looked at my new necklace. "So, what about the other two?"
I pretended to misinterpret her question. "Oh, yeah. They seem to be getting on fine for how—"
"Not Lind and Kibaou, the LA Bonuses."
God damn it.
"Kirito knows 'em. He can tell you."
"And you can't? Why not?"
"I… w-was at work. During the second-floor boss raid. I couldn't play that day, or the day after."
Asuna squinted her eyes suspiciously at me with her mouth twisted to the side, and turned back.
As I then took off up the stairs, I could see down to the floor, where Asuna frustratedly gazed up at a man whom, had he been in her position, would have called him a coward for evading her question.
I assumed Kirito was going to eventually give Agil the Mighty Strap of Leather, the armor he'd found and told Asuna about which resembled the armor of the Lesser Taurus Striker, but he likely still had that in his inventory. What he probably wanted to give Agil back in Taran, was being kept in a chest available in the inn room Kirito was using: Nezha's Vendor Carpet, unable to place in an inventory.
But that was their concern, not mine. Past the stairs – which should not have been winding around the entire circumference of the tower – was a door with a relief molded into it. Depicted were two swordsmen facing off among timeworn trees, both elves. On the left, dark skin, on the right, pale.
While the first floor was generic plains, the second floor had some form of specialty, in that it was mountainous with grassy plains between and over the tops. The first floor had a variety of monsters based on animals and demihumans, while the second floor's monsters were majorly animal-based.
The third floor, on the other hand, was where humanoids more similar to humans would appear. As Kirito explained to Asuna when they caught up to me after I waited for them…
"The demihumans use basic Sword Skills and are still clearly monster-like. These upcoming mobs, however, can talk and use advanced Sword Skills like NPCs can. You couldn't tell one apart from the other without the color cursors."
I nodded to his explanation. "That means SAO really starts up here. The phrase 'Sword Art' refers to the sound and visual effects made from the clashing of two weapons together."
As the three of us finally walked through the door, we saw the colossal forest making up the floor. Even the smallest trees towered hundreds of feet into the sky, and the biggest even penetrated the underside of the fourth floor's disc. The way Asuna stood in a narrow band of light as she took in every detail of her surroundings, and her hood being down, made her beauty impossible to ignore.
"Like a forest dryad, in a sense, huh Kirito?" I whispered to my fellow male with a smile.
"Incredible…" Asuna exhaled happily, "Just this sight was worth all of the trouble to get here!"
"I'll attest strongly to that," I chuckled as she turned to see us staring right at her, "This view is like nothing I could have fathomed before this day."
The fencer slowly turned away, presumably to hide her face.
"Anyway, since the others went ahead," Kirito resumed conversation as we walked just ahead of her while he pointed out to the road fork in front of us, "They're probably heading up the right path to open the main city. While they're doing that, we can take a quick detour to the left and take care of something brief that is available that way. If we went further, there'd be another town, but that's probably for another day."
"With three of us," I added to the conversation as I joined Kirito's party since he and Asuna had separated from Agil's, and I had left Orlando's, "We can get this out of the way without worrying about having been drained of supplies in the boss fight."
"Well, let's be efficient," Asuna agreed as she began walking toward the left path, "Let's get this one out of the way before we check out the city."
"Perfect!" I exclaimed as I began heading that way too, "Argo should be ready to spread the word."
Kirito nodded. "That's right, she'd be the one telling everyone that the third floor is open."
"Oh. It helps that a fresh floor's spawn rates are decreased for half an hour," I pointed out as Asuna tried her best to keep up with me, as Kirito did with her, "At least until the city's teleport gate opens down to lower floors."
"And the monsters this way are roughly the same level as on the second floor," the man who would likely not be called 'beater' again added, "They're animals and plants again, so no Sword Skills."
I opened my map to demonstrate the next point. "The Forest of Wavering Mists, roughly this part of the floor, has a special property on the map, in that the map displays the fog, and you straight-up cannot see through it. You have to rely on your ability to see the way around you. Worse yet, most enemies here have a tactic that misleads you off the path if you exploit every possible opening that they offer to you. Here, we'll show you against this Treant Sapling."
I pointed the two over to a six-foot-tall withered tree, with pale lights in two knotholes at about the level of our shoulders, as it uprooted itself and brandished claw-like branches. A third knothole then opened with a howl, completing its face.
"These guys are immune to the Searching skill if they stay still, but if you're paying attention to how the thing actually looks, you can tell it apart from the regular scenery."
We took care of the thing in roughly two minutes, myself landing the opening and closing hits with Kirito and Asuna getting one each inbetween.
I then pointed back to the path. "See? Its 180-degree rotations brought us three yards off-track. Just seven more, and we wouldn't be able to return to the rough area where we started the battle."
"Clever, for a sapling. I feel kind of bad attacking something so young."
I exhaled in amusement at Asuna's guilt. "You should see the Elder Treants they grow into. You'll be pragmatic over any other thought once you've fought those."
Asuna shrugged. "A shame. Anyway, what are we doing up this way?"
I pointed at my ear. "We're trying to listen for metallic clanging. Did you see the design on the door when we left the boss chamber?"
"Characters with pointed ears, right? And they were fighting. Is that what we'll see?"
"Yeah, and we should hear them…" I paused as I raised my arms in front of the two. "Southwest."
"You sure?"
I chuckled at Kirito's confusion. "My autism increases my senses, and the IRL medicine must still be working if I'm tuning out each source of sound selectively."
Asuna tilted her head. "You're on the spectrum, huh? Makes sense – I was still just getting ambient sounds from the flora and fauna."
Kirito nodded. "I hear the swords now, though. We should follow the sound."
"What about the path?" asked the fencer.
I briefly glanced back. "We can get back as long as we activate the quest."
"And if not?"
"I have a camping set in case. Let's go!"
"Camping?" Asuna inquired to Kirito's answer, before making an effort to keep up with us as we approached the noise.
Off the stone path, the ground was soft and mossy. We made sure to steer clear of anything else spawning nearby, with the help of Kirito's Searching skill. After just under five minutes of jogging between trees, two NPC cursors appeared, accompanied by shouts of effort as we stopped behind some trees to observe two silhouettes duelling amidst the flashes of clashing Sword Skills.
As their figures became clearer, we saw a man in gleaming metallic armor of gold and green, his longsword and buckler clearly high-level equipment. His platinum blond hair was tied back, and his face resembled a dashing Scandinavian Hollywood actor.
Across from him was a woman, indicated by the upper curve in her black-and-purple torso armor. Curved saber in hand, with a kite shield in the other, her equipment was equally powerful. Darkly tanned skin accompanied short, smoky purple hair, and I was already thinking about planting an aggressively-passionate smooch on her luscious red lips.
"Observe the pointy ears. These are the elf mobs we mentioned," I informed Asuna as I then raised my finger toward the paired '!' quest markers over their heads, "Of course, we can't beat these normally until their more common appearance on the seventh floor. We only need to establish that we've chosen a side, and that's the side we stick with up to the ninth floor."
Asuna blinked. "We can't beat these? Ninth, seventh… How do we establish our side?"
Kirito chuckled. "Just choose one to help, and our new ally will save us when we get down to half of our HP with a special move."
The fencer smirked at us. "Well, I know which one you two are voting for. Let's do it, then."
I chortled at Kirito's reaction. "Alright, you got us."
"SAUER…!"
I exhaled through my nose. "Play defensively, here. The trigger is when all party members' HP is at yellow or lower. Don't panic after you reach that point."
"Okay…" Asuna answered, gripping her rapier tightly.
"On three, ready?" I prompted the two, and they each nodded. "Three, two, one…"
We stepped out into the clearing together, and the elves glanced in our direction briefly, before hopping back for some distance between them, as both quest marks changed to '?' to indicate a quest was now in progress.
"What is humankind doing in this forest?" inquired the forest elf.
"Do not interfere! Begone from this place!" ordered the dark elf.
I shook my head with a smile, as the three of us drew our weapons, and pointed the ends in the direction of the forest elf's chest. The handsome features on his face grew cold and furious, as his yellow event NPC cursor gained a flashing red border, to show that he would turn hostile.
"You fool… For the crime of siding with this dark elf scum, your blood will quench my sword's thirst."
I chuckled as we faced down the «Forest Elven Hallowed Knight». "Tell your sword to drink up."
Asuna was quick to adapt to my line. "Or you're sure to drown in the bloodshed!"
The male enemy's cursor changed to a dark crimson to indicate his high level in comparison to us, smiling as he kept his grip firm on his sword.
"So be it! I will start with you, humans."
Roughly fifteen minutes later, what should have been only three, resulted in a completely different outcome from the beta.
"This… can't be happening…" the forest elf muttered as he collapsed to the ground.
"Believe me, mate, you're not the only one bewildered."
I said that in English, so that none of my companions would question it. Sure enough, his HP was emptied from its bar, and out of Kirito, Asuna and I, our bars were still at the green point just above halfway – we were not supposed to win here.
"…Well. He wasn't so tough, after all."
I shrugged as I returned to Japanese to reply to Asuna. "He was supposed to be." I then turned my attention to the dark elf beside her, whose eyes were fixed on the fallen foe, before looking up at Kirito, Asuna, and then me. Her onyx eyes seemed to be filled with shock, as much bewilderment as Kirito and I felt, and an uncertainty of what to do next.
Asuna gingerly stepped back over to us. "So, now what…?"
I leaned in close to both her and Kirito to whisper to them. "That special move I mentioned would save us? That was supposed to be a forbidden art that would kill her, too. The game would still note which side we chose, though."
Rather than shattering like most enemies, the forest elf, after turning to blue glass, simply crumbled apart like it was supposed to be a further indication, that there was meant to be an extended script taking place in this scene. The experience and Cor split across the three present players, reached quantities expected from a mob only intended to be defeated four floors later, along with some loot items we shouldn't yet have access to.
The fencer looked at me, as Kirito seemed to express disappointment in me telling her the truth of what was originally meant to happen.
"Oh, relax. She survived this time," I continued with a chuckle, patting both their heads, "That said, I think the game is trying to figure out what to do with her, now."
As if on cue, the Dark Elven Royal Guard – displaying the name Kizmel – bent over to pick up a bag made from sewn-together leaves, dropped by the forest elf. She cradled it in her hands, gloved in black leather, against her chest as she exhaled in relief.
"…At least we can protect the sanctuary now…" After Kizmel's murmur, she put the bag in her belt pouch and stood up to face us.
"I must thank you," she said with a bow, her armor clanking on itself, "The first secret key has been protected, and your assistance is appreciated. Come with me to our base, and the commander will wish to reward you for your help."
The '?' reappeared over her head to confirm the quest was still ongoing. It seemed as if the quest would follow the same player objectives, to a degree. Asuna stepped forward to answer.
"In that case, we'd be honored."
Kizmel briefly stood still, as if the AI controlling her as a game object was still reconstructing itself to accommodate its continued existence. After roughly ten seconds, she spoke again.
"Very well. The base camp is through the south end of the woods."
The quest marker disappeared from her head once the questlog updated, and a fourth HP bar and name appeared under the rest, indicating that this NPC had joined our party. Her color cursor still remained yellow to indicate that she was, indeed, an NPC. Regardless, she was now able to parse phrases that many other NPCs could not.
Kizmel was quite the helpful ally southward – being a mob type from four floors up, her equipment allowed her to dispatch of forest enemies with ease, and her elven wisdom helped us navigate the misty woods in roughly 15 minutes, before we arrived to a location flying many black flags.
"That didn't take very long."
The dark elf turned toward Asuna to respond with what seemed like pride in her voice.
"A Forest-Sinking charm has been cast on the camp. You would not have found it so easily without guidance from me."
"Hmm, a charm," I wondered aloud in response, "Lingering magical power of some sort? Like, not something that can be harnessed directly, I'm assuming?"
I saw Kirito's confusion from the edge of my vision. He knew, that I knew, how limited the array of preset responses had been in the beta. And yet, he stayed silent.
"…Our charms are not up to the level of magic," answered the dark elf, "If anything, they are just a faint afterglow of the great magic of old… When we were cut free from the earth, the people of Lyusula lost all magic…"
I did my best to contain a chortle at Kirito's shock. It seemed that he didn't expect game lore to be obtained from experimenting with the dialogue. In a way, for me, this felt like when the GM of a tabletop RPG would have to improvise when a player asked a question, for which the pre-written adventure book didn't contain a direct answer to be fed through the character who was asked.
"Well, if you ask me," I responded just to test the limits of the system, "I could say that magic was responsible for the sight before me."
Asuna rolled her eyes, thinking I was only referring to Kizmel, before noticing that I had deliberately taken enough backward steps to have both girls in my vision. Upon realizing my trickery, her face seemed to warm up to a degree which, on a trio of RGB sliders, would likely have knocked the red slider up 15 notches. Kizmel took notice of her reaction, and surprisingly cracked a smile.
"What a charming observation," she replied as I blinked in slight surprise at the pun, "If you were interested, I could share with you the history of our kingdom, later."
I nodded, and turned to Kirito and Asuna, who eventually nodded as well, one after the other. Still smiling as she acknowledged our answer, she then turned ahead once more.
Upon approaching the flags outside, the mist faded as if it were never there, and our vision became clear again. We were near the southern end of the forest, rock walls extending left and right from a narrow 15-foot-wide passage, with slim, flag-topped pillars on either side. And in front of each of these two pillars, stood a dark elf soldier in heavy armor, as our companion approached them.
"We won't be fighting here," I whispered to Asuna, just when it looked like she would ask, "And I'm not sure whether attacking them turns them hostile or simply kicks you out. We'll not test it."
She slowly nodded as Kizmel turned to us and waved us in, though the guards would still give some suspicious glares as we passed. Through the narrow passage was a seamless transition leading to a round space roughly 50 yards across, with 20 black-and-purple tents of varying sizes spread over it while glamorous dark elves strode about the grounds.
"Wow… The camp's a lot bigger than it was in the beta."
Asuna looked at Kirito as he murmured outside Kizmel's hearing range. "Was it in a different place before?"
"Yeah, but that's not a strange thing," he answered plainly, "Most of these locations related to the campaign are temporary instances."
"In…stance…?"
"Temporary game plane isolating the quest-taking party from the main persistent server space. Interference from wandering players' mere presence would get in the way too much, so, some locations only appear when they're needed to progress."
Asuna tilted her head at my response. "Are we not on the third-floor map right now, then?"
"Pretty much. Once we're done here, we can just go."
Presumably, the dark elf commander was significantly stronger than Kizmel. It then occurred to me that a single disastrous error in the script could spell the end of all three of us in seconds.
The commander showed his gratitude with XP, Cor and equipment rewards, along with a choice of another item from a selection presented. Kirito took a +1 Strength ring, and Asuna took a +1 Agility earring, while I chose a pair of lightweight elven boots for their increased defense. They were black with regal purple accents, so they fit my overall aesthetic, established by Koishi's crafting of all my black, crimson-accented leather armor for the Taurus bosses.
With the Jade Key quest finished, the commander's dialogue automatically initiated the next one in the campaign, and we left the tent. The sky projected on the underside of the fourth floor was now mostly orange, but we were still in the instanced camp.
A lot had happened today – a lot of new stuff. The weight of evident hard work finally pushed down upon my shoulders as I took a deep breath of the sweet air on the floor.
I was certainly satisfied with the progress made. Only ten days spent on the second floor, and we already had a bit of a head start on the third. And I was still having fun playing the game.
Of course, it didn't matter if I was or wasn't. I would still put everything into its completion.
AN: I'm aware of some readers following the old 'Only Here For Godzilla' trope. For at least one of you, I know that the 'Godzilla' in question here, is Kizmel. There are no hard feelings if you dip out after seeing how I write her from here on. I understand that things like referencing real-world names of people and brands can come off as making the world itself a bit of an uncanny valley, but everyone has their own tastes, and I can live with that.
In other news, I'm gonna let y'all in on a secret: I've actually got chapters 13 and 14 finished. I'm gonna take the necessary time to polish them using your feedback on this chapter for guidance, but I just wanted to make it clear that I'm thoroughly enjoying writing. I am currently playing Crush Crush and the original Devil May Cry during burnout - a natural occurrence for any creator - but I'll be back to working on Chapter 15 within a couple days.
Chapter 13 is called Relic of the Surface. See you when it goes up. Unless I'm replying to your reviews. Which I can't do without more of them.
