AN: Whoops. This was supposed to go up eight hours ago. Oh, well. We're on 100K words! Thank y'all for letting me get this far. At this point, I'm genuinely curious: What keeps you reading? Why do you stick around? I must be doing something right, so what should I keep doing? And as promised, the chapter lengths are rolling back - this was 13 MS Word pages.
"Pflrt… ph-heh, kahaha…!"
December 21st, 2022 – 13:40 AST. Just about ten minutes after reaching the fourth floor. We had found that instead of the desert canyons of the beta, we would be swimming in rivers which ran through a floor of lush greenery. And in order to make it to the main city, we had to make use of a strange tree behind the tower exit, and turn its fruits into inner tubes for swimming.
After agreeing that we would need to dress light in order for the inner tubes to work well, we had unequipped as much as we could – Asuna to her basic tunic, while Kirito and I remained only in our boxers as my fellow male stood ahead of me.
Of course, Asuna was behind both of us, and as such, I knew what had caused her to burst out into side-splitting laughter.
"Do you think she's laughing at you, me, or both of us?" Kirito shyly asked me.
"It's me," I answered plainly, stepping in front of him, "I've seen Baran's LA in the beta with my own two eyes."
Kirito snorted, and then exhaled in relief. "I get it, now."
I'd been wearing them since they had dropped from General Baran on the second floor: a crimson, Strength-boosting pair of boxers, with the symbol of a golden bull face on the back.
"I'm glad Asuna is a lot more jovial on this floor, at least."
Asuna settled down slowly, as she approached the water with us. "The LA bonus, did you say? Then, does it have any benefits?"
I nodded with a light chuckle. "More Strength, and some debuff resistance."
"Ahh. You know, it's dreadfully boring that you and Kirito win all of the LA bonuses, but I'm glad that this wasn't one I got. I'm not sure if I'd want to wear men's boxers just for a bonus effect…"
I shrugged. "If you'd hit the LA, maybe Baran would drop panties instead."
I felt a rubbery bounce off of my head, and looked to Asuna as she regained her grip on her yellow inner tube. I shook my head with a sigh and dipped my hand in the river. Kirito and Asuna did the same and felt that the water was particularly cold.
Asuna turned toward us again. "Didn't you say that some floors of Aincrad are synced up to the real seasons outside?"
Kirito shrugged. "That's what it said in a magazine. But that article was obviously before it took us prisoner and all that, so I have no idea…"
I casually walked into the water, the inflated donut fruit keeping me at the surface with very little effort from my legs. "Let's just be glad that doesn't apply here."
Kirito and Asuna nodded, fitting the tubes to themselves and stepping in carefully. Asuna's tunic predictably became slightly translucent, but she didn't seem to notice.
"Wow, this takes me back!" she remarked with a smile.
"I-It would have been nicer to swim at the beach," Kirito commented.
"Who knows, maybe there is an ocean here. If there is, I'll make an actual swimsuit."
"You're gonna pick up Tailoring again?" I asked curiously.
"I might have to use it here, to feel comfortable. So, why not? Maybe I'll make something cute for Kirito as well."
I chuckled as we began kicking toward one of two exits, the other being the source of the strong flowing force of the water.
"You know, it feels like the physics are better than the beta."
"Yeah, it's a lot better," Kirito agreed, "I'd still say it takes an hour to adjust to it without the tube."
"You two at least know roughly what to expect…" Asuna commented from behind us.
"You can anchor yourself with your hands on our tubes, if you'd like."
She quickly obliged, wedging a hand each between our backs and our tubes. We eventually reached what used to be a wider canyon – now a wider river, one flowing west to east. The current was a bit slower as well, but the steep cliffs were the same. We stopped kicking and let the water push us.
"It's really the same layout," I said as I glanced back at Asuna's translucent tunic.
"I remember that rock there," Kirito confirmed as he pointed to it, "Maybe they didn't want to have too many places with bad water physics, so when they made it better, they added more places in to show off the improved simulation."
"If the canyons are filled, though," Asuna pondered, "shouldn't other things change accordingly?"
"Like NPC dialogue?" I asked in response, "Or, more fitting monster types?"
Kirito added his concern. "Well in the beta, there weren't many monsters between the labyrinth's staircase exits and the main cities."
I looked back behind us. "At the same time, it's been at least 30 minutes since the boss was beaten, meaning the reduced encounter rate would have worn off."
"Well, we should have been running into smaller fish along the way, before we get to the ones big enough to be a threat, right?"
Just as Kirito finished his question, we heard an upward break in the water. Something had surfaced within our hearing range. Right where I was looking, there was a smooth, sleek, triangular fin.
Sure enough, the color cursor above the foot-high protrusion was red, indicative of an enemy.
"Back to kicking?"
"Back to kicking."
With my suggestion and their simultaneous answer, we swam harder downstream as the river then twisted right, then left again, and then an aperture became clear in the vertical cliff face to the right of us ahead.
"Up there!"
"Right!"
The gray fin was just a dozen feet away now, but Kirito and I put everything into dragging Asuna by her arms as they clung to our tubes, while we both used our four total hands.
In on the right, was a small shoreline of white sand. Kirito and I paddled hastily, and our toes made contact with the sand. We scrambled onto the drier sand, pulling Asuna with us as we continued up another ten feet.
We turned to face the creature that followed us onto the sand, flopping helplessly. Beneath the fin was a tadpole-like creature only a foot and a half long and a couple inches wide, apparently far too encumbered by the weight of its own foot-high fin to balance on its little limbs.
A wave eventually rolled in and carried it back into the water, and the fin popped back up as it then swam back into the current.
"Well, that was damn silly, wasn't it?"
Asuna tilted her head up to me, exhausted as we all were. "That's your only comment?"
I shook my head with a sigh. "Let's just get our equipment back on."
"Agreed."
We made our way up the sand, Asuna back in her hooded cape and leather skirt, Kirito back in his Coat of Midnight, and myself back in my guild-emblazoned leather armor.
"So, what kind of place is the main town of this floor?"
I blinked. "It, uh… Could be slightly different. It's called Rovia, at least."
"An odd part," Kirito added, "Is that you enter houses on their second floor, from stairs outside."
"Oh, there's the gate!" Asuna called excitedly, pointing to the mossy stone arch ahead.
I opened my menu window to see the time. "1:55, now. Let's unlock the teleport gate, already."
As we ascended the hill, the fencer was the first to pass the arch. "Wow… It's so pretty here!"
Kirito and I followed her into town, and we were stunned.
"The paved street is now a Venice-like setup," I commented with a smile, "So, the first floor of each house is the basement, instead, and this was always the intended design."
Kirito concurred enthusiastically. "The dull gray stone is now a chalky white, too."
As we passed the front gate, the «Safe Haven» label appeared. Ahead was a 100-foot-long dock.
"The sun makes the water all glittery, too," Asuna marvelled, "And look at the gondolas down at the dock, there! It really is like Venice…!"
The gondolas varied in size from one-passenger seating to over ten. Copper plaques listed prices, indicating 100 Cor for a one-time use of a three-person gondola. It'd be a hassle to pay every time a player wanted to go somewhere.
We boarded a white gondola and the gondolier smiled in his straw hat and striped shirt.
"Welcome to Rovia, travellers! 100 Cor, wherever you want to go!"
"Teleporter plaza," I answered hastily. The NPC took a second to process the term before tipping the brim of his hat.
"Off we go!" he shouted, and after a brief appearance from a payment popup, the ship pulled out.
I turned to Asuna as she pulled her hood back. "We can get pretty much anywhere else from the northern dock via this, this… Uh… Is there a Japanese word for channel?"
Asuna shrugged. "Don't think so."
"Alright," I continued, "The cross-shaped channel splits the town into four sections. Looks like we'll have to stick to any destination we pick, if we want our money's worth. On that note… Excuse me, gondolier, are you able to take us out of town as well?"
"I'm afraid not. I only work here, in the town of Rovia."
"Would other gondoliers take a route out of town?"
"Sorry, I can't answer that."
I turned to my fellow passengers. "Either he doesn't recognize the question, or the answer can be found elsewhere."
"Alright," Kirito replied with a nod, "We'll just open the gate and then relax for a bit."
The teleport gate plaza at the center of town included a wharf for the gondola to dock at, as the gondolier drew it level to the south end of the dock, and tipped his cap again.
"Safe and sound! Hope to see you again!"
When we stepped off, the gondola pulled out and headed back to the town's northern entrance. Thankfully, other gondolas were docked here.
"That was so, so much fun!" Asuna gleamed excitedly.
I chuckled at how quickly she became attached to the game world. "We're bound to do it again."
It had been almost an hour since defeating the third-floor boss, but we finally activated the fourth floor's teleport gate. Kirito and Asuna headed off to a far corner to avoid being trampled by the swarming players, but I immediately welcomed my guildmates as they came through, save for my Pagoda and Sandalwood Auxiliary squads led by the wrestlers.
"Hey, welcome! SSA party leaders, sound off!"
"Kyubi!" called a male voice, then another, "Kabe!"
"Kiril!" answered a female, and another, "Kiyo!"
"Perfect," I chuckled and waved them in the direction of Kirito and Asuna, "Let's go over here to discuss what's next."
My two companions weren't so keen on being surrounded by my guildmates, but they dealt with it for the time being.
"What are you gonna do with them, SAUER?" asked Kirito.
"I have a specific task for each party of six," I answered.
"There's 25 of us," Kyubi interjected, "What of the last one?"
"That's the one I added this morning, before I sent you all to Zumfut, right?"
"That's right."
I checked my guild scroll. "Looks like they want to manage the guild HQ, when we get one. They're hoping to raise their Carpentry skill by furnishing the HQ, and increase Sewing in the meantime by tailoring some more guild garbs for us. So, I think… Yeah, she'll hang back."
Kyubi nodded. "What are your orders, then, sir?"
I put away the scroll as I kept my menu up. "Kyubi, you'll take your party to the second floor. I have drawn a path to the quest I want you all to take. Let me know when you've all done it."
I handed him a parchment which would direct him to the Martial Arts quest, and his party left.
"Kabe. The Taurus enemies in the second-floor tower have a rare drop called the Numb Dagger. Get down there and farm them until your party has a total exceeding the headcount of our guild. Give a live update message every 10 daggers – remember that you can't send messages in a dungeon."
"You got it, boss!" Kabe answered enthusiastically, and followed Kyubi's party to the teleport gate through which they'd arrived a minute before.
"Kiril, this will sound weird," I said to a girl without hesitation, "Go to the third-floor tower, and get back to this floor through it. Behind the exit pavilion, is a tree bearing donut-shaped fruit. Get these Tuberries down by hitting the tree firmly, and collect as many as will grow. I have an idea of what to use them for other than their intention. Oh, and make sure you can get back to the town near the labyrinth when you need to rest. Each time you take a break from collecting the fruit, tell me how many your party has in total."
"No questions here, boss. I'm on it." And off they went as well.
"Kiyo, you just stay here in the plaza and ask players that come through the teleport gate if they're interested in joining up. Position your party accordingly with the flyers printed yesterday, left in the guild inventory."
"Gotcha."
With all guild responsibilities out of the way, I took my leave with Kirito and Asuna. The former and I got a room together at an inn, while the latter got one of her own – but she came to ours for some planning ahead.
"Venice is one of those places where a majority of the tourists are always going to be couples."
Asuna tilted her head at my comment, but then nodded. "We're still going to have to swim, anytime we're out of town, huh?"
"Right," I answered as Kirito sipped his tea, "We'll grab all the quests while we're here, to get all of them out of the way when we're out."
Kirito set down the cup. "We're getting the hang of swimming, but the main thing is the monsters. Those lizard-tadpole things are deceptively pathetic on land, but that vibrant red cursor must surely indicate a rough opponent in the water…"
I nodded. "Thrust attacks are resisted the least by the water. Asuna, you just may be the one who carries us through the floor."
"That would be nice," she promptly giggled, "I'll start by carrying you in the fashion department."
"Huh?"
"We're gonna have swimsuits! I think I saw some in the shops, but I still have my Tailoring skill."
She then materialized an item from her inventory: a small crystal bottle shaped like a tree nut, with faintly glowing blue liquid inside.
"You said that the Jade Key enemy on either side wasn't meant to be beaten, correct?"
I coughed in amusement at Kirito's reaction beside me. "Not there, no. Only on the 7th floor."
"And… how often are you meant to fight them there?"
Kirito shrugged. "They're not that closely involved. I've only fought them a couple times."
I sat upright. "So, you haven't seen this. It's a Crystal Bottle of Kales'Oh – it saves the proficiency of any skill intended to be re-equipped later."
The boy beside me turned his head slowly to me. "These were in the beta?"
"Oh, absolutely – I fought the Forest Elven Hallowed Knights specifically to prepare myself for that particular one we fought in official service. The drop rate may be higher for that specific quest."
Asuna picked up the bottle, summoned the Properties window by tapping the glass, and played around with the settings before pulling out the stopper. The liquid evaporated and Asuna promptly inhaled the glowing blue mist, exhaling yellow light back into the bottle afterward, then she capped the bottle again. The liquid inside was now yellow.
"Now my Tailoring is back the way it was, and my Sprint level is saved in the bottle."
Kirito stared as he struggled to get over the shock. "Huh. I didn't look much at the drops I got from that guy, either. Not in the moment, at least."
"A single bottle can store the full mastered skill," I informed him as I held my finger by the surface of the liquid in the bottle, matching its height on the outside, "Notice how it's all the way down here. Think it's safe to assume the rest of the bottle's capacity doesn't go to waste."
"Have you told Argo about this, SAUER?" asked the other beta tester after a deep breath.
"As soon as I saw that they can be beaten on the third floor, I sent her a message."
Asuna sharply inhaled, her face scrunched. "Would that help, though? People trying too hard to get this to drop, might get killed instead of waiting for their allies to reach half HP and be saved by the dark elf."
"Separates the ones that the Clearers need, from the ones that need the Aincrad Skyward Siege."
Kirito sighed. "That's your method of searching for guild recruits? It's more nihilistic than Asuna was when we met her."
Asuna raised a finger, but then slowly lowered it. I then returned us to the value of the bottle.
"Anyway. Players from Level 12 onward will have four slots, and you get the fifth at 20. That's a long way to wait in order to assign a skill you might want or need. People will need to decide if they will remove a skill to take Swimming, or not."
"There's a Swimming skill? What does it do, specifically?"
I leaned back again. "Faster swimming, faster motion in water, and longer breath-holding."
Kirito picked up the explanation from there. "This might be one of the only floors where it could be useful, meaning whatever was set aside for it would have been lost for very little gain."
"Ahh… Nezha could have kept smithing while in town."
"Right. However," I took over the topic again, "The people who know someone has it, may want to know who does – and may decide that getting it from them is easier than getting a fresh drop."
"Well, they know it's a thing because of beta knowledge, right? So, no-one has to find out that one player does have one."
Kirito nodded slowly. "Exactly."
The fencer smiled as she returned the bottle to her inventory.
"Works for me. Now, to what's ahead. How long do you want to rest?"
Kirito had an answer that I didn't. "Let's meet up at six?"
I walked to the window to look outside. "Hmm… Yeah, six. We'll eat from the carts."
"Six, then." Asuna nodded and returned to her room, sending her smile our way from the door.
As I flopped down on the bed, I saw that Kirito had the messaging interface open. Then, after laying down as well, he fell asleep in five seconds.
Three hours later, I woke about a minute before Kirito's alarm, which would only affect him anyway. Noticing the clock at 17:54, I decided to wake him less jarringly, by gently poking his cheek once.
"Uh…? SAUER?"
"Hey, Kirito. Figured you might not want a sudden jolt."
Kirito sat up and opened his menu. "Thanks? I guess I'll turn off the alarm."
I then went to the window as golden light poured through it. "Check that out. We've got tons of players up here, now. Frontliners shopping, tourists eating, and couples watching the gondolas."
"Couples, huh? On Day 45…"
I shrugged. "If it gives them a reason to stay alive. Maybe even to fight their way up."
"And there's Hafner getting above his station…"
I looked in the direction Kirito pointed, and sure enough, five Dragon Knights in blue doublets and gleaming silvery armor cut in front of a tourist party as one of the larger gondolas pulled in.
"Well, let's head out and wait for Asuna."
Asuna was waiting for us.
"Since we're heading outside," I announced, "Bear with me for a minute as I head to the wharf."
Curious, the two followed me hastily as I found the upset tourists at the southern dock.
"Those Dragon Knights sure like to think they're doing everyone a favor, huh?"
The six turned around to respond to my quip.
"What's the rush for them?" one woman asked, "It's not like they're going to miss the hundredth floor's deadline by a couple hours."
I couldn't help but chuckle at her wit. "They act like there is a deadline. On the other hand, you lot could quickly grow past them, in the Aincrad Skyward Siege."
"How quickly are you talking?" a younger male asked from behind her.
"You'll be fourth-floor material in just over a week. The hardest part is always getting on your feet."
"How do we do that?" asked another.
"Show me your primary weapons, and list your best Skills."
As they did so, I contemplated how to get each player caught up. Some of them had a leg to stand upon, but crutches were just as important as wheelchairs, so to speak.
"Alright, here's the deal: I'll sign you all on now, and then you can all go and do whatever you were planning to do before they cut ahead. Then, do «Secret Medicine of the Forest» on the first floor. Finally, use up all of the rewarded Anneal Blade's eight upgrade attempts with the maxed-out 95% success rate, farming as many materials as you need to get that rate every time. Got all that?"
They nodded and accepted my invitations, before heading back to the plaza. Kirito and Asuna shook their heads at my shameless scooping-up of rookies needing guidance, and we continued up to the eastern end of the square, where five or six food carts were arranged – though only three had any substantial dinner-sized meals.
Our choices came down to a meal of fried fish and cooked veggies, a seafood pizza with squid and shellfish, or a panini with grilled fish and herbs.
"I see. So, the main style of food on this floor is fish."
Asuna turned to Kirito. "Don't like fish?"
He shook his head. "No, it's not that. It's more that I was hoping for… a few traditional choices. Like boiled fish or sashimi."
"You know you're not going to get choices like that in a town like this."
"Not even eel, though?"
Both of them turned to me as Asuna took to questioning it. "Why eel?"
"Come on, a town based on Venice? It makes so much sense! It would be a moray."
Luckily, one of the poles holding the street lanterns was nearby, or Asuna's retaliation would have thrown me into the water.
"I think I'll go for the panini," Kirito decided as I regained my balance, "What about you two?"
"That sounds good."
I shrugged. "Yeah, panini. Funny how one Frenzy Boar on the first floor can cover three of them."
Kirito chuckled. "That is kind of crazy to think about. Four, even, and then you have 2 Cor left."
"While you guys talk about math, I'm gonna sit down."
We glanced back at Asuna for a second, and proceeded to buy the paninis. Kirito paid for his and Asuna's as I paid for my own, at 12 Cor each. As we walked over and Kirito handed Asuna hers, I noticed her opening her trade window.
"You know, you've already offered to make him a swimsuit."
The fencer looked up at me and smiled as she closed the window.
"If you're going to put it like that, remember that I'm making you one as well."
"Any wet fabric at all, is extra weight in the water anyway."
The three of us turned in the direction of that comment, and saw Argo under her hood again.
"You know, one day, someone's gonna take your quirkier advice at face value," I sassed to her, as I proceeded to envision her in only the hooded cape – which I suspected was her goal.
The Rat smirked as if she'd read my mind. "People shouldn't read into what I say for free."
Argo sat beside Asuna and lifted her hood back slightly.
"Anyway, good work with the third-floor boss and the fourth-floor gate."
"G-Good evening, Argo," Asuna giggled awkwardly, "Um… Are you hungry?"
"I am, actually," she answered with a shrug, "I could go for a nice cheesy pizza. Oh, Kii-boy – I have what you wanted after only three hours."
Kirito grinned. "Nice. You know what? Stay put."
He went and got a seafood pizza with extra cheese, bringing it back to Argo.
"How kind, Kirito," I chuckled as I sat down with the three, "I knew you weren't shellfish."
The Rat snorted as Asuna simply shook her head, and then we all ate. The grilled fish in the paninis, was whitefish – thinking back to the elf camp, they must have sourced supplies from every floor previously accessible to them before they advanced down to the third floor in November.
Halfway through eating, Argo retrieved a scroll of parchment from one of her belt pouches, holding it between her fingers.
"For quick service, an extra fee would apply, but you paid for it with the pile o' cheese, already. So, this time, it's the normal rate of 500 Cor."
Kirito handed her a gold coin of the appropriate denomination, and tapped the scroll to open it. He tilted it for Asuna and I to see, showing a detailed map of Rovia. One could normally get this by just walking around and letting the Mystic Tome scan the area and draw it. The difference here, was that Argo had marked the positions of all the quests.
"Ah, you're looking for differences from the beta, huh?" I asked the boy as he pointed to one of the exclamation points.
"Correct, and there it is," he answered while pointing, "There wasn't a quest here in the northwest corner before. This is the key to the floor."
"If you get all the intel on this quest, I'll buy it off you," Argo offered, and then promptly melted into the shadows again. Asuna, Kirito and I finished our sandwiches while cheese lingered in the air.
When we got back to the southern dock, I greeted another pair of players.
"Yuna, Nautilus! Long time, no see."
"It's only been a month and a half," answered the latter, "Things are going somewhat smoothly."
As I had requested of them on the way out of the inn, they stood here by the wharf and arranged players into queues based on traveling party size – directing single players and two-man parties to the small gondolas, and larger parties to the big ten-seaters.
"Good job, you two. What have you been doing up to this point?"
"Nautilus wanted to be extra careful," Yuna answered plainly, "We've only just decided to move on from the kobold swamps on the first floor, now that we have our fourth skill slots."
Nautilus glanced at her for a moment. "Yeah. Once the players need the gondolas less, we'll go back down to the second."
"In that case, let me give you the details of a quest there. Once you've done that, just go to the third floor instead. I'll tell you how the quest reward can best help you, when you let me know." As I said that, I gave them a copy of the map I'd given Kyubi.
"I see. Thank you. Anyway, here comes your gondola."
Sure enough, we were already at the front of the queue for the mid-range gondolas. The one that came in was a four-seater, but it wasn't too big of a deal to let only one seat go unused.
The northwest quadrant was the residential area, where most of the NPCs would be. Children would play with toy boats at the waterside of their porches, as a bird resembling a mix of duck and seagull guided her babies through the canals.
"Hm, there's player houses available around here," I pointed out to Asuna, showing her a two-story house with a wooden 'For Sale' sign, "Not only will they be expensive, obviously, but it wouldn't be remotely practical to live in a place so hard to navigate."
Asuna's expression changed back and forth as I spoke, and she nodded. "Oh, well. If I wanted to get myself a house, I'd want something standard with a view of a lake."
In just about ten minutes, we reached the small dock of a large, old building, with big double-doors. When we got off and approached, Kirito looked in the window.
"Yeah, there's a quest NPC in there, alright," Kirito noted to us, "Argo must have just barely seen the faint marker over his head from the distance and the dirty window."
He knocked twice, and after five seconds, a brusque voice answered. "It's not locked. Come in if you want something."
As we walked inside, we were greeted by an old man in a rocking chair – booze in one hand, pipe in the other. He was balding, and his beard was white as bone, but his skin was thoroughly toasted by hard work in the sun, helped by the taut arm and chest muscles.
I shrugged and decided to cover all bases. "Hello, sir. What is your story?"
This question was a catch-all that I even used in the beta. NPCs could take it as either 'Tell me your troubles,' or 'Explain your career or role.' In this case, it was the latter.
"Well, I haven't done it much as of late, but I'm a seafaring carpenter. I build seaworthy vessels."
I glanced back at Kirito and Asuna, seeing decorations pertaining to this man's work. Mounted fish, animal pelts, rusty harpoons, lidded pots, varying lumber, snapped oars – and some square nails on the tables.
"Does that include gondolas? It would be very handy to own one."
The old man set his bottle on the table beside him, as his quest marker changed to a questionmark.
"I'm sure it would be. I'm not a shipwright anymore, though. The Water Carriers Guild controls all of the materials a shipwright needs to build boats. But if you still want one, you can start with getting some bear fat from the forest to the southeast, to seal the wood against water. If you run across the bear king, though, best run and save your own hide. I'm sure his fat would be best of all, though…"
The quest he gave us, «Shipwright of Yore», would direct us to choose materials to obtain for the construction of a gondola – better materials being harder or more tedious to get.
The sun had fallen by the time we reached the forest, which replaced the dry wasteland of the beta. The leafy branches overhead blotted out the sky like on the third floor, only here, we walked across wet ground covered in thick moss, and Kirito kept tripping in two-foot-deep springs along the way.
"Even though we can only use it on this floor, a better gondola will get us out better," I suggested.
Asuna agreed, and Kirito lost the vote for simply doing the bear minimum – that was Asuna's pun, catching both us boys off-guard. Then, we had set out to find the claw marks on the trees, sure to point us in the direction of the right bear – we had to fight through multiple normal black bears on our way through the woods, most of them dropping basic-quality fat. By 9PM, we'd fought at least eleven of them, before we finally found a tree with four deep horizontal grooves.
"Here we are," I called out to my companions, "As it was in the beta, we hang around here and the bear will just spawn nearby."
"Really? Um… Look how high up those claw markings are."
Kirito looked up as Asuna did. "She's right. That's up 25 feet. Did you fight one in the beta, SAUER?"
"I fought it, but I only won the second time when I had five other guys with me."
We turned to answer a heavy thud from behind, and saw what we were looking for: 25 feet tall, red glowing eyes, each gray hair thick as a needle, claws like daggers, fangs peeking past its lips, limbs thick as logs, and black horns on its forehead.
"That's it – Magnatherium. It breathes fire, which can flow around the sides of obstacles."
As I spoke, I saw red light flickering in its throat. It was going to open with this attack.
"Dive into the springs!"
Kirito and Asuna jumped into one, and I found another close by. Under the water, I saw the surface glow red as the water rose from near-freezing to that of a hot bath in just about five seconds. Then when the surface darkened, we burst from the springs with weapons drawn. The tree beside us had been charred on all sides, though it remained standing.
Meanwhile, Magnatherium charged for us, pounding the earth with each step like the similar-sized Bullbous Bow from the second floor. I pulled Kirito and Asuna in front of a tree, then threw the two away to the sides as I leapt at the tree and kicked off, flipping over the bear.
Its horns splintered the wood, and tilted the tree at least 45 degrees. Even on all fours, this creature was just about ten feet off the ground, so my feet barely cleared the fur on its back.
"It seems to taunt with growls between attacks. Get the snout!"
As I instructed them, the tree collapsed, and the roots and branches shattered into blue glass. This meant the log left behind was an item as well.
"Asuna, check out that log! We'll keep it busy!"
"Uh… Alright!"
As she approached the log, Kirito and I ran to the right of the Magnatherium and it spun to face us quicker than its size would imply, closing distance swiftly. We drew it north about 30 yards, before squaring up to it, Kirito with his Anneal Blade and myself with my scimitar, Pressure Cell.
With an un-bear-like roar, the monster's right arm flew upward, claws gleaming in the moonlight. Kirito blocked with Slant, and was thrown back into a tree, while I unleashed Weaver, slicing all the way up the front of the bear, at least up to the level of its arm.
Just as its arm recovered from the shock of being stopped by Kirito's Slant, I regained motion, and promptly wrapped myself around the circumference of the arm. As it rose toward the bear's face, I took my chance and righted myself in the crook of its elbow, and let loose with Cleaver, a downward slash which caught its nose and jaw before carving another thick glowing red line down its chest.
As the Magnatherium reeled back, I called back to Kirito as he moved forward. "You got it?"
"Yeah!"
The bear planted its front paws on the ground again, putting its face just in reach of Sonic Leap, the thrusting Sword Skill used by Kirito.
"That's something, at least," I announced to my ally, "Let's keep at it, though!"
"You two need a hand?"
I glanced back to see the fencer was with us again. "Asuna, how's the wood?"
"I could probably hold another five. They're called Noblewood Cores."
I grinned as the bear roared, pulling back to gain momentum for its next charge. "We'll need wood next after the fat, anyway. Better wood usually needs the Lumber skill, so for now, we have to use Magnatherium to get our cores."
"Sounds good to me!"
Each of the big, dark trees which we had to break with Magnatherium's horns, randomly dropped between zero and three Noblewood Cores. In the time between charges, Kirito and I took care to whittle the bear's HP down. By the time we'd knocked down 12 more trees, though, we had only brought it down to 85%.
"I think you two together have enough, now. Since we still have to fight this thing, we can't just use the same springs."
Asuna agreed. "There's a series of four in close succession over there."
All three of us moving in to fight, we finally brought it down at roughly 9:54PM.
"Ooh, wow! I got four Legendary Bear Fats," Asuna gleefully announced as she checked her drops through the 'new items' popup, "There's also some pelts, claws, and… Fire-Bear's Palm?"
"That might be gory," I commented hastily, "And Kirito, what about you?"
"I've got three fats, some fur and claws… And a Fire-Bear's Horn."
I nodded with a smile. "Good, good. I have one fat, some fur, claws, and a Sparking Bag. It might contain volatile powder or gas, to fuel the fire breath."
Kirito cupped his chin. "Well, are we turning in the quest right away?"
"Let's see if the old guy's up, then," I answered with a yawn, "We can still do it tomorrow, if not."
We ran into one more Gaudy Nepenthes on the way back to Rovia, and returned to the northwest sector by gondola, reaching the old man's house at 23:49. The window was alight, so we knocked, then entered upon his prompt. He continued to alternate between bottle and pipe in his chair.
"Hey, we got the fat," I said as I pulled out the jar I got, "Get yours too, kids."
"That stink… You got the king's fat, didn't ya?"
He dropped the whiskey bottle, more fixated on the jar as he swiped it from my hand. He watched Asuna and Kirito retrieve theirs, and with a jingle, our quest logs updated.
"Hmph. That will do… Very well. You really want this old bag of bones to build you a ship, eh?"
"We're going to need it," I answered plainly, "When you said the Water Carriers control supplies, it means every kind, right? So, wood?"
He set his pipe on the same table. "I'll need a whole lot of lumber, yes. Solid birch or oak will be serviceable for this work. Of course… The greatest of shipbuilding lumber, is teak. I can make you a truly sturdy craft if you can deliver me the solid core of a massive, aged teak. Then again, it may be beyond the ability of amateur lumberjacks…"
The quest log updated to the next objective, and we promptly retrieved all the Noblewood Cores in our menus. The red logs clunked down in a big stack, and the old man's eyes briefly widened.
"Hmm. You know what would make good nails with treatment? That king's claws." We delivered.
"The king's fur would make comfortable and durable upholstering on the seats." Delivered, again.
Finally, he stood from his rocking chair, and approached another door, retrieving a key to unlock it before nudging it open to reveal a carpentry storeroom. Large saws, hammers, chisels, all kinds of shiny-polished tools.
"To think I'd have a chance to use these again one day," the NPC muttered wistfully, walking out of sight for a moment before returning with a massive scroll, then laying it out on the nearby tabletop with his palm firmly planted at the edge of the parchment, "Tell me how you want your boat built."
The quest log updated, and a design interface appeared before us, with many options to look over, and plenty that I thought would take hours of discussion to reach a decision.
At least, that was what I thought would happen to other parties, when the major guilds would be ready to do this quest as well.
AN: Alrighty, there you go. A bit of a slower chapter because of how the fourth floor starts, and the people on the SAO fanfiction server I frequent on Discord, pestered me about changing the floor's theme overall from the canon's water-exclusive navigation. But every good game has its bad water level, and I wanted to see what I could do with it. Catching up to my previous writing pace, I can tell you that Chapter 17 - Their Piece of Pie - will pick up the pace significantly.
