A/N: Well, there you go - the last IDoB unless I'm really shown some motivation to do more. On the plus side, I think I'm getting better at using my time, so I may be able to eventually work my way back up to weekly Virtual Immigration. If not, then the week after VI25 next week, expect Aincrad Interim 3.

"The Kobold Lord's axe is surely recognized among Illfang's kind. Find the kobold village in the Rata Plain wetlands, and deliver the news of his fate."

December 4th, 2022 – 11:50AM AST. A decent chunk of time since Illfang's defeat. I could assume, about half an hour later, that the teleport gate in Urbus on the second floor would be opened by players who had participated in the raid and would cross the first field on that floor.

I, on the other hand, had a new quest to turn in. With Diavel's blessing, I had claimed the axe of the Kobold Lord, Illfang, and dragged it by hand out of the boss chamber. Only once it passed the doors, was I shown properties for the axe… as a quest item.

I hoped that this axe would become available to me in some form, once I completed the quest. But even without it, I was certainly curious what the reward would be for this much effort. And for the moment that I considered it, I wondered how alive the kobolds would feel in the interaction.

Fortunately, now that the axe was an item of some kind, rather than a stage prop, it allowed me to store it in my inventory. This made it much easier to return to Tolbana around 12:30PM, buying a couple of generic round fruits for the road while I was in town, and then I set out again.

Three hours later, I struck down another scarab as I closed in on the village, when my vision of the wetlands was briefly obscured by golden light; I had reached Level 10. I assigned attribute points, admired my new stats, and moved on, continuing into the swamp for which the powerful kobold enemies in the area were named.

Dotting the swamp were small huts, each only about the size of an African savannah elephant. But one was almost the size of a typical one-bedroom house – I assumed that the village's leader lived there, and could be the one who needed to see the axe. Although, even as I approached the huts, there was no notification that I was in a safe zone; I had to watch myself around these kobolds.

Passing between two of the outermost huts, I was confronted by four Swamp Kobold Patrols, an enemy type I had never seen anywhere else.

"Ro huru gon!" ordered one, their cursors a similar shade of red to the Trappers.

I materialized the Lordly Kobold Axe, handle in both hands but the head still on the ground.

The guards lowered their maces. "Ran na rodo?"

I tilted my head, trying to make sense of their language. "Uh… Lord, the… Kobold Lord is no more."

Their faces didn't change, as they put away their weapons. "Garu horo rag."

I slowly nodded as three of them lifted the head of the axe together, letting me hold the handle. We were directed to follow the remaining patrolling kobold, as he headed towards the bigger hut.

Even carried by two human hands and six small kobold hands, the axe kept us from following the unencumbered guard too closely. By the time we reached the door of the big hut, he had gone in and come out.

"Oko ru gara," he said. I assumed this meant that he had spoken inside, already. There was little else for us to do but simply carry in the axe.

Inside, it looked like any other primitive-looking house. Furs around the floor, gems on display, other furs and bones hanging on the walls, and a crude throne at the back made of bones and fur, beside which lay two large, empty plaques, one to each side of the throne.

And sitting atop the throne, feet dangling half a meter off the floor, was a kobold closely resembling a princess; a fur skirt ending at the top of her knees, a fur cloak draped over her back and shoulders, held by a thick, wide leather strap across her chest, a tiara made from some monster's lower jaw, and purple war paint on her red midriff – a diamond with a dot in the middle, like the blue on Illfang.

Upon seeing the axe as we brought it over, she sat upright from her head-on-hand, elbow-on-throne pose, and leaned forward. "Rodo agu…"

I lifted a hand from the handle, making a presentational gesture. "This is the axe. The Kobold Lord, Illfang, has fallen."

"…I see."

I looked back up to the princess-like kobold, as she hopped down to the floor. I knelt to make myself appear vulnerable in her presence, watching her come near. Her cursor came into view, red but with a blinking yellow border – probably indicating that she was losing hostility. Of course, the red was as dark as the Swamp Kobold Trappers' were when I had first fought one alongside Klein.

"How does he lose?" she asked, in broken Japanese.

"Just over forty humans like myself," I answered, bowing my head, "The unit's leader was our only casualty in the battle."

Once she was close enough to touch the axe, she sniffed it. Her name also appeared over her cursor while she ran her little hands along the shaft: «Viperhinge, Swamp Kobold Chieftain».

After a moment, she took a few steps back, and waved to a couple of guards by the walls.

"Gura nado hagar," she told them, and both those two and the empty-handed guard who had told Viperhinge of my arrival, took the axe by the handle and carried it from me. Then, she twirled away and walked back to her throne, before leaping back up onto it as she faced me once more.

"So… You must wonder why you stand, and I ask questions."

I blinked at the valid conclusion, and I nodded.

"Illfang was a fraud. Strong, yes, but hot-headed. When the Pillar of the Heavens was built, every guardian was a strong kobold. But kobolds live less than 100 years. Many guardians. When the last retired, Illfang said he would do it. But he broke the rules set by the council we had back when the first guardian was chosen."

I tilted my head to one side, perplexed. "There were… rules for being the guardian?"

Viperhinge nodded. "Since the first guardian, each was best with a saber. Curved swords. Illfang, at first, was no different – using a talwar. He was one of the best, of all guardians. But he felt it was outdated, wanted a faster, cleaner cut. More defensive ability."

I slowly nodded to show I was listening, the only thing I could do. This was the way they explained why Illfang's second weapon changed from the beta to the release.

"Illfang wanted other changes. His new domain was elegant, urban, modern. Started calling himself Lord, instead of Champion. Spoke above me in big decisions, cherry-picked Sentinels and Troopers. They stay there because it is better than a swamp village. He wanted kobolds to grow from the Pillar of the Heavens, rather than from the village. We want to grow forward, too, just not under him!"

I took a deep breath, and nodded again. "Would you ask the pillar's kobolds to reconcile?"

The chieftain simply shook her head. "We will grow here, and show them what they lost. Now… you give us Lordly Kobold Axe, tell us he is gone. Thank you. You humans may walk higher lands."

I couldn't help but smile. "Many of us are already up there, trying to reach the next pillar."

"Ahh… So, there are more. Well, then! You need a good weapon to fight other guardians."

I flinched slightly. "Y-Yes. There are 99 other guardians, and we must reach the top."

"Okay! You go up, and wield our arms," she beamed proudly, as two of the guards returned, with a large rectangular case between them, and placed on the floor at her feet, "Take it and rise."

I cautiously approached, and she nodded in approval. I slowly opened the case, and inside, atop a blanket of fur, lay an axe of bone, sized for use by a single human hand. The design resembled the same axe I had dragged out of the boss chamber, and carried in a virtual pouch, to this village.

"We made it for you. To show other cultures that Illfang did not rule us. Use it well, and wear it out gloriously. I will want it on the plaque to my left, for kobolds to see his failure."

I chuckled lightly as I picked it up, looking at it from every angle before holstering it at my hip.

"Thank you, greatly. I will ensure it meets other bones in harsh collisions."

Taking my leave, my quest log updated, with «Kobold Axe of Privilege» marked complete, before it was replaced by another quest, titled «Kobold Axe to Grind». Its only objective: Wield the Carved Kobold Axe for as long as it will last. Pretty straightforward.

I returned to Tolbana around 7PM, just to get another bite before heading out again. Sure, I could have taken the shorter trip to the Town of Beginnings, and taken the Teleport Gate up to Urbus, but I was in that boss chamber with the rest of the raid, and they walked up the stairs through the top of the tower. And that part of the experience was essential to feeling like a front-line player. So, after I had eaten again, I went through the tower myself, taking about three hours with my Anneal Blade, before reaching the boss room again.

Illfang would not respawn, so I could walk around and admire the lack of scenery, if I wanted to. Although, that plain aesthetic kind of spoke further for Viperhinge's story, showing just how little difference the Kobold Lord made when he started acting like a politician. I even admired the high marble rafters, seemingly pointless architecture for this place.

Then, I saw peculiar objects resting atop them. Blue spheres, glowing, with pulsing light inside, and crackling energy swirling around it. Curious, I ran my shoulder into one of the pillars supporting the rafters, and the orb above me fell. It landed with a harmless, glassy clack sound, like crystal, before bursting with blue light for a second, and leaving behind a Ruin Kobold Sentinel.

Without hesitation, I drew my sword, and slew it with a Horizontal Arc before it could lift its mace. However, just as its HP bar was draining out, I saw that the cursor was not red. When the Sentinel shattered, I stared up at the other orbs in confusion. That cursor was yellow, I realized.

Seeing that there were five other orbs, I went to each of the three rafters holding them, and shook each rafter by ramming the support pillars, before catching them all – except one. But when that kobold spawned, I kept calm, and watched it.

The Ruin Kobold Sentinel looked up at me, mace in hand, and stood upright.

"There is no danger at this moment," I reassured it. The kobold nodded, and set its mace on its back before walking closer. And then, a bar slid under mine in the top-left of my vision: Acrefault. It sure made sense as a name originating from a swamp…

I looked at my inventory, confirming that there were four orbs that I caught. Checking the item itself, I found that it was labelled «RKS Rafter Ornament». Whether that meant I could place them at any time and get the kobolds to spawn, or the trigger was tied to the fall from the rafters, was something that I had to find out later, when I needed another ally. Either way, I had to assume that these Ruin Kobold Sentinels were meant to appear during the raid.

I flinched upon realization. "Diavel…!"

I remembered that he was the only one hit by Tsumujiguruma. Ordinarily, its 360-degree slash would hit any target in its path, and hit all of them. On top of that, it would inflict paralysis on every target struck by the move. It was likely that the orbs would have fallen when the room detected players paralyzed by Tsumujiguruma.

I took a deep breath, and glanced at my new kobold ally, waving for it – or him, indicated by the small marker beside his name – to follow me up the exit stairs, and onto the second floor. Crispy mountain air, and flat clifftops. Different clothing on the town NPCs. Oboes in the BGM instead of strings. This was certainly a different floor. It was another hour to Urbus from the tower exit, and then without anyone looking twice at the kobold by my side, I found an inn and called it a night. Of course, it was probably only because it was so late, that no-one took much notice of it.

The morning of December 5th, though, as I walked out of the inn at 6AM, a handful of players awake this early, approached with curiosity.

"What is a Ruin Kobold Sentinel doing here?!"

"Why is it just following you, lady?"

"This thing's cursor is yellow, does that mean it's not an enemy?"

It only made sense to respond to the last reaction. "Yes, this kobold is my ally. It seems to be running off of the pre-existing pet feature, to some degree, but there is usually clearer functionality with the proper pets. This guy just seems to respect and revere me, rather than obey me – which is fine."

"Cool!"

"I need something like that!"

"That's the most helpful a beta tester has been so far…!"

I sighed and shook my head at the last comment, as I went on my way. Since I had come up to this floor past the half-hour after its opening, the standard spawn rate was applied by the time I came up through the tower. Due to this, I was able to fight a decent chunk of monsters before reaching Urbus.

Even more surprising, however, was finding out that my demihuman ally could level up. While Ruin Kobold Troopers – the mobs in the standard rooms of the first tower – were Level 6, these Sentinels had a default level of 9. And the last monster before we made it to Urbus, pushed him to Level 10.

As I made my way over the fields, we continued to beat on monsters. One enemy we ran into along the way, was a Trembling Ox – one of the more powerful ones in this part of the floor. Knowing how easily kobolds could be killed by cattle-types, I often had to shove Acrefault out of the way.

Eventually, though, we took it down together, and both reached Level 11. Then, we fought some less threatening monsters, before reaching my intended destination.

"Check this out, little buddy," I told Acrefault as I pointed, "Doesn't this look peaceful? An open area surrounded by sheer rock walls, just this one tree and water spring, and a neat little shed?"

As I approached the shed, its door flew open, revealing furniture and a large, bald, bearded elderly man with little mass that wasn't muscle and bone, his head shiny and smooth. This NPC had a quest indicated by a golden '?' over his head. I hadn't seen this before, but in the beta, information about this was available on the seventh floor, and I decided to use that information as soon as I could.

I stepped inside, and the man opened his eyes, maintaining a Zen position on a mat.

"You want to follow my school?"

"That's right."

The bald man's head tilted up. "The road of training is long and fraught with peril."

"Nothing new to me." And after my answer, the quest mark changed to a '!' and the man directed me out of the shed. The door shut, and then a few seconds later, it opened, and he walked out with a big boulder on his back. I followed him up to another boulder, six feet tall and five across, and he planted the stone in a three-inch-deep pit beside the other stone.

"Your training is simple – split this stone with your two fists. If you succeed, I will teach you all of my secrets."

I patted the rock lightly, feeling its durability by texture; I quickly realized it was just slightly below Immortal Objects by tier.

"You are not permitted to descend this mountain until you break the stone. I will put the sign on you now." After he said this, the NPC pulled a jar of ink and a thick paintbrush from his robe pockets, and quickly made three strokes on both of my cheeks.

Ah, so this is the origin of the Rat, I thought to myself as I looked at the man.

"That sign will not vanish until you break this rock and complete your training. I have faith in your potential, my apprentice." After he spoke once more, he returned to his shed.

I took a moment to admire the stone I was assigned, wondering why there was another, when I saw a figure emerge from behind the shed, in a hooded cloak, with familiar whiskers.

"So, how'd ya find the quest?" asked the info broker, Argo.

"There's a guy on the seventh floor, tells you to look around on the second floor, no?"

She nodded with a smile. "Another beta tester, eh? Well, it looks like ya know the situation, here."

"Uh-huh," I answered as I examined my boulder, "So, what brought you here in the release version?"

Argo smirked as she often would. "You know the drill, these days."

I cackled as I drew my arms back. "I sure do!" I grunted as I thrusted both my fists forward against my rock, my arms forming an acute angle.

As I pushed both sides of the boulder outward, the middle finally gave way, splitting from the top to the bottom as the halves leaned apart.

"Are you kidding me?!" Argo whined, slamming the back of the shed with her fist, "How do you find the brittle point so quickly?"

I tilted my head. "Brittle point? Is that what it was?"

"That's what the first guy to beat the quest told me," she told me as I walked up to the pond and proceeded to wash the paint off my face, looking in the reflection to make sure, "But what was your method, if not that?"

I took the chance to smirk this time. "What did it look like?"

Argo pouted. "I saw ya from the side, I only saw one arm…!"

I shrugged with a chuckle. "How important is it to you?"

Her nose twitched, almost like an actual rodent. "Do you think there is anything I might know?"

"No, but you could find something," I answered as I leaned against her rock, "I understand that you will not sell information that would identify beta testers, correct?"

"That's right."

"Well, how do we know if there aren't beta testers willing to turn on their own, whether on a whim, or for some greater interest? I want you to keep track of players acting against the beta testers in particular – whether fellow testers in treason, or by new players using beta knowledge dishonestly."

Argo slowly nodded. "Yeah… You're right. The way the game is now, and with the division as it may stand for the time being, there could very well be traitors who could find any excuse to sell us out."

"Perfect. I do have another piece of info for you, too."

"Oh?" Argo turned again, about to focus on her boulder.

"I'll explain it on the way out from here. Thrust your fists out with your arms at a 40-degree angle. Each fist should hit opposite sides of the rock, forcing them outward. Although, you may need to at least hit close to a 'brittle point' on the surface, as the previous questers told you."

"Oh! Right, the boulder," Argo realized as she squared up in front of the rock, and after a couple of minutes trying it around the rock, she finally found a sweetspot to break it. She ran over to the pond and washed her face, then I saw her pull out her own paint – and her launch-day mirror – to re-apply her original whiskers.

Once she had her iconic paint back on, she walked back to me, and we began our way back to Urbus.

"So, does yer info have somethin' to do with the kobold with ya?"

I nodded as we walked. "Sure does. As for what I can get from this – well, I'll think of it later."

Argo opened her menu, ready to take notes. "Alright, I'll figure out the value of your info."

"Excellent. Well, this Ruin Kobold Sentinel was in one of the rafter orbs meant to fall when players were paralyzed by the Katana Skill, Tsumujiguruma. Diavel was the only one hit, so there was never any prompt for the mass paralysis event."

The Rat blinked. "So, without Illfang, the orbs reassigned loyalty?"

I shook my head with a smile. "Can't imagine – I didn't even realize the first one wasn't hostile."

"So, ya killed one?"

I nodded again. "Saw the yellow cursor just before it shattered. This is the other one whose orb I had failed to catch. I have the other four in my inventory. Little Acrefault here even levelled up fighting a handful of this floor's monsters."

Argo tilted her head. "So, is it counted as a pet?"

"Nope – pets have a different way of showing up in the interface. This guy shows up as another party member in the top-left. I think this is just a loyal ally. I probably still have to feed him, though."

"Huh. That is interesting," Argo responded while noting down points, "I doubt there are many ways throughout the game to get permanent demihuman allies like this."

I shrugged, opening my menu and looking at my skills. "Not sure how to help with that. I'm just sad that I'm not… Level 12… yet…?"

The Rat turned to me, intrigued by my confused tone. "What's up?"

I stared at my list, scratching my head. "Well, I want to assign Martial Arts to my next skill slot, but I have this other Extra Skill… «Humanoid Relations». Did I get that from the village…?"

Argo slipped beside me to see my window. "Village?"

I flinched at her motion. "Y… Y-yeah. You must have heard of me dragging Illfang's axe out from the boss room, right? Well, once it got out of the room, it allowed me to store it as a quest item. I got a quest to take it to the little kobold village in the Rata Plain wetlands, and I showed it to the chieftain there; she spoke in human tongue and celebrated Illfang's defeat. I think I skipped it in favor of the unique quest I got, to use up the durability of the re-carved axe, but if you go there and try to talk to the chieftain, maybe you'll find a quest to unlock this skill?"

The info broker stared at my skill list. "Hmm… I'll have to. It may be incredibly helpful, especially if there's no limit to what humanoids can be negotiated with."

"Absolutely. And while you verify the info to determine its value, I'll get that level I need and see if I can get any results just by having the skill assigned."

The Rat sighed, shaking her head. "I'm gonna owe ya a ton, it looks like. We'll see if I get you paid completely off within the next two floors."

I nodded once more, and she took off. She was likely all Agility, so even though we would both be headed to Urbus first, she'd probably be on the Rata Plain by the time I got into town.

I got back around 12PM, and decided to look for a place to eat. I figured that after a month of the game running, some players would be nearing 50 proficiency in Cooking. No-one would have any of their skills at 1000 for at least a year, I was sure, but it was better than cooking without the skill.

I knew I had a better guarantee of quality from the NPC restaurants, but I wanted to give the other players a chance, who weren't all that confident to push the front line. They still had something to offer to the community, and I wanted to see it. I did eventually find a place, a small assortment of kitchen equipment atop two Vendor's Carpets.

"Welcome to Golden Plate Bridge, you can't get fat if the oil ain't real."

I tilted my head with a smile. "That's true. How's business?"

The elder of the pair of girls shrugged. "We just got set up this way. For all our time on the first floor, we were just cooking for ourselves and hunting monsters based on typical meat animals."

"Hm. Okay," I replied as I scratched my head, "So, then… What do you offer?"

The younger girl retrieved a single A4 sheet of cardboard and handed it to me. "We have a variety."

I looked over the menu really quickly. There were pork items, beef steaks, burgers and sandwiches, even a few desserts – and there was even a plant product category.

"Alright, I'll have a Frenzied Cutlet with Covanille – and a couple slices of that same fruit."

"Kumiko does the sodas," the elder giggled, pointing to the younger player.

"You got it, Brandi!" beamed the younger, as Brandi got started on the pork.

Only about ten minutes later, I was brought a dark pork cutlet, and I cut into it to reveal a light-brown cross-section – medium, the only way to have red meats like that of the Frenzy Boar on the first floor. Beside it, a fist-sized glass of vanilla cola – or at least, a soda of the Covanille, a pineapple-shape fruit resembling vanilla cola in flavor. I finished the order in a couple of minutes, including the two slices saved from the Covanille. For 35 Cor, they really put all of their skill into it.

From 12:15 on, I took Acrefault – who had a third of the cutlet – further across the floor, or at least, fairly close to the canyon where the Bullbous Bow resided. Without much else to do, Acrefault and I fought monsters in the surrounding areas for four days. On the third day, Acrefault hit Level 12, and then in the morning of December 9th, I caught up, and immediately assigned Humanoid Relations to the new skill slot I unlocked. We went to Marome for a quick lunch around 12PM, and then, by the time we got back to the canyon, the Bullbous Bow had been defeated, so I took my kobold friend further across the floor, stopping in the village of Taran for some more supplies. Then, Acrefault and I went into the floor's tower around 3PM. Kibaou and Lind were in there by this point, leading their respective parties, and around 4-6PM, I was sure I saw Kirito and SAUER with the fencer girl on their way back out, but even if that was who I saw, they didn't seem to notice me.

I stuck to the tower for most of the night, returning to Taran by 10PM, and then repeated my trips to the tower for the next four days, going to higher floors as the clearers mapped them. By the evening of the 13th, I had my kobold on the 20th floor of the tower, a couple rooms away from the boss door while working down the Taurus enemies – minotaurs by different names – whose spawn rates were fixed with a delay, unlike the typical economic adjustment elsewhere.

Each Taurus I fought, as well as after defeating each, I took the chance to try out the new skill; first talking to each Taurus, and then praising Acrefault after each battle. I was not having any results, but hopefully, I could build up my proficiency this way. Needless to say, I wasn't going to gain an ally from the Taurus enemies – not anytime soon, at least. Regardless, the Ruin Kobold Sentinel in my party levelled up yet again, to 13.

I had no reason to attend the boss raid on the 14th, so when they left Taran for the tower, I made my way back to Marome, and then to Urbus. By the time I got there and checked the teleport gate, the gate in Zumfut had been opened, so I teleported right up to the third floor. Without thinking about anything else, I took my kobold buddy out into the woods of the floor, and introduced it to the new enemies there; Treant Saplings and Roaring Wolves, for starters – the latter able to call for more of themselves when they reached half HP, a big perk for the time being, as I wanted to just fight more things alongside Acrefault.

We had started just as the sky was turning orange, and by the time we were alone again and devoid of wolves or Treants, it was all dark. At that point, we decided it was time to call it a night.

As Acrefault and I made our way back to Zumfut, however, he stepped in front of me and pointed toward a set of trees covered in shadows. There, I saw dark figures shuffling through the woods.

I gave Acrefault a thumbs-up and took off after the figures, my kobold buddy following closely. The figures were far enough ahead that I wouldn't get their attention, yet close enough that their three silhouettes were fairly consistent in shape, all hooded. For a pure Strength build, I kept up with the suspicious group adequately enough to reach their destination, slipping behind a tree and pulling Acrefault beside me when the figures stopped to check their position. After several seconds, they headed into a cave. Concluding that I could hide easier inside anyway, I followed with my kobold.

We thankfully didn't get much chance to fight monsters, as the figures went ahead. Only one was carrying any light, but I could only see shadows; though, they were much clearer shapes, and I was able to see one using a dagger, and one using a one-handed axe – I couldn't make out the weapon wielded by the last one.

Eventually, I heard the three of them ahead, all fighting something together, and when I got close, I was taken aback by the particular monster attacking them: a Whip Spider, the midboss at the end of the first floor of a quest dungeon. I realized then, that they were heading for the Fallen Elf camp.

The third floor featured the beginning of the Elf War campaign, which continued all the way up into the ninth floor, and was set officially between the Forest Elves and Dark Elves. The existence and involvement of the Fallen Elves, however, was not supposed to be discovered until the end of this floor's chapter. Acrefault and I hung back out of sight, until the three defeated the boss, and then proceeded down the stairs to the cave's second floor, where the camp would be.

Curious enough to dare follow, I approached the stairs, only to see something that immediately convinced me to turn back. When I saw the Fallen Elf camp in the beta, the cave stairs and the area around the bottom were visible from above. But the stairs led down into complete blackness.

Could it possibly be, that this was a transition point for an instance, like the white mist which would appear upon finding one of the two main factions' camps? And could these three, with at least one being a beta tester, find success taking this secret route in the campaign?

I couldn't be completely certain of my assumptions so far, so we left, fighting more monsters on the way back to Zumfut. By the time we got back, it was almost midnight. We fought more Treants and Roaring Wolves throughout the next day, during which Acrefault reached Level 14, and I got to 13. Then by the time I got back to Zumfut, it was around 4:55PM. After I got a snack, and the full hour rang out from the town bells, I found out that there was already a strategy meeting taking place.

I leaned on a tree a fair distance from the meeting place, just far enough that they knew I wasn't participating, but close enough that I could see everyone who was – SAUER, Kirito, the fencer girl accompanying them before, Lind and Kibaou's parties; even Kumiko and Brandi were there. It was here where I learned that Kibaou and SAUER had each completed the guild creation quest, forming the Aincrad Liberation Squad and the Aincrad Skyward Siege, respectively. Lind expressed wanting to form a guild as well, but had to temporarily merge with SAUER's until he could do it officially – he hoped to call his guild, the Dragon Knights Brigade.

They each listed their requirements for joining, and then came to an agreement about how a raid leader would be chosen when one took place. And that was it; a meeting on conducting raids.

I spent the rest of the evening hunting Roaring Wolves again with Acrefault, then again for the entire next day, and finally, the morning and early afternoon of the 17th.

I got back to Zumfut roughly at the same time as SAUER, Kirito, and the fencer; the name of whom I eventually learned from other clearers, was Asuna. I didn't directly cross paths with them, but I was curious as to how SAUER would arrange his guild. The only guidance that really stood out to me, was the assignment of the Golden Plate Bridge chefs to the Elf War; Kumiko for the Dark, and Brandi for Forest. I quickly realized that he was trying to determine the balance between their rewards, and I decided to further explore this concern, by investigating the option to support the Fallen Elves.

I knew from Argo's guide book for this floor, that the initial Jade Key duel between a Dark Elven Royal Guard, and a Forest Elven Hallowed Knight, would respawn an hour after a party had completed the first objective – simply ending the duel. If I couldn't figure out how to side with the Fallen, I could instead choose a traditional side in just over two hours.

With that in mind, I took Acrefault back to the cave where we saw the three hooded figures, and we found the stairs with the black darkness below. The Whip Spider hadn't respawned, but I wasn't to complain in a death game. We went down the stairs, darkness not receding until we were entirely consumed by it, at which point we passed the darkness, into the open space of the cave, where the tents of the Fallen Elf camp were set up.

Immediately upon approaching the tents, two Fallen Elf guards struck torches on the ground.

"We believe it is in your best interests to speak to the commander."

I looked at their yellow NPC cursors, and slowly nodded. They took me to the command tent, where the other Fallen Elves, including the commander, were also marked with yellow cursors.

"Well, now," sighed the commander, the same one that other players would fight at the end of this floor's portion of the campaign, "You've left a bit of a mess at the top of the stairs. How could we scare away intruders, without a big spider keeping us hidden? We need this cleaned up…!"

"A mess? Me? I…" Then I realized what happened: the game must have recognized that I witnessed the defeat of that boss spider, and thus concluded that it would have broken my immersion if I was made to fight it again. So, I played along, seeing the questionmark over the commander.

"Oh… Yeah. If it was so important to you, then is there something I could do to apologize?"

The questionmark turned to an exclamation, and the commander laughed softly.

"No apology; just bring us a similar spider – something big, strong and scary," he answered plainly, prompting a Fallen Elf with black chitin armor to pass by him, "Take one of my Arachnomaniacs to identify the best replacement."

"We may have to fight it a bit," the Arachnomaniac warned, "But once it looks weak, I'll handle it."

I nodded, gesturing to my kobold friend. "Let's go, then – c'mon, Acrefault."

I had happened upon the location of the randomly-placed spider nest while hunting Roaring Wolves for the past few days, so I took the Arachnomaniac right there. It was a two-floor cave like the camp dungeon, but the upper floor didn't have a boss, and the lower floor was just the actual nest, which only contained the spider boss Nephila Regina, and its treasure, which would usually include the Sigil required for the guild creation quest. Except normally, she'd have two HP bars – here, she had one.

I was a little worried about how far down I would have to bring the HP before I had to stop, but while the single bar drained out, it didn't turn yellow halfway, and didn't turn red at a fifth. It then hit me, that the second bar was simply being hidden for the sake of the quest. This was proven when the visible bar was emptied completely, as the spider collapsed to the floor, and the Arachnomaniac got closer to it, waving us back away.

The questlog updated for «Eight-Legged Guard», indicating that we had captured the spider. All that was next, was to return to the camp; once there, the Arachnomaniac went to another tent, and the commander thanked us with a choice of items – I chose chitin boots with a stealth bonus.

"Since you have helped us already, I think it is safe to assume you would again, if we made it worth your while?"

I nodded with a smile. "What would you ask?"

The commander sat down. "The time has come to retrieve the Sanctuary keys. However, you should have an easier time reaching them with the help of the Dark or Forest Elves. The Forest Elves could easily be told that we have the same goal, for it is true; if you choose the support of the Dark Elves, you will surely have to deceive them at the right times."

I tilted my head, knowing how the Dark Elves handle the situation from the beta.

"Could we make the situation so dire around each key, that the Dark Elves could be frightened into moving the keys up, 'out of danger', yet closer and closer to the floor holding the Sanctuary?"

The commander cupped his chin in thought. "Possibly. We may require the Forest Elves regardless, but if you work with the Dark Elves, we will take care of it."

Returning to the area just a little west of the second floor tower's exit, Acrefault and I eventually found the duel which would otherwise start the traditional routes. Except, there were usually two fixed models for the 7th-floor mobs planted here for a scripted event.

One thing that remained consistent for them, was that the forest elves had either light green or a variety of blonde shades of hair, light skin, and a longsword and buckler; the males handsome, and females of classy beauty. The dark elves, on the other hand, had varying shades of purple for hair, tanned skin, a curved saber and kite shield, and both males and females were damn sexy.

As I remembered it, the dark elf had always been a woman with short hair, and the forest elf had always been a man with a platinum-blond ponytail. But what I saw before me, were two gorgeous ladies whose appearances would almost be symmetrical, if not for their colors and equipment. The Forest Elven Hallowed Knight had hair down to her waist, impractical for combat but absolutely stunning when it flicked up through the air behind her in a glorious corn blonde. And the Dark Elven Royal Guard had shoulder-length hair in a similar shade of purple to the swamp water in the jungle worlds of recent Mario platformers.

This was a troublesome scenario for me – I would have been like this whether they were men or women, whether one of each or both of either. Oh, what I would give for an option to kiss both of them by the end of this floor's chapter, and not having it be weird or inconvenient to either side…

As fun as it was to fantasize, I knew that no matter which one I chose, both of them would die. But even if only for a moment, I would always hope that the Humanoid Relations skill would allow me to have opportunities which I could probably achieve more practically with different anatomy…

…I slapped myself across the face, and forced myself to make a decision.

A/N: Well, thank you two followers and favouriting folks. Unfortunately, Valkyrie's future appearances may be restricted to Virtual Immigration at this point. I have been told by fellow authors on the SAO Fanfiction Central on Discord, that the particular chapter of VI where Valkyrie first appears, is where VI 'really' picks up - unfortunate that the point in question is 22 chapters in. Chapter 25 will be coming next week, and I am halfway through writing it already.

If you want to see how other people have proven to be better at pitching my fanfiction better than I can myself, or you have the means to ensure In Defense of Beaters lives, you can reach SAO Fanfiction Central through this Discord key: Sycypugbxq

See y'all next Friday-Saturday overlap.