A/N: I'm a little spooked, a little early. No update next week; rest assured that next fortnight will still be Chapter 27.


"I was already really close to Level 21 just before the boss."

Kirito nodded with a smile. "You did get your last level on the fifth floor. It's about time you hit 21."

"It's because we've spent the last two days with two parties' manpower," I chuckled.

January 3rd, 2023 – 2000 hours AST. We had just gotten back to Stachion through the teleport gate from the seventh floor's first town, Lexio, and said goodbye to Theano and Myia as they returned home after apologizing for the way things went.

I probably only had to fight a dozen or so monsters more to level up before the Irrational Cube, so when Curse of Stachion officially concluded, I had enough progress past 21 from the boss, that the rewarded XP from the quest brought me to Level 22. Kirito also reached 22 from the quest XP, and Asuna was bumped up to 21.

The last 15 minutes were spent giving new orders to the Aincrad Skyward Siege, as the remaining members not part of the raid group came up from Stachion. As crystals dropped from 0.1% of all defeated monsters from the 7th floor and up – as opposed to the 0.01% on the sixth – I sent my designated crystal-gathering party to the fields along the northwest road from Lexio, which was a more dangerous path than the southwest road, and thus more likely to have a denser population of monsters to yield crystals. Kiril began leading this party, after the two new recruits were sorted into Kaptyn's party following his two casualties from the boss, and the other former DKB member in the guild replaced one lost from Brandi's party, as well as one player from the previous Martial Arts run replacing a member of Kiril's former party. I asked of my guild, how many had been to countries with legal gambling, and how many had made use of that opportunity – only Chumi answered, but then suggested teaching her party how to handle the skill portions of some games. I encouraged her to do exactly that, sending her to the city in the south, Volupta, and then told Brandi to accompany her to reach the Forest Elf base sooner. Finally, I recommended that the guild take the rest of the night easy, for mourning the four casualties of the Irrational Cube – then they could set out in the morning.

The rest of us with the dark elf companions, on the other hand, had to immediately head back to Castle Galey, so that Kizmel and Vantorain could be ready at sunrise to return to duty, taking the keys up to the seventh floor with them. And with the Droplets of Villi, we did just that, getting in at 10:30, and getting to sleep around eleven. And then the next morning, we bid farewell to the knights, and headed for the dining hall for breakfast. This took place shortly after awakening at 6AM; Kizmel and Vantorain insisted on taking their breakfast on the seventh floor, to ensure a sooner reunion once we were to return to that floor.

When we got to the dining hall, there was Valkyrie again – and she was chatting with not just another Dark Elven Royal Guard, but four other players: three men and a woman, all with a guild tag by their HP bars in the form of a gold Q on a black background.

"Oh, Valkyrie! I should have guessed I'd find you here, after your gift," I chuckled awkwardly.

Valkyrie giggled after swallowing a piece of toast. "I've barely had a chance to do anything this floor."

Kumiko chuckled alongside me. "Yeah, I suppose that'd be the case. Who are your friends here?"

"Oh, I just ran into them last night," Valkyrie answered with a chuckle of her own, "The scimitar lady there is Lazuli, Temuo has the two-handed sword, the tall guy with the glaive is Highston, and the guy with the shield is Gindo."

"Uh… Pleased to meet you," Kirito said with a smile.

"They're called Qusack," Valkyrie continued, "Short for 'questing for sacks'. Sacks of gold – it's a… baseball expression – they do all their levelling from seeking out every quest available. There were enough non-combat quests alone in the Town of Beginnings, for them to reach Level 5 before they were ready to go anywhere else on the first floor."

"She also told us you might still be around here," Lazuli commented, "I understand you've got elf companions like she does?"

"Yes, we just saw them off through the Spirit Tree," Asuna answered, "Valkyrie, is yours still here?"

"Right beside me," she giggled as she pointed to the lady with shoulder-length purple hair and dark blue eyes, "This is Ranfilo. We're joining up with Qusack for this floor's key."

"Good idea," I replied as my allies sat down, "You should always take as many people as you can."

Valkyrie nodded. "Especially since this lot barely even fights; they came here with a regular elf scout from the third floor, who only stuck around cause there's only four of them."

"Hey!" I heard from all four of them, and laughed in response.

"Well, if you're going to call yourself a crutch, then you should take an axe I'll never use."

Valkyrie chuckled in slight confusion, as I opened a trade window and gave her the Harsh Hatchet, looted from the late Morte. She stared at the window for a moment, and then accepted it.

"I will cherish this weapon, SAUER. Thank you, kindly."

During breakfast, we continued to talk about Qusack reaching Galey. They had made Level 5 just off quests from the Town of Beginnings, then they tried to fight Swamp Kobold Trappers, retreated after cutting their losses, then settled for playing solely through quests – having put together incredible equipment loadouts from the rewards alone. And they conceded that the Dark Elf Scout who had joined them on the third floor, had done so in the last quest of that chapter, for the sake of balance adjusted in official service. With Valkyrie and her knight companion Ranfilo filling the guild's last two party slots, there was no need for the scout.

After breakfast, Valkyrie and Qusack began to head for the gates, while Ranfilo went to borrow the Greenleaf Cape. And after mine and Kumiko's parties finished eating, we went to the library.


"It's just getting into 7AM," Kirito pointed out as we walked in, "Aren't old elves like the storyteller, only around between noon and three?"

I nodded, looking around at the shelves. "That is true. But while we wait to find a cure to Level 2 paralysis poisons, we can look for books in languages we know."

Asuna tilted her head. "Isn't that just English and Japanese, in that case? The former just for you…"

"Hmm…" I cupped my chin in thought, and chuckled at her point. "Just pass me anything that uses mostly Latin text. If you find letters with accent symbols, still pass it to me – there's a chance that it could be Swedish. I'm less proficient in it than Japanese, and I'm only serviceable with Korean, but I could still tell you what's in each book."

Kumiko blinked. "You know Swedish and Korean? Why?"

I chuckled and patted her head. "I have covered some K-Pop in my music career, and I tend to enjoy Swedish-made entertainment – my favourites often speak their home language just for fun."

We spread out around the library, eight players looking for any of four languages for me to read. We found all kinds of books from the past of many countries, and I noted down titles to choose from as they brought them to me.

"I don't know if I want to read Mutiny on the Bounty," I sighed as I set it down on the stack whose languages had been confirmed so far, "Sorell and Son sounds absolutely dull."

"What about this one, SAUER?" asked Asuna, bringing me another book, "Um… Professor Unrat?"

I shrugged and took the book, peeking in the first few pages. "Professor Unrat, oder Das Ende eines Tyrannen. Sorry, Asuna, this is German. Despite my pronunciation being rather accurate, I have to admit that, uh… Mein Deutsch ist eiskalt scheiße. I don't even know if those are the right words for what I tried to say."

"Hey, SAUER! What about this one?"

I turned to Kentucky, who wasn't holding a book, but was simply pointing to one still in a shelf. I walked over to her as I cleared my throat to recalibrate my vocal chords for Japanese.

"What have you found, Kentucky? Don't be shy just because Vantorain isn't here."

She rolled her eyes and pointed again to the spine of the book. "I know just enough English to enjoy American television, and that's it. But I know this says South Wind."

"Okay…" I nodded and plucked the book from the shelf. "Let's see… Set on an island called Nepenthe, off the coast of— ah?!"

My reaction was provoked by a light rumble right in front of me, seemingly behind the bookshelf.

"Well, this is certainly something I didn't see in the beta."

"Nor did I," answered Kentucky, before she took off to gather the others of our parties. Not even the rest of Kumiko's beta testing companions, nor Kirito, had seen this before, as they arrived to the shelf after it had shifted aside to reveal a secret, narrow hallway.

"It's certainly more interesting than books. Let's go."

I allowed everyone else to go before me, and I returned South Wind to the shelf before following. I never heard a similar rumble or sliding sound behind me, but I had to assume it would have closed regardless of the book being returned to its place.

We walked through the hallway for a few minutes, and if we were speculating as to the destination, we weren't vocalizing it. But eventually, we reached a door, and the group stopped, leaning to the walls for me to pass in front.

"What do you suppose is behind this door?" asked Kumiko, as the group came back together.

"Well, how do you suppose we even get through it?" I chuckled, shaking my head.

Suddenly, the door opened with the sound of a knob being twisted, and a dark elf stepped into view from behind the door. His whitening hair ran down his back, and he wore a black robe seeming to resemble velvet in texture, with a hat in the same material, pointed.

"Ah, you must be the ones helping to collect the keys! But for you to find my secret chamber… I am slightly alarmed to see so many of you, but if you could all get settled in, I have some cushions for all of you to sit on. In the meantime, allow me a moment to finish preparing my breakfast."

We walked into the room, as he flung his long silver beard ahead of himself on the way to the stove sitting by the left wall. To the right was some kind of chimney, and ahead were wooden shelves. We found the cushions and sat on one apiece, watching the old man cook. Above the cursor, his name read «Bouhroum, Dark Elven Anecdotist».

"So, I suppose you are wondering why I have this small kitchen hidden away like this?"

I shrugged again. "Whatever you're cooking, it certainly smells alright."

He cackled with a slight nod. "You bet it smells good! This is my one delight a month, and I haven't many left to enjoy. So, I'm afraid it will be all mine."

Kumiko leaned back with a smile. "I cook on a daily basis myself. I'm only sensing one flavor…"

"Hah! This frikadelle is all I need – I grew tired of vegetables over a hundred years ago," the dark elf explained as the smell of beef filled the room, "It's bad enough that the cooks here try to feed me leafy greens and fruit every day, because 'it'll make you live longer'. Hmph! I don't need more life, I need quality life!"

"Frikadelle?" Kirito inquired, softly toward me or Kumiko, both to his left. The latter obliged.

"Elliptical minced beef as a flat-bottomed meatball. Flattened out more and made larger, it'd be a Hamburg steak."

Bouhroum moved the frikadelle from the pan to a metal plate, using a wooden spatula. Then he took the plate to the table and sat down.

"Before I begin eating, I should tell you why I'm allowing you in here. Under normal circumstances, humans like you would be led to believe that I would be asleep all morning like the other elders."

I nodded slowly. "Sure. So, what gives? Would you happen to have some way to keep your mind and body fit in a different sense than the typical person would understand?"

Kirito tilted his head as he turned to me. "Are you asking about… Meditation?"

"I thought I recognized this guy!" beamed Slapjack, excitedly, "From my visions just under half a year back, prior to being summoned to Aincrad two months ago!"

"Yeah!" Mace exclaimed, nodding to her fellow female beta tester, "Except he wasn't an elf."

"Well, your visions got something right!" Bouhroum answered with a chuckle, "Yes, I am the greatest storyteller of Lyusula and a master in the art of meditation, Bouhroum the great sage."

The golden questionmark appeared over his head, as he continued. "If you have realized this, then should I assume that you all wish to understand the meditative arts?"

"There are a lot us here. Can we all learn at once?" I asked curiously.

"If your minds can remain harmonious in training – for the art of Awakening, the special Meditation technique which you may all achieve today."

"Special technique?" Asuna asked, blinking a few times, "Wouldn't we need to know Meditation to understand special techniques for it?"

"Very intuitive, you youths are. The conditions to train in the art of Awakening involve solving a mystery in the castle library and discovering the existence of this little room. Since you have now managed to find me here, you have fulfilled the requirements."

"Mystery?" Kumiko pondered, slightly confused. Bouhroum raised an eyebrow, and I explained.

"We were… just looking for books in languages that I could read. I know four of our home world's languages, of the hundred or more in its history. Uh, regardless, yes, we shall learn from you."

"Very well," Bouhroum answered, his name pronounced Booh-room, "The training will not be easy. I have lived a very long life, but I can count the number of people who passed the trials and mastered Awakening on my two hands… And none were human."

I nodded in understanding as the quest marker became an exclamation. "Alright. How do we start?"

"If you are all ready, first, straighten your backs."

We nodded together and sat upright on the cushions. Then, Bouhroum finally cut into his frikadelle. Juicy meat, spices, and butter spread their scents throughout the room together.

"What you must do, for the next three hours… is to cast aside your distractions and maintain the tranquility of your hearts. If you can do this, then you will stand at the entrance to the path of the Awakening technique."

"Okay. And you can keep track of this time?" I asked, as innocently as I could think to phrase it.

Following this, I and the rest of the humans took a deep breath, as the elderly dark elf removed an hourglass from his robe, the wooden frame clinking delicately on the table. All the sand remained hanging in the upper chamber, not a single grain falling.

"I will tell you when the sand has fallen. Now, we will begin your training in the art of Awakening."

He then tapped the hourglass with his staff, shaking the green sand loose. "Begin!"


I closed my eyes, and searched for a topic with a smooth, straight line of travel for my mind. First, I locked onto the way I found myself here.

Not to this kitchen behind a library in a dark elven fortress, with a slab of beef taunting me while Bouhroum ate it – but to Aincrad, the floating castle to which we human adventurers had been summoned two months ago.

No. That was too similar for most of us here. It wasn't enough to simply recall being in a privileged position to obtain a copy of Sword Art Online, or to live in Japan for the chance to pursue that opportunity to begin with. But if I had not been a gamer, I may never have known about SAO at all.

I needed to remember how I got this deep into the gaming industry, that I was so motivated to get myself this game in the first place.

I often recalled my first gaming experience to be from my brother Kenneth's PlayStation 2, which he had brought to Ettalong, New South Wales, when he visited my parents and I for Christmas, 2003. However, my true first gaming experience was more than a year prior, in early-to-mid 2002. My dad had left a Game Boy Pocket in his childhood home, where his parents still lived, downhill from the flats where we lived in Telopea. Every other weekend, he would take me to stay overnight at his childhood home, and at one point, he introduced me to his long-lost handheld.

Of the fifteen games he owned, I only enjoyed five: Tetris, Dr. Mario, Krusty's Fun House, Bugs Bunny and Lola Bunny in Operation Carrot Patch, and Marble Madness. Back then, I was no good at any of them, mostly because he only had the cartridges; I could never have known about certain features in most of the games he owned, without the manuals to show me the controls.

I never thought to ask him if I could take the Game Boy back to the flat, so it stayed at his childhood home with his parents, until the house was sold following their eventual deaths – his father in 2004, and his mother in early 2008 – and then finally, the system and games were brought to me in early February 2009, shortly after his funeral.

With sporadic opportunities to play the Game Boy in 2002 and 2003, my five and six-year-old brain often forgot the thing even existed. That was why I tended to recall my first experience being the PS2 on Christmas Eve, when Kenny visited us. At the time, he only had Need For Speed: Underground and Spy Hunter. I only ever had a chance to play NFS as Player 2, and only played the first three missions from Spy Hunter, terrible at either game.

When we moved back to the same flat in Telopea in 2004, my father Peter eventually bought some bootleg Plug & Play system containing 90 games, which I later learned were 80s arcade games and reskins of NES games. The thing barely lasted a year before it lost audio function, and then it died completely after another month or two. But I couldn't have been happier when it worked.

In mid-to-late 2005, I was gifted an original PlayStation by a neighbour in Toukley, who had found himself a PS2 and no longer needed the original. My dad then showed me a rental store he found, from which he rented Crash Bash, a Crash Bandicoot minigame collection. The following year, yet another neighbour introduced me to the Nintendo 64, and when the rental store closed, they sold away the copies of games they had rented out in the past, and my dad bought WWF No Mercy. Unbeknownst to us, however, it was an initial release copy, which had a fatal bug which frequently erased all save data at seemingly random times. When the owners of the N64 moved away, they decided to leave it to me as a parting gift, and I was able to find more skill in the games they gave me with the system: Super Mario 64, Donkey Kong 64, Diddy Kong Racing

A year before my father died, he bought me a new TV and a Wii, and I was quickly sucked into the infectious ease of gameplay marketed in the motion controls. As it was my first time being the first owner of a home console, I treasured the Wii and every game I completed; the console even stayed with my mother after I moved to Japan in late 2014, as she was able to play a decent number of the games fairly well.

My father always looked for reasons to restrict my gaming, but after he died in 2009, it took over my life almost entirely, and it would have consumed me if not for Adsila, who I had met through the fanmade 2D MMO, Paper Mario Online, in 2011. She got me back on track with schoolwork, helping me study through online conversation, and ensuring I would finish highschool with scores which allowed me to enrol at the same university she was going to. And when I met her in-person, she had guided me through studies and transformed me into the perfect protégé for her new game company, Black Yeti Studios.

Even by the end of 2012, her two years of guidance in my software classes had led me to ace a small assignment to create a Space Invaders clone. I had scored so highly with my particular clone, that the teacher suggested that I distribute it around the school, renamed Spacies: Down Under Invasion.

Following that project, when Adsila took over development for Paper Mario Online, she recruited me onto her remastering project, rebuilding the Eclipse 2D MMO engine from RPG Maker VX, since PMO used the original Eclipse built in RPG Maker XP. For two years, we got in programming practice which prepared us for starting university in 2015, and when Black Yeti was founded later that year, we had taken advantage of Epic Games' university programs offering usage of the Unreal Engine, before then releasing a ZUN-approved Touhou Project fangame, Fairy Best Friends, on February 28th, 2016, just about a year into our university tenure.

Since then, it became tradition for Black Yeti executives in the Harbinger family, to have the very first entry of their own intellectual property, release two years or less into their studies. It was not a strict tradition, just something that happened to take place, often working out excellently.

And now, I was subject to the world of a game created by someone not remotely connected to my employers or their family. Not only that, but I was trapped in here with a member of another big tech family, Asuna Yuuki – daughter of Shouzou, from the company RECT, with which Black Yeti wished to collaborate in the future. I imagined there was a strain on the workloads of both companies, but held out hope that the partnership was going well. Maybe if they worked on a successor to the NerveGear for FullDive gaming, a system without such unstable power that it would need safety clamps just to protect the user.


"…Very well, that is enough."

I opened my eyes, and saw that the green sand of the hourglass was all in the bottom chamber.

"Gee, those three hours seemed to fly by," I commented with a chuckle.

"Not for these two," Bouhroum replied, pointing to Kirito and Asuna, "They had to start over a few times, after letting the frikadelle pierce their focus. Nonetheless, you have all passed."

"Okay…" With a deep breath, I opened my menu, and materialized a Crystal Bottle of Kales'Oh, to store one of the skills in my full-up slots.

"Ah, I had a feeling you would need one of those," Bouhroum chuckled.

I shrugged with a smile, and chose to store the Claw skill – which admittedly only had one point of proficiency, from the assisted grind down the canyon wall – exhaling it into the bottle. Then, in the empty slot, Meditation appeared, as the exclamation mark vanished from over Bouhroum's head.

Suddenly, the bar under the skill slot began filling rapidly, along with the number rising from zero. Watching it closely, it passed 100, 200, 300… it only began to slow around 450, and then it finally stopped at 500. By comparison, my One-Handed Curved Blade was 169, Martial Arts was 101, my Blade Throwing was at 89, and One-Handed Sword was 72.

I tapped the skill, displaying its mod tree: only Awakening appeared, at Proficiency 500. Curious, I tapped the mod label to see its description: Focuses concentration to the extreme and draws out hidden strength.

"Hm. Well, it must be good if it comes at halfway mastery," I commented absent-mindedly. The other players around me hesitantly nodded in agreement; most other skills had new modifiers unlocking at every multiple of 50, from increasing crits, to shortening cooldowns, to specific features like Quick Change, or accessibility-related perks like the Martial Arts mod «Relax Equipment Conditions», which enabled the use of Martial Arts skills even when the dominant hand was holding a weapon.

"Oh! Before we take off, Sage Bouhroum, there is something troubling us regarding poisons."

"Ah? Meditation can possibly protect you from afflictions," the old man answered as he placed his empty plate on the nearby counter, "Are you asking about a specific poison?"

I shrugged as I materialized one of the stolen picks. "Not necessarily a specific poison, just a powerful one – these Spines of Shmargor carry what our Mystic Scribing labels as 'Level 2' paralysis poison."

"Shmargor, huh… That poison is rather nasty, compared to what you may find on the sixth floor…"

Bouhroum stroked his long beard, and sat down again. "The ancient hero Selm, when fighting the dragon Shmargor, used a Platinum Shield to defend against the spikes. For the time being, though, meditation will offer protection from more familiar poisons, and will also slowly heal you."

"Huh… Well, thank you, Bouhroum," I responded with a smile, "We're more than grateful for your wisdom and knowledge."

Bouhroum chuckled, shaking his head. "Maybe you can tell me how it works out for you. So long!"

By the time we returned to the library, it was 10:25. At that point, we figured it was worthwhile to simply wait for lunch. And then by that point, if Valkyrie and Qusack weren't back yet, it would be rather concerning, so we could turn our attention to them for the afternoon.

Lunch was an assortment of fish and salads, as usual, with Kumiko taking notes after being the first of us to finish eating – it was certainly a way to gather potential recipes. But once we'd all finished our meals, the gate bell still had not rung. Then, I remembered absentmindedly tapping another window after accepting Valkyrie's gift of the crystal bottle and talwar. So, I checked my friend list. And there, I saw Valkyrie listed. I thought why not, and sent her a message.

The message I received about three minutes later, prompted me to stop my companions just as we were heading for the front gate.

"We gotta stick around for the rest of the afternoon," I told them as I led them back inside.

"What's the matter, SAUER?" asked Asuna, concerned, "Is it Valkyrie?"

"Well, yeah, but it'll make sense when the dark elves know what we need. Let's go to the library."

Sure enough, when we returned to the library, Bouhroum was in his more traditional position, but stood up upon noticing our walking pace.

"Ah, what brings you back in such a hurry? Did you remember something else to ask?"

I shook my head as I stopped. "We think you might be helpful in explaining things to Count Galeyon. Please accompany us to his office – it's urgent."

"Okay, I'll give it a go. What do I need to say?"

We explained it to him, and then with his help, we explained it to the count. And then over the next couple hours, preparations were made.


Nearing 3:30PM, I sent Valkyrie a message: [We're ready for you. It's all taken care of.]

Just at 3:26, she replied: [Roger. Thank you for understanding.]

Right on the 30, as Kirito, Asuna, and my Dark Auxiliary party waited just out of sight, I watched Valkyrie appear as the gates opened, the bell tolling at a gentle pace throughout the grounds.

"Ready?" I asked, ducking behind the pillar where Kirito and Asuna were.

"Waiting for our cue," Kirito answered, as I kept myself hidden out of the view from the gate.

Then, just as I expected, the intensity of the rings multiplied rapidly. Kumiko, Asuna, Kirito, Slapjack, Mace, T-Bar, and Kentucky, all gathered to my sides as Valkyrie passed behind us.

"She only just went up!" she announced, taking off in the direction of our backs, "I'll be back soon!"

"On me!" I called to my companions as we rushed up to the gate room; however, all we found was an empty chamber. "Rats! That bitch is quicker than we thought."

I opened my messaging interface and told Valkyrie that the enemy who killed the gate operator was already gone, before taking my crew back down to the gate to join the fight taking place just at the entrance of Castle Galey – dozens of Fallen Elven Warriors, clashing with dark elf guards. And further behind the warriors, were Fallen Elven Scouts, throwing their own Spines of Shmargor. I immediately drew my own from my belt pouch, and struck precisely with the poison needles I'd gained from the two orange players I'd slain on New Year's Day. With the scouts paralyzed, they couldn't paralyze anymore other dark elves, and we could focus on fighting the warriors.

In preparing for this battle, we had tested the Meditation skill, as Kirito had made mention of the skill requiring a full minute of sitting in a Zen lotus position to activate. But as we had seen from the brief practice before Valkyrie's return, the 500 proficiency reduced the activation time to 20 seconds; the buff icon itself depicted the silhouette of a person in a Zen pose.

Dark elf guards piled up at the front as the servants retreated, while we meditated. Once the buff appeared for all of us, we got up and joined the battle, leaping over the walls of the gate room to eliminate the scouts while the guards kept their blades down on the warriors. It took us about seven minutes to bring them all down, but once the scouts were out of the way, we and the guards then surrounded the warriors. At that time, Valkyrie returned, staying out of view of the remaining Fallen Elven Warriors, as she approached me to speak.

"I delivered the poison to Bouhroum, he'll keep it out of the picture," she informed me.

"Great work, Val," I chuckled proudly, "Now get out of sight before the Fallen misunderstand your current situation. You still want to do their route, don't you?"

"Uh-huh," Valkyrie answered anxiously, "Again, thank you for understanding."

Valkyrie took off, and I rejoined the fight. And half an hour later, Castle Galey was devoid of Fallen. Following our victory, I ordered the humans to gather all remaining Spines of Shmargor, and I also tallied up all the weapons I'd grabbed with the weapon-snatching Martial Arts skill «Empty Wheel», unlocked at proficiency 100.

As Valkyrie walked back over to us, Bouhroum scrambled down as well, carrying a bag in his hand.

"Hey, Bouhroum. Come to congratulate us?" I joked with a chuckle.

"I really should do so," Bouhroum chuckled in kind, handing Valkyrie the bag, "But these are the counterfeit keys that Valkyrie requested. The target would have to inspect them individually, which would leave them open to your intervention."

Valkyrie smiled, taking the bag, before turning to me. "Keep your crew about 50 meters behind me."

I nodded, glancing to the players at my sides. "You got it, Val. Let's go."

As we passed back into the canyon leading away from Castle Galey, Asuna, Kirito, and Kumiko all matched my pace in following Valkyrie.

"So, let's get a summary of Val's day so far," Asuna suggested as we ran, "She, her elven companion Ranfilo, and the four of Qusack were swarmed by monsters, then a cloud of smoke swept through, and a voice called them in an open direction to escape. They followed a 'handsome man with a charming smile' to a cave at the end of the canyon. They relaxed in safety, and drank potions."

I nodded, reviewing the message in my interface. "Valkyrie didn't drink the one she was given, since she knew they contained paralysis poison. She played a part in the capture of Qusack and Ranfilo, though the latter was moved out of sight before Valkyrie revealed her trickery to Qusack."

Kirito caught up with the discussion. "Valkyrie and the handsome man – whom she realized was the poncho man we've been pursuing – had thus interfered in Qusack's run of the elf campaign, which gave them the opportunity to steal the keys they'd acquired up to that point. Valkyrie would take the Fallen Elf Adjutant, Kysarah, whose name and voice we'd heard on the fourth floor, to keep the gate open for a Fallen Elf raid on Castle Galey. During the raid, the man in the poncho expected Valkyrie to poison the spring, killing the Spirit Tree drinking from it. Without the tree, Castle Galey would not be protected from the wasteland's debuffing effect on elves, while the Fallen, who reached Galey with fresh branches in their belts, would be able to continue fighting."

"And dark elf campaign players would have one less place to hide from the poncho man and his goons," Asuna commented.

I closed my menus to keep my eyes on Valkyrie ahead. "But she turned over the poison to Bouhroum and told him to bring her the fake keys often placed in the shrines after the real keys are removed. Kysarah already knows they're fakes, as she had already helped Valkyrie on this floor to get the real Agate Key, but she agreed to play along for the poncho man, as he wouldn't be able to tell the fakes from the real ones. She'll give him the fakes, and he'll let Qusack go, thinking that Qusack will either fail the quest or be shoved onto a shunning-and-redemption route, which may be deadlier than the standard routes."

"Then Ranfilo will be brought back to the scene," Kumiko picked up from where I left off, "So that she and Valkyrie can be released together, they can continue the campaign as normal, and the dark elves would be none the wiser as to Val's involvement with the plan."

I nodded with a smirk. "Only this time, poncho man's walking away with fake keys; no harm done for all involved."

"Speaking of harm, SAUER," Kirito chimed in behind me, "Did Valkyrie mention poncho man's color cursor in the message she sent you?"

"Yeah, she was aware it had been orange before, but it was green today. He must have found time to take a redemption quest."

"No way he'll strike first if he knows we're here," Asuna commented.


Valkyrie waggled her Harsh Hatchet ahead, signalling that the destination was close; ten minutes out from Castle Galey was rather bold. There was a ravine along this way, which would make disposing of anyone easy if things went awry. Twenty meters down a branching path, Valkyrie approached a cave, her axe back at her hip as she raised a hand in front of her similarly-styled hood. If Poncho Man or his other followers were in her sight, she'd have twirled the axe in her hand. The cave was a dead end, though, so if he was still inside, we'd have him for sure.

Valkyrie seemed to tilt her head as she took a step into the mouth of the cave, and then less than a minute later, walked back out… with Gindo, Lazuli, Temuo, and Highston – they didn't have their weapons, but they kept their armors. They seemed to be arguing at first, but then all four of them suddenly embraced Valkyrie. Then, the five of them walked back our way.

"Thank you for your assistance," Valkyrie chuckled with relief, "I wasn't able to tell Qusack how I was to play into Poncho Man's scheme, but they seem to understand my struggle."

Highston nodded. "The poncho man left the cave about five minutes ago. I think he knew you guys were on the way, and ran off, so we realized that Val must have found help. Thank you."

I shrugged with a smile. "It's what we do."

"They said Poncho Man simply poked them with poison needles," Valkyrie explained as she stared at the bag in her hands, puzzled, "That he was all quiet after I left. Then, presumably as we were halfway here from Galey, he just suddenly left; didn't see him open part of his interface or anything."

I nodded slowly. "But he left without the keys? If he didn't have them and knew we were coming, it should have meant death for you guys."

Valkyrie shrugged. "In any case, if plans changed, I'll have to check in on Ranfilo myself."

Just to our left, the sand erupted upward from the ground, before swirling into a red-brown vortex. This whirlwind was an unfamiliar sight for this location, so I simply prompted my crew to raise their weapons to defend against whatever was incoming. And then the whirlwind split top-and-bottom in the middle, crimson light spilling forth.

The pattern resembled the One-Handed Curved Blade skill Treble Scythe, but in truth, this was the Katana skill Tsumujiguruma; clearly a more powerful spin than the former.

When the oncoming blade finally landed on my Impactful Curve, the blade of my scimitar almost immediately gave way, leaving me with just the hilt in my hand. Fortunately, the shock of the force sent me further back from my initial position, than where the end of my blade landed, and I planted my feet into the sand upon contact, sliding back another couple feet and landing on my knees.

"Oh, yeah…!" I chuckled excitedly, standing up, "Love to pull off something like that one day!"

Then I looked over at my allies. Kirito and Asuna untangled their limbs in a pile, Gindo lost the top quarter of his tower shield, Kumiko was missing the tip of her thumb, T-Bar was holding the head of her battleaxe, and we'd all lost roughly 10-20% of our HP each.

The upper portion of the whirlwind fell, crushing the lower half, and revealing the katana wielder: thinner than Kizmel, in studded dark-gray leather, same-color hood from head to shoulder, was a feminine figure with a katana held to her side, the second to ever wield one in official service after Illfang the Kobold Lord, the first floor's tower boss.

She pulled back her hood after standing, ash-gray hair dropping over her forehead, as she turned toward us with her right bangs longer than the left, her skin a desaturated dark green like that of a zombie, except it was clean and smooth in texture like any other elf. Over her head, her cursor was dark crimson like dried blood, and above that, her name: «Kysarah, Fallen Elven Adjutant».

Her bluish-purple eyes found their way to Valkyrie, and the leather bag in her hand, which she then tossed to Kysarah. The adjutant caught the bag, and sighed.

"Thirty of my brethren died so I could gain these…"

Valkyrie slowly shook her head. "Poncho Man made the plan. Are you really sure he didn't give you anything to call him by?"

The fallen elf returned her katana to her hip. "I speak of him the way you do. And I'm tiring of it… If your only reason to take this request of his, was to prevent him from realizing you already retrieved the real keys with my help, then it seems that he is becoming a liability. If you think you have use of him, however, then I will merely provide assistance with your own methods of handling him."

Valkyrie nodded. "I need him around so that my friends here can find all his supporters."

Kysarah took a deep breath, and nodded as well. "Very well. In that case, I should know your friends, so that my assistance to you does not inconvenience them."

The Fallen Elf Adjutant approached me rapidly, and once a foot before me, plucked the hilt of my shattered scimitar from my hand.

"Or rather, I need to know the one who leads these friends. You are certainly as Valkyrie described."

I chuckled nervously, glancing at my empty hand, and then to her hip, and slowly back up to her face.

"A-And y-you have certainly earned all that comes with your name. The fear you inspire is especially jarring when contrasted with the sugary syrup dripping on every stinging, minty word from your lips."

Kysarah bit her lip, her expression otherwise unchanging. "Valkyrie has convinced me that it is in my best interests to spare you all. I wish to discuss the means for ensuring that you get what you want, and I get what I want."

I nodded slowly. "Of… course. I am vaguely aware of how useful you and I could—"

I stopped as my shirt collar found itself in her grip. She peered over my shoulder at the others, as I spotted the eyepatch under her right bangs, then returned her icy stare to me.

"We will talk in the company of Valkyrie and Ranfilo. In their earshot only."

I blinked a couple of times, glancing over Kysarah's shoulder at the woman who seemingly turned her against the poncho man, if only in secret.

"At least I know I have two others with me…"

I took a deep breath, and turned to face Kumiko's party, as well as Kirito and Asuna.

"If Poncho Man's only been gone for six to eight minutes now, you might catch him. Qusack, stick by my group, they'll keep you from falling into his clutches again."

"Y-You don't really expect us to leave you in the care of Valkyrie?" Kirito asked with all justification.

"She still has to take Ranfilo back to Galey too," I chuckled sincerely, "If you don't find her there, you know to pursue her all the same. Besides, if you don't catch the poncho man, you can check if any of the other cacti are blooming on the way back; see if the Mystic Tome will preserve the fruit."

"It's okay, Kirito," Asuna told him with a hand on his shoulder, "The time spent ensuring Kysarah can make it out of the barren climate, will stall them regardless."

After another half-minute of hesitation, Kirito and Kumiko nodded to Qusack and the Dark Auxiliary respectively, and they headed out to attempt to track down the poncho man.

Meanwhile, I followed Kysarah and Valkyrie back into the cave, knowing there was definitely some way that this could work out well for all involved, but not knowing what it was.

All I knew, was that it was possible for everyone to walk away from this, with nary a scratch on a single player or NPC.


A/N: Viewcount still seems bugged on FFN. Chapter 25 shows 10 views, and Aincrad Interim Chapter 3 is firmly at zero. The latter, I can understand, but the former is completely implausible.

In any case, if you want to roast my writing, or have an easier time discovering other SAO fanfictions by other great authors – on both FFN and Ao3 (some even still use Wattpad) – then you can reach the SAO Fanfiction Central server on Discord using the entry key Sycypugbxq

See you... well, not next Friday-Saturday overlap, but rather, the one after it. Or more accurately, Thursday-Friday overlap – I'll be putting these up in the morning of AEST rather than the evening, from now on.