Chapter Summary: In this second part of Second Day, we'll see Kirito and Argo doing a quest and learning more about what changed in the Death Game.
Chapter Eleven…
Second Day - Part 2!
After leaving Aiko's, Kirito went to do some shopping where he sold his items and brought the potions and items he needed to level up. It was around 9am by the time the young teen left the hop. As he looked around the village, he saw a few more players begin to enter the village. It would seem that other than Argo, there were a few more that left at the same time as her. If there were any players who left the Town of Beginnings this morning, they should be getting here any moment now.
Whilst he doesn't exactly hate meeting new people, Kirito also didn't have any intention of partying up with anyone. At least for now, and not after the incident of the night before where his party member tried to kill him. It would just be a pain should someone try to invite him.
So, for the moment, Kirito would set out and follow his instincts from the Beta. Meaning he would go back to the Town of Beginnings where he would finish the Alchemy Chest quest line, as being able to make free potions, be it health or boosts, it'll be important Not only that, but he'll have to do the objective that'll help him build up his strength stat up, so that he can put his stat points into other important stats.
However, before he returned to the first town, there was a quest that he wanted to do first. This quest was found on the ranch on the edge of town, which gave a reward that made it worth it for people going there often.
For this reason, Kirito was following the unpaved roads east, until he found the ranch. Thankfully, it was still in the place that he remembered it, looking exactly like in his memories. Kirito wished that they left out the ability to smell from the game, as the moment he got near he could smell the ranch-like odour that you would suspect from a farm. He was just thankful that they kept it low, so that he could still get around the place without feeling sick.
As Kirito approached a small cow shed, a middle-aged man wearing a straw hat, cradling his pitchfork with an obviously concerned look on his face appeared, from the shed. He was sighing and shaking his head. Looking at the man, Kirito saw that the Tian had an exclamation mark above his head, which indicated that he was a quest giver.
But as Kirito was walking up to the man to accept the quest that the farmer had for him, Kirito heard a familiar voice call out from behind him. "Hey! Wait, wait!"
This made Kirito abruptly turn around.
In front of them was none other than Argo. She had her hood up to hide who she was.
"Hey, Argo, what's up?" the teen asked the Information Broker, "Are you here for the quest too?"
"Of course I am." Argo said with a smirk, "Of all the quests in Horunka, this quest is second only to the Anneal Blade quest in its value. I want to know if this is one of those one time quests like with the AB, or to see if there's a cool down time to this quest, and if so, how long. You might care how long we might have to wait or if it is a one time quest, so long as you get your rewards?"
"You don't have to put it that way…" Kirito protested, though deep inside he knew she was partly right. However, he did care if the quests were a one time thing, as it would make it harder for people to get stronger. And whilst there are a few basic rules to MMORPG culture, there was one, the most basic one: First Come First Serve.
Rare items belong to the first person to pick them up, rare monsters are that of the player who draws first blood, and quests with cool down timers go to the first player to trigger them. But right now, more than any of those rules or manners, the survival of as many players as possible should take precedence, and it is for that purpose that Argo is trying to make a book. But even then…
"Fine, fine. Alright, let's party u-" Kirito started to say before realizing something. If this quest didn't have a cool down timer, then there wouldn't even be a need to party up. "If I remember correctly, even if you form a party after you take on a quest, it should be shared. So let's do this: I'll take on the quest, and if there's a cool down timer, I'll party up with you. If there isn't, we go our separate ways."
Sure, he knew that Argo wasn't a bad person, but after the events with Coper where he nearly killed him, he didn't feel safe being in a party. Which is why he would prefer to be alone for now. At least until he was strong enough to protect himself should a party member try to betray him again.
"Well shucks, guess I have no choice then. Go on, get on with it" said Argo seemingly unfazed.
Turning back to the straw hat man, Kirito asked the farmer politely, "Good day sir. Is there anything troubling you?"
"Greeting Adventurer, I'm afraid there is." the straw hat man greeted the teen. Whilst Kirito was used to these new NPCs acting differently now, Argo was still shocked at how human they were acting. "One of my calves has gotten lost again. No matter how many times I try to prevent them from escaping the fields, they keep doing so and getting lost." the farmer sighed at this, looking annoyed at this fact, "If I have to guess, it's probably that this calve is in a field out of the east side of the forest. I would go on my own, but I need to find out how this calve had escaped and try to stop it again. So, if you don't mind Adventurer, could you find and bring it back here before it gets attacked by a monster?"
Not bothering to look at the Quest Window to see what the quest was, Kirito quickly agreed to help. He would later regret this. The reason that he hadn't looked at the Quest Window this time is because although there had been slight changes in how the quest was done, the title and the quest itself was the same as in the Beta Test. So, Kirito felt that he didn't had to check the title this time. That was going to be his mistake.
Either way, the moment that he accepted the quest, the man's exclamation mark changed into a question mark, indicating that the quest was in progress. Now Argo's test began. If there were no cool down timers on this quest, then from Argo's view, there should still be an exclamation mark above his head.
"So?" asked Kirito, turning back to her, wanting to know if she saw anything or not. She shrugged, as if to say, "I told you so."
"Ain't nothin' poppin' up." Argo informed the other former Beta Tester, shocking him a bit. He thought that there would be something there, to show if there was a timer or something to show what was happening. Was this another one time quest? Or was there something more to it?
From the way the farmer was talking, Kirito felt as if this was going to be a repeatable quest. So, was it one of the games where you have to interact with the NPC before something happens?
Either way, Kirito watched as Argo walked past him with a smirk look and stood in front of the man and asked casually, "Hey bro, what's up?"
In response, the man looked a bit confused and offended by the way Argo talked to him, but he didn't say anything. Instead, he shrugged his shoulders and answered "I'm sorry young Adventurer, but I'm busy. Could you come back at say after three o'clock this afternoon? I should have something for you to do then."
This wasn't one of the template responses that the quest NPC in the Beta Test had when they dealt with a cool down timer. Right now, it is 9:10am, so if he tells them to come back after 3pm, then that means they can assume the cool down timer was about six hours.
"First off, see." Argo said with a slight smirk, as she and Kirito walked off, then the smirk turned into a confusion. "Was it me, but did he just act slightly colder towards me than towards you."
"Well, it could be he just didn't like being treated so casually.," Kirito told the Informant. "I did say that they seemed to have their own personalities."
"I know you said it, but seeing it first hand is something else." admitted a surprised Argo. Sure hearing that the NPCs acted differently was one thing, but seeing it in action was another thing altogether. She would have to warn people about this. As if people acted the wrong way, they could lose out a lot of quests that would help them level up and get stronger. Seeing the NPC act like this made her realize how important certain information was and that it needed to be out there now.
As she thought about this, she saw the menu window appear in front of her, one with a party invitation that Kirito sent to her. Seeing how it would seem that her fellow former Beta Tester wanted to get on with the quest, she accepted the invite. Here, the two of them left the farm to do the quest.
o0OoO0o
Now, the quest that Kirito and Argo thought they were on, The Lost Calf, was true to its title. It was a quest to find a calf who got lost and bring it safely back to the ranch. It wasn't a simple quest such as a regular search or hunting quest, no, there was more to it. What made this particularly troublesome was that to find the calf, you had to borrow the mother cow and bring it all the way to the grass field where you would search.
The cow, or as the game calls them, Buffamoo, in question was a monster-like cow. Its body was the size of an adult, about six feet. The cow itself was a muscular bovine like cow, with huge horns and was white with black spots. It also had mane like a lion and a mane going down the centre of its back.
Unfortunately, as it turns out, the cow that they were using was a bit temperamental. Once every four or five minutes, you have to give her her favourite rock salt to lick, or she would lose her temper and run all the way back to the ranch, where you would have to start over again. Fortunately, monsters would never target the cow. However, the Salt Gauge can run out in the middle of a battle, so taking this quest solo would have been pretty difficult.
Argo no doubt knew that as she helped Kirito dispatch the two Worms who attacked them right as we left town.
"See? Aren't you glad there's two of us?" she sneered.
"…it's not like I needed you. Even if I were alone I could have stomped them" Kirito replied childishly, as he rummaged in his belt pouch for the egg sized rock salt and gave it to the cow. The cow's salt gauge didn't have any visual indicators, but as the gauge decreased its tail would wag faster, so as long as you kept that in mind you could keep it from running away. The now satisfied cow gave a hearty "moooo!" so Kirito gave its body a quick pet and went back on their way.
The path that comes out of the east side of the forest, unlike the route that connects Horunka to the Town of Beginnings, there was no maze. You don't even need to worry about dangerous monsters spawning, so you had plenty of time to enjoy the sparkling tree dew and the birds chirping away.
As they were walking, Kirito's gaze was drawn to the information broker walking ahead of him, specifically to the weapons equipped on her waist. He was now able to see why she made such a big deal of it at Aiko's because her main weapon turned out to be the incredibly rare Claw: a weapon that is wielded on your knuckles on both hands, in other words a sort of Metal Claw.
Although, Kirito had to admit, even during the Beta Test, he hardly remembers seeing anyone using those sorts of weapons. The main reason for this was how hard and dangerous it was to train with them. Back in the Beta Test, Kirito had tried to use them once in the beginning, but even before he could learn how to use them, he gave up. While its strength lay in its light weight and ability to attack with both hands, its reach was incredibly short, so you need a certain determination to brawl directly with monsters.
Of course, there's always a chance you'd get into something like that during a battle, but consciously choosing to close in while in this full dive environment requires quite a bit of daring. The official service turned death game now brings an extra dimension of fear to close quarters combat, which made Kirito wonder why Argo chose the Claw.
As Kirito was lost in those thoughts, Argo suddenly turned around and deftly walked backward as she gave him a smug grin. "Hey kiddo, yer really into Big Sis' legs aren't you?"
"K-kiddo? Big Sis?" asked Kirito,and although embarrassed at being caught looking at her, he was also a bit offended. Whilst he wasn't an adult, he also wasn't a kid, so being called a kiddo felt wrong. Especially from someone who was around his age, or at least a few years older.
As for being embarrassed, although he was looking at her waist, he was also looking at her legs. Although he wasn't going to admit it to her. Since this morning, his thoughts were filled of sex. If it wasn't for the fact that he needed to level up and get stronger, he would be in bed with Aiko or flirt with Argo and get into her pants. He couldn't believe that after his first time having sex, all he could think of was sex. He was just grateful that his desire for living was stronger than wanting to have sex.
Either way, not wanting Argo to catch on, Kirito took a few deep breaths, before he opened his mouth to speak again. "I wasn't looking at your legs at all," Kirito lied, "I was wondering about your weapon. Of all things, why a Claw?"
"That'll cost you five hundred Cor." Argo said with a slight smile
"Ugh." Kirito grumbled, thinking he should have seen that coming. Whenever possible, she would try to get a fast buck as the Americans would say. Although five hundred Cor wasn't particularly egregious, but there were better things he could be spending that money on, potions, weapons and armour. And as quickly thought about it, he realized that the information wasn't really something that he really needed to know. More than anything, it was a waste of money. "Well, I'll just guess what it is before the end of this quest so never mind." Kirito waved it off, not really bothered one way or another.
"Oh yeah?" smirked Argo, "Well bring it on. If you can guess what it is then your Big Sis will send you a big fat friend request"
"Do you…" Kirito started to complain, but was interrupted by a low buzz. Argo seemed to notice it at the same time, and before he could see anything she had already equipped the Claws that were hanging at her waist.
"Moo-ko, hold up!" Kirito ordered the Buffamoo as it obligingly stopped. Argo glared at Kirito as if to say What the hell is Moo-ko? But Kirito ignored her and drew the Anneal Blade from his back. They equipped their weapon as from the thicket, two more fifty centimetre long bee-type monsters appeared.
Kirito would openly admit that if he ran across something like this in real life, saying that he would scream and run away would be an understatement, but here in Aincrad it was in the smallest class of monsters. However, that meant it was hard to get a clean hit in.
There were two of the huge bee-type creatures, called the Forest Wasp. Kirito took a position to protect the cow, and turned to his third non-NPC party member since the official launch and barked orders, "Argo, take the guy on the left. Forest Wasps spit poison so watch out!"
"Who the hell do you think I am?" replied Argo with a bit of an attitude, but also with some reassurance to me. Knowing that he had his back covered, Kirito concentrated on the Forest Wasp on the right.
ZZ. ZZ. went the unnerving buzzing as the giant wasp approached slowly, trying to draw Kirito in. Just like their lower level cousins, the Yellow Wasps, in the fields near the Town of Beginnings, their movements were unpredictable and as he had just told Argo, they had a ranged attack where they spit poison.
Liquid-type ranged attacks can be easily countered with a large shield, but to maintain a large field of vision Kirito chose to forgo the shield. With defence out of the question, the young swordsman was left with no choice but to dodge. You can block it with your sword, but the poison's hit on a weapon's durability is more than twice that of its effect on armour. Argo should be facing the same thing on her side, but Kirito couldn't afford to take his eyes away from the enemy in front of him. As soon as the erratically approaching Forest Wasp stopped in mid air and protruded a poison needle…
"Hya!" Kirito yelled as he flew to the right.
Kirito must have come in too close because he felt a few droplets burn as they touched his cheek. But their HP damage wasn't anything significant, and their debuff didn't work. As he hung in midair, he brought the Anneal Blade across his right shoulder as he readied the one shot diagonal slash Sword Skill Slant. The swordsman put his weight on the foot that had landed and activated the skill.
As the Forest Wasp was cooling down from its poison attack, Kirito aimed in the fine area between its neck and chest. Even though the Anneal Blade's weight and reach was completely different from the basic sword, since I=he had used it so much during the Beta, it turned out that the sensation of using it was ingrained in his body more than he thought. With a faint blue aura and with a heavy slash, the sword point sank into the less than five millimetres point he was aiming for. With a satisfying crunch, Kirito took another swing and lopped off the Wasp's head. The separated Wasp's head and body came to an unnatural halt and contracted for a split second before disappearing in a cloud of blue particles.
Without any hesitation, Kirito looked to the left and found Argo just as she was parrying her Wasp's bite attack with her right Claw and plunged her left one into the now defenceless left side. The Wasp's HP gauge went to zero and made a shattering sound like glass breaking before fading away. After quickly skimming the result window that popped up, Kirito approached the information broker.
"Good job." Kirito said with a smile.
"You too bud." said Argo.
If she were a familiar party member then Kirito would usually bump fists with her, but with her sharp claws equipped, it wasn't a smart idea right now. So with that excuse Kirito tried to do away with the fist bump, but Argo, stowing away both Claws, stuck out her right fist. Kirito smiled and extended his left fist and tapped it. He knew how important it was to keep people like Argo on the right side of them. They might not be friends, but later? Who knows. At that moment, a memory from the back of his mind popped up.
From SAO's official launch at 1pm to Kayaba's Death Game announcement at 5pm yesterday, Kirito was in the company of a certain player. This player, a katana-wielding newbie named Klein, was able to sniff out that he was a Beta Tester.
"Please teach me this game!" He, or as Kirito found out later was a she, begged without a hint of shame. Swept up in the heat of the moment, Kirito ended up agreeing. He had to quickly give up his initial plan of speedrunning the first few hours as he taught her how to draw out her Sword Skills.
Once you get the hang of them, Sword Skills can be deployed even when you're hanging in midair or laying down. But at first, just about anybody will have a hard time activating them. Even if you were able to hold your weapon at a certain position and angle and activate your skill, controlling that activated skill (or more accurately, System Assist) and aiming it at your target is no easy feat. If you get ahead of the Assist and swing your sword, then you'd Fumble the Skill. On the other hand, if you miss the Assist's activation, then the skill will just move your body and you won't even have time to aim the sights.
As for Kirito, his ability with teaching Sword Skills, or rather, teaching anything in the first place, was just about non-existent, so he could only tell Klein things like, you swoosh like this and put it in your sights and swish like that to slash, that were probably way too vague to understand. Even then, Klein was able to struggle again and again, until she was able to activate the basic Sword Skill Reaver to kill the weakest monster, the Blue Boar. Ber "Oh yeaaaahh," at the time sounded as if she had just gotten the last attack bonus on the floor boss, striking a pose and coming up to him for a high five. Even now, Kirito can still feel a bit of the throbbing numbness it left in his left hand.
While Kirito still planned to continue being a Solo Player during the official service just like he did in Beta, he felt that maybe for once, he might be able to get along with this lady.
But he abandoned her.
Right after the Death Game announcement, Kirito urged Klein to follow him to Horunka to set up base. But she shook her head. She had friends from other games still in the plaza.
Kirito had two choices at the time: one was to team up with Klein's partners and then bring everyone to Horunka. The other was to part ways with Klein right there and head to Horunka alone. Seeing him struggle with the choice, Klein offered some words.
"No… I can't keep relying on you. I was a guild master in the game I used to play. It'll be fine. I'll just make do with the techniques that you've taught me till now. And… there's still a chance that this was just a bad joke and that we'll all be logged off. So don't worry about us and go to the village."
With those words, Kirito flew. Abandoning the first friend he made in SAO, he set out on a path to make himself stronger.
As Kirito thought about it now, he believed that in the long term, that was probably the wrong decision.
No matter what level he got up to, there was no way he could take on even the first floor boss by himself. To beat this game, some organisational power was absolutely needed. While Klein was a novice at that point yesterday, her actual movements inside the full dive environment weren't that bad. On top of that, when she said that she was a Guild Leader, there was no doubt she would be someone people would be drawn to. A person like her, who had the leadership skills Kirito lacked, so long as she gained the necessary knowledge, skills, and level, would be able to lead people trying to beat the game. As for Kirito, in his selfish bid to hit the ground running, he left behind a promising leader in the Town of Beginnings.
Once she had met up with her friends, it's not hard to imagine that they'd soon set out from the Town of Beginnings, and it's also not hard to imagine their entire party getting wiped out by a little bit of bad luck out in the wild. But there was still a way to know whether or not she was alive or not.
Kirito still remembers her player name, so he would know right away if he sent her an instant message. In fact, yesterday when they parted, he told Klein "If you need anything, just message me." But that was more than fifteen hours ago, and there hasn't been a peep from her since. Because of that, he has been trying to muster up the courage to send Klein a message, to no avail. What if he sends it, but in return he gets the error message: That Player Doesn't Exist? Just thinking about it sends chills down his spine.
It was better to pretend that Klein was still alive than to check to make sure. At least this way there was still hope that she was alive. As by checking, the worse news could come back and prevent him from doing what was needed, to get stronger. It was better to pretend that Klein was alive, as if he thought she was dead and he could have done something to prevent it, it could destroy him.
"What's that weird look on your face?" Kirito heard Argo ask him.
Kirito blinked two or three times blankly in response before he looked up. There, only fifteen centimetres away, he found Argo peering into his face.
"Whoa!" Kirito exclaimed as he reflexively jumped back. He quickly tried to play it off. "N-nothing…"
At that moment, Kirito realized that if he didn't ask this now, he might not get the opportunity to ask it for a while, so he shook his head. "Well, it's not nothing…"
"Huh?" asked Argo.
"Argo, why did you decide to become an information broker?" asked Kirito, "I don't think you'd make that much money, and besides, wouldn't gathering information and printing a guidebook take time away from your levelling?"
"Mmm…" intoned Argo as she played with a wisp of hair jutting out from under her hood, but eventually settled into her usual cunning smirk.
"There's a free answer, a 100 Cor answer, and a 100,000 Cor answer. Which one d'ya want?" Argo asked with a smirk, not willing to give up information with a cost.
"…what the hell is up with the price on the last one?" Kirito blurted out before shrugging, "Guess I'll go with the free one"
"You got it." Argo said with a smile, knowing that she wouldn't have to give up too much about herself, "Well here it is: I think I'll make money"
"Ehhh… didn't you just say printing the guidebook would put you in the red?" asked Kirito, wondering how the book would make money. As she said, she would be giving away after a while.
"Well at first yeah." admitted the informant, "But by the 4th or 5th volume, once I get information that not even you or the other Beta Testers know about, I should be turnin' a profit. Once I get the business goin', I'm thinkin' of hirin' people and publishin' a newspaper or somethin'."
"A-a newspaper?" Kirito asked with his mouth agape. He guessed if you think about it, the world of SAO doesn't really have any entertainment of any sort. It wouldn't be hard to imagine that the players who decided to wait it out inside the Safe Zone would be dying for information or anything to read. So if you print a newspaper, it would probably make a nice bit of cash.
"In other words, you think you'll make money so you want to be an information broker?" asked Kirito.
"You got it. Well, that's the free answer anyway" Argo giggled as he stared into her face.
As he toyed with whether or not he should ask for the hundred Cor answer, Kirito decided not to ask. It's not like she might give him the full answer, just enough to answer the question without answering it fully. So, with a nod of his head, he said. "I see. Well, godspeed to you and your business then"
"Oh hoh? You don't wanna know the hundred Cor answer?"
"Ahh, neh, I don't think you would give me the full truth even if I did. I doubt you will say anything if I give you the full amount." Kirito said with a smile, "Not only that, but as I think about it, paying cash to look into your private thoughts just rubs me the wrong way." I said with a straight face.
This time, it was Argo's turn to blink her eyes blankly, before a massive sneer enveloped her face. "I see, I see. Well, it looks like this kiddo's finally learned how to treat a lady right. "
"Can you please stop calling me kiddo?" Kirito requested with a sigh, being called a kiddo was getting to him quickly.
"My apologies, it looks like Moo-ko's started losin' her temper kiddo." Argo replied with a smirk.
"Ehhh…" groaned Kirito, realizing that he wasn't going to get anywhere with this.
As he turned around to look at the Buffamoo, Kirito found that her tail was moving really fast just as she had pointed out. Panicking and moving closer, Kirito fished some rock salt out from his pouch and gave it to her to lick. This made her moo in content, before they continued with the quest.
o0OoO0o
As they continued the quest, they ran into three more monster encounters. They didn't really have much of a hard time repelling them, thanks to, as much as Kirito hated to admit it, Argo's deft athleticism and her cool and composed decision making. While keeping the Buffamoo's salt gauge happily maintained, they were able to clear the forest and, just after 10am, arrive at their destination.
Separated from the Southern Grassland that nestled the Town of Beginnings by a giant river, the grass field that stretched out before their eyes was but one part of Aincrad's largest flatland map. If Kirito recalled correctly, it was officially called the Rata Plain, but everyone in the Beta era called it the Central Plain. Assuming that they hadn't changed the size of the map from the Beta, then it should measure about three kilometres from north to south and as much as four kilometres from east to west.
Kirito had heard some people say that the area was the size of Tokyo's Taitou Ward. The plain's central region turns into a wetland, and right in the middle of that lies a town of the strongest of the basic monsters, the Kobold. If they don't pay attention and end up stumbling into it, even they would end up dead.
On the north side of the plain, as if to cut it off, towered giant cliffs, splitting the First Floor into north and south. To go beyond, you would need to go through either the dungeon in the east of the cliffs, the caves in the west, or the central canyon where the Boar-type Field Boss lay in wait. Going through the dungeon and the caves would take some time, and since the crucial town of Tolbana lay after the canyon, you would have no choice but to face the Field Boss.
During the Beta test, it didn't even take three days to beat him but, that time it was because it wasn't at full strength and it took at least a hundred people dying countless times in a reckless charge. Since they can't afford any more sacrifices since the official launch, that means that the conquest team would have to meticulously upgrade everyone's equipment and drill everyone's teamwork to beat it. In the first place, how many people can you even put together for that conquest team?
'Would I even want to join that? Do I even have the right?' Kirito thought to himself as he watched the grass plain waving in the southern wind when suddenly…
"Here you go!" Kirito heard Argo say as she waved a small bottle underneath his nose.
"W-what is this?" asked Kirito as he looked up.
"What is it? It's a drink dummy." Argo said with an exasperated face as he accepted the bottle.
The bottle was made of crude glass that still had bubbles in it, sealed not by cork but by a wooden plug, and finally, displayed a label that simply showed a lemon.
"…wait, I'd never seen anything like this in the Beta." Kirito told Argo.
"Well, you guys were so focused on getting to the top floors, once you got past the Second Floor you hardly even came back to the Town of Beginnings did you?" asked Argo, "I found this guy just before the end of the Beta Test in the Town of Beginnings' Western district. It's only sold in a tiny booth"
"Is that so? Thanks, how much do I owe you?" asked Kirito. Although he did return to the Town of Beginnings for a few quests, he never heard of this booth. So it was nice to learn something he didn't know about.
"This one's on me" said Argo, surprising Kirito, to which he thanked her.
As Kirito looked around, he found a comfortable looking rock and sat down on it. First he checked to see how the was doing. Her tail was wagging lazily in the air as she happily munched on the grass. Figuring that he had about three more minutes, Kirito popped open the bottle.
But suddenly he stopped.
In the world of SAO, outside of the Safe Zone, as a rule, just about anything goes. During the Beta, there were some bastards who delighted in PKing. Although he knew that there shouldn't be any players who would do that now that the official launch turned the whole thing into a Death Game. That would be because that would make that person a bonafide, 100% genuine murderer. Moreover, it would make beating the game much harder. However, after last night, where Coper tried to kill him, he couldn't but think that there might be a risk here. Whilst it's one thing to get food and drink from a friend or a guild member, eating and drinking anything from a person you only known for a short while, made Kirito worried.
As Kirito was mulling over these thoughts, Argo came and grabbed the bottle in his right hand and shoved it in her own unopened bottle.
"There, does this make it better?" asked Argo, upset that Kirito was mistrusting over her.
"Oh, s-sorry. It's not that I was suspicious of you or anything but…" Kirito tried to begin to explain why he hesitated.
"Nah, you have a point. That was my bad. You're right to have that level of caution" she said as she threw back her hood, bringing up the exchanged bottle to her lips and gulping down almost half of it.
"Phew!" she exhaled contentedly, as she showed no hint of numbness or damage.
If Kirito were much more cautious, then he should have suspected that she would have put poison on both and applied purification just before she drank it. But in that case, you should see a buff icon blink below her HP bar. As far as he can tell, Argo's HP bar in his eyesight didn't show anything like that, and in the first place, she was the one who suggested partying up.
After mulling it over, Kirito popped open the bottle and took a big gulp. It's sweet. And sour. A rich lemon aroma washed over both his tongue and nostrils, and gulping it down left a refreshing bitterness as everything from his throat to his stomach felt a certain heat…
"…wait a second, isn't this alcohol?" Kirito yelled out as Argo raised her eyebrow beside him.
"Well yeah, that's 'cause it's limoncello." admitted the informant.
"Limon…what's that?" asked the younger teen.
"Well since I already spotted you one, might as well tell you about it." Argo said with a smile, "Normally I'd charge money for this kind of information you see? Anyway, limoncello is an Italian-made liqueur. They infuse vodka or some other strong but neutral spirit with lemon rinds and sugar to make it."
"Is that so? So in other words, it's, um, kinda like a lemon sour?" Kirito asked after thinking about it.
"That's nothin' like it!" protested Argo with an exasperated expression as she stuck her half empty bottle under his nose. "Look here bud, a lemon sour is shochu put in soda water and squeezed with lemons. Well, it is pretty good itself, and it's really only 5% alcohol at most, but it's a completely different drink!"
'…well excuse me.' Kirito thought with a frown, 'I'm just a middle schooler who turned fourteen last month.'
This was what he was dying to shoot back at her. However, judging from her alcohol knowledge, Argo is probably over twenty-years-old, so the next time she calls him kiddo, he would have absolutely no recourse. Taking one more swig of the limoncello, he swallowed his protest with the alcohol's help and nodded.
"I see. By the way, how strong is limoncello anyway?" wondered Kirito.
"Hmmm." Argo hummed thoughtfully as she thought about it, "Well how much water is put in usually differs between each household or brand, but roughly speakin' it's about 30% thereabouts? This one feels like it's in that neighbourhood"
"30%…" Kirito said in shock. It meant that it was five or six times more alcohol than the beer his mom drinks.
Of course, in the real world, he had never had any alcohol that strong, nor did he even have the time to taste anything like that in the Beta's Aincrad. If he finishes this bottle, wouldn't he get drunk and not be able to fight properly?
As if she was reading his mind, Argo smirked. "Don't worry, in this world alcohol is just a taste. Even if you drink an entire barrel of vodka you wouldn't get drunk. Well, there are some idiots who'd get drunk even if they drink Oolong Tea, but if you were the type of person who'd delude themselves like that I wouldn't know what to think of you"
"Delusion" Kirito whispered to himself as he shook his head slightly. If he could manipulate his thoughts like that, he wouldn't be worrying about Klein or Coper so much.
"Nah, I'm not like that" Kirito answered, as he gulped down some more limoncello. The rich sour sweetness and sharp aroma suited his tastes exactly. And the burning sensation as it passed through his throat wasn't half bad either.
Once I had drained that bottle, he let out a sigh before standing up, and looked up at Argo.
"Thanks for the drink, that was great. It'd probably taste even better if it was freezing cold." Kirito thanked the older lady.
"Hey now, don't be greedy. First of all, in this world there's no refrigerators, and there isn't even a way to get ice" Argo said, rolling her eyes.
Kirito smirked at her "Is that so? I guess it's impossible for even a mighty information broker like you isn't it?"
"Now you've said it!" Argo short back with a smirk of her own, "One day, I'll give you some freezin' cold ice water, just you wait!"
"Oh boy, I can't wait," Kirito answered, as Argo looked at him and sighed.
"From your attitude, you'd probably forget this conversation even happened" Argo said with a sigh.
After finishing their break and giving the Buffamoo some salt to lick, they set out once more on the Lost Calf quest. Which, at this point, basically just involved leading the cow around the grass field wherever. The calf was in the Rata Plain's western end, inside an area with a diameter of about five hundred metres.
Once they get close to it, the cow would let them know with a sound. Of course, monsters will still spawn, and you might still find some geographic feature traps like ponds hidden between the reeds or thorns strewn about, but if you pay attention to where you step, then there's no danger of running into them. The grass is at most fifty centimetres high, so even a calf should be visible over them.
However, Kirito didn't know if it's because of the rolling geography, but their visibility only went so far. So they left the calf searching up to the mother cow, and as players they took up the task of watching out for monsters and the geography. That would be the fastest way to clear this quest. As if she were thinking the same thing, Kirito found Argo silently walking while keeping her eyes at her feet. While fending off giant rats and giant scarab beetles, they ended up covering about half of the five hundred metre diameter search area when…
"Moo!" sounded the cow in a different tone from before. It was as if she was in a hurry. Turning her giant body around, she ran to the east.
Argo and Kirito immediately followed. The cow itself shouldn't be in any danger of plunging into a hidden pond or anything, but she could aggro a bunch of monsters. In that case, all they could do was ignore all the attacking monsters until she found her calf. While praying she wouldn't trigger anything dangerous, they ran after her with all their might.
Fortunately, the cow stopped after only twenty metres and let out another sharp bellow. In response, a shriller "moo!" emanated in the distance. Argo and Kirito rushed in front of her to get a handle on the situation when…
"What?"
"Oh!"
We both exclaimed in unison. The calf was right in front of them. But around its neck was a rough rope made from intertwined dried grass, and leading it with his back turned to them, was a small man, about three and a half feet tall, in a hooded cape. It seemed like he was trying to take it somewhere.
"Hey!" Kirito yelled instinctively, as the cow thief turned around at the same time.
As soon as he saw the man's face, Kirito let out a "whoa!"
He was no man.
Whilst he might have a humanoid body, it was a reptilian humanoid body with scaled skin between greenish brown and black in colour and burnt orange to dark green eyes. Its legs were sinewy and digitigrade. It had long, clawed fingers and a jaw like a crocodile. It had small tan horns protruding from their head. Finally, popping out of the grass that had been hiding it up until a few seconds ago, a long tail.
It was one of the humanoid monsters that made the First Floor their home, a Kobold. (It reminded Kirito of the Kobold's from the board game the 5E version of Forgotten Realms.)
The cursor above its head indicated that it was a Swamp Kobold Rat Hunter.
Kirito had fought a few of them during the Beta. As far as Kobolds go, it was the weakest class, but for someone who's just barely level six like him, it made for a concerning opponent. In the first place, why is something that shouldn't even be coming out of the central wetlands here in the western part of the plain anyway?
"Kororu guru…" yelped the Kobold in its language as it noticed Kirito and Argo, throwing away the rope in its right hand and drawing the short spear on its back. It was only a crude contraption that had a twisted wooden handle and a bone tip, but its attack power was no slouch. In fact, the cursor above its head, which made the colours darker or lighter based on how much stronger the opponent was than you are, sported, for a level five like Kirito, a rich, blood red.
"Argo, what level are you?" asked Kirito as he watched the freed calf run to its mother out of the corner of his eye. This time, she answered without charging for the information
"Level three." replied Argo.
"I'm Level five." Kirito informed her, "If there's two of us, it's going to be close. What do you think?"
"This quest is turnin' out different from the Beta. As much as possible, I'd like to get info." replied Argo, as if saying that it's for the sake of all the players who undertake this quest from now on. Without a doubt, anyone who takes this on without any prior information, and encounters a Swamp Kobold for the first time here would most likely be squashed like a bug.
"Got it!" Kirito whispered, as the Kobold screamed "Naru ran gura!"
Bring it on! They thought as they readied their sword and claw.
But at that moment, a rustling came from behind the Kobold as the grass swayed, and out popped not one but two more Swamp Kobolds.
"Wha-" the two adventurous gasped.
Looking at the cursors above the new Kobolds, Kirito's heart almost stopped in fear. One of the Kobolds clad in rags was like the first Rat Hunter. But the other one was a head taller, clad in leather armour. In its right hand was a thick dagger, and its left gripped a rope tipped with an iron hook.
Even without looking at the cursor, Kirito knew what it was. A Swamp Kobold Trapper, it is the most dangerous among the Swamp Kobolds. Just about everyone during the Beta died at least once to this guy.
While the Sword Skill that comes from its right hand should not be taken lightly, what is even more terrifying is that the rope hook in its left hand had a special attack called the "Weapon Dropper" that wrenched your weapon away. As soon as you try to pick up the weapon, a fierce attack will rain down upon you, and has a good possibility of draining your HP right then and there. On top of that, the Trapper's cursor was dyed the dark crimson of dried blood, and its stats were far higher than Kirito's current ones.
"Konjura!" bellowed the Trapper, calling the two Rat Hunters to flank him.
"Argo, let's run for it! At this point, there's no way we'd win!" Kirito yelled, as Argo shook her right hand.
"No, if we both turn our backs to them we'd be screwed!" Argo warmed the black haired teen.
"…!" gowned Kirito, as he realized his mistake.
Usually when a party tries to run away, the fastest player needs to remain behind to try to counter the rope attack. But back then, the player who stayed behind had a pretty high chance of dying.
As the Trapper curled its gigantic mouth into a sneer, it started twirling the rope in its left hand. While the rope was limp, you could hear the whoosh of the heavy iron hook. The Rat Hunters on either side also cradled their bone spears as they closed the distance.
As Kirito was paralyzed with fear, Argo whispered in his ear, "Don't worry. The Weapon Dropper doesn't work on my Claw. I'll bait him into tossin' his rope, and as soon as I cut it down, I'll catch up. Don't mind me and just scram!"
She was right. The Claw, which was fastened securely by metal clasps, was in no danger of being stripped by the rope hook, and if it snags one of the Claws, then you could still use the other one to snap the rope. But that only works if you were 1 on 1 with the Trapper. In this case, if the rope catches you, then when the Rat Hunters charge in you're a sitting duck.
"I'll take care of the Rat Hunters, I'll leave the rope up to you" Kirito shot back as he stuck out the Anneal Blade.
"…ya dummy. Can't even listen to your Big Sis huh?" murmured Argo angrily, but stopped her complaints there.
As if realizing what we were up to, the Trapper increased the speed of the rope hook's rotation and took a step forward. Entering the Weapon Dropper's range in thirty centimetres… twenty centimetres… ten centimetres…
At that moment
"Moooo!" came the bone rattling bellow from the Buffamoo that they thought was protecting the calf. And soon after, the ground began to rumble.
Freezing in place and looking back, we saw the cow lower its horned head, and charge in with a vengeance.
"Whoa!"
"Wha!"
Argo and Kirito leapt out of the way. The mother cow who charged between them shook the ground as it plunged straight into the Swamp Kobold Trapper
"Narungo!" it yelled as it hurled the rope hook towards the cow. The attack, which would have taken a huge chunk of a player's HP with a direct hit, glanced off the cow's right horn with a clank as it was unceremoniously cast aside. Right after, the slightly more than 500 kilogram cow's head rammed straight into the chest of the Trapper. While it was bigger than most other Kobolds, the Trapper was far smaller than an adult human, which meant the attack sent it flying into a huge boulder that was in the area. With the body being crushed by the Buffamoo, the Trapper dropped dead.
"No way…" Kirito whispered, as the two Rat Hunters whimpered "roggo…"
Argo and Kirito looked at each other, nodded, and set our sights on the now demoralised Rat Hunters.
Once the Kobold were defeated, the bodies were still there like the other monsters that they defeated. But unlike the others, which they had to leave behind because the mother cow kept moving, the mother cow was caring for its calf. Seeing this, Kirito walked up to the dead Trapper. So far, they hadn't been able to get any rewards when defeating monsters, and seeing how they believed that they had to loot a body like you normally would to get something, this was a good time to test it.
"What are you doing kiddo?" asked Argo as Kirito bent down to look through Trapper's body.
"Testing the theory that we need to loot the body of the monster manually to get items." explained Kirito, as he began to search the Trapper's body. And sure enough he was right, they did have to loot the bodies to get the loot. He found that the Trapper had two pouches. The first pouch had thirty-five Car in it, whilst the other pouch had two small health potions, which would heal a person by seventy-five points.
The Kobold also had a leather shoulder guard that protected the Kobold's left shoulder and part of its chests. The monster also had a leather forearm guard and a silk cape, not forgetting the rope hook and digger.
"Damn kiddo, you were right, we do need to loot to get things." Argo said in acknowledgment in Kirito's theory, "But what about the other monsters, how are we meant to get the loot from the non-humanoid monsters?"
"The same way any hunter gets the meat and skin, learn the hunting skill, dismantle." Kirito told his party member.
"That's one of the later skills a player learns when learning to become a hunter." Argo said thoughtfully as she thought back to the Beta Test and what she learned from it. Then as she thought about it she said, "Is it me or does it seem like we're bein' forced to learn hunting skills?"
"Maybe, but right now with how things are going, nothing would surprise me." Kirito said with a sigh, "Kayaba has told us that we should be treating this game as real life, so being forced to learn such skills would be needed if we want money and gear."
"True." admitted Argo, as she made a mental note to add this information to her guidebook that she was going to write. "It's just a pain. As a Solo Player like us will be forced to use a skill slot to use such a skill, meanin' throwin' a skill that we might need instead."
"Maybe." Kirito said thoughtfully.
"What do you mean by that?" Argo asked, confused
"We have no idea what else Kayaba has changed in the game. All we know, he might have given us more slots to use, so we can use more skills." suggested Kirito.
"Really?" asked Argo. She was very sceptical about this idea. "From what I have seen so far, it seems he is makin' the game as hard as possible."
"I said might have, not that he did so." Kirito told her, understanding why she would be sceptical of this. "Anyway, why do you loot the two Rat Hunter's bodies and we can leave here."
"You're sure about this?" asked Argo, surprised that Kirito wouldn't want anything from the second body. "It would seem you would be missin' out on money and items."
"Maybe, but you need them more if you want to make your guidebook." reasoned Kirito, "Anything you don't need, you can sell to help create your guide and in turn help other players so they don't die in this game."
"Thank you kiddo." Argo thanked the teen as she began to loot the two Kobold's bodies. Getting potions, the weapons, capes, and money from them. Afterwards, the two truened the two Buffamoos back to the ranch.
o0OoO0o
It didn't take the two adventurous long to return to the farm ranch with the two Buffamoos. Here, the rancher there thanked them and not only gave Kirito the promised Cor reward, but was also given a mysterious basket.
Upon gaining the rewards, the complete message appeared, which showed them why the quest was so different than how they remembered it:
Heifer Strikes Back Quest - (COMPLETED)
Help a mothering Buffamoo find its lost calf.
Reward(s):
200 Cor
Basket of Bread
They stood there speechless. They were shocked at the change of the title of the quest, from being The Lost Calf to Heifer Strikes Back, they never thought that this would happen. As Kirito thought about it, the title was without a doubt a fitting name for a quest where the cow instantly squashes a Swamp Kobold Trapper. But if it was that strong all along, then Kirito couldn't help but think that maybe it should have at least helped a little bit with the battles along the way.
"So, that's why the quest is different?" whistle Argo as she stretched and shook off her hood, "It's because it was different. Bet you're glad you didn't do it solo didn'tcha kiddo?"
Argo's smirk peeved Kiritoto no end, but this time he had no come back, as it was true. As thanks to this quest, he was able to level up to Level 6, whilst Argo levelled up to Level 4. Not a bad result after just shy of 24 hours from the beginning of the game. But to even attempt the First Floor's boss, Illfang the Kobold Lord, you need to be at least Level 10. The Labyrinth Tower seems like just a far off dream at this point…
"That goes for you too." Kirito replied back with a smirk as he realized that she wouldn't be here either without his help, "Anyway, you should make sure you write in your guidebook: If the Trapper turns up, don't panic and run away, as the mother Buffamoo will defeat it."
"I know, I know!" Argo admitted with a sigh. She knew how important this information was so that no one would die from this. Then a thought came to her, "I should also put a warning for the other Beta's to check all quest titles and descriptions. Whilst the description for this quest was the same as in the Beta, the title didn't and that can be an important key to know what to expect in the quest."
It was true, whilst most descriptions would inform the player what the quest is all about, there's a time where that isn't enough. Like with this quest, the description showed it was a basic escort mission, but the title showed that it was more than that. If they realized that sooner, things could have been different. Whilst Kirito admits he wasn't sure how, but he would have guessed that the mother would have been a bigger part to the quest being able to fight too. Without the title he would have thought it as a normal escort quest. So yeah, when doing quests, titles were just as important as the descriptions.
So, if this quest had a different title and a different event to it than the one he remembered, who knows what other quests have been altered like this too. So he would have to check each quest he knew to make sure it was the same as he remembered them, and if not, be ready to alter how he would do them.
Either way, with a big sigh, Kirito opened the basket that he received from the ranch owner. Inside, there were two loves of black bread, along with a small brown jar.
"Bread and…what is this jar? We didn't get anything like this in Beta did we?" Kirito asked Argo, wondering if he missed something.
"Ya got that right!" Argo said, peering into the basket. With her index finger, she tapped the jar. After tapping "Use" from the window that appeared, her fingertip started glowing, "Hey! Give me your palm!"
"Why do you want to use my hand?" Kirito complained, while he obligingly stuck out his left hand.
Argo poked her finger in the middle of Kirito's palm, and out gushed a milk white paste. It looked a bit like cream… wait come to think of it… Kirito scooped up a little bit with my right finger and licked it. At that moment, a yogurt-like tartness and sweet, rich taste filled his mouth. It was cream.
"So good!" Kirito blurted out, proceeding to scarf down the rest. He wanted to grab his hand and lick every corner of it, but now that he was a second year middle schooler, there was no way he would do something like that in front of an older woman.
"This looks like sour cream. I bet if you spread it on that bread over there and eat it, it'll be freakin' delicious." Argo said thoughtfully.
"Oh yeah? Well, I'm not sure it makes up for being scared half to death by an SK Trapper, but that dude hooked us up!" Kirito replied as he tapped the jar. The remaining uses showed "4/5", which means that there's still about 80% of the sour cream left. The problem was that they only got one basket.
If he recalls correctly, unlike the Secret Medicine of the Forest, if you wait a little bit, the Lost Calf… make that the Heifer Strikes Back, should become available for you to undertake again. However, there's still four more hours to the cool down timer, and while it was no more than an event battle, knowing that a Swamp Kobold Trapper appears makes Kirito want to equip a secondary weapon just in case.
As he was mulling over these thoughts, Kirito closed the basket and offered it to Argo. "Here you go"
"Wha-. What for?" questioned Argo, wondering why the black haired teen would off the basket to her.
"What for? Well there's only one jar of cream…" Kirito mumbled.
Argo slapped his back hard and gave a giant grin. "Heehee. That's how you do it kiddo. But well… that one's for you my friend."
"Huh? Wait, why?" asked Kirito.
"Because back there, you didn't run." said Argo as she took a step back and added a wink. "Well if you still can't bring yourself to eat it, then maybe next time you come across some depressed dude you can cheer them up with that. People… just give them somethin' tasty and they'll get right back on their feet."
"There's no way something that simple…" Kirito dismissed her thoughts on that.
"It works because it's simple." stated Argo as if it was the most simple thing in the world, "So tell me, what are your plans? For me, going to check the village a bit to see if I can find anythin' interestin'. If I'm lucky, I might find one of the new Hidden Quests that are meant to be in the game naw."
"I'm planning to go back to the Town of Beginnings." admitted the teen as he thought of the things that he needed to do to get stronger.
"Oh? Why would you go back there?" inquired Argo, "I would have thought you would dismiss the beginner quests and go for the most beneficial quests on this floor."
"Oh, I am, but there are two things that I need to do in the town." the swordsman informed the informant, "The first is the sword training area, there's a slight hidden feature that not many know about."
"Oh? What's that?" Argo asked in interest, "I thought that the basic trainin' area was for players to learn to use their Sword Skills."
"And you would be right." admitted Kirito, "But that's if you only train for an hour. I found out during the Beta Test that if you train for two hours, you gain one permanent Strength Point. It isn't much I know, but in this Death Game, any free stat points we can get the better. So I want to see if that's still in the game."
"Wow… that would be useful." Argo acknowledged this new information, making a mental note to add it into her guide, there's no reason to give this new information away for free unlike some of the other information she gained today. Like the rest, this isn't life or death news, so people can wait to learn it. "How did you learn about it?"
"Does it really matter?" asked Kirito. The truth was that he learned it as one day in the early stages he got bored, so went to the training area to master his Sword Skills so he could use them much easier. Whilst everyone else left after an hour or so, he stayed for just over two hours, at watch point he gained one permanent Strength Point. He didn't know how many times that he could do this for, but he did this three times. He would have done it as long as possible to see how many times he could do this for, but he had the game for a limited amount of time and he wanted to see what else he could do during the Beta Test. Now though, he would see how many times he could do it. It helped that he no longer need to leave the game.
"Although, I'm willing to sell the information for the cost of letting me know why you want to be an informant." Kirito told the older girl with a smirk. Two people can play the game selling private information.
"Good one Kiddo, good one." Argo acknowledged Kirito's plan to get information out of her with a smirk, "You right, it doesn't , what is the other reason for goin' back to the town?"
"To finish off the Alchemy Chest Quest," replied the young man, "not only would it help me save money on some potions, it's the key item to become an Alchemist. Without one, you can't become an Alchemist."
"Whilst gettin' the Alchemy Chest to save money on potions is a good idea, isn't becomin' an Alchemist a bit dangerous for you?" Argo asked in worry. "Don't get me wrong, in a party they are very useful, healing, buffin' players and makin' weapons stronger, but wouldn't it be a dangerous idea to become one if you want to be a Solo Player?"
"It can be yes." Kirito acknowledged Argo's point, "But the benefits outweigh the risks. You get status bonuses, so that you can resist certain statuses, you can also be able to make stronger potions, poisons and traps. Not only that, but you can make elemental items. I was planning to play as a warrior, but thanks to the Death Game I'm going to play as an Alchemist again. As of right now, not only do I need to get stronger, but I also need to play smarter. Finding ways to defeat monsters without too much of a risk to myself, and becoming an Alchemist, that'll help me out. It helps that I know the questline and where to find the most important items to become a strong Alchemist, thanks to the Beta Test."
What Kirito didn't tell Argo was that thanks to winning the competition that Kayaba's set up, not only did he get new gear, but some quests that only he can do. Quests that needs him to become an Alchemist. Sure, he doesn't know what the rewards would be, but from what the letter told him would help him become a powerful Alchemist if he wanted to become one. So that gave him another reason to become an Alchemist. Tell Argo could print a target on his back if she told anyone about this, so it was better not to tell her anything.
As Argo thought about it, as long as someone knew about the quests and the risks that becoming an Alchemist are, being an Alchemist as a Solo Player wouldn't be so bad. Normal players wouldn't be able to do this, not unless they were really lucky. But as a former Beta Tester like Kirito was, it is possible for him to pull off being an Alchemist as a Solo Player.
"Alrighty then, I wish you all the luck and I'll smell ya later Ki-boy!" said a smirking Argo, as the information broker turned up her cape and ran towards the village and disappeared in an instant. She had a lot of things to do and very little time to do them.
Dumbstruck, I stood in place for a while before I whispered, "What the hell is up with that 'Ki-boy' bit?"
Shaking his head, Kirito stashed the basket in his storage. Since he was planning to stay solo for a while, he didn't think he would run into any depressed players anytime soon. Fortunately, in this world, any food items stashed in your storage maintained their durability. The problem was Kirito might give into temptation and scarf it all down himself. Kirito guessed at that point, he would just go back and clear the Heifer Strikes Back all over again.
Whatever the case, that was something he would have to worry about later. For now, he had bigger problems to deal with, mainly getting stronger. He needs to get back to the Town of Beginning so that he can go to the Sword Training Camp and then go to finish the Alchemy Chest quest. Thankfully, the rancher there had an escort quest for him to do, where he was to protect the merchant that he was sending to the Town of Beginning to sell bread and milk that came from the ranch. The reward was going to be 300 Cor and another Basket of Bread.
Seeing how the merchant was going to use a horse and cart to get to the Town of Beginning, Kirito agreed to the quests. As it would be faster to get back there instead of walking.
To Be Continued!
Author's Note: Here ends another chapter of Sword Art Online - Alchemy Edition. I hope you enjoyed the story. For those who read Second Day from the LN, you'll notice that whilst the plot of the story is the same, I have reworded the start of the chapter a lot. I hope that you enjoyed how I changed the story. I wanted to reword more about the quest, unfortunately other than slight changes here and there, I couldn't change much as I feared I could have ruined it. So I kept the quest information the same. But I have changed a lot at the end of the story.
I would like to ask for your help. I'm after quests that could change the events of a floor/floors, quests where helping someone could alter what happens in the upcoming floors. Or by helping one person on one floor could help or change things , for good or bad, only for that floor. So, if you have any quest ideas I could use, please let me know and tell me how that quest could change the floor or floors. It could be past or future floors.
I'm also after any old quests. Ones that you think could be fun to read in this story. It could be from yourself, or from a game that you have played before. As I would like to write a few quests in this story and having ideas would help me out here. If possible, I would like to see some dark fairy tail quests if there are any out there.