Wednesday, June 7th, 2023
Normally, Kirito set the system alarm to wake him quite early in the morning, sometimes well before sunrise. Being late to bed and early to rise was, after all, one of the ways he'd maintained his usual margin above other players—the margin of experience and resources that kept him alive, in a game where one misstep would kill him for real.
This one time, considering the circumstances, he'd allowed himself a couple of extra hours; enough time to make sure he was completely rested before setting out to clear the Twenty-Sixth Floor of Aincrad. After the last couple of days he'd had, he thought he'd earned it.
When the alarm did wake him, at eight in the morning, Kirito wearily swatted the immaterial button to shut it off before he even opened his eyes. He felt like he was missing something important, and that that something was going to be dangerous, embarrassing, or both. Argo was here last night, he thought groggily. And I think she left with blackmail material…
"Good morning, Kirito. Did you sleep well?"
Oh. That was what he was forgetting.
Pulling himself to a sitting position, back against the wall, Kirito looked over at the inn room's other bed, occupied by his Dark Elf partner. Still in her sleepwear, Kizmel was already sitting up, watching him with a small smile, leaving him to wonder with some unease just how long she'd been doing so. Had she been watching him sleep? And if so, for how long?
He still wasn't even sure if she did sleep, in any recognizable way. She'd spoken in the past of having dreams, so he suspected she did have some kind of equivalent, but she was still so much a mystery that he wasn't prepared to draw any conclusions about her programming.
"G'morning, Kizmel," he replied aloud, yawning. "Yeah, I had an okay night… better than the night before, anyway. You?"
"It was agreeable," Kizmel said in return. "Indeed, I think I slept better than I have in months. The inactivity in the capital must have been more oppressive than I thought. I'm looking forward to setting out. Shall we have breakfast, and see what information Argo brought?"
"Mm… yeah, good idea."
Sliding out from under the blankets, Kirito swung his feet down to the floor, shifting so that he was facing her. Stifling another yawn, he swept his hand down to bring up his menu, opened his inventory, and materialized a pair of sandwiches. They were cheap, from an NPC vendor, but one thing he had made sure to do after reaching Skirloft two days prior was look into where to find the best food.
Kirito wasn't exactly a military otaku, but one aphorism he knew and believed wholeheartedly was that an army ran on its stomach. Even—no, especially when he was depressed, he'd make sure his meals were as good as they could be.
Tossing one of the sandwiches to his partner, he scrolled back through the list, selected the item Argo had sold him the night before, and converted it to an object, as well. Obediently, a small hardbound book, labeled Don't Worry, It's Argo's Twenty-Sixth Floor Strategy Guide, dropped into his hands.
Throughout the process, Kizmel watched with obvious interest, a wistful look in her eyes. "I still find the powers of human Mystic Scribing impressive," she explained, when he looked at her. "I've learned to interact with it, but actually casting the charm is still beyond me."
"That's too bad. But at least you're making progress, right?" Although Kirito was frankly confused by the whole thing. He still wasn't sure how his party invitation the previous day had even worked; for that matter, he didn't know how she interpreted the very idea. He was pretty sure she didn't think in terms of HP, for one thing.
"Some. I asked Viscount Yofilis about it once, actually. He said that, as far as he was aware, the charm is a particular power of humans—but he also said there were stories of a handful of Dark Elves, before the Great Separation, who were granted use of it as reward for deeds of valor in the assistance of human kingdoms." Kizmel shrugged, pausing to take a bit of her sandwich. "Of course, with the fall of the Nine Kingdoms since the Great Separation, I don't know who might be capable of granting it now."
"There's still a way," Kirito said, convinced despite having no evidence. "We just have to find it, right? Aincrad's a big place, and it's full of surprises." Like us sitting here talking at all. If even the floors I thought I knew had twists like this, who knows what else we might find?
She smiled warmly. "Yes. You're right, of course. It would hardly be the first great achievement we've made together, would it?"
Not by a long shot. Between Kizmel's own off-the-rails nature, Viscount Yofilis leading Dark Elf reinforcements in to bail out the raid group during the Fourth Floor boss fight, and a dozen other incidents along the way, Kirito suspected they'd done quite a few things Kayaba Akihiko himself had never planned on.
If the man hadn't trapped them all under conditions of true death, Kirito would be deeply grateful. Sword Art Online was, in some ways, the most unpredictable game he'd ever experienced. It might be trying to kill him every single day, but it certainly wasn't getting stale, even after seven months logged in.
Good thing the gameplay at least is consistent, though, he reminded himself. Otherwise we really would all be dead by now.
Starting in on his own sandwich, Kirito flipped open the strategy guide with his other hand and began reading. Unsurprisingly, in just a day Argo had tracked down every regular quest with a contact in Skirloft itself, and her guide even gave a suggested priority list based on rewards and tentative risk assessment. I have to wonder, though, how Kizmel interprets regular quests. Do players like me just come across as workaholic do-gooders? For that matter, how does she rationalize multiple people doing the same things for the same people?
Maybe she just wrote some of it off as having lost something in translation. He knew that was how she'd viewed some of the gaming terms thrown around in her presence, back when they first met.
Well, that's not really important just now. We'll work things out… Ah, here's the main quest for this floor.
There must've been some change in his demeanor when he got to the important part, as Kizmel raised a questioning eyebrow in his direction. "Something interesting, Kirito?"
"Yeah. Just got to the stuff about the main conflict on this floor. Hm… Argo didn't have much as of yesterday, but she does say where we should start looking into things."
She shook her head. "Before I met you and Asuna, I had no idea just how chaotic the rest of Aincrad had become," she admitted, when Kirito looked at her questioningly. "It seems as if every floor has some kind of ongoing crisis, on top of your efforts to unify the Castle as a whole."
Kirito reached back to scratch his head nervously, remembered at the last moment that he was still holding a sandwich in that hand, and compromised by taking a big bite out of it instead. "I underestimated it myself, back when I left the City of Beginnings," he said honestly. "But so far, we've done all right, one way or another."
Not just for the sake of becoming stronger, either. For good or ill, Kirito had gotten truly emotionally involved in more than one of the quest lines on the way up Aincrad, and not just those relating to the Elf War. On the one hand, he supposed it wasn't good for his mental health to get so lost in the game; on the other, the more he did exactly that, the less likely he was to forget the stakes were nothing less than life and death.
"You certainly did well by the elves," Kizmel mused, gaze turning distant for a moment. Remembering the highlights, and low points, of the Elf War, he supposed. Coming back to herself, she continued, "So? What crisis do the residents of Skirloft and its neighboring towns face?"
"Hm…" Kirito carefully read over Argo's notes, laced with snark and gameplay tips as they were, and considered how best to translate the information into something his partner would understand. "Well, it looks like it's based off—rather, related to an old human story…"
"Really old-school stuff," Argo's notes read. "Kayaba's riffing off a game from twenty years ago. Dunno why he even bothered with lawyer-friendly misspellings; not like anybody these days is gonna remember it. It was kinda obscure back when it came out. But eh, whatever. Looks like fun, if ya don't mind death traps."
"Apparently," Kirito went on, "this floor contains a gateway of some kind. It's been dormant since the Great Separation, but the residents of Skirloft want to reactivate it. Something to do with making contact with dragons from an old order of knights… Argo thinks that there's more to it, though, that more gates will need to be reclaimed on higher floors."
To his surprise, Kizmel nodded thoughtfully. "I have heard such tales myself," she said. "The order's name is lost now, but my people remember that, before the Great Separation, there was a group of dragon-riding knights who served to keep peace between the Nine Kingdoms of Man, Lyusula, and Kales'Oh. Around the time of the Great Separation, though, the order was destroyed by treachery from within…"
That matched up eerily well with Argo's brief synopsis of the apparent source material. Kirito would've been even more unnerved, especially given his long-held suspicions that the backstory Kizmel had given of Aincrad wasn't entirely crafted by Kayaba's hand in the first place, were he not so used to it by now. By this point, his general policy was just to listen carefully and try to connect the dots.
Who knew? Someday the history of Aincrad, as Kizmel told it, might actually be important to a quest.
"It is said that the surviving dragons did, indeed, seal themselves in slumber beyond four gates," Kizmel was saying now. "If those gates were lifted with Aincrad in the Great Separation, reawakening those dragons could well aid in securing the safety of all, human and elf alike." She nodded again, more decisively, and smiled. "No doubt other Swordmasters will have already set out on this quest—but we'll catch up to them soon enough, won't we, Kirito?"
He smiled back. Finishing off his sandwich, he snapped Argo's strategy guide shut and stood. "Of course we will. Besides, the KoB will still be getting set up, and even Lind will have been set back recovering from that last boss fight. Somebody's gotta pick up the slack. You ready to go, partner?"
Kizmel swallowed the last bite of her own breakfast and also stood. "Of course." Tapping the spot on her shoulder where her insignia as a Royal Guard would normally sit, she summoned her usual armor into being, and with it her shield and saber. Raising her fist in a gesture Kirito had taught her many floors below, she said, "Let us go—partner."
Grinning, Kirito bumped her fist with his own. "Time to get to work."
After Kirito had re-equipped himself with his trademark black coat and his current one-handed sword—the Dignitas Sword, a simple but strong blade he'd acquired from a quest two floors below—and Kizmel had donned her usual dark armor and cloak, the pair headed out into the sun. By now, other players were also abroad and hurrying about, some of them clearers, others the usual crowd of lower-level players still exploring the latest town.
With more than just the relatively insular group of the clearers about, Kizmel was already starting to get a fair number of double-takes, and a few outside of the clearers who kept enough of an eye on progression to recognize Kirito himself sent dark mutters his way. Long since used to it, he did his best to ignore it, deliberately keeping his attention on Argo's guidebook instead.
"I suppose it will be some time yet before humans are accustomed to seeing my people," Kizmel commented, apparently unperturbed. "Our races have kept away from each other for many years now… So, where do we start, Kirito?"
"Well," he replied, heading off down Skirloft's streets, "I'm good for supplies and gear repairs; I did take care of that much the day we opened up this floor. You?"
"My journey here was smooth enough," Kizmel answered, matching his pace. "I will not need to mend my equipment so soon. Barring, of course, unexpected hazards on this floor."
"Like hungry wyverns?" Kirito shook his head ruefully. Argo didn't yet have a comprehensive list of the enemies on the Twenty-Sixth Floor, but her guide did mention that most of them seemed to be wyverns of varying size, habit, and temperament.
"Watch out for some of the caves," she'd written. "I know the main quest on this floor is supposed to be about good dragons, but some of the NPCs had some pretty dire warnings about what's in a few of the holes in the ground. Dragon hoards, the kind they keep track of down to the last coin. Now I don't expect Smaug here, but you know what they say: Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and go well with ketchup."
Even for Argo, Kirito thought, that one was a bit weird. He got the reference, at least—or half of it, anyway—but it was still weird.
When he relayed the comment to Kizmel, her eyebrows went up. "Smaug? And what is ketchup? A human spice?"
"Smaug's from… another human story," Kirito said, flipping back to the quest location section of the guide. "That one's not real… I hope. And ketchup is a sauce humans put on meat… Ah, here we go." He brought up his menu with his free hand, then the map, and traced a path down Skirloft's streets with one finger. "There's a tower at the other end of town, not far from the guard post I was using yesterday. We need to talk to a Master Soveth, who should tell us where we need to go first."
Kizmel studied the route herself, nodded, and smiled. "Let us be off, then. I'm eager to see what challenges await us here."
The trip across Skirloft was an interesting one, Kirito had to admit. With Asuna, he'd long since stopped needing to explain most details of SAO, and they'd passed the floors he had any prior knowledge of months before. She'd also gradually thawed—well, a little, anyway—from the cold front she'd presented to him in the early days, so their conversations while traveling were usually about trivial things like the design choices of the various towns and floors, or battle strategies for the latest enemies they'd encountered.
Anything about their lives outside of SAO, of course, had been forbidden by unspoken agreement. Even after months of traveling with the girl, Kirito still knew practically nothing about Asuna's real-world life, other than the few hints she'd given when Lind's arrogance pushed her buttons on the Third Floor. Likewise, he'd spoken to no one about his own life—not that his life was likely to have been of much interest anyway, he thought.
Kizmel was different. Full of curiosity about how humans lived, openly walking the streets of a human town for the first time, she was looking at Skirloft not from the perspective of a gamer admiring a programmer's work, but someone newly introduced to human society.
Answering the questions her observations prompted gave him pause a couple of times, as he struggled to explain game conventions in a way that Kizmel would understand, but Kirito didn't really mind. It was actually kind of fun, even if it did sometimes require him to dredge up bits of trivia he vaguely remembered reading about online sometime.
Okay, so I don't really know anything about how stone houses are made, he admitted to himself. But that's something she does know, so… fair trade? I bet Asuna would know, though.
He shoved that thought firmly out of mind. It wasn't like Asuna was dead or anything, and dwelling on their former partnership, and the gap in what had become a comfortable routine, wasn't a good idea when they'd be fighting for their lives soon. Depression, in Sword Art Online, could be fatal.
"I think my people are missing out on much," Kizmel mused, as they passed a large, intricately-carved church building in the central square of Skirloft. "Our own towns and cities are beautiful, but… perhaps we could learn variety from mingling with humans more. To us, a place such as this would be worth fortifying, nothing more. Certainly not a place to build a city."
Remembering the homes of the Dark Elves, Kirito nodded thoughtfully, forgetting for a moment that the Elves didn't technically "build" any of it. "I could say the same, though," he said. "So far I haven't seen anything in human towns in Aincrad like Yofel Castle."
He had very fond memories of Christmas at the hidden Dark Elf fortress on the Fourth Floor. It had also been the site of one of the events that had most easily made him forget he was in a video game at all, when the Forest Elves had attacked and he'd taken the desperate gamble to convince Viscount Yofilis to lead the defense.
It had, really, been exactly the kind of event he'd have been most enthusiastic about if it really had still been just a game. As it was, Kirito couldn't deny he was proud of how the battle had gone.
"You have a point," Kizmel allowed. "Well, hopefully our peoples can learn from each other, then." Pausing, she tilted her head thoughtfully. "What about in your own world? Are there no structures in your homeland that resemble the likes of Yofel Castle?"
Kirito started. Kizmel had expressed interest before in learning about where he and Asuna came from, but it was still an unusually direct question, even for her. It was also just about the first thing to make him think much about the real world in several months now.
"Um, well," he began, fumbling for an answer, "I guess I've heard of some pretty impressive places… but no, I can't say I've seen anything that compares with it. Not quite."
He supposed the Imperial Palace itself might qualify, but even that wasn't quite the same. Being surrounding by the modern skyscrapers of Tokyo kind of marred the effect, however much the Palace grounds had been kept the same for so many years.
"That's too bad." Looking ahead, where a tower was just now coming into view, Kizmel's voice took on a wistful tone. "Perhaps when you return, you will have a chance to see your own people's wonders with your own eyes… …I wonder if I might have the opportunity, myself…"
The last sentence was quiet, soft enough that Kirito wasn't even sure he was meant to hear it. Kizmel… seeing the real world…? Something in his chest felt tight at that, knowing—as she didn't—that as an NPC, regardless of what happened when Aincrad was finally conquered, there was no way for her to leave this world.
No. There's a way. The sudden tension loosened at his realization. There's still the question of what happens when SAO is finished—but if we can get past that, there's at least web cams, right? And all sorts of things can be modeled in a VR environment. And maybe someday…
Kirito shook his head rapidly. This wasn't the time to be thinking that far ahead. For right now, he had to keep focused just on surviving SAO itself. Nothing else mattered if he got himself killed. Or Kizmel, for that matter; even if she, being an NPC, was able to respawn, he suspected it wouldn't be his Kizmel that appeared afterward.
Luckily, further conversation and brainstorming alike were put off by their arrival at the tower Master Soveth was supposed to live in: the tallest building in Skirloft, right at the edge of town, made of the same imposing stone as the rest. Unlike Skirloft's other buildings, though, Soveth's Tower looked like one solid piece of stone, as if it had been chiseled out of a single, improbably-huge quarry stone.
The only noticeable seam was around a door, which from the look of it had still been hewed out of the same stone; even its handle was simply a carved recess. Exchanging a look with his partner, Kirito shrugged, grabbed the handhold, and heaved, hoping that the door wasn't as heavy as it looked.
It wasn't quite. From the amount of effort it took to pull, though, Kirito was willing to be that someone with a lesser strength stat wouldn't have been able to open it at all; definitely not a place for low-level players, which he supposed was just as well. Every now and then, even knowing the risks, lower-level players did get ahead of themselves, and pay for it.
Rather than a proper entranceway, the door led directly onto a spiral staircase, which somehow didn't surprise him. It was the kind of thing a place like this would have, in an RPG; no self-respecting denizen of such an imposing tower would deign to live on the ground floor.
Thank goodness our avatars don't get tired, Kirito thought wryly, starting the ascent. That's a lot of stairs.
"Do Argo's notes say anything about what kind of person this 'Master Soveth' is?" Kizmel asked as they climbed.
"Just that he's 'exactly the kind of guy you'd expect to be living in a wizard's tower'," he quoted with a shrug. "Which means he's probably, um… eccentric?"
I wish she'd been more specific, actually. The kind of "Master" that lives in a place like his is usually either a crazy old man, or else—
"Ah. More Swordmasters… Dare I hope you're any more competent than the usual glory hounds?"
—Grumpy, Kirito finished mentally, eyeing the bearded, grizzled old man waiting for them.
The room at the top of the spiral staircase was absolutely full of books, with a handful of shelves that contained more esoteric items instead. Skulls, jars of preserved biological specimens—some of which Kirito carefully did not look too closely at; anatomy wasn't his strong point, but some of those things looked a little too human for his liking—and a variety of crystals, some of which were recognizable as the same sorts players used.
All of it was lit by candles and the sunlight that reached through the gap between Aincrad's floors, filtered in through a single window each to east and west. Behind a table covered in notes, beakers, and at least two skulls, a man whom Kirito could only describe as a well-groomed but otherwise stereotypical sage or wizard was leafing through a book with a Latin title, looking distinctly unimpressed by his visitors.
He also had the distinctive golden exclamation point of a quest NPC over his head.
That's my cue. Kizmel, obviously, wouldn't know exactly how to interact with an NPC outside her own quest line; her human-like AI would actually be a disadvantage in such situations, capable of understanding without the knowledge that other NPCs weren't.
Clearing his throat, Kirito said, "Competent at what, exactly, Master?" That was the trigger phrase for this quest, according to Argo; simple enough to infer from Soveth's words, but likely to trip up players relying on the usual NPC triggers.
As expected, the exclamation point turned to the question mark of a quest in progress, as Soveth sighed and set his book aside. "The ignorant do not seek me out, Swordmaster. I know you'll have been sent for my guidance. A worthy cause, of course, but so far only dullards have undertaken it. The best advice is meaningless to ears unwilling to listen…"
"There have been others before us, Master Soveth?" Kizmel asked curiously.
Of course, she still wouldn't understand the nature of MMO quests. Fortunately, there was an in-universe relevance to the question, and Soveth's harrumph proved Kayaba had anticipated it himself. "Of course. Mostly foolhardy young souls who think to make their fame restoring the Order all by themselves. Never mind that the gate in these mountains is only the start… So far not one has managed to return from the first step."
Kizmel shot Kirito a concerned look, but he only shook his head slightly, giving her a reassuring smile. Obviously, with any RPG only an actual player would be able to get anything done.
"What needs to be done first, Master Soveth?" he asked.
"The first thing that needs doing is opening a path to the gate," Soveth replied, turning to the shelf of crystals behind him. "Before the Great Separation, magic opened many doors that remained closed to the weak and unworthy. With the loss of magic, other routes must be taken, with what lesser powers still remain." He shook his head irritably. "A thousand years ago, the Master of this Tower could have gone right to the Gateway Chamber, without relying on young fools with sharper steel than wit, but needs must…"
One thing both the absent-minded and grumpy sage archetypes had in common, Kirito decided: they both had a lot of trouble getting to the point. One would keep forgetting what he was doing; this kind knew exactly what he was doing, but felt the need to complain about it first.
A for more moments of rummaging and muttered imprecations, and Soveth turned back to them, multifaceted crystal in hand. "Here," he said gruffly. "Take this to a cave north of Skirloft, past the first rope bridge. This crystal, pathetic as it may be, is powerful enough to break the first seal on the door to the Gateway Chamber. Just make sure you put it in the right place—and try not to break it in some damned dragon-slaying heroics, will you? Even meager charms such as these are quite troublesome to produce in this era."
"Quite an impatient man, wasn't he?" Kizmel commented, as they made their way back down the Tower, Soveth having made their dismissal quite clear by sheer indifference to their continued presence. "He rather reminds me of the priests at Yofel Castle, actually."
Kirito nodded, remembering the frankly useless Dark Elves that had had so much influence in the elven fortress. Complacent nearly to the point of suicide, they'd gone so far as to ban the wearing of armor, simply for the noise it made. In a fortress, they'd banned armor. Kizmel, he recalled, had found the whole thing extremely uncomfortable.
Though personally, he had to admit he'd thought the dress looked pretty good on her…
He shoved the thought out of his head. Even with Asuna elsewhere, it just didn't seem like a safe thing to be remembering. Regardless, it was lucky for all of them that Viscount Yofilis had been so much more reasonable.
"I do have to admit to worrying about the other Swordmasters he mentioned," Kizmel continued. "Do you think this task is really so dangerous?"
"He said glory hounds," Kirito reminded her. "Sharper steel than wit, he said, right? We're more careful than that." He gave her another smile. "If you ask me, they probably just took one look at the wyverns, panicked, and ran. Probably just dropped the crystals on the way and didn't want to admit it to Soveth."
"I probably would not, either," she admitted. "Assuming I was cowardly enough to simply turn and abandon my duty in the first place." She nodded sharply, looking more confident now. "You're right. Just because some warriors with more self-confidence than sense failed does not mean we will. Together we have overcome greater threats than mere wyverns."
"We sure have." Giant spiders, spiders of merely unusual size, Forest Elves, Fallen Elves, a major naval battle… and those were just the incidents in the first two weeks of their acquaintance.
Let's not forget the human drama, either, Kirito thought wryly. Lind, Kibaou, Asuna's unpredictable temper, Argo… I really hope she doesn't tell Asuna too much too soon… Yeah, we can handle this.
Besides, he mused, as they stepped back into the morning sun, how bad can it be? This is just the first quest of this set. Those are never that tough.
Hours later, as his simple Slant took the head off a Clipped-Wing Cave Wyvern, Kirito cursed himself for tempting fate. The albino, flightless, fire-breathing wyvern now shattering into polygons was the half of the last pair blocking their way out of the cave they'd been sent to.
A cave that turned out to have about one pair of wyverns for every five meters of tunnel. Only a handful had been able to breathe fire, fortunately tending to be in more open areas where there was room to dodge, but that was still an awful lot of hungry, angry reptiles.
Kizmel's Horizontal Square turned his target's companion into blue shards a moment later, the momentum from the Sword Skill carrying her out into the sun ahead of him. She spun in place immediately, checking for more mobs, before her tense shoulders relaxed. "It's clear, Kirito!" she called.
Trotting gratefully out of the cave, he quickly joined her in the fresh air. "Well," he said, breathing heavily. "I didn't expect that. …I should've known we weren't done with caves just yet."
"Hopefully the next floor will have more open ground," she agreed. "But at least we accomplished out task here. We can report to Master Soveth a complete success." She smiled wryly. "Perhaps he'll raise his estimate from 'foolhardy' to merely 'reckless'."
Kirito laughed. "Yeah… maybe so. Though personally, I'd settle for the next objective having a little less fire."
Be fair, he told himself. It still wasn't the worst "first quest" you've done, right? And if you'd remembered that Magnatherium—which, of course, was not a bear—we might've been ready for even worse, and been glad this was so "easy".
He twitched then, and glanced nervously over his shoulder, back into the cave they'd just escaped. There he was again, tempting fate; hadn't he learned by now just how bad an idea that really was? Certainly there was no question they'd be dealing with something on the level of that fire-breaking ursine sometime during the quest, but there was no sense inviting it early.
"Right," Kirito said hastily, when he was sure nothing was about to start chasing them. "Back to Soveth's Tower." He checked the time in his display. "Hm… if we're quick, we might be able to get the next part of the quest done today, depending on how far we have to travel."
"Then let us hurry," Kizmel said with a nod. "I'm not averse to a late night if need be, but I would rather not sleep in the field if it can be helped. The lingering ancient magic may keep certain areas safe, but it does nothing for ingrained reflex when creatures pass too close to the thresholds."
Kirito remembered giant mosquitoes, and shuddered. "Yeah. I'll take a nice, soft bed, thanks." I do still need to figure out how to get Kizmel a separate room tonight, though… I'll think about that while Soveth is insulting us over the quest rewards.
In the end, Master Soveth gave them a disdainful look that Kirito thought masked a certain degree of surprise, pronounced them "marginally competent", and sent them on their way to the second seal with another magically-charged crystal. This one, he warned them with a sniff, would explode if used improperly. "Improperly", apparently, meaning anything that involved more than the bare minimum jostling just of carrying the thing.
All in all, nothing new to Kirito. Any longtime RPG player knew all about the repetitive quests that involved doing the same thing five times over, with minor variations of enemies, puzzles, and other hazards; potentially destructible key items were nothing particular special.
When the moon was rising into view between the floors of Aincrad, casting stark white light over the pair of adventurers, Kirito cursed himself for yet again tempting fate and underestimating the task. It had taken three times as long as he expected, involved twice as many fire-breathing wyverns as the first leg of the quest, and carried hazards Soveth had apparently known but neglected to mention.
"He knew the sealing ring was in the middle of a wyvern nest, and didn't mention it," he complained to the world at large, as the two of them trudged back out of Soveth's Tower yet again. "You'd think that might be important to know. Not to mention that the wyvern mothers feed the young ones live Fire Goats…"
"It does seem a careless oversight," Kizmel agreed sourly, rubbing at her face. "Although personally, I would have been just as interested in knowing that the crystal was going to explode even when used according to his instructions. Had you not realized the significance of the crystal's flashing light, we might not have gotten out of range in time."
"If you can even call it 'out of range'." Kirito shrugged, dispersing some of the same ashes that blackened Kizmel's already dusky skin from his shoulders. "I've seen something like that reaction before, that's all… I didn't think a spell would go up like it used black powder, though."
Succeeding at last in scrubbing some of the soot off her face, she glanced at him curiously. "Black powder?"
"Er, a human explosive powder," he said, scratching the back of his head. "Ancient stuff; I haven't seen any of it in Aincrad. Breaking that spell did a pretty good imitation of the stuff." Idly, he brought up his menu and checked the quest status. "Hm… Well, it looks like the next step will take us clear to the next town. I guess this is as good a time as any to call it a day."
"I agree. Tomorrow, perhaps we can finish the tasks we have left in Skirloft, and head for our next destination." Kizmel brushed at her face again, grimacing at her lack of substantial success. "Besides, I'd like to wash up before anything else. This soot is being surprisingly stubborn."
Kirito nodded, and brought out Argo's strategy guide again. If he was right, they were a bit ahead of schedule going by when they started, which should put them about were they'd have expected to be had they begun the quest the day the floor became accessible. Considering that the organized clearing groups were still consolidating their positions, that wasn't half bad progress.
A quick glance confirmed his guess at least matched up with Argo's estimates. Looking further, though, something else caught his eye. "Well, that's great," he said, disgusted. "I wish I'd noticed this earlier… Looks like one of Argo's contacts already dealt with Soveth for something else, and his 'magic crystals' have a known side effect."
Kizmel lifted an eyebrow in his direction. "Besides exploding?"
"Well, that, but the point is, when they explode in certain conditions—like, say, around Fire Goats—the combination produces an ash that gradually dissipates over several hours, or with some kind of special soap." Kirito shook his head. "Exploding crystals, exploding goats, and clingy ash. This floor has a bad sense of humor."
Privately, he thought it was one of the pettier things Kayaba had arranged. The whole "trapping ten thousand people on threat of death" he could at least grasp, however horrible it was. This? This was pure annoyance for the sake of itself, like any normal game developer might've done.
This once, Kirito would've preferred Kayaba hadn't acted like a normal dev.
Kizmel was grimacing again, and he thought she might actually have glared at one gawking passerby; not normal behavior for the elf, whom he was used to seeing calm and amiable in almost all circumstances. Then again, I think that was one of the Divine Dragons, somebody who was present when we had to bluff two guilds out of killing each other. Guess even Kizmel's fuze has an end.
"A special soap," she repeated, turning back to him. "Does Argo's guide provide the details? Ordinarily I wouldn't waste my time on this, but I doubt sleeping while covered in ash will be very comfortable."
Kirito didn't disagree there. Somehow the stuff had gotten under his coat, and it wasn't a comfortable sensation. "According to Argo," he said, checking further in the guide's comments, "it can be obtained from adult Fire Goats. We didn't face any today… but I do know someone who probably has some by now. Knowing Agil, he probably has samples of pretty much everything Argo would know about by now."
"Agil?" Kizmel frowned in obvious thought. "Ah. The large ax-wielder, isn't he? I don't believe I was ever formally introduced, when last I traveled with you." A short pause as she seemed to consider the idea, then she shrugged. "Not quite the way I would have preferred to meet him, but I suppose there's little choice. Do you know where he is?"
Starting to walk into Skirloft, Kirito consulted his messages, compared with Argo's guide, and finally checked with his map of the town. "If I know him, he'll be in the merchants' part of town. That would be… this way."
She quickly fell into step with him. "Then by all means, let us hurry. The sooner we can wash up, then sooner we can rest for the morning. There still remains much for us to do on this floor, and I for one don't wish to be distracted from a field guardian by mere dirt."
They found Agil right about where Kirito had expected to, renting a stall in what passed for Skirloft's merchant quarter. This late, he was dealing with a handful of returning players straggling in from grinding out in the dungeons; from the look of it, though, the big, dark-skinned ax wielder would soon be closing shop for the night.
Privately, Kirito was relieved to see him still doing business at all. Most player merchants weren't, that late; but Agil had apparently realized that the dedicated players who burned the candle at both ends were a potential untapped market.
As he and Kizmel approached down the torchlit street, Kirito suppressed a grin at the sight of one last player walking away from the stall with a glum expression. He'd seen it before: the look of someone who regretted doing business with Agil because of how sharp a bargainer he was, and was doing it anyway because Agil's reputation for honesty was well-earned.
"Thank you, come again!" Agil called after the man with a cheerful wave. "A pleasure doing business with you… Oi, is that you, Kirito?" He turned his grin in the black-clad swordsman's direction, the expression turning less "evil businessman" at the same time. "Wondered when I'd see you. What, did you actually take a day off yesterday or something?"
"Something like that," Kirito admitted, stepping up to the stall's counter. "I needed a breather after that last boss fight… You know how it was."
"Yeah. Sure do." Agil, too, had fought The Adamantine Arachnid, and as a tank had taken more than his share of hits from the giant spider. "You doing okay? I mean with Asuna leaving to join a guild and all… Eh?" He trailed off, finally noticing Kirito's companion. "Excuse me, Miss. I don't believe we've been properly introduced."
Oh, that's right. I guess they never did actually talk back then, did they? Kirito knew that Agil had at least seen Kizmel a few times, most notably the boss fight against the Hippocampus that had brought in an entire party of Dark Elves, but now that he thought about it they probably hadn't been within close proximity otherwise.
"Ah, right. Agil, this is Kizmel, Royal Guard and member of the Pagoda Knights of the Kingdom of Lyusula," he said, gesturing grandly at his companion. "Kizmel, this is Agil, merchant extraordinaire and ax-wielding tank of the clearing group."
Kizmel bowed, then extended a hand in human fashion, as Kirito and Asuna had taught her months before. "A pleasure to meet you, Master Agil," she said. "A… tank? Ah, yes, one who takes blows so that others can strike while the enemy is distracted. Kirito explained it to me some time ago."
Agil shook the proffered hand, a strange look on his face. "Yeah, that sums it up pretty well. You can just call me Agil. Buy cheap and sell cheap, that's my motto." He shot a sharp glance at Kirito. "Uh… is she…?"
"A Dark Elf, not a human Swordmaster," Kirito said in his best, Don't ask here, I'll explain later, tone. "She and I met during the Elf War quest that started on the Third Floor, and she just came to this floor yesterday, looking for Asuna and me."
"That's right," Kizmel confirmed. "I had hoped to fight alongside them again; and if Asuna is no longer by Kirito's side, then it is all the more important that I be here."
"Huh." Agil's face was still full of curiosity, but he let the matter drop. "Now that's a story I'd like to hear someday. But if I know you, you're here for some business, and then a nap." He quirked an eyebrow. "Got anything to do with the fact that you two look like you walked into a cartoon bomb?"
Kirito grimaced. He'd hoped it hadn't been that obvious. He liked to think he didn't worry too much about his appearance, but he couldn't deny a certain liking for looking sharp. After all, if he was going to be "the Beater", at least he normally looked stylish doing it.
Smelling like this stuff isn't helping, either. If real black powder smells anything like this, no wonder nobody uses it anymore.
"We had an encounter with Fire Goats," Kizmel informed the merchant, looking even less happy than Kirito did. "Along with a magic crystal whose creator failed to inform us was quite as volatile as it proved to be. We were hoping you might have a particular item that is supposed to be able to wash the ash off…?"
Agil nodded. "Fire Goat Fat Soap," he said, not even bothering to check his inventory. He grinned. "Would you believe you're not the first people who've stopped by asking for that today? Though I don't think the others had any magic crystals involved. For what it's worth, Fire Goats just seem to blow up when you kill 'em."
Kirito sighed. "So the crystal just acted like a big AOE… Figures. Please tell me you have some? Not sure I believe the whole 'sell cheap' part, but you're the one who's most likely to have it."
"Kirito, that hurts," Agil said, touching his chest with exaggerated grief. "Is it my fault not everybody really knows what stuff is worth?" He grinned again. "Ah, forget it. Yeah, I got some. It's been selling pretty well, seems like most of the clearing group is hitting the area where those goats hang out, but I got two bars left."
The price he cited made Kirito wince a little, but only at Agil's shrewdness. It certainly didn't put that much of a dent in his Cor; it was just another sign that Agil knew exactly what the real market value was for practically anything conceivably worth selling.
He must buy the info from Argo, Kirito thought, handing over the coinage. Heck, that's probably half her business, helping the merchants figure out how to price things. And then selling the info about each merchant's prices to all the others… Is there anything the Rat won't sell?
Actually, he suspected he didn't want to know the answer to that. Knowing Argo, it was entirely too likely he'd ask a question he didn't want the answer to, as a test, and then get it.
Agil handed over two cloth-wrapped bundles in exchange for the Cor. "Two bars of Fire Goat Fat Soap. Use 'em wisely, they're the last ones in stock." He grinned again, with a more playful edge this time. "I expect to have more in tomorrow, so stop by when you get back from your adventuring. It'll be here when you need it."
After thanking the big merchant—Kirito sourly, Kizmel with some enthusiasm—the pair headed back toward the edges of Skirloft. By now there were even fewer players on the streets than when they'd headed for the inn the previous night, and Kirito counted that as a small comfort, in the wake of Agil's parting words.
"He's probably right," Kizmel commented sadly, wiping futilely at her face again. "Today we only encountered Fire Goats in the Wyvern Nest, but we're likely to encounter more on the road to the next town. Hopefully we will find lodgings there with as good bathing facilities as here."
Nodding glumly, Kirito had gone another twenty meters down the street before the implications registered. Lodgings—bathing—uh oh. I completely forgot to look into separate inn rooms today! Um… I could ask Argo, if anyone would know, she would—
No. Bad idea. Then she'd find out about the soap, and then she'd suggest it'd be cheaper if we just shared one, and then Asuna would find out somehow, and—No. Just no.
He didn't know how Argo would find out about the soap just from asking about inn rooms, but he was sure she would. Anything involving Argo and baths would inevitably go horribly wrong. He knew that all too well.
"I'm sure we'll find something that will work out," Kirito said aloud, trying very hard to banish those dark premonitions. "Even the cheap inns I've seen lately have had decent baths and stuff."
"Good." With a sigh, Kizmel abandoned the doomed attempt at wiping off the soot—even without its special clingy properties, the sleeve she was trying to wipe with was just as covered itself. "In the meantime, let us return to our current room, clean off this filth, and rest for the morning's journey." She glanced sidelong at him. "Do you object if I take the first bath, Kirito? I fear I was somewhat closer to that last goat than you." Her lips quirked in a teasing expression, one that filled him with instant dread. "Of course, if you'd prefer, it might be easier if we helped each other wash off—"
"No!" Kirito yelped, loud enough to draw curious glances from the few other players still out and about. "No, that's just fine, I can wait—"
Kizmel's soft laughter followed him clear back to the inn.
Kirito never did figure out a proper solution to the dilemma of finding separate lodgings, even when the floor's quest lines took them off to the next town and beyond. He was stymied by the basic problem that Kizmel could interact with menu elements, but couldn't initiate them herself; and while it was possible Argo might've known something he didn't, he just couldn't bring himself to ask her. Not with the blackmail material she already possessed.
It didn't help that Kizmel herself didn't seem to consider it a problem at all. The one time he brought it up, she just laughed and reminded him that they'd once spent an entire week sharing a tent. So long as there were two beds, as far as she was concerned the simple savings of only renting a single room outweighed any potential issue.
Kirito didn't exactly agree, but there was little else he could think of to say. Without any ideas of how to work out separate rooms from a systems standpoint anyway, he was forced to concede defeat.
He did get used to it, eventually. Somewhat. Fortunately, Kizmel at least was willing to make concessions to human customs of modesty, even if she did still make the odd comment about battlefield standards being different.
Clearing the Twenty-Sixth Floor overall went slower than the past few floors had. Despite their two-day delay, Kirito and Kizmel still ended up blazing a trail ahead of most of the rest of the clearers, most players not even seeming to have noticed the "Beater's" temporary absence.
It wasn't too surprising. According to his news from Argo, the Army had completely abandoned progression and had withdrawn their total force to the First Floor. Most of the unaligned clearers had been snapped up by the new Knights of Blood, who were still organizing themselves. That left, really, the Divine Dragons Alliance, and the handful of remaining solos and small groups like Kirito's own two-person party.
Progress continued nonetheless. Agil made a tidy profit selling soap during the period players fought their way through Fire Goat territory; Kirito and Kizmel fought through a couple more wyvern nests and succeeded in opening the way to the Gateway before most others were even aware of the quest line's existence.
That part had proven underwhelming. Activating the ancient gate, a stone circle big enough to let through a field boss, had made it glow around the edges, and done basically nothing else; when Kirito reported it sourly to Argo, she'd just laughed at him and told him anticlimactic went with the source material.
All in all, though, the slog through the Twenty-Sixth Floor, no matter how many times he was nearly blown up, set on fire, eaten by wyverns, or some combination of the three, wasn't the worst experience Kirito had had in Aincrad. Kizmel was by his side throughout, and though she no longer seemed to have the overwhelming strength she had as a Quest NPC, she was still as powerful as would be expected from a player at the same level she was.
Powerful, and smart. If Kirito had somehow retained any doubts that she was more than just another NPC, their journey through the Dragon Floor would've cured them. She was just as quick to pick up his cues as ever, no matter how colloquial he got. Even if she didn't understand the exact reference, she usually managed to get the point.
It wasn't quite like traveling with Asuna. That didn't mean that the experience was worth any less, though. By the time they delved into the labyrinth leading up toward the next floor, Kirito was once again fully comfortable trusting his back to his elven companion.
That did, of course, still leave the question of what the rest of the clearing group would think. Having been busy dealing with the ancient gateway when the floor's field boss was fought by the others, their team had yet to have much contact with the DDA or the KoB since Kizmel arrived. Given that even Argo would only sell information that was directly requested, as far as Kirito knew neither of the guilds was aware of the unexpected assistance.
Until, of course, the boss room was found within the labyrinth, and a strategy meeting was called in Craglen, the town closest to the dungeon pillar…
Saturday, June 17, 2023
Walking into the large meeting hall in Craglen that the clearers had co-opted for the boss planning meeting, Kirito felt more self-conscious than he had at such a gathering in months. He'd never been comfortable being at the center of attention, and he was pretty sure he was going to be today.
He wasn't concerned about being recognized. Whether any given clearer still thought of him as the "Beater" or not, they all at least were familiar enough with his presence not to make a fuss; even Kibaou's diehards had mostly accepted that Kirito at least pulled his weight in a boss fight too well to object much now. No, it wasn't his own appearance that he was worried would cause a scene.
With the hours they'd been keeping, it was about the first time he and Kizmel had been around a large gathering of players since the Dark Elf had arrived at the frontlines in the first place. With the chaos the last boss fight had left among the clearing group as a whole, the two of them had mostly slipped through the floor's quests unnoticed.
Not so today. Accompanied in broad daylight by a girl with pointed ears, a trait no player avatar had, Kirito got more than a few double-takes as he and Kizmel moved to join the meeting.
I have to admit the look on Hafner's face is pretty funny, though, Kirito thought, walking past the DDA member standing just inside the meeting hall's entrance. The poor guy looked like he'd seen a ghost—probably, Kirito reflected, remembering Kizmel's dramatic introduction to the clearing guilds way back on the Third Floor.
Getting close to the large room where the other clearers were gathering, Kirito heard voices already speaking. From the sound of it, things had started a few minutes ahead of schedule; he hoped they hadn't missed anything important.
"…We've seen a fair few solos come up, now that Kibaou's group has retreated," he heard as he reached the door. "People who were afraid to get involved, with his influence. And the KoB's recruiting has gone well; helping the Legend Braves get back on their feet looks like it'll pay off."
Asuna, Kirito realized, feeling a rush of warmth at how confidently his former partner was addressing a roomful of clearers. Sounds like she's doing okay.
He walked into the room, Kizmel by his side, just in time for another to speak up in worried rebuttal. "There have been reinforcements, certainly," the blue-haired man sitting at the opposite end of the hall's central table said, frowning. "Even with the solos, your KoB, and the DDA, however, I'm afraid we'll still be one or two short in the boss raid itself. The numbers just clearing the labyrinth have been lower than on past floors."
"Word of the last boss fight spread," Asuna acknowledged calmly. "Players are worried. We're back in the same position we were on the very first floor—and the solution is the same as back then, Lind: win this battle, and prove that those casualties were a fluke."
Lind. The man didn't look as confident as he usually did; Kirito rather thought his demeanor was reminiscent of just after the Illfang battle, when he'd been rattled by Diavel's death.
Kirito wasn't surprised. Lind had tried very hard to fill Diavel's place, but had never quite duplicated the fallen beta tester's confidence or charisma. The rise of the Knights of Blood was proof enough of that.
Asuna, now—her appearance he could make no quarrel with at all. She was wearing an ornate, red-trimmed white uniform now, fancier than the practical garb he was used to seeing her in, but she wore it well, and her face and voice both held the same confidence that had let her take control of the last floor boss raid when it nearly fell to pieces.
Kirito did admit to himself some puzzlement, though. Although he sat at the table with the KoB contingent as well, dressed in white-trimmed red, the guild's actual leader was completely silent. For whatever reason, Heathcliff seemed content to let his second-in-command do all the talking for now.
"That may be true," Lind conceded now, as Kirito and Kizmel settled quietly against one wall to watch, "but as I'm sure you're recall, even Illfang wasn't defeated without cost. Indeed, I notice even your own former partner has hardly been seen since reaching this floor—"
"What cost us against Illfang was overconfidence," Asuna interrupted. "We all know better now. As for Kirito-kun, I'm sure he's just been working alone, like he always does. He'll be here for—" She interrupted herself this time, glancing at the back of the room. "Kirito-kun, there you are! Are you… all… right…?"
Asuna's startled gaze locked on her now, Kizmel raised a hand in greeting. "Hello, Asuna," she said with a smile. "It's been some time."
In an instant, the cool, collected Knight of Blood was forgotten. Asuna pushed to her feet, hesitated for a moment like she was considering leaping clear over the table, then quickly rushed around it and players gathered around to throw herself at the elf. "Kizmel-chan!"
Kizmel returned the embrace readily. "I am glad to see you're well, Asuna," she said in the fencer's ear. "When I found Kirito without you, I was worried."
"I'm just fine, Kizmel-chan. It's just… things happened, that's all. I'm sure Kirito-kun has told you about it by now." Seeming to remember that there were over forty sets of eyes staring at them, Asuna pulled back, but left her hands on the elf girl's shoulders. "But what are you doing here? I thought—you had other duties?"
Kirito coughed, covering a chuckle at Asuna's echo of his own verbal stumbles the previous week. At least he wasn't the only one still having trouble mentally translating things.
"My people are at peace, so I was given leave to rejoin your struggle, Asuna. I hope there is no objection to my joining your upcoming battle?"
Kirito wondered about that, taking the rare chance of no one paying any attention to him to look them all over. Some of them had at least seen Kizmel before, like Lind himself—who, Kirito noticed, was looking at least as poleaxed as Hafner had. Most of those present, though, had no idea who Kizmel was, not having been part of the clearing group when Kirito and Asuna had run their strange variation of the Elf War quest line. Despite the lack of cursor indoors, they could tell she was an NPC, and that just made things even more confusing.
One or two of those players did have the presence of mind to shoot Kirito questioning looks. He just smiled blandly in return, feeling absolutely no need to let them know that, honestly, he was just as confused as they were. He'd built his rep on being nearly as knowledgeable as Argo the Rat, after all.
"Well, I certainly don't mind!" Asuna declared. Turning to her own guildmaster, she gave Heathcliff a look that somehow managed to be both respectful and challenging. "Leader?"
Heathcliff gazed at Kizmel for a long moment, face inscrutable. Kirito thought there was some measure of curiosity in his steel-gray eyes, but the expression of a man who remained calm in the face of the disaster that was The Adamantine Arachnid wasn't an easy one to read.
"Given that we were just discussing our potential shortage of fighters," he said at last, "I certainly see no reason to turn down an offer of assistance, however… unorthodox." He turned to the other guild leader, raising one eyebrow fractionally. "Lind? Do you have any objection?"
Lind stared several seconds longer, then shook himself. "No," he managed. "No, that's fine with me. I expect Kizmel-san's participation will be of particular benefit to Kirito, given recent changes in organization."
Translation, with Asuna finally having come to her senses, I'll have a partner just as strange as me, who probably can't be teamed with anybody else anyway. Kirito shrugged internally. If that's how you have to see it, Lind, fine. I don't know why you still think I really care about your opinion.
"Then I believe it's settled." Heathcliff nodded to the elf. "Welcome to the clearing group, Kizmel-kun."
Kizmel brought her fist to her chest in salute. "Thank you… Guildmaster Heathcliff, I believe Kirito said? I look forward to working with you."
Kirito wasn't sure that was quite the end of it, since most of the players—DDA, KoB, and solo alike—didn't have the least idea what was going on. Most of them, though, seemed willing enough to defer to Heathcliff for now, and if there were some confused mutters about NPCs and Beaters, Asuna's glare was enough to keep them quiet.
A glare that quickly turned back to a smile, when the KoB sub-commander turned back to the elf girl. "I really am glad to see you, Kizmel-chan," she said softly. "I have guild duties now, but after the battle, I'd like to talk more."
"Of course, Asuna," Kizmel said, with an answering smile. "We have a great deal of catching up to do, don't we? Although I expect my life has been less interesting than yours, since we parted in the capital."
Asuna reluctantly released Kizmel's shoulders and headed back to her place with the KoB contingent, motioning with a glance for Kizmel and Kirito to sit at the far end of the table. Not, Kirito knew, as an insult, but because Asuna knew him well enough to know he preferred some distance.
He was grateful for that. He might've been getting used to the idea of not being allowed to go completely solo, but large groups were something he still wasn't comfortable with, and figured he probably never would be.
From there, Kirito assumed the meeting would get back on topic. Just as he and Kizmel were sitting down, though, one of the mutters from farther down the table got just loud enough not to be ignored.
"An NPC, in a boss fight, with no quest?" It was Shivata, Kirito thought, another of the original DDA members. "Am I the only one who thinks that's just a little strange?"
Asuna was quick to turn her sharp gaze on him again, but before she could really turn up the intensity of her glare, Heathcliff raised a hand. "I admit to being curious myself," he said. "Kirito-kun, may I ask just how you gained Kizmel-kun's friendship to begin with? I've not heard of such a close alliance between human and elf before."
The KoB guildmaster was being careful to use terms that didn't break immersion, too, Kirito noticed curiously. He wondered about that… The only reaction he allowed himself to show, though, was a small smile and an apologetic shrug. "Sorry, Heathcliff, but I don't think Argo would appreciate my giving that information away for free."
That was true enough. More importantly, in Kirito's mind, was that it delayed Asuna from asking any questions about just how long Kizmel had been traveling with him, and what exactly they'd been doing. It wasn't like Argo was in a position to answer anything directly just then, anyway.
Heathcliff's eyebrow went up again. "Is that so? Hm… Fair enough." He looked over to the farthest corner of the room, and raised his voice. "Argo-kun. How much for that story?"
Kirito started, and whipped his head in that direction. He hadn't even realized Argo was present, but there she was, leaning so still and quiet against the wall that he'd overlooked her completely. I shouldn't have, he thought, mentally kicking himself. Argo's almost never around for a boss fight, but she does turn up for the planning…
The self-styled Rat grinned. "Three thousand Cor for the grand tale of the Elf War, Master Heathcliff," she answered, crossing her arms. "Another five hundred for the story behind Kizmel's arrival here."
"A fair price," Heathcliff said with a nod. Briefly manipulating his menu to materialize a pouch of coins, he set it on the table and slid it over toward the info broker.
Argo stepped over to retrieve it, tucked it under her cloak, and slid a slim pamphlet over in return. "Pleasure doing business with you, Master Heathcliff."
Kirito gulped. Asuna's gaze was shifting rapidly between him, Kizmel, Heathcliff, and the Rat, growing more suspicious by the moment. Finally, she said, "Argo. A copy of that last, please."
There was definitely something sharp in Argo's grin now, as the five-hundred-Cor coin was exchanged for a slimmer collection of pages. One which, Kirito noticed, she'd pulled right from her belt pouch, not having needed to go into her inventory for it.
I am so doomed. The boss will be the easy part of today…
Kizmel leaned closer to him. "Argo is certainly a clever bargainer," she whispered. "Is such a simple tale truly so valuable?"
The rest of the gathered players were finally getting to the business of actually discussing boss battle strategy. Kirito… just laid his head on the table and groaned.
No more mountains, no more caves. The Twenty-Seventh Floor was a place of open fields and green forests, not too different from the areas closest to the City of Beginnings, and much brighter than the last two floors had been. Doubtless there were monsters in the tall grass and hiding among the tree branches, but the atmosphere was still somehow more optimistic.
Part of it, Kirito supposed, might've been purely psychological. After all, reaching Skirloft had come on the heels of the most costly battle the players had yet faced, where by contrast the arrival at the town of Florencia was a victory march.
Not that Sharza the Corrupted Dragon had been easy, especially since the raid group had been two people short of full, but they'd pulled it off without a single casualty. Naga of the Divine Dragons had gotten himself flung into a wall hard enough to put his HP in the red once, and that was about the worst of it.
"I hate flying mobs," Asuna sighed, idly swirling her cup of moontear wine. "But at least it couldn't cling to the ceiling like that spider. Thank goodness for enclosed spaces."
Under the circumstances, Heathcliff had given her a couple of hours off when the clearing group emerged onto the new floor, allowing her time to catch up with old party members before she got back to organizing the KoB's share of the spoils. The three of them were gathered now in a cafe a good distance from the town's entrance, far enough that other players likely wouldn't be arriving for a little while, at least.
"I heard the field boss, Torza, was pretty tough because of that," Kirito agreed, between bites of the pastry he'd ordered. "Kizmel and I were busy with about a dozen fire-breathing wyverns in the Gateway Chamber at the time, so we missed it. Lucky us?"
Asuna favored him with a disdainful glance, though there was humor glinting in her eyes. "Yeah, sure, lucky you. You do know you missed out on a pretty good LA Bonus, right?" She thumped the light chestplate she wore over her KoB uniform. "Dragonscale Armor. Argo says I probably won't find better for a couple floors yet."
The gamer in Kirito's soul cried out at the lost opportunity, but he firmly suppressed the reaction. "That's not the kind of armor I wear anyway," he said, with as much dignity as he could muster.
"Yeah, of course." She rolled her eyes. "You even missed the LA on Sharza, though. Good job, Kizmel-chan."
Kizmel glanced up from her inspection of the blade she'd laid on the table before her. "I only did my part," she said modestly. "It's mere coincidence that mine was the final blow. Not," she admitted, "that I do not appreciate the reward. The blade Her Majesty entrusted to me remains a great honor, but I fear the foes on these higher floors might soon be too much for it."
The sword that lay between them now was a saber, much like the blade of the Pagoda Knights that Kizmel had used up to that point. It bore a more golden sheen, though, and Kirito's quick check of its stats had revealed it to be much stronger than its predecessor. The Corrupted Sword of the Order would, he suspected, serve Kizmel for at least the next five floors.
Knowing that his former partner and current one would both be better protected was enough to offset the sting of having missed two consecutive Last Attack Bonuses. No question about it. And he really didn't use much metal armor, and had never used a saber at all since the beta.
Definitely better that the items went to those two.
"Enough about items and bosses, though." Asuna sipped at her wine, turning a serious gaze on the elf. "You're really joining the clearing group, Kizmel-chan?"
Kizmel nodded. "For as long as I'm not needed by my Kingdom, yes. From what Her Majesty said, my presence will likely not be required there for the foreseeable future; with peace made with the Forest Elves, and the Fallen Elves defeated, there simply aren't any noteworthy threats."
"Peace, huh… It must be nice," Asuna said wistfully.
"It does make serve to make all our sacrifices worth it." Kizmel picked up her own cup of wine, gazing down at the dark liquid. "…I only wish that Tilnel were here to see it…"
Kirito exchanged a quick look with Asuna. To this day, they didn't know for certain if Kizmel's sister had existed at all, given the nature of Aincrad and its quests; it was just as likely that Kizmel herself hadn't existed as such until the moment they got in range to see her confrontation with a Forest Elf.
And yet—Kizmel did have some faint memories of the beta test, even if she didn't understand them. Clearly, there was something about her that had existed before that day, somehow.
Kirito had mulled the whole thing over often, in the days they'd fought beside Kizmel. By now, he'd decided to believe that Tilnel had been real, however briefly. The timing of SAO's launch, over a month before the beginning of that first Elf War quest, made it just barely possible. That was good enough for him.
Kizmel visibly shook off the old memories, and looked up at her companions with a smile. "Well. If I'm to be honest, that really is part of what inspired me to come all this way, Asuna. I was… well, feeling lonely. The two of you were better friends to me than any I'd had before, and aiding your quest seemed a better use of my time than pointlessly patrolling a peaceful kingdom, alone."
Friend. That was something Kirito wasn't used to being called, as close as he'd always been to being a true hikikomori. He'd had people on his friends lists in various MMOs, of course, but that was just a gameplay mechanic; none of those on it had ever been anything more than occasional allies on virtual battlefields.
She was right, though. Kizmel and Asuna, even that troll of a Rat Argo, they were his friends. Agil was edging close, too, and if he hadn't left the samurai that first day, he supposed Klein could've been one, but these girls were the people who'd gotten closest to him in a long, long time.
It felt strange, but not bad. Kirito wasn't sure he deserved it, after the way he'd abandoned Klein to protect his own skin, yet he couldn't bring himself to push it away. He wanted the warmth it brought him.
Asuna reached across the table to take Kizmel's hand. "You're always welcome here, Kizmel-chan," she said firmly. "You are our friend." She smiled warmly. "I'm really glad to see you again. I missed you."
"Thank you, Asuna." Kizmel took a sip from her glass, and lifted an eyebrow. "So how are you doing? Now that you've joined a guild, that is. Kirito said you've been involved in setting the organization up?"
"Ah, that." The fencer leaned back with a sigh. "Well, it hasn't been dangerous… but I admit the field boss was actually kind of a relief. The KoB is still small, but I never realized how much work went into establishing a guild." She shot a glance at Kirito. "You've been doing this kind of thing for years, you could've warned me!"
He raised his hands. "Hey, solo, remember? Like I know anything about being part of a guild? I only knew about the quest to set one up because I was in PUGs with a few people who were in guilds. I sure don't know anything about what's involved in guild leadership."
"Oh, right… Figures." Asuna shook her head. "I guess I just got used to you knowing everything else about these situations… Next time I'll ask Argo."
"She isn't part of a guild, either," Kizmel pointed out. "I believe she once said it would be a 'conflict of interest'?"
"Sure, but have you ever found anything she didn't know?"
Kizmel hesitated, then shook her head with a chuckle. "Point taken. I sometimes worry she knows more about my own Kingdom's military deployments than I do."
Kirito wouldn't have been too surprised if that was true. Especially since the Dark Elves' "deployments" were limited to the needs of SAO's quests, and thus easy enough for a determined player to track down. Good thing she's not likely to sell to hostile NPCs. She might sell practically anything to other players, but she's not going to actively sabotage the clearing, no matter how much Cor she's offered.
Asuna sobered. "So yeah, I'm doing okay, but… I admit I was worried about Kirito-kun." She shot him quick glance, more open than she usually was with him. "I know, I know, you were the one who always told me I should join a guild if the right person asked, and I know you think I'm strong enough now not to need your help, but I still didn't like the idea of you going back to being solo. Especially not after how bad that spider was."
"He will not be alone, Asuna," Kizmel assured her. "My sword will be with his."
"Thank you, Kizmel-chan. That takes a real load off me." Asuna downed the last of her Moontear wine, sighed once more, and stood. "Well, I suppose I should be getting back to the guild now. We'll have to start planning the exploration of this floor soon, after all."
The other two stood as well. "We'll probably be going on ahead, then," Kirito told her. "Last time, we had a late start, then pulled ahead, and still managed to miss an entire boss. We're not letting that happen again."
She reached out to touch her fist to his. "Then I'd better be seeing you in the field, Kirito-kun. If I catch you slacking off, you'd better believe I'll call you on it." Despite her words, she was smiling. "I know we're not partners anymore… but I'm looking forward to still working with you on clearing, Kirito-kun."
"Likewise," he said, and somewhat to his own surprise meant it. "I may be solo—er, almost solo—but we're still working toward the same goal. Just don't let the DDA get too far ahead of you, okay? I'm sick of Lind posturing at being 'Diavel's successor'."
"Believe me, I hated that even more than you did." Asuna turned to Kizmel, and pulled the elf into a sisterly hug. "I'm really glad you're back," she said into Kizmel's shoulder. "I wish we had more time to talk… Now, I can't be looking out for Kirito-kun all the time, so take care of him for me, will you, Kizmel-chan? You know how reckless he can be."
The dusky girl nodded against Asuna's hair. "You have my word, Asuna. As a knight—no, as a sister-in-arms. We will see this journey through to the very end, all of us. To the Ruby Palace itself."
Author's Note:
Well. A month and a half. Not quite what I had in mind. Let me hasten to assure everyone, however, that the primary issue was that I quite simply hadn't planned this chapter. At all. The last couple of scenes were all that I really had any idea about, and that was because they were originally supposed to be the end of the first chapter. When I ended Chapter I early, I had to scramble to put together enough material to make a viable Chapter II.
That won't be the case with Chapter III. Canon provides an excellent framework—only a framework, however; the general scenario will be familiar, but believe me, I intend to take the tale of the Moonlit Black Cats in a rather different direction from canon. And, as far as I'm aware, from what any other fic has done.
A few points I should address. First, yes, I kind of glossed over most of the events of this floor, and there was virtually no combat. I especially didn't like resorting to that info dump section. The alternative, however, was to have the chapter bogged down with details that really weren't important; the purpose of the chapter was to finish establishing the basic scenario of the fic. There will be additional combat later.
By which time, hopefully, I'll have gotten a handle on writing SAO combat. I've written stories based on video games before, but I admit I've never dealt with a setting where the RPG mechanics exist in-universe. It's slightly intimidating, actually.
Something I meant to mention in the first chapter's notes: some may notice that the dates given in this story don't match up with the canon timeline. That's entirely deliberate, because according to the timeline I found, the 25th Floor was clearing just a few weeks after Progressive Volume 3, which dealt with the 4th Floor. I find that timing slightly unlikely.
Later events will match up a bit better with canon timeline details, but for the first few chapters expect things to be set later than we see in the novels/anime.
Minor note: I'm aware that the official Romanization of Aincrad's currency is Col,not Cor; however, according to the wiki the latter is the correct spelling, as it's supposedly an acronym for "Coin Of Radius". That is one detail I can't personally verify, as the source cited is one of the Sword Art Offline specials, one of the few aspects of the franchise I have no direct knowledge of (having assumed they were gag shorts, and thus ignored them). It does seem logical enough, though, so that's what I'm going with.
More minor note: all misspellings regarding the inspiration for the floor quest are intentional. No disrespect meant to it, either, despite Argo's snarky comments; aside from wanting to strangle whoever came up with its cop-out ending, I'm quite fond of the game.
All that said. The problems that plagued this chapter shouldn't be cropping up again any time soon. I have a general outline for at least the next three chapters; and if anyone is bothered by the fact that Kizmel's perspective still hasn't been shown directly—I know I am—well, Chapter III is slated to be entirely her PoV. AI Elf instead of human, er, human, is going to be interesting to write…
So. Sorry for the long wait, and I hope this chapter is interesting, despite its haphazard nature. -Solid