Sword Art Online III: Asgard

Three

Asuna sipped her drink as she tried not to look at Youko too much. There was something about her that was oddly familiar to the Undine fencer, but she couldn't quite place it. "Is Agil coming?" she asked Kirito, knowing that Andrew hadn't been sure he could come due to work.

"He's not going to be able to make it, but he said he was sending a friend to give us what information they have," Kirito noted.

"Hey, Kirito, is it true that the Cardinal System created this new Asgard zone?" Klein asked him a bit anxiously.

"As I understand it, the System took something that was in development, finished it and then introduced it to the game, according to the guys at Ymir," Kirito said.

"That's just...," Lux shook her head in disbelief, the pretty blond sitting by Leafa.

As they processed that a figure slipped in the inn, moving through the crowd concealed by a long tan cloak. She slipped up behind Kirito and smiled, "Hey, Boya. Been awhile."

Kirito yelped, then whirled around in surprise. "Argo?!" he yelped.

Argo the Rat, the infamous Information Broker of Aincrad, smiled up at him, her usual 'whiskers' painted on her cheeks. Her sandy blond hair fell into her eyes, and she was outfitted in light armor, much like her SAO character build.

"Hey," Asuna hugged her, smiling warmly. Argo also got cheerful if wary greetings from Klein, Silica and Lisbeth, while Leafa, Lux, the just arrived Sinon and Youko wondered what was going on.

Seeing their confusion Silica explain, "Argo was one of our comrades in Sword Art Online. She was with us the whole time, but I thought she quit gaming after we defeated Heathcliff."

"Ah!" Leafa nodded in understanding.

Argo sat at the table by Kirito, with Asuna on his other side. Asuna leaned forward as she asked, "Where have you been, Argo? Not that I'm not happy to see you back..."

"Ten thousand yrd," Argo quoted her usual price for personal information.

Not even missing a beat Asuna got the coin from her inventory and passed it over. "Talk," she said firmly.

"I didn't know you cared, Asuna," Argo noted wryly as she rolled the coin over her fingers before making it disappear. "After I woke up, and recovered enough," she said, referring to the physio therapy everyone who spent two years in VR had to go through, "I went back to college to try to salvage my journalism degree."

"You're in college?" Klein blinked.

"I TOLD you I was older," Argo smirked. "And to be honest I wasn't interested in trying out the Amu Sphere system until I was DAMN sure it was safe and stable. After Sword Art Online, I was gun-shy, I'll admit it."

"Understandable," Kirito admitted. Well, he was a hard core gamer, so he probably would have ended going back to playing VR games eventually, himself. But Asuna being in trouble had sped up the process considerably.

"Anyway," Argo waved that off, "I'm back now, and will be going back into information dealing and such. Hence why I'm here."

"Agil sent you?" Leafa realized.

"With a briefing on what we know so far on Asgard from Ymir along with the attempts so far to beat it," Argo agreed. She leaned forward, "Agil wasn't able to get lot of concrete information from Ymir, but we know the dungeon leading to Asgard is four floors and a boss chamber."

"And some REALLY tough monsters," Silica mused.

"The good news if you've faced this level of monster before," Argo pointed out.

"Huh?" Kirito blinked.

It took Asuna a second then she realized what Argo meant, "The Thrymheim castle we beat to get Excalibur."

"Exactly." Argo nodded, "Apparently the general level of monster will be at that level, with the bosses slightly higher."

Sinon groaned dramatically. "Oh that was SUCH a bitch..."

"On the other hand if we do clear it there is going to be some REALLY nice loot to share," Klein noted optimistically.

Youko smiled wryly, "Assuming we live to tell about it."

"There's that," Silica sighed.

Kirito tried to get things back on track as he asked, "Has anyone made any progress mapping out the dungeon?"

Argo produced a scroll from her inventory then spread it out on the table. "I'd estimate they've mapped maybe a quarter of the dungeon," she said as she pointed out what they knew.

"Rock Trolls with high damage and heavy armor right at the enterance? Cardinal is a sadist," Lisbeth noted.

"They also have a decent respawn rate, according to the one crew that made it farthest. They retreated and hit the Trolls AGAIN on the way out," Argo informed them.

"Sadist," Lisbeth repeated, shaking her head.

"There's also a version of Dark Elves, but Norse, not like the ones in old Aincrad," Argo noted. "They are range fighters, so have tanks in front and healing potions handy," Argo pointed to another section slightly farther in.

"I can keep them busy while the rest of the group closes with them," Sinon noted.

"Other than that, there's the usual Minotaur types too. Tough, magic resistant and high damage," Argo pointed at another section.

"Doesn't sound that awful..." Asuna mused.

"It's the fire monsters just after that that has stopped everyone cold, so to speak," Argo noted. "They've killed everyone who's attempted it..."

"Tanks draw their Aggro while everyone else hits them," Klein noted.

"We don't HAVE tanks," Silica sighed.

"Which means it's me and Lis, probably," Klein made a face as he mused. "We'll need to buy upgraded armor."

"Why me?" Lisbeth complained.

"Because your blacksmithing gives you the highest overall strength of the group, other than Kirito. And he can't take a hit worth a damn," Klein noted.

"Hey," Kirito protested mildly.

Asuna smiled wryly, "You DO like a strength and speed/agility build, dear."

Kirito pouted, but couldn't really argue with it.

"One last thing," Argo said. "Lisbeth, you got the Hammer of Thor during the Thrymheim raid. I would suggest equipping it and using it as your primary weapon in the dungeon," she said.

"Because it's from Asgard?" Lisbeth guessed.

"And the monsters in the dungeon are all enemies of Asgard, as far as we can tell. You should get bonuses against them using the hammer," Argo noted. She looked to her side, "Kirito?"

"Yes?" he asked a bit warily.

"I know you don't want to flaunt that you have Excalibur, but I think you should go in there with it equipped and ready," Argo advised. "This is not the time to play 'cool solo player' and hold your best weapon in reserve."

Asuna bit back a chuckle at that.

"Right," Kirito conceded. He blinked, "How did you know about...?"

"I AM an information broker," Argo pointed out. "I may be a bit rusty, but I still have my skills." In fact Andrew had told her, but she wasn't going to tell them that...

Lux looked curious, "Are you coming into the dungeon with us?"

"Oh HELL no," Argo yelped.

Kirito laughed at Lux's startled expression. "Argo very rarely went into dungeons, pretty much only when she absolutely couldn't avoid it," he explained.

"I leave the actual danger to you folks," Argo agreed. She hopped down from her chair as she said briskly, "Okay, I'm going to check to see if anyone else has made a attempt on the dungeon. If I hear anything else I'll let you know."

"For the usual fee," Asuna noted.

"A girl's gotta eat. I put you all back on my friends list, too," Argo added as she trotted away.

Youko watched her go, a slight smile on her face. "What a... interesting young lady," she noted dryly.

It was THAT dry, almost sarcastic comment that made Asuna nearly blurt out 'Mother!'. She looked at the other woman's face and realized the resemblance was clearly there. But what on Earth had caused her serious, work driven mother to create a character in Alfheim Online...?

To be continued...

Notes: Argo the Rat is a character originally introduced in side stories for SAO. She became a regular character in the SAO Progressive series, and has appeared in various SAO video games. Sadly we do NOT know her canon background (yet) so I made something up.