Jaymes

Outside the town of Stachion ia an expansive wilderness of brown grass, green forests, and fog-covered hills and cliffs. For the avid adventurer, they'll be happy to know that this is just but one of the five variable climates of the sixth floor. An uncrossable mountain range separates those biomes, but there were a few possible ways to cross from one section to the other in the beta. At the center of the floor is the star-shaped Lake Talpha, and each area's shores are open. There's a cavern between the area they're currently located and the region to the west that cuts through the mountains, but like any cave in an RPG, it has its share of dangers.

The Celestial Tower, or the floor boss labyrinth, is in the region bordering the other side of this one, directly southwest of the staircase connecting the fifth and sixth floors where Jaymes and Koharu are located. Looking at the connection between the sixth and seventh floor makes Jaymes realize that his beta knowledge of the game ends the moment they step on the tenth floor, and once we reach the eleventh, we're all in the dark moving forward. And sometime between now and then is the day Kirito, Asuna, Koharu, and Jaymes will finally go their separate ways.

While the partnership of Jaymes and Koharu will continue, Kirito and Asuna's are uncertain. Asuna has many other options to choose from; she can rejoin Mito, join Jaymes and Koharu, or stick it out on her own. Jaymes believes he knows Asuna's choice, so the uncertainty lies with the Black Swordsman. If he had to guess...

"Long time no see! You seem well. Still getting along?"

"Lisbeth! We haven't seen you since the fourth floor. Are you still looking for forging materials?"

Time for guessing will come later, now that their appointment with Lisbeth has begun. The blacksmith greets Koharu with a hug and a wave to Jaymes, then answers Koharu's question. "Not right now. I have a customer that didn't like my weapons at the shop so she's asking for a special-made item."

"Your forging job seems to be going well. Nicely done!"

Lisbeth sighs despite Koharu's compliment. "I'm not so sure about that. That customer is a little bit troublesome."

"Is she scary?"

"No, no, no. She's a nice person. Really. She's the type that tests my limits. It's the fact that she wants two of the same sword, and she wants them to be as similar as possible stat-wise as well. This should be a fun job."

Jaymes had suspected before when Koharu and Asuna got their current weapons that crafted weapons are a different cut from bought weapons and reward weapons. If he got Imperial and the Flame Shield from a shop, or as he did as a reward, there's little to no variability to the stats of the sword and shield if someone else got the same items. But a crafter is different. The materials used to forge or upgrade, the quality of those materials, and the crafter's skill level all play a part in the final product.

For Lisbeth to complete this request, she has to forge the same sword twice and as identically as possible. The likelihood of those chances depends on what Lisbeth uses as materials and her skill. But there's a final factor that Lisbeth or any crafter, NPC or player, can control - chance, or what gamers call "random number goddess" or "RNG".

RNG plays a part in every component of crafting and combat. In combat, it controls the chances of critical hits, the amount of damage a normal or critical hit does, and other factors. In crafting, the values of stats and other effects are random too. Theoretically, Lisbeth can't create the exact same sword twice, which is why "as similar as possible stat-wise" is an important distinction. The chances of that are greater but still slim.

It would be easier to accomplish that by upgrading and choosing which of the five parameters to upgrade, but that's if you'd cared for one parameter. This person cares for all five.

"Why two of the same swords?" Jaymes inquires.

"She likes to wield two of them at once, so she'll like them to be as balanced as possible."

"But the weight of the weapons won't matter if they're the same kind. There must be a reason to want identical stats."

The five parameters are Sharpness/Toughness, Heaviness, Quickness, Accuracy, and Durability. Sharpness is the damage stat for slash and pierce weapons like my sword and Asuna's rapier, while Toughness is for blunt weapons like Lisbeth's mace. Heaviness doesn't increase a weapon's innate weight, but a "heavier" weapon has an increased chance of breaking an opponent's armor and weapon; Durability is the counter to Heaviness as it increases a weapon's ability to take damage (basically a weapon's own HP). Accuracy improves the critical rate, and Quickness improves speed of normal attacks and sword skills.

For Jaymes, he hasn't improved Imperial or the Flame Shield, as they had pretty solid stats for the fifth floor. That may still ring true, but there's no problem with being overpowered both in level and in gear in his mind. When he does, probably after completing Lisbeth's request, he'll add a point in Durability and a couple to Sharpness for his sword and Durability and Toughness for the shield. Toughness on shields increases the amount of damage it can absorb before the unabsorbed value is inflicted on the player.

Later in the day, Jaymes would learn that Kirito and Asuna are upgrading their weapons at this time at the dark elf camp back on the third floor. The blacksmith that granted Koharu and Asuna their weapons would tell Kirito that there's no point in upgrading Sharpness to his Sword of Eventide, as it is sharp enough. The smith would recommend he boosts its Accuracy instead. There's a whole debate on what critical rate means in Sword Art Online compared to other MMOs, but an increased chance to deal damage is an increased chance to survive.

With the stats alone in mind, the logic of Liz's customer isn't lost to him. Sharpness and Quickness are ideal stats to improve for slash weapons such as broadswords and daggers. Durability is a must for all weapons. Lisbeth hasn't said which stat her customer is looking for, but the logical stat that must be similar in value has to be Quickness. Given that they're using two weapons, the damage is already doubled, and ideally, the reliance on one weapon's durability is halved, so the speed to wield the weapons is the desired trait.

"Where is your customer, Liz?"

"We were supposed to meet here too, but she sent me a message this morning that she'd do some reconnaissance on something and that we'll meet up later. She hasn't told me when that'd be, and I'm worried. I don't like sitting around and thinking about going after her."

"I see. So when you said that you wanted to make a great sword..."

"I would like to think that she hasn't gone far, but... But she's a good person. She's overenthusiastic and probably just rushed somewhere ridiculous."

"Going by herself in a new field? That's worrisome. She might've run into a strong monster out there.

"Oh, I'm not worried about that." Lisbeth moves her eyes to her left and points in the general direction of where one's status bar and their party member's statuses are displayed. "We're in a party, and her HP bar hasn't gone down at all. But still, the information broker hasn't released a book on this floor yet. I don't know what's out there."

Koharu turns to Jaymes, and her eyes say all that she wants to do. If Lisbeth's request helped in gathering materials or the like, she would have said so. However, she was clear she wasn't looking for materials. Lisbeth's message, sent just as Jaymes was waking up at eight, hadn't said what she wanted, to meet here at ten in the morning if he and Koharu could. Her story had a purpose, but it didn't seem like Lisbeth would ask them to help look for this girl. Koharu, in her infinite kindness, has stated her desire to him with her eyes.

With a glance to Lisbeth, Jaymes says, "Well, you have the two of us. Do you want help looking for her?"

'That'd be wonderful. And if we could get materials along the way, we'd kill two birds with one stone. I will compensate you. So do you mind?"

Koharu looks back at Jaymes again. "We don't have anything we have to do, right?"

"No. I was thinking of upgrading my weapons, which Liz can do later. Kirito and Asuna are doing their own thing now, but we can catch up with them later. "

"It's better to move around with a goal. We'll take the job."

"Yay! I owe you... So do you know a place to get good materials?"

Jaymes nods and pulls up the map of the sixth floor. Because they've only been in Stachion and the trail to the 5th-6th floor stairway, only a corner of the first slice of the five-piece pie that is the sixth floor is colored in. Yet Jaymes' memory serves him well as he points to an area not too far south of their location. "There's, by the mountain range over to the south. It's the closest area, and they'd have a head start on farming the mobs there. While we're there, we can start looking for your friend. What does she look like."

"A girl wielding a one-handed sword...well, two one-handed swords. She has a hairband around her long, red hair. Her ears are also somewhat pointed, and she looks like an idol in battle gear."

"Pointy ears, red hair, and a swordsman who...wields two swords? I don't know anyone like-"

"Nijika?" Jaymes recalls that description as someone he met on the third floor when he and the others arrived at Zumfut, the human town of the land. He went on a short adventure with her and saw the miracle that someone had exploited the system to wield two swords. In short, Nijika intentionally disarms her right hand, opening the slot for another weapon to replace the disarmed one, and picks up the original weapon with her left hand.

That also explains why she's particular about the stats of the swords. A dual-wielder requires balanced weapons to fight, so if there's a significant difference in her blades, it will pose a problem. Nijika's method to obtain her "ability" is cumbersome, so she doesn't need a stat issue with her blades.

In the far-off future, when Jaymes knows Nijika by another name and as a valued friend, and such an ability to possess two blades at once is given to another player he knows, Nijika would comment that she finds it unfair that he received it when she's sure she was the only person to wield twin blades. When it came down to their ability to fight, Nijika clearly showed more remarkable finesse, even in the far future.

"Huh, you know her?" a curious, eyebrow-raising Lisbeth questions. "Uh-huh... I had you pegged for someone who didn't like talking to others, especially girls. That makes things easier. So we'll stick to the vicinity of the area. We can focus on getting the materials and come back here when we're done."

It took another hour to collect a good number of Pointed Beaks from the Blustery Bills, a type of bird mob resembling herons. Once Lisbeth called off the hunt, the trio regrouped and relocated back to the sixth floor's gate.

When they arrived, they were already beaten by a red-headed girl seated against the opened doors. When the newcomer spots them, she gets to her feet excitedly. "Lisbeth! You're here...with Jaymes? Privet! Long time no see!"

Before Jaymes can speak, the girl rams into him, gripping him in a tight hug. "Whoa! N-Nijika! H-hey, don't scare me like that..." Allowing her hug to continue for another second, he gently removes himself and takes a half-step away from her. "Nice to see you again."

"I'm delighted to see you again! I heard what you did on the third, fourth, and fifth floors recently. It must be tough out there being on the front lines, and a hero at that. You've been through a lot."

"H-hero?" He doesn't recall their exploits being told to anyone...well, besides a few encounters with DKB and ALS that might spread out from them, there's one loudmouth spiller of tales, but that means she's getting paid to rat them out. Argo's the only one who might know certain details of their time with Kizmel on the third and fourth floor, and she participated in what happened on the fifth. The only thing Argo doesn't know about is their run-ins with Morte and his group, the latest being the man in the black poncho.

If Nijika heard all except the encounters with the PKers, with some embellishment, it would make a heroic story...and he's at the center? That sounds about right.

Who was nearly scorched to cinders by the Magnatherium? Jaymes. Who captained the Tilnel through her managed voyages? Jaymes. Who led the raid after Diavel's fall? Jaymes. Of course he's the hero Nijika hears about.

"Well, I have done a lot to help progress the game, hehe. But I cannot take some of the credit. DKB and ALS have done their part, minor as it has been, and I cannot forget my friends. With me here is my partner Koharu, and there are three other people with us in our party, but they're not worth mentioni-"

There's something very alluring about having cold steel slyly pressed against one's back. It has the remarkable effect of relaxing facial muscles, increasing brain power, and invoking thoughts that if Jaymes doesn't shut up, the "Kindred Assassin" might literally kill him with kindness. He decides to stop grandstanding and talk more about Nijika."...So, Nijika, what have you been up to all this time?"

"Well, I fought this monster earlier this morning before dawn and got a rare-ish material. So I've been fighting them to get enough of it."

Jaymes understands that feeling well, but in a game like SAO, going off on your own invites mortal danger, no matter how strong one is. "You know there's a limit to how much trouble a person can cause. Even for us solo players, it doesn't do well to scare others, especially the one's who don't go out deep into the field like Liz."

"I lost track of time... And you all were looking for me. I'm really sorry about that! Izvini!" Nijika bows apologetically to Lisbeth, Jaymes, and Koharu in that order.

"I'm glad that everybody is safe," Lisbeth remarks. "I got what I needed here too. Now I should be able to make something good. But... Rain, why does he call you 'Nijika?'"

"Ah." She bites her lips and drops her shoulders, realizing her blunder. "I...uh...said a different name when I gave to Jaymes when we met. My bad, Jaymes, but can you call me Rain from now on?"

Jaymes sighs. He has a feeling 'Nijika' is her real name, and he unintentionally broke a taboo of online games to call someone by their player name - exceptions being Koharu and Asuna. "Okay... Rain."

"So these materials were for you, Rain?" Koharu asks. "What kind of sword are you making?"

"I assume you heard of my style? I want something light but tough and easy to use. The swords that NPC stores sell just don't quite fit the bill. Lisbeth's swords felt closer to what I was looking for, but..."

"Don't complain about the parameters in front of me! I was fairly confident in the materials I bought on the fifth floor...that's why I retorted. I said if I got materials from the front lines on the sixth floor, you could get a better sword!"

"That's why we're here," Rain says excitedly, ignoring the steaming Lisbeth. "And you guys helped us out. I'm sure this will be a good sword!"

"Hmmm. That's a lot of pressure on me here."

Jaymes smirks and leans forward, teasing Lisbeth as she starts unloading her forging gear from one of the carpets that Jaymes and Koharu have seen other crafters use. "You alright? Do you think you can do it?"

"Hmph, I can. Equipment can mean life or death for its wearer, so I can't afford to mess up. Besides, materials can sense fear. When I make a good weapon I focus on my right hand and go into a trance so I won't get distracted."

"Does that change our chances of success?" Koharu wonders, tapping a finger on her chin. She then giggles and turns to Jaymes. "That sounds like something Argo would start investigating right away."

"No need to involve her... Good luck, Liz."

"Stop blabbering!" says the blacksmith as the forge roars to life with fire. "I need to focus."