Floor 10 - Chapter 1 - Snakes on the Plains

Argo felt something new in this game as she sat at her desk, reading her messages. She was fairly sure she was getting a headache.

Trying to find someone who was both free to help, and willing to help her, was proving to be a far greater challenge than it had any rights being. Was it the national ''avoid Argo'' day, and she hadn't got the memo, she wondered, as she read another message saying ''they'd love to help, but...''.

Of everyone she knew - Kii-bou and Aa-chan had ran ahead before she could catch up and ask for their help, and weren't answering her messages (not that it was particularly unusual for one of them, she bitterly thought.), Knight-boy and Ko-chan had told her that they were having a short break after the events of the last floor, which was understandable in her opinion, especially after being put through the wringer like that, Rain had simply left her on read, and Phillia was off exploring a cavern on the seventh floor.

''Ugh, why can't I find someone!'', she mumbled to herself, as she laid her head on the table, her blonde mop falling and covering her face, before a thought came to her mind. It wasn't a good one, per se, but... well, better the devil you know, after all...

Without her usual avenues of discovery, what she knew about the tenth floor was fairly surface level - the main town, Senja, was heavily inspired by the Little Edos that could be found across Japan, along with the local cuisine and apparently, girls in kimonos. This was still a video game after all, so of course it had fanservice. Not that the game had fans, but the point stood.

She reckoned that the mobs on the floor would be based heavily off Japanese mythology, so she expected to see samurai of some form, snakes, and almost certainly some form of mythical monster as the floor boss.

Whilst Argo reminisced about trips to Little Edos and Japanese mythology, a partially cloaked figure approached her through the town, with a very familiar way of walking. A sway of the hips that showed confidence and arrogance at the same time... only one person she knew fit that description - Strea. The purplette had had a change of outfit since the last time they'd met. Gone was the ludicrously low cut dress, replaced with what Argo reckoned was lower level gear. A steel chest plate covered her assets, whilst she'd somehow removed the sleeves on the dress, leaving only two bands around her upper arms as a sign they were ever there in the first place. She'd kept the long black tights, but replaced the starter boots with knee high combat boots. Anyone who looked at her would think she was attempting to get peoples attention... which made the brown cloak that now covered her shoulders, back and part of her face all the more perplexing. All in all though, it was an outfit that screamed Strea all over. No one ever accused the woman of being subtle...

''Argo.''

''Strea.''

''You asked for my help?''

Argo noticed the number of people looking over at the pair, and bristled slightly. She would've rather done this somewhere with far less attention, but men will be men as it turned out. ''Yeah, can we discuss the job elsewhere please? Rather not do it out on the streets, ya know?''

''There's an inn over there. Should do, shouldn't it?''

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Argo considered herself to be professional, at least when it came to her wheelings and dealings as an information broker.

Or at least, she thought she did... so why exactly was she watching someone down a glass of Moon Wine at 9:10 in the morning?

Oh right, Strea. Alcohol in this game did have a mild debuff, but only if you drank absolutely copious amounts of it, which almost no one would... except the person sat in front of her. Ignoring that, she'd heard things about the taste of the wine, and none of them good. It took a massive amount of herbs, spices and flavourings to make it even palatable, let alone pleasant... and the woman in front of her was drinking it as if it were a soda. She owed Jet an apology, she'd thought he was the weird one in the family, but nope...

All of this combined was making her wonder if this was really a good idea... who was she kidding? She knew it wasn't a good idea, but desperate times call for desperate measures... and Strea was definitely desperate measures, whilst the guy at the bar eyeballing her was just desperate. Yes, she would admit Strea was very attractive (Too much so, in fact. It made Argo somewhat suspicious of her for that exact reason.), but the crowds of men just spending their time ogling her... seriously, they needed to have some self respect. It was just sad, in her eyes. ''All I want ya to do is go out into the field, kill some mobs, check some details for me, an' report back. Nothin' I wouldn't ask anyone else ta do, an' yer'll be paid handsomely.''

Strea finished her drink, and spoke up. ''Sure, I'm in. Give me till tomorrow to report back, and you'll have your information.'' She smiled, as she headed to the bar to pay up for her drink. ''Well, I think I should be off. I'll message you when I'm done.''

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Heading out into the Wisteria Shore, Strea checked her list to see which mobs she needed to take out for Argo. First on the list were Orochi Foot Soldiers. What the hell did they look like, anyway? What was an Orochi too, now she came to think of it...

A small gathering of humanoid soldiers dressed in long since worn out armour stood about thirty foot away, before Strea realised what an Orochi was - a snake/human hybrid. A hybrid which just did not look right, no matter how she looked at it. It wasn't like she was scared of snakes - that was her brother's department, after all - but she could've done without having to look at the ugly buggers whilst fighting them! Still, she wasn't afraid of a challenge, and gave a telling smirk at her unknowing opponents...

The first Orochi, now getting closer, hissed at her before it charged. In preparation, Strea plunged her blade straight into the ground, and readied a skill to unleash on the charging snake soldier... and unleash it, she did. Her blade, now glowing bright red, tore the Orochi clean in half, and the mob disappeared before it even hit the ground. Strea, now one up on them, stopped and flung her blade behind her back with a look of certainty and taunting... ''So, who's next to die?''

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The Culling of the Orochi, as it would probably not be known as, continued for the next half an hour, until no evidence of the Orochi's existence remained in the field. Stretching after the warm up that the battle had been, Strea checked her list once again - the next targets were the Black Guardians, which massed around the Wisteria Shrine, near the Bamboo Forest... some two miles away. ''More walking then'', she thought sarcastically as she set off.

Walking through the Wisteria Shore, it was amazing just how strange this new world still felt to her. She'd seen things most people would only dream of (or have nightmares because of, but that was neither here nor there right now), and yet the light emanating off the flowers on the trees above her... it all felt, well, alien if she could be honest about it. It felt like something you'd expect to see in Star Wars, not something you'd expect to see in a floor that was styled on old school Japan.

Before too long of walking through the ''magic forest'', as she'd begun to call it in her head, she'd found the Shrine itself, but strangely, none of the Black Guardians. Opening her menu up to get a grasp on whether she had to tick off any other objectives to summon them, Strea looked down and noticed that ''explore the shrine, and see if there's any quests in there.'' was written below the Black Guardians point. ''Eh, two birds, one stone...'' she laughed, and walked on completely unfazed, whistling a tune as she did so. She knew that if Klein, or heaven forbid, her brother, saw her acting this nonchalant, she'd be in for an earful. Thankfully for her, they weren't, and she carried on undisturbed into the shrine.

Strea, unlike her brother and sister, didn't pretend to be well read, and therefore knew very little about the history of shrines in Japan. Actually, she was fairly sure that neither of her more book nosed siblings knew much on that front either. Still though, it was a religious building nonetheless, and some degree of concern was there about her safety after entering it. Not from attackers, as would be rational, but from spontaneous combustion, caused by divine intervention. She looked around again, and nope, she wasn't a human bonfire. Apparently whatever deities ruled this place for benevolent... except for the obvious one. Fuck Kayaba, her internal monologue hissed.

She approached an altar like structure at the furthest end of the building, and noticed a woman stood in front of it. The woman was a little bit taller than she was, probably around 5ft 7, at a guess, and gave off the air of a prim and proper woman. Brown hair tied up into a long ponytail down to her back, she reminded Strea a little bit of her younger sister, Beth, if she squinted.

''Oh, uhh, sorry. Didn't think anyone else would be here...''

''I think I recognise you?'' Well, the keeping low bit of her outfit change evidently hadn't worked. ''You're part of the assault team, right?''

''It's, uhh, something like that, yeah.''

''Can I ask you for your help with something?''

''Sure?'' She answered apprehensively.

''I was fighting those lion dogs in the forest, and I lost track of my companion. Would you mind helping me find him?'' The woman asked as Strea leaned on an altar. ''Also, you know those are sacred, right?''

Strea stood back up almost immediately, and drew air threw her teeth. ''Uh, noted. Also, sure. What's he look like?'' She asked, hoping the woman would ignore that she probably just committed a cardinal sin of some form by casually leaning on a sacred altar.

''About your height, really mild mannered. His name's Thinker.''

''How did you lose track of him, anyway?'' Strea asked, as she started walking towards the door.

''We were fighting a group of the black lion dog monsters, when we got spilt up. I tried to head back towards him, but I fell down a slope, and blacked out. When I came to, I had no idea where I was.''

''Didn't know you could black out in SAO?'' Strea asked quizzically.

''Nor did I, but apparently so.'' The woman shrugged as she answered.

''Sorry, I didn't catch your name?''

''Yulier, and you are?'' The woman introduced herself, and held a hand out to Strea.

Strea accepted the hand, giving a firm handshake. ''Strea, nice to meet you. Officially, part of Fuurinkazen. Unofficially, no affiliation.''

''Interesting, I'm with MMO Today.''

''That's the gamer site, isn't it? You're a journalist?'' She asked.

''I was, this was my first job with a major publisher.''

''Hell of a baptism by fire, Yulier. Reminds me a bit of my first job - got a job with a local rag at eighteen, and my boss rings me up one evening, ''Strea, how do you feel being on air?'' Of course I said yes, who wouldn't? My first night on air... and a bomb went off at a concert, killing 22 people. The news went mad for the next few days, and I still remember the comments - ''Who let the new girl cover such a major event?'', all that sort of stuff.'' Strea looked down to the floor, a mix of shame and anger bubbling back to the surface.

''You're a journalist too?'' Yulier asked.

''I was. I was getting fed up of it before all of this, but yeah, I'm a journalist.''

''Perhaps we can share stories one day...'' Yulier gave a soft laugh as Strea looked over at the entrance to the forest.

''Sure, I think we should start by retracing your steps first though.''

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The next few hours passed by relatively uneventfully, with Strea and Yulier having figured out each others rhythms to fighting, and making a surprisingly dangerous combination against the mobs, Strea finally ticking off her quota of the Black Guardians, yet the objective to find the White Guardian was continuously evading her...

...Until now. A much larger version of the Black Guardians the girls had been fighting appeared in front of her, towering over her. This one was easily around twice the size of even Fluffy, Jet's adopted wolf, and had teeth that looked like actual daggers. Normally, she'd have been considering her best avenue of escape, but with Yulier here, plus around five of the smaller Black Guardians... it was time to fight again, not that she was happy about it. ''Oh, now you decide to show up...'' Strea muttered angrily, before turning to Yulier. ''Reckon you can keep the puppies off me?''

''I'll try, but you want to fight that thing on your own?'' Yulier asked hesitantly.

''Want to, nah, have to, yup. I've just spent the past three hours killing mobs, and I refuse to let it be in vain!'' Strea's muttering became angry yelling, as she slammed her sword down onto one of the Black Guardians, killing it instantly. Yulier looked on in sheer surprise, not just at the outburst of anger from someone who seemed perpetually calm, but just how powerful her strikes were. These mobs were some of the most powerful they'd encountered so far... and she'd just one shotted one.

The White Guardian roared, summoning the rest of its minions, and Strea swung her sword with as much force as she could, activating a skill called Trench, which generated a large trench about five foot ahead of where the sword landed... which just so happened to be where the White Guardian was stood. The beast howled in pain, as the shockwave took about ten percent of its HP, before a follow up strike gave it the mother of all headaches, as a furious red gash ran down its head.

Looking at it, Yulier couldn't decide whether to feel pity for the creature, as it had ran into someone that strong... or whether to feel relief, because she'd ran into someone that strong. She settled on the latter, as her blade tore into a Black Guardian that was trying to make a meal out of her.

Almost before Yulier had time to react, the White Guardian was lying on the forest floor, with a deep red gash along its stomach, before it burst into pixels. Stood there, hands on her hips, Strea looked almost nonchalant. Was she seriously that strong, or did she have that much of an ego to protect? She really couldn't tell... ''Well, Yulier, now that's done... time to look for-'' She was interrupted by a new voice from just behind the treeline...

''Yulier!'' The new voice shouted, as a man came out from behind the treeline. About her height, brown and ruffled hair, the man was almost exactly how she'd pictured Thinker. Well, all's well that ends well, she thought to herself... until she heard another voice shouting, and a red haired figure stepped out from the treeline...

''Strea!'' Well, shit.

{Author's Comments}

Something a little bit different for this floor - An Englishman, becomes An Englishwoman for a bit. I've no idea how well this will go, but I wanted to do something different for once, and this floor will probably be a bit shorter anyway.

If you enjoyed this or have any comments on it, leave a review or drop me a PM, follow and favourite etc.

Signing off,

Midland 2541