A/N: Gonna keep it brief since I've not got much to say. Review Replies:
To Dranzer: I thank you for your kindness, may the wait be over.
Enjoy.
|Dec. 2nd 10:15|
|Sword Art Online, Floor 1, Labyrinth|
"You've nearly found the boss room, really?" Nagi had to take a second to collect his thoughts as Argo's whiskers twitched, brow furrowed at the dozens of tabs opened in front of her as she leaned back on her chair onto two legs.
"That's the issue, I've been tryin' to make heads and tails of this dumb map for hourS!" Argo was a business first woman in her profession, and it wasn't often she got frustrated verbally, this was one of two occasions Nagi had seen her this jaded before over intel. She ruffled her own hair, trying to line up the various tunnel networks for the nineteenth floor of the labyrinth. "The last floor's really tricky since very little of it has been exploreD,"
Nagi approached, standing behind her as he leaned forward to inspect it too. He ran his finger from the start of the nineteenth floor, murmuring to himself while Argo sorted the useless maps into a bin icon. "Taking that route wouldn't work, it'll lead to a dead-end next to the stairwell..." His mutterings persisted, the gibberish bouncing off Argo's head. "...then the intersection here is meant to dissuade from the parallel corridor prior that bends right..."
Argo put her cheek against her hand, flicking through the data before her eyes slowly followed Nagi's finger as it swept down the hallways explored to blank slates were he tapped. "Could you put a few extended corridors here, and here," She didn't say a word and did so, extending them a few centimeters. "Then here, and one over here," Again her finger traced his, filling in blanks.
"Wait..." Argo's brown eyes widened as she shot up from her chair, head against Nagi's chin as she enlarged the map. While the additions were little it eliminated almost half the maze instantly, leaving only the southwest and north sectors unmapped. "H-how did yoU...?"
Nagi stepped back sheepishly, rubbing his nape again, "Well, I liked a lot of puzzle games, most follow this trend of sticking to the right with mazes, I then used that and general observation of the mapped hallways to cross off sections that wouldn't apply given the spacing, the rest is still guesswork but now we have a much smaller scale to explore,"
Argo chuckled once, lips curled in a mixture of surprise, annoyance, and admiration. "Ya really are too kind or too smart, neither I want an answer foR,"
"Willing to barter for it?" He joked, seeing her actually pout which was a little cute, then she shoved him lightly toward the door.
"Right, right, meetcha at the entrance in five, Mr HerO!"
"Hehehe, sure, meet you there," That smile of his was bugging her now, so she slammed the door with a heavy sigh.
"That guy's too eageR..." She found herself saying that a lot in the last two months, even before they became residents in SAO. Argo smirked, walking back to her desk, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
The ambiance of the labyrinth was gothic, to say the least, black floor, ceiling, and walls made it almost impossible to tell which direction to go with goblets of fire to illuminate the passages. Eventually, some places opened up into large cathedral-shaped rooms that webbed in various pathways and smaller levels within the labyrinth floor.
Flashes of blue and amber left large shadows against the walls as fragments of bluish-white glass were left in the wake of Nagi and Argo's assault. The former kept the vanguard clear while Argo mapped out the new areas, keeping her distance if needed from the canine-like enemies.
/Ruin Kobold Trooper - Lv. 8\
Kobold Troopers were humanoid creatures with bulky bodies, large tails, and rabbit-like ears. They lacked armour and do not wear any clothes on their top, though they do wear a pair of pants. The Troopers are armed with a barbaric hand axe. The second of a five-strong pack slammed its axe skill through the ground, missing Nagi who flew through the dust, carving two heads off with 'Horizontal'.
The last two flanked him, swiping left and right to cleave the area in front of them had Argo not pounced from the wall, decapitating the forth with 'Side Bite' sliced through the neck. Nagi rolled away from the last Kobold, propelling himself forward with 'Slant' to finish off the last of the pack, sitting atop its body before it fragmented too, the rewards dashed away with a finger.
"Where were we? Something about a 'newbie' you've kept an eye on?" Nagi continued with their conversation before the mobs interrupted. Argo followed close, marking out the newest pathway out of several they investigated up to a quarter past twelve.
Argo kept her nonchalant smile, eyelids lax in remembrance of that first meeting. "A-Chan's got potential, though her understandin' of the system's negative effects on mental fatigue nearly cost her, that and those false rumors would've gotten the best of her had Kii-bou not helped ouT,"
Nagi nodded along, checking the next hallway, seeing two Kobold Troopers ahead. He gave Argo the signal and she stepped back again as he lunged in to deliver a single 'Horizontal Arc' through their torsos, the Rat chatting away as she passed through the shards. "-in the end, she could end up bein' part of the top players quickly at her ratE,"
"That's good, maybe I'll get to meet her too," Nagi replied, pausing as his nose twitched. "I smell something,"
"Ah, the nose knows, hmm...?" Argo's sly expression noted from behind Nagi.
"Not mobs, I think they're players," Hearing this, Argo put her dagger away while jogging with Nagi toward an intersection within the hallways, four Kobold statues facing the middle.
Three pairs of footsteps approached from the gloomy depths, belonging to two armored players with swords and shields, most notably was their leader bearing the same equipment. The man had bronze armor on his chest, shoulders, arms, and shins, with a large longsword on his left waist, and a kite shield on his left forearm. He had blue hair with long bangs and blue eyes. His clothes under the armor were also blue.
/Diavel\
Argo, while not showing it too much, gave the blue-haired man a leer, primarily at his name. Upon meeting the pair, he gave a friendly wave, "Hey there, fancy seeing others trying to map out the route to the boss,"
Nagi offered the same pleasant greeting, "Yeah, we've been working for a few hours now, so far I think we've narrowed it down to this route though we're still unsure," He explained as Diavel patted his breastplate.
"I see, well then since this appears to be a golden opportunity, lets compare our findings," Diavel suggested as Nagi gave Argo a glance as she appeared reluctant to give out free information but ultimately shrugged in defeat, flicking her map around, setting it to 'public' as Diavel did the same, his eyes lighting up. "You've done an extensive layout already,"
"Pride in the details, always better for brokers wanting to be relied oN," She clicked her tongue, "It'll cost yA,"
"Argo..." Nagi tried to dissuade but Diavel put his hand out.
"It's a fair price, you've done much more than we've achieved," The two behind him nodded in agreement.
"We've needed to rely on multiple expeditions ourselves without much backing," The left replied.
"Through this guide we read, it helped us keep from getting lost," The right one added.
"Sounds familiar," Nagi noted as the payment was transferred, Argo grinned.
"Pleasure as always, so theN," Her head craned toward the hallway to her right as the sound of mobs spawning shook the air. "Ready to put those maps to usE?"
Various Kobold Troopers spawned as their axes dragged across the floor behind them. Diavel took point with his team, Argo and Nagi to the left. Diavel held an air of confidence, sword skill reacting in a pale blue tint. "We've spent far too long on this floor, it's time to change that today!"
Diavel spoke the truth, something Nagi and Argo couldn't agree more on as they suddenly sprung ahead of the trio, seemingly moving as one down the corridor. The first group of Kobolds turned to them, eyes glowing red as they sprung into action with their axes. Nagi was first, taking the brunt of the descending axe with his buckler, parrying the blow for Argo to lunge with a crescent smile on her face, decapitating the monster with a spinning aoe, 'Round Accel', leaving only an amber streak behind.
Flying over her head to amputate the lumbering axe was a vertical streak of light, followed by another to divide the Kobold in two, "Vertical!" Nagi pushed for the vanguard, parrying the third axe as Diavel's team joined in, the bluette thrusting his blade through the throat, tearing it out from the right as it too shattered. "Argo, switch!"
As Nagi leapt back from an axe skill splitting the floor Argo swept through the dust, carving a diagonal cross through the Kobold's face with 'Cross Edge', using its shoulders to hop over two more mobs stumbling forward to pressure Diavel's team as they blocked for Nagi and Diavel. "We gottem!"
"Nice work!" Diavel commended, slamming his kite shield into the face of the first Kobold, stunning it for a powerful 'Slant' through the right shoulder while the other was impaled to the ground by Nagi's 'Vorpal Strike', the blue runoff causing his momentum to sail over the dead beast onto his knees. "Watch the strength of your skill activation, try to keep your balance!"
"Got it!" Nagi replied, his muscles relaxing in time to roll away from a crisis cross of an axehead, Argo appearing from the shadows to tear its nape out with her dagger. "Thank you,"
"Consider us square, HerO," She grinned with her hand on her hip. That was when her head cocked to one side, her Detection skill blaring in her head as she craned back to find four more Kobolds had spawned. A sweat drop rolled down her cheek. "Uh... oh..."
"Protect her!" Diavel ran with his team to intercept but Nagi quickly intervened, pulling Argo behind him even though he had less health remaining than her against four charged axe skills. "You can't deflect them all, Nagi, get out of there!"
"Then I'll just attack faster," He whispered with a long inhale between his teeth, sword cascading an array of blues and whites with his sword behind his right hip nearest Argo who was still staring silently at his back. "I spent the last month with Klein, building our mastery to unlock the extra skill, and complete the toughest quest around - but that also means-" The four axes began their descent toward them, the wind picking up from the pressure of his longsword. "-I've unlocked one of the One-Handed Sword's most powerful attacks!"
Within that frame, Nagi's body ebbed and flowed as though the system tugged him along a current. His arm swung in rising slants from both feet, bringing his arm up for a vertical crescent that he hopped back once to deliver a continuing thrust, twirling once through the air to cleave the world around him, bringing his sword down in a powerful slam. Several phantom slashes shredding through the horde of Kobolds like tissue paper around him. "Ultimate Skill - Phantom Rave!"
"-hey," Argo jumped a bit when her thousand-yard stare met Nagi's onyx eyes, a hand on her bicep to help her stand. "That was too close, you okay?"
"Uh, heh, guess I've gotta pay ya bacK," She clicked her tongue, dusting herself off before leaning up against his chest, nudging Nagi with her elbow. "You never mentioned that skill being under yer belt, come on, spill the beans, how'd you get iT?"
"I-I just completed my mastery, remember?" He replied honestly, scratching his head. "Well, it wasn't there before, I think I unlocked it through unlocking the other sword skills..." Nagi wasn't certain since he wasn't overly focused on mastering one-handed swords, only for the extra skill to use katanas.
"Nyahaha, I'll be sure to pass that along to Kii-bou next we meeT," She rubbed her hands together gingerly. "I can make a fortune sellin' him thiS!"
"Amazing work!" Diavel waved, the corridor ahead clear of foes. "I had no idea someone had mastered an entire weapon skill in only a month, I'm a little envious,"
Nagi stood up straight, "Eh?" Then waved his hands bashfully. "It-it's not anything special, I just put a lot of my time into grinding mobs for hours a day!"
"Aw, don't be so modest, Hero, think of the fame that'll come with your namE," Argo threw her hands wide with stars in the air around her. "'The Great Swordsman of Floor One', capable of mastering an entire weapon's skill tree in a single montH!" She cackled as steam rose from Nagi's crimson face.
"She's right!" "The Swordmaster!" The other two with Diavel joined in, unknowingly making the brunette's embarrassment worse as he hid under his haori.
"I want to disappear..." Maybe he should do what that one player did and just jump off the edge of the map.
Once Argo and Diavel managed to coax Nagi into moving again, the group found themselves at the foot of a large staircase, there were no other paths to take, and their maps both converged in the same direction. Climbing to the top, a few of them gasped as they stood before a new structure that was both a relief and a feeling of dread.
Two blazing goblets lit the black doorframe, two large, black iron doors that had been etched into Nagi's memory from the beta returned before his eyes. The groans of the labyrinth and the subtle, eerie music made the sight far more chilling than any encounter in the floors below.
"We did it... after a month," One gaped as Argo jotted it down, completing her map as well as Diavel's.
"Guess we can call it herE," Argo declared, pulling out a teleport crystal as she looked at Nagi's unmoving form, say for his twitching right hand. "You okaY?" She asked as Nagi turned, clenching his fist.
"Yeah, just a little overwhelmed considering no one believed we could make it before; it almost doesn't feel real yet," Nagi smiled, looking at Diavel. "What now?"
"With this, we have all we need to finally show the others this game can be beaten, thanks to all of you," Diavel waved to everyone but himself, "I'll schedule a public announcement to meet in Tolbana for a debriefing for four this afternoon,"
"I'll spread the word theN," Argo waved, tugging Nagi away. "Come on, HerO,"
"You don't need to drag me," He sighed before Diavel stopped him with a tap on the shoulder. "You need something?"
"No-no, I just wanted to thank you both for pitching in," Diavel looked honestly relieved. "I've had run-ins with players out to 'find the boss room first', that mentality has gotten many killed," He frowned for a moment, "So thank you for being willing to put aside personal gain, even for today,"
"We're all trying to do our best, even those wanting to be the top players," That made Diavel's eyes flinch at Nagi's compassionate voice. "Sure, it was reckless, but in the end their sacrifices meant something, they brought us closer to the second floor, and soon, every floor will be the same, without recklessness to balance out our caution we'd still be fumbling around in the dark,"
Diavel's brow rose, "It's that kind of optimism I feel most people need these days, I look forward to working with you," He put his hand out as Nagi shook it, procuring his own teleport crystal. "I'll see you at the meeting then,"
"Ditto," Nagi waved, bringing his crystal close with Argo's.
"Teleport, Tolbana!"
Tolbana is the second largest town on Floor One. The city was surrounded by large castle walls and is known for its white-walled windmill towers, situated in a valley. It consists of three inns, some bars, and restaurants, as well as multiple NPC houses. Many water fountains are scattered across the town. The fountain at the center of Tolbana could be considered the largest of the fountain areas where Nagi and Argo appeared from the teleport obelisk.
"Well, I've got some info to spread, plus checkin' in on A-Chan's progresS," Argo waved back, "Seeya at the meetinG,"
"Argo," She paused at his tone, peeking over her shoulder, seeing him put his hand down in hesitance. "After... when we beat the boss, I want to tell you something - just us, not for sale," He scratched his nape again.
Her wicked smile didn't show, instead, she blinked and threw her hand up in a wave. "Gotcha, don't keep a girl waitin' thougH," With that, Argo vanished, shocking Nagi who looked around at the few people in town.
"How does she do that...?" He spun around nervously before walking away quickly from the area.
|Dec. 2nd, 20:00|
After the meeting was held over the discussion of how to confront the First Floor Boss, as well as quell the tension one loud-mouth had about the Beta Testers, Diavel suggested they meet back at the Amphitheater in two days. That gave every squad taking part two days to prepare for a battle that would ultimately decide if this world of swords could be overcome.
Argo sat in her casual wear, a plain white t-shirt with black shorts, though her expression was concerning. Several messages were opened in front of her eyes, mocking the blonde that held her head in her hands, a thin frown glued to her face as she read the messages over and over.
|SOS Message|
|-have paralyzing ef_|
|Alert: This message may be incomplete, due to the sender logging out of the game|
|Message|
|My partner's dead. The Kobold Troopers on the fourth level of the labyrinth are three levels higher than the beta|
Some were old, others relatively new, all of them told Argo one harrowing fact, the events of Beta didn't always apply to the full release of SAO. What made this cold, tight feeling in her chest worse were two things; Was the Floor Boss the same? And the secret quest Nagi and Klein completed.
"You idiot..." She closed her own message to Nagi, hanging her head close to the desk. "So eager... even if I said so..."
|Message Deleted|
|Don't join the Boss Battle in two days|
"...you wouldn't stoP,"
To Be Continued...
It's finally time for the Floor Boss, not to worry, the other floors won't be this long but the First Floor is a special part of SAO that I wanted to use to expand on the characters and future events. This next part is a two-parter so here we go. I hope you enjoyed, I appreciate the support as always; seeya in the next chapter, Players!
009 - Find the Light
The day before the boss battle leads to a reunion, and what awaits behind the black iron doors will change everything...