A/N: Another bonus chapter, this time not at the last second, as I'm very forgetful. And yay, the cycle has been broken, Review Time!

To MeMyselfAndI82907: All good on your absence! Daora just yells alot, this bonus will probably make that very clear. As for the strange request part... well, I do love subverting expectations. But yeah, totally could see Argo being the one to be more forward.

To Iosefka Ubel: He strikes me as a guy that just pumps all his points into Strength, so totally.

Enjoy.

|Dec. 1st 2022 15:12|

|Floor 1, Rocky Edge|

Not much of the mountains present on Floor One were used in the game, say for a few overhangs, caves, and the occasional route over the bumpy terrain. The best part about the cliffs were the iron ore deposits that could be found cropping up from the lips of caverns and hugged against boulders and the mountains themselves.

"Come on, Liz, this should be enough, right?" The heavy mace-user of a party of two whined. Her voice was muffled into a metallic tone due to the copper plate metal she wore, obscuring her identity, her nametag, visible only to her party was 'Liten'. "My inventory's practically bursting,"

"Hey, this stuff's a hit-and-miss treatment," The other girl, still wearing the starter gear like most on floor one, say for a brown cloak and a mace of her own strapped to her back. Her hair was a dark brown with dark pink eyes and a few freckles dotting her cheeks. She gave a half-hearted shrug, digging her pickaxe through the dark grey ore to collect another from a near bottomless supply. "My Blacksmith skill isn't perfect, so if I make a mistake we'll need spares, plus, who knows when this ore will run out."

"I still feel bad about this, what if the system flags all of this as a bug and it disappears?" Of course, Liten had other worries like being killed by the system itself since she couldn't log out. But she did her best to suppress those harrowing thoughts. The armored girl wiggled in place. "I'm sorry, I just can't get my mind off it."

"Hey, you said you wanted to do more than sit around like some damsel, right?" Liz prodded her chestplate with her pick, turning back to put her back into her work. "Me too, that guy's right, we're stronger together, cheesy as that sounds," She playfully rolled her eyes but she couldn't help but feel lighter remembering his kind face. He clearly looked scared but was doing his best to help others that day. She wanted to repay that someday too. "Alright!"

Lizbeth stood up, dusting off her hands. "Take a look," Her thumb prodded at the ground, and to Liten's gasp, the ore was gone, the glitch was no longer in effect. "Good call bringing me up here, now we have a butt-load of iron to turn into steel, then you'll be set."

"Thank you so much!" Liten clasped Lizbeth's hands with a sparkle around her helmet, the brunette just chuckled bashfully.

"You're too kind," She pulled her hands back with a challenging smirk. "But now I've gotta do my part, so hold off on all the praise 'till then, 'kay?"

"Mmhm!" Liten nodded quickly, her helmet rattling.

Despite feeling proud of their work at exploring the game that treated their lives like an item, the two girls had to deal with another annoying mechanic in any game with item collecting, a weight limit. Since their levels weren't that high, and their skills limited too, the weight cap had physically slowed their movement speed to around half, the trip back would be a long, and painful process.

"Why... is there... a weight... load?" Lizbeth groaned to the high heavens, not once stopping for fear of losing what little momentum she had left as the rocky trail made her stumble. "Maybe we can just jump?"

"Please don't do that," Liten almost shouted, herself as slow as a snail but she was noticeable still faster than her friend since she focused on the Heavy Armor skill, meaning her weight cap was a little higher. "Hopefully, we can make it back before nightfall." Night meant dangerous monsters, something neither needed right now.

"Too late," Liz pointed with a pale face. Ahead of them, standing in the middle of the road was the last thing they needed. Wrapped in iron armor of its own, armed with a silver mace was a Kobold Trooper, its level standing three above the girls. Since the mountains were close to the labyrinth, that meant there was a chance of these monsters spawning on the cliffs. Their luck was wearing thin.

"Liz, move!" Liten yelled, stepping toward her friend with her weapon equipped. The Trooper growled as its head snapped toward them, charging with much greater speed than they could muster, slamming its mace against Liten's own. Due to being over-encumbered, her own body barely shifted from the strike, but her own motions were slow and sluggish. "I-I can't swing fast enough..."

Liten flinched, feeling the beast's tail slap against her left hip, knocking her down before Lizbeth who drew her own mace, managing to swing for the monster. Since she was so slow, it easily evaded the sword skill, its own mace glowing red as it plunged the spike at the top of the head against her stomach, her health torn by a quarter as the force shoved her against the edge of the cliffside on her ass.

"Liz!" Liten quickly shuffled through her inventory, ready to outright discard the majority of her iron ore to free her movement. Her best friend was in danger, her own upgrades be damned! "No one else, I can't see another name crossed out on that wall again!" She scrolled through her items, highlighting the iron ore icon.

Lizbeth's face warped with fear, due to her inability to evade, she could only squeeze her eyes shut in preparation for either being crushed or tossed off to sudden death. It would be painless, a small sting across her body or mild discomfort to her joints, then it would be over in a flash, she wouldn't even notice her head being fried, a mercy of the Nervegear she guessed.

*Ting-Crunch!*

The odd vibration and the fact it didn't come from her own leather breastplate, Lizbeth's eyes shot wide to find not Liten, her friend was still hovering a finger over her menu, staring back at Liz. Instead, the blacksmith found a bland copper hand-ax pushed against the edges of the Kobold's mace, yellow sparks spat between them.

"What the hell is going on here...?" The player demanded slowly, his one arm withholding the mob's attack as it leapt back to prepare another sword skill. The player was clearly male, wearing only a pair of baggy black pants, sandals, and a burlap sack around his head with a slit for his right eye to peer through. Most notably, he wasn't wearing a shirt but just bracers for her forearms.

Lizbeth knew how the system worked thanks to Liten, how Kayaba got her real looks and body type, but by that extension, it meant that the guy in front of her was the same. So she had to admit, he was pretty jacked, all things considered, his muscles toned and firm, probably the same for his legs too. Her ogling had to wait as the player, who was named 'Kushla Daora', so he kept his name public, charged the Kobold head-on.

"Wait, the skill motion-!" Liten tried to warn but he just laughed it off, swinging his ax underneath the Trooper's weapon. The red mace slammed into Daora's shoulder, himself acting as a human shield for the girls as his ax sliced through the armpit of the Trooper, the blade glowing a harsh silvery-grey.

"Hahaha, a little tickle won't stop me!" He declared proudly. "Lemme show you how a real skill works, dogbreath!" He swung his ax in a slant that tore off the arm, followed by a spin on his left heel, dragging a secondary slant through the right shoulder and out the hip. Leaving a red 'X' through the Kobold. "Double Cleave!"

Clasping his ax in both hands as the Trooper recoiled with a howl, Daora slammed the rusty copper ax into its helmet, splitting it with red glass shards. Hooked, he dragged the flailing monster toward the cliffside, then, unceremoniously tossed it and his weapon off the edge. "Hah!" He placed his hands on his hips, exhaling sharply under his sack mask.

He spun to the girls, pointing at them both with a confident posture. "You two can begin to praise me as your savior, the Lord of Wolves, Kushla Daora!" Light shined behind him, forcing Liten to cover the gaps in her helmet while Lizbeth gave the boy a flat stare with a mocking smile.

"Uh, you look nothing like a wolf, like... at all," Liz pointed out, and a red tick appeared above his sack head, pointing at her angrily.

"HUH!? You wanna fight, freckles!?" He punched his open palm. "I saved your life!"

"Yeah, thanks and all, but cool it with all of... this," She spun a finger to gesture at all of him.

"Liz, don't be rude!" Liten hissed quickly, bowing her head. "T-thank you for your help, Daora Sir!"

"Hmph, anytime!" He focused on Liten, ignoring Liz's glare. "It's only natural to protect those weaker than me,"

"You're really noble!" Liten beamed but Liz just wanted to jump off the cliff after the Trooper.

"Please don't feed his ego," Lizbeth huffed, picking herself up. "Right, well, we're going now... whatever you are."

Daora's head twitched, growling angrily before stomping in front of her, the slit of his sack narrowed somewhat. "The least you can do is say 'thank you', freckles, if I wasn't here you'd be a flat stain on the ground!"

She opened her mouth to say something, then closed it when her voice failed her, and a pink blush rose to her flustered face, glowering at the boy who huffed, looking elsewhere. "Liz, maybe you can make him something with the spare ore we have after you're done forging the steel," Liten suggested.

The two snapped their heads at the girl. "Huh!?" "What!?"

Liten played with her hands sheepishly. "I-I mean, what if we're attacked again? He could protect us until we get back to town, then as payment, you can craft him a new weapon, and you improve your forging skills in axes."

"...that was my last ax..." Daora peered over the edge, then patted his hips. "I accept your terms, short metal woman! I will protect you!"

"Oh great... our hero..." Lizbeth rolled her eyes, not like she had a position to decline. She was too slow to fight, and Liten was right on every account.

|Dec. 1st 17:49|

|Floor 1, Town of Tolbana|

With a reluctant sigh, Lizbeth's flat stare met with the impatient shirtless guy standing before her. Her carpet was lined with tools and basic equipment for blacksmithing lay in view of the fading sunlight. Liten stood there silently too with an encouraging smile, her orange hair free of her helmet as she watched her friend work. "A one-handed battle-ax, right?"

"Uh-huh," Daora nodded, watching the brunette focus on her private tabs, causing spare iron from the refining process appear. She hadn't the spare steel to make him a steel variation but this would be much stronger than some bland copper market pick.

Using her hammer, Liz worked on hammering the desired shape of the weapon, turning the once light grey ingots into a glowing orange slab that slowly took shape. For her, she was carefully eyeing the timing of every strike, where to hammer specifically, maximizing the potential the weapon could be forged at. Her eyes were like another pair of hands, dictating how the end result should appear.

With a brighter flash, the slab morphed into an iron ax with two curved blades on either side of the shaft. "There, one iron battle-ax with +2 to Sharpness, it should be a little heavier too, not great, but better than buying one," Lizbeth summed up as Liten smiled.

"How does it feel?" She asked Daora who picked the weapon up, admiring it against the sunlight with a long drawn hum.

Despite how annoying the guy was, this was the first weapon Lizbeth had ever made, Liten would've been the first until the ginger roped her into mining ores for her crazy project to produce steel armor and weapons. Lizbeth bit the inside of her cheek until Daora swung the ax high, laughing hysterically, drawing a few odd looks from players.

"Perfect!" They couldn't see it, but he was grinning toothily. "The heavier the better, I accept this offer from you, my loyal followers!" He pointed at them both. "Anytime you need my aid, count on the Lord of Wolves!"

"That's great, right, Liz?" Liten asked as she saw the surprised stupor on Liz's face. The girl blinked slowly at Daora.

"But... it's just some common ax, the first weapon I've crafted," She was good, mainly because not many crafters had appeared in SAO yet, but to call it 'perfect' was an overstatement.

"Huh? If it's the first one, then it's even more powerful!" He praised, waving it toward the sky. "This ax will begin my quest toward stronger foes, and ultimately, the final floor where I plan to defeat Ketchawatcha myself!" He meant Kayaba

A crazy, ambitious goal. But his words were brutally honest and a tiny smile curled at Lizbeth's lips. A steady stream of confidence burned in her chest as she stared at the idiot acting like a child on Christmas Day. "Hmph, then I expect you to hold onto that, no chucking the thing off a cliff, or I swear I'll ram my hammer up your-"

"Uwah, Liz!" Liten hushed with a finger against her lips before any players caught the rest of the brunette's sentence. "Huh, you're leaving?"

Ture to her observation, Daora was walking away with his new ax clipped to his waist. He raised his fist back to them as a way of saying goodbye. Lizbeth raised her hand slightly, but lowered it quickly. He was really strange, but I guess him complimenting her skills was a good enough reward as is.

"What an idiot." Liz sighed.

"He wasn't that bad." Liten sweatdropped with a nervous smile.

End

And there we have Daora's backstory on how he met Liten and Lizbeth long before Nagi and Artorias. He's a nutjob, but his heart's in the right place... I think? I hope you enjoyed it, I appreciate the support as always; seeya in the next chapter, Players!