The Black Blades
Chapter 2: Someone New (Part 1)
(x)
A few weeks after Floor 1 was cleared…
Floor 3, in Taikokawa…
"Screw you!" a player said as he turned away angrily from someone. "We don't want you in our party anymore! Come on, guys!" The party all turned their backs and walked away from the target of the shouting.
Said target rubbed the back of her neck with her hand as she let out a sigh. "What a pain," she said to herself as she turned around and walked in the opposite direction. Ignoring the stares and whispers from the crowd that watched the drama unfold, she entered a player-ran tavern and seated herself at the countertop.
"Another breakup?" the barkeep said jokingly as he prepared a drink for the player.
"Don't say it like that," she responded with a tired tone. "It's not MY fault the parties don't work out."
"Hate to break it to ya, Alpha, but if the common denominator of all your parties disbanding or kicking you out is YOU, then it IS your fault." The barkeep placed the drink he made in front of Alpha as he chastised her.
"You're right, but shut up." Alpha placed some Col on the countertop to pay for her drink, then proceeded to down the drink in one gulp. She slammed the keg down and the bartender, tired of telling her not to, took the keg back. "So, let's get to business. What info do you have for me?"
"Well…"
A bit later…
"You have to be FUCKING kidding me!" Alpha growled after she slammed the door to her room. "A WYVERN? RIGHT when my party kicks me?! UGH!" She threw her hands up and sat down on her bed in an exasperated fashion. She lied down and let out a drawn-out sigh. As Alpha calmed down, she felt herself dozing off, and decided to give in and try to find a new party in the morning.
(x)
The next day…
Alpha's eyes slowly opened as sunlight shone through her window and hit her in the face. She sat up and rubbed her eyes to get the rest of the sleepiness out, then got up as she stretched. She walked over to the mirror and sink in her room and looked at her sleepy reflection—because of how fast she fell asleep, she forgot to take off her armor, and her long black hair was slightly unkempt. She unequipped her breastplate, gauntlets and boots to put on new clothes underneath her armor—a silver shirt that matched her silver eyes, new black thigh high socks to make herself look cuter and more appealing, and new gloves she had gotten recently to replace her worn-down pair. She requipped her armor and made sure it fit her properly—without crushing her chest and making her feel uncomfortable—and tidied her hair up, tying it into a ponytail. Lastly, she turned on the faucet and splashed her face with cold water to fully wake herself up. After drying her face off, she exited her room and made her way down to the tavern lobby.
"Oh hey, perfect timing!" the barkeep said joyously as Alpha walked down the stairs. "Remember how I told you about the quest last night?"
"Ugh, how could I forget?" Alpha responded as she rolled her eyes. "Don't tell me it's taken already."
"Not yet—these two gentlemen here wanted to take the quest, but they're a member short of the requirement to take it on."
Alpha shifted her eyes over to the right, where the bartender was gesturing towards, and her eyes fell upon a blue-clad player that met her gaze with a friendly smile, and a red-clad player that looked away. "Alright, fine, you don't have to tell me twice. I'll join the party and we'll take the quest on—after that, we'll go our own ways. Deal?"
"Fine by me," the blue player said cheerfully. "What about you?" He nodded towards his partner.
"Whatever works for you two," he responded simply. At that, the blue player—clearly the leader between the two—sent a party request to Alpha, who accepted the request.
Her eyes quickly darted to the health bars that appeared under her own, and the names that preceded them. "So," she began, "who's Aoki and who's Sora?"
"Aoki would be me," the blue player said with a casual wave of his hand.
"I'm Sora," the red player said as he finally looked over in Alpha's direction and waved his hand. "Nice to meet you, Alpha."
"Yeah, same. Let's accept the quest and get this over with," she replied curtly.
"Hey, that attitude is what gets you kicked out of parties, y'know," the barkeep chastised her. Alpha just rolled her eyes in response.
"Before we head out," Aoki said, "I wanna take care of some things on the floor. Is that fine with you?"
"As long as we leave soon, sure."
"Great! Thanks for the drinks, barkeep." Aoki left a small bag of Col on the countertop to pay for the drinks he and Sora had before Alpha's arrival.
The barkeep took the bag and gave the two a smile. "Swing by whenever you're in town, okay?" he called out to them as they got up and left the tavern with Alpha—at the barkeep's last words to them, Aoki looked back and flashed a smile while giving a thumbs up before leading the other two out of the door.
(x)
The sun shone brightly as the newly-formed party began walking through the town. Aoki walked a bit ahead of Alpha and Sora, the former of whom was watching Aoki to get an idea of what his real character was. Alpha was surprised to see a little boy rush by them, then stop and look back at Aoki as he said, "Ah, Aoki!"
"Hey, Grayson!" Aoki said as he knelt down to the boy's level and gave him a fist bump. "Does Miss Anna know you're here?"
"She does! I'm heading back now, though."
"Tell Miss Anna I'm gonna pop by in a bit to talk to her about something, okay?"
"Okay! Bye, Aoki, Mr. Sora, strange lady!" Grayson gave a wave to all of them before running off in the direction he was heading earlier.
"Strange lady?!" Alpha asked, somewhat bewildered.
"'Mr.', he says," Sora scoffed. "He does know I'm younger than you, right?"
"Maybe interact with the community more? The kids DO like you, y'know," Aoki suggested. Sora rolled his eyes in response.
"So that 'thing' you wanted to take care of was visiting the caretaker at the care center?" Alpha asked.
"One of those things, yeah. First, I wanna talk to a friend." The three continued wordlessly to their destination…which turned out to be a player-run shop that was still being set up. Aoki, Sora and Alpha went into the store and approached the player that owned the store as he was talking to another player. "Yo, Agil! Am I interrupting?"
Agil glanced over and saw the party, at which point he said to the player in front of him, "We'll talk business later." The other player nodded and walked past the party out of the store. "Well here's a couple of faces I haven't seen in a bit. How've you two been?" Agil asked as he walked up to the party and shook hands with the two guys.
"We've been doing great. I gotta say, I didn't take you for a shopkeep," Aoki replied as he looked around the store. "Is it almost done?"
"Yeah, the foundation is all done. I run a shop back in the real world, so I know what I'm doing. Like trying to figure out a good supply route for the raw materials for the stuff I want to sell. General stuff, like potions," Agil said, that last sentence being in response to Sora raising an eyebrow at his previous statement.
"And it wouldn't make sense for you to open a shop without SOMETHING in stock to sell," Sora surmised.
"Bingo. I was talking with a fellow merchant before you guys came in."
"Oh shit, we didn't interrupt anything, did we?" Aoki asked, a little worried.
Agil laughed. "Don't worry about me, that talk was going nowhere. He was basically telling me I had to sell stuff first to get my name out there so other players would do business with me."
"Wow, that's kinda useless," Alpha said.
"Right you are. By the way, what's your name?" Agil asked as he turned to the female player for the first time since the conversation started.
"Alpha. I'm in their party for now."
"Gotcha. You're in good hands with these boys."
"Aw, I'm blushing," Aoki said in a joking manner. "Here's an idea," he started, adopting a more serious tone. "We're on our way to hunt a wyvern." Agil raised an eyebrow at that. "Hold on, I'm not done yet. I'm willing—"
"We're willing," Sora interrupted, to which Aoki didn't seem to mind, "to give you our share of the materials that drop, for free, along with whatever extra materials we find along the way there. With materials from a wyvern, you should be able to have stronger potions in stock for a while, and that should put your name out there for this floor, anyway."
"Yeah, what he said."
"You guys sure?" Agil asked, folding his arms and raising an eyebrow. "A wyvern on this floor is big news. Wouldn't you want the materials for yourselves?"
"Stupid," Aoki chastised the older player. "We're offering BECAUSE it's you. We still owe you for putting in a good word for us despite me being a beta tester." Alpha looked at Aoki with a shocked expression, then looked at Sora to confirm whether what Aoki said was true or not—Sora noticed her gaze and turned to face her, nodding to affirm her shock. "Any other finds are ours though," Aoki continued, crossing his arms while maintaining his playful grin.
"Gee, thanks. If you're offering then who am I to refuse?" Agil smiled, resting his hands on his hips.
"We'll be back soon. Keep spreading the good word about us," Aoki called out as he led the party out of Agil's store. Alpha tapped Aoki's shoulder to get his attention.
"You're a beta tester?!" Alpha asked Aoki in a hushed tone.
"Yeah. Surprised you didn't know, actually," Aoki replied as he began leading the way to the care center.
"Things were a bit rough with the treatment at first," Sora told Alpha as Aoki walked ahead, "but Agil helped everyone here see us in a different way. His good reputation among the community helped too, and we help out with odd jobs and requests every now and then."
Alpha started thinking that maybe she took her new party members lightly, especially when two players said, "Hey Aoki, thanks for the help the other day!" as they passed by him.
"No problem! And remember to use those tips to level up I gave you!" Aoki said as they kept walking.
After some time passed, the trio arrived at a large building—the care center, no doubt. When they stepped into the courtyard, a few kids that were playing took notice and rushed over to the group, yelling, "AOKI!"
"Hey, slow down guys, I'm right here!" Aoki laughed as the crowd of children surrounding him grew bigger and bigger. "I can't stay here for long, so can one of you guys go get Miss Anna for me?"
"I'll do it!" A kid at the back said before turning around and running to the building. After a few seconds, he came back out while pulling a woman slightly older than Aoki by the hand.
"Aoki!" The woman, seemingly Miss Anna, straightened herself up as the crowd of children parted to make way for the two to talk to each other. "I'm so sorry about them if they were bothering you."
"Don't be sorry, Anna," Aoki said as he approached her, his hand resting on the head of a kid that hugged his leg tightly. "It's not a bother, the little ones really grow on you." He looked down at the kid with a fond smile and ruffled his hair, eliciting a giggle from the child, before turning back to look at the caretaker.
As Aoki and Anna began talking, a few of the kids turned to Sora and Alpha and said, "Mr. Sora, play with us!"
"I would if I could but we have to leave soon. Besides, someone's gotta make sure no bad person walks into here," Sora said as an excuse.
"Aww, okay. Play with us later, okay?!"
"I'll see," Sora offered a small smile to the kids.
"Okay! It's a promise!" one of the kids said as they all ran away from him. Meanwhile, another group had surrounded Alpha, who couldn't help but look around her in surprise as they swarmed her.
"Hey, big sis, play with us!" one of the girls said excitedly, pulling at her sleeve.
"Like he said, we're leaving soon," she replied curtly.
"Aww, c'mon! Just for a little bit! Pleeeeaaasee?" Alpha had to turn away so as to not be pulled in by the kids' puppy eyes.
"Why not bother that guy over there?" she asked, motioning towards Aoki.
"Because he's talking with Miss Anna, and we're not allowed to bother Miss Anna when she's talking to someone."
"Why's that? Isn't bothering her supposed to be your job?"
"Nuh-uh!" one of the kids shook his head rigorously. "Our job is to wait for our parents while they go fight the bad guys! Aoki told us himself!" Alpha looked down at the kids, some of whom seemed determined to prove her wrong about them (for some reason), and a few others looked sad. She sighed and knelt down to one of the sad-looking kids.
"Hey," she began in a softer tone than what she used before, catching the kid's attention. "Wanna see a little trick?" When the kid nodded, Alpha simply moved her hand behind the girl's ear and, while her other hand was out of sight, opened her menu and discarded one Col, pulling her hand back from behind the kid's ear with the single Col in hand. Sora, watching the whole thing, simply smiled and elected to say nothing.
This simple trick elicited awed reactions from the kids watching, which brought a smile to Alpha's previously stoic face. She flipped the coin and caught it, handing it to the kid who participated in the magic trick. "Here, for you."
"Can I really keep it?!" the girl looked at the coin and back at the older player, her eyes sparkling with wonder.
"Mhm. Now chin up." She ruffled the kid's hair affectionately, making her giggle in the process. "I'm sure your parents are doing their best out there, so the least you can do is wait for them like you promised. Trust me, they'll be able to fight even better knowing you're safe here."
"You really think so?"
"I know so." She got up and looked at the rest of the kids, her smile still present. "Now scram, ya brats. It's almost time for us to leave," she said as she saw what looked like Aoki wrapping up his conversation with the caretaker.
"Bye big sis, Mr. Sora!" Sora and Alpha waved at the kids as they ran back to the care center.
"Told ya they liked you," Aoki said to Sora as he approached the party.
"So what'd you talk to Anna about?" Sora asked, ignoring Aoki's comment.
"I asked her if she needed anything for the kids or herself while we were out. She told me she'd DM me a list of medicinal herbs we can find on this floor that she'll need." The trio continued talking as they made their way out of the care center and towards the town's gate.
"Are we gonna have to go out of our way to get these herbs?" Alpha asked.
"Not at all, actually. These herbs, for the most part, grow on the route to the wyvern I have mapped out here." Aoki opened his map and turned it around so Sora and Alpha could see a highlighted path from the town's gate to where the wyvern was reported to have spawned.
"You really planned this out, huh?" Alpha remarked with an impressed tone.
"I'm not a former beta tester for nothing, you know." When the trio made their way out of the town, they saw that the sun was starting to set. "Shit. Wyverns are daytime creatures, so we'll have to wait for a better time to hunt it."
"Can't we just beat it before it despawns for tonight?" Alpha asked.
"No can do," Sora replied. "We can't risk the monster despawning as we fight it. We're going in blind on this hunt. Going in and trying to kill it before nightfall without knowing anything is a stupid and wasteful play."
"So what do we do then?"
"My suggestion is we head along the route Aoki set and pick those herbs Anna needs, then camp out for the night a safe distance away from the spawn location. We can also hunt some monsters for a little more EXP if we think we need it, and we won't have to worry about wasting time getting supplies from the town." Sora looked over at his teammates to see Alpha with a surprised look on her face and Aoki having an impressed look on his. "What?"
"Nothing. I just…didn't know you could be so talkative," Alpha responded.
"Sh-Shut up! Come on, let's get going!" Sora turned away from Alpha as he blushed a little out of embarrassment, and began speedwalking along the path, prompting Alpha and Aoki to jog to catch up to him.
(x)
Nighttime…
"I'll keep watch for now," Sora offered as they finished their food (some boar meat that Aoki had hunted earlier).
"If you're offering," Aoki said as he got up and stretched. He walked over to the tree they were sitting under and jumped onto one of the branches, making himself as comfortable as he could be on it.
"You're sleeping up there?" Alpha asked, a bit confused.
"Don't worry too much about it." Aoki yawned as he laid down with his hands behind his head. "Good night, you two." Soon after he closed his eyes, Aoki had fallen asleep.
"I've always envied how fast he can fall asleep," Sora said as Aoki snored softly.
"Hey, you mind if I ask you a few questions?" Alpha asked in a quieter tone so as not to wake up Aoki.
"I don't mind the company but don't keep yourself up too long."
"They'll be quick. I've just been a bit curious about something."
"What's that?"
"How do you stand him?" Alpha quickly realized that her question sounded incredibly rude. "Shit, I mean—"
"Don't worry," Sora waved his hand to dismiss the comment as he laughed. "I know what you meant. He can be overwhelming, huh?"
"I didn't want to say it, but yeah."
"Well, that's extroverts for you. Even when we were kids, he was always dragging me around."
"Oh, you guys knew each other before…this?" Alpha gestured to their surroundings.
"Yeah. He was the older brother I never had, and he helped me become the guy you're talking to right now. Let me give you a tip." Sora leaned in and prompted Alpha to do the same. "Once you recognize he has nothing but good intentions, it gets easier to trust him and for him to trust you."
"Firsthand experience?" Alpha asked him.
"Bingo. Yeah, he can get a bit over the top, but there's a reason why the town loves him. He teaches the weaker players how to fight better than they already do, and even helps them level up. If it weren't for that expert in-game knowledge, you'd forget he was a beta tester."
"I'm surprised you guys are doing as well as you are, given the bad rep beta testers have gotten lately."
"All thanks to that shitass Kibaou, no doubt. Luckily, Agil has more sway over the community on account of being a better person, and he supported us."
"And the rest is history?"
"Well, you've seen how loved Aoki is around town right?" Sora opened his menu and looked at the clock. "Let's leave it off there for tonight. You can go to sleep, I'll wake Aoki up in a few hours to keep watch."
"You sure?"
"Wouldn't be offering if I wasn't. You owe me your life story the next time we camp out," Sora said half-jokingly.
Alpha laughed. "Sure. Good night, Sora." She laid her head down at the base of the tree, using one of the tree's roots as a makeshift pillow. She turned to face Sora and watched him take out a basic whetstone from his inventory and begin sharpening his sword on it. After a few seconds, she closed her eyes as she smiled, basking in the warm feeling of having someone wish you good night like they meant it.
(x)
SN: I know we said we'd upload this around mid-September, but life got in the way via the moving process and college work. However, we're able to actually write more due to having more time NOW to do so! We'll try to keep the updates more consistent, but we can't really promise anything. We will, however, make up for the late update by uploading 2 chapters at once.
AN: Honestly, I forgot how fun writing can be, and I'm definitely looking forward to putting out more chapters for those who decide to keep following this story. I know it's gonna be hit-or-miss with the frequency, but we can promise we're not gonna just outright abandon this story.