Floor 19 - Chapter 1 - Groundworks

The past three months had been... a mixed bag for the group, if any of them were being honest.

The Fourteenth Floor had been another test in Jet's abilities to not die through sheer idiocy - at least in Strea's words, anyway - as they fought yet more things that were detrimental to his continued existence. Namely, a field boss that was, in fact, a giant mushroom, and had been reduced to nothing more than slithers by the time they'd all finished with it. Koharu had made a note to ask him about what mushrooms had ever done to him after that fight.

The Fifteenth and Sixteenth Floors had been relatively uneventful for the group, save for the bet being paid off on the latter. The groups had been in the process of fighting the field boss, when it somehow grown two extra limbs, and it had only been through the intervention of Kirito and Asuna that they'd all made it with barely a scratch on them.

Needless to say, that 50 Col went to the Reaper there.

The Seventeenth Floor had been far more interesting, in that the central mechanic of the floor was a set of white water rapids. That had been a surprising amount of fun for two members of the group, whilst the other two could barely speak after the sheer volume and duration of their screams, as they missed a turn and nearly went over the waterfall at the end...

The Eighteenth Floor, however, was just cold. That much they could all agree on, as they had spent nearly three weeks criss-crossing the floor, trying to solve the mystery of why the land had frozen, and to find the flame that would solve that particular problem - only to discover that said flame would in fact burn down the entire land.

All of which led them to the Nineteenth Floor.

A floor that had confused them all to no end as they exited the Teleport Gate... mainly as it was almost entirely barren, save for a few tents near to the gate, and what appeared to be a lake in the extreme distance. Looking over the land, it really was just grassland as far as they eye could see, and almost entirely featureless from a geographical point of view, the grass spread across the entire floor, possibly reaching as far as the edge of Aincrad.

''Uhh, what exactly are we supposed to do here?'' Jet asked, as he scanned the entire floor, seemingly. It wasn't too unusual that the floor quest was hidden, pat of the fun was finding it after all, but this was on a new level of hidden. Where exactly could it be in such a barren land?

''I wouldn't say no to some company on this expedition...'' The familiar voice of the friendly Dark Elf came from the nearby tents.

''Kizmel!''

''I'm glad to see you made it this far, you four. It is rather boring here, to be blunt.'' She admitted.

''What's even happening here, Kizmel?'' Phillia asked.

''An archaeological expedition to find a village from our past. Several hundred years ago, Lyusulans left our main territories and set up a number of villages for trading purposes and the like. One of these was the village of Nesse, which our historians believe now lies on this floor. With the war... dwindling down, Her Majesty has asked the knights to assist on more peaceful missions. I chose this one, but...''

''Archaeology isn't the most interesting thing in the world, if you're stuck on guard duty?'' Jet asked, ignoring Phillia glaring daggers at him, whilst Kizmel nodded slowly in agreement.

''Indeed. Tilnel always had a fascination with the village, and even if she is no longer here, I am still her sister, and I grew up listening to her ideas. I would be lying if I said I wasn't at least somewhat curious.''

''So, this village, any ideas why it might have disappeared?'' Jet asked.

''The stories were that it disappeared overnight. The children were all found in a nearby village, but the adults were never heard from again.'' Kizmel explained. ''Of course, those were nothing more than fairy tales, so I doubt they hold too much truth. What is true though, is that the children were found in a nearby village with no knowledge of what happened, and the village has never been found since.''

''That's odd, why would you send away the children of a village?'' Koharu asked.

''Perhaps if there was a situation where you felt the children were far safer away from the village?'' Jet answered, remembering his history lessons on the Blitz, and the evacuated children during the Second World War. The more he thought about it though, the less convinced he was by that theory. They'd been sent away by the risk of falling ordnance, and had been evacuated to the countryside, not away from it... Whatever the answer was though, it wasn't going to be found standing around a field all day. ''Maybe we should go take a look round, see what we can see?''

''Ah, Lady Kizmel!'' A rather unusual looking Lyusulan came out from the largest of the tents. In human years, the man would've likely been around his mid forties, his face being given a distinctive silhouette by the wire framed spectacles he wore, whilst a darkened mop of hair sat atop his head, far darker than the usual purple they'd all become accustomed to seeing. His outfit was an equal contrast, being made up of a rather ratty looking lab coat, one that had probably once been white but was now an off grey colour, with various stains from the earth adding an almost camouflage like element to it. The lab coat hid a plate of armour beneath it, but unlike the knights, whose armour had always been well presented, albeit battle damaged at times; this was rusted in sections, and had what looked to be plates welded over areas of damage. Completing the strange look, was a scarf around the man's neck, one that was oddly familiar to Jet, with various bright colours running horizontally around it... ''Oh! We have visitors! Wonderful!''

The group all exchanged looks, before looking over to Kizmel, who now looked rather like she wished to be anywhere but her current location... anywhere. Despite this, she introduced the man to them. ''Jet, Koharu, Rain, Phillia - this is Professor Malcolm. He is the leader of this expedition.''

Now it was their turn to look bewildered. ''Professor... Malcolm?'' Jet asked, voicing the question that he assumed everyone was thinking. They'd seen plenty of unusual names in Aincrad, but ''Malcolm'' took the biscuit. Not because of its unusual nature, but simply because how normal it sounded - after all, how often did they come across lords named ''Steve''? Or knights named ''Bob''?

''Indeed, that is I!'' He answered, a sense of glee in his voice, before he turned to Kizmel. ''Lady Kizmel, we're preparing to launch an expedition to the site. If you would be so kind as to help us move our equipment?''

The look of resignation on Kizmel's face seemed quite telling, and after just a glance and a nod, the group volunteered themselves to help her out. ''Well, we can help too. Besides, we're going that way too, so we may as well work together.'' Phillia said.

''The more the merrier!'' The Professor disappeared back into the background, and into his tent.

''So, he seems...'' Koharu paused, as she struggled to find the words to describe the Professor.

''Mad?'' Jet helpfully answered. Kizmel shook her head, expressing a small degree of agreement with her fellow knights.

''He is... eccentric, to put it mildly.'' Kizmel replied, her phrasing rather diplomatic.

Jet picked up on the implication in her words, and voiced it aloud. ''He's mad as a box of frogs then. Good to know.'' His thinking aloud earned him a literal slap on the wrist from Koharu. ''Oww, what was that for!'' He yelped.

''We could say the same thing about you, you know...'' Koharu explained.

''We do!'' Phillia cheerfully interjected, before Rain turned to glare at her.

''She does. I don't.'' The redhead distanced herself from her friend's statement.

''There's a difference though... I know I come across as mad.'' He said, a rather baffling smile on his face. To many, it would've looked like a blank smile, but to Koharu, there was a clear sense of displease at it. ''I lean into it.''

''Come now! The lost village of Nesse waits for no one!'' They heard the Professor shout from the tent. The group exchanged yet more looks with each other, mostly to ask if he was genuinely serious, before a realisation came over each of them. This was their life now, if only for a short while...

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Moving the camp had taken far more work than any of them had assumed. Each tent had been fixed to the ground below it through a set of concrete supports, and metal braces, all of which required disassembling, whilst the facilities provided for the members of the voyage - namely the bathing tent, had also required a considerable amount of work to deconstruct. It had been around 5pm when they began...

By the time they'd finished, it was 1am, and each member of the group had taken turns in sleeping on a sleeping bag provided, near the other side of the base camp. At the moment they finished, Rain had been taking her nap, and so Koharu had gone to wake the redhead up. The others all looked around at the remarkable compactness of the tents in their stowed form. Each tent was easily carried by a single person, and with twenty bagged tents, all bar Kizmel assumed they'd be carrying one or two of them each, before four bags, each nearly the same size as the people behind them, were placed in front of them. ''Here we go, thank you for your help!''

''What are those?'' Koharu asked, as Rain and herself rejoined the group.

''They are what we have to carry.'' Jet grunted, as he tried to even lift the bag in front of him. At just shy of five foot tall, the bag was almost impossibly unwieldy, and even with his levelled up STR stat, he could only barely carry it on his back... and even then, had to stop after a minute.

''How...'' Rain asked, watching as Jet nearly collapsed in exhaustion around a hundred feet away. Kizmel simply shrugged, as she began pulling the bag on the small rollers beneath it.

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Having reached the new site (eventually), the group all felt as if they could sleep for an eternity. Which, whilst not immediately strange in itself given how far they'd walked with about 50 pounds of tents on their backs, did concern Rain slightly, given she'd gotten some rest earlier.

It was almost as if she could feel her mood getting lower, the closer to the site they actually got, and that was another concern. She'd been in relatively high spirits that morning, and it felt to her as if everyone else had been too. They'd all been laughing and joking with each other before they reached the floor, and yet, by the time they'd reached the campsite the next morning, they'd all become far more fidgety towards each other.

She couldn't understand why, as even when they were tired, she'd seen how each of them normally reacted: Counterintuitively, Jet became hyperactive when tired, almost as if some part of him was overcompensating when keeping him awake. Koharu and Phillia both became considerably slower to process information, often struggling to understand things that, were they well rested, they'd have understood immediately, and in her mind, she knew that she became slightly giggly, and less mature, almost as if she were drunk.

None of them were acting like themselves though, and that disturbed her. Jet had been irritable throughout the entire journey, and she'd often noticed him grumbling about how they'd be better off ditching the tents and the Lyusulans, and doing it themselves, a sentiment she'd never actually heard him voice before. Phillia's jokes had become more mean spirited as the journey had gone on, and Koharu had seemingly been upset over something that she refused to explain, and got defensive over whenever it was bought up.

Hopefully, a good night's sleep would be enough to bring everyone back to their senses...

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The next morning had arrived, and Rain felt as if she'd been worrying over nothing. Everyone seemed to have snapped back to normal, and were currently eating breakfast in the dining tent, whilst discussing theories over what they could be discovering. Those theories seemed to range from just discovering the slightest traces of the village, to discovering a reason for the disappearance of the village.

Phillia seemed the most interested, almost hanging on every word of the story that the Professor told. Even if she did admit that the Professor was, as Jet had rather ineloquently put it, ''mad as a box of frogs'', he had a way with stories, and she'd found it fascinating that a village could just disappear - if that was what had happened, anyway.

Phillia had explained to them that villages and other small settlements often did just disappear. Not through any ill intent, but through changes in agriculture, the population being so small that the village did just die off over the years, or in worse times, a disease such as the plague had wiped villages off the map in Europe. That had been less fascinating, and more horrifying to her.

Either way, it had been decided that they'd set off in pairs, to scout the area. Unsurprisingly, she'd decided to go with Phillia, given the ginger girl's seemingly in depth understanding of archaeology...

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Which had given the couple a chance to spend some time on their own, something that felt as if it were in short supply nowadays, if you'd asked Jet. Despite his gripes at having next to no alone time with his girlfriend, he wouldn't have changed it for the world... Most of the time, anyway. ''So, what do you think happened? I mean, Phillia's got that wrong, right, how would a village just disappear?'' Koharu asked as they walked through the fields, as twilight began to fall on the floor. They'd been wandering around all day, and had discovered absolutely nothing, just empty and barren fields, devoid of life...

''I mean, it did happen back home. Plenty of villages had a population of, like, fifty people way back in the middle ages, and eventually, that population dwindled to nothing.'' Jet admitted, as Koharu looked somewhat down at heel. ''You alright, you seem... I guess, upset at something?''

''It's just wondering how long till somewhere like my home would've been lost to the ages...''

''Depends how big it is, really. Nowadays, losing a village like that's, well... it's not impossible, but I'd imagine it's very unlikely.'' Jet reassured her, before noticing a few coins on the floor. Odd, he thought, why would there be coins here, unless... ''I think we might have something!''

''Coins!'' Koharu called out, as she looked at the odd copper coins in the dirt below. They'd become oxidised, so they certainly weren't dropped recently, that much was certain, but other than that, neither of them could tell much about what they were looking at. Perhaps they'd been from Nesse, or perhaps some careless individual had dropped them during a trek across the floor, but either way, they were the first thing they'd discovered all day, and they certainly weren't about to overlook that particular gift horse...

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A brief walk back to the camp, and the Professor had disappeared into the tent to study the coins they'd found, whilst they went into the Dining Tent with Kizmel, who'd returned from her scouting area, as empty handed as everyone else, but with information that they'd found a lake around half a mile to the east, and with the unwelcome news that the bathing tent was out of order (a situation that could be traced to a stray rock entering the water tank during transit the night before), the lake would make an ideal... if rather cold, bathing spot.

The meal itself had been a rather enjoyable affair - nothing fancy, just cooked meat and bread, but still considerably better than many meals in this world, in his experience. Something told him that, by the way both Koharu and Kizmel devoured their meals, they agreed with that sentiment too...

The rest of the evening had been fairly quiet, the girls having returned around 9pm from their scouting trip, also with a souvenir - a small brooch of some kind. Probably once meticulously detailed, time hadn't been kind to it, and the metal had started to wear away in places, leaving a rather rusty, and otherwise uninteresting lump of metal in the dirt, for them to pick up. Needless to say, the professor had been equally as interested in that as he had the coins...

Which bought them to the current moment. Rubbing his eyes, Jet looked around. It was still dark, so if it were morning, it wad very early in the morning, and no one else in the camp seemed to be awake, other than a few young knights who had drawn the short straw, and been assigned guard duty. Noticeably though, Koharu appeared to be nowhere to be found, which spurred him into action. Checking his messages quickly, she had left him a message telling him that she had gone to the lake, and that she'd be back eventually.

For reasons that could probably be attributed to fatigue, he decided to head over to the lake and check that she was okay.

Walking through the fields at night, he realised just how desolate it was. With only moonlight to guide him, finding the lake had been a challenge only slightly greater than the challenge of not tripping over his own two feet in the dark. Seriously, even with the relatively flat ground, the terrain was still treacherous to those who weren't blessed with night vision... or everyone, in other words.

After a few close calls with the mud below him, Jet made it to the lake, and it was a gorgeous sight. The moonlight shone off the ripples in the water of the lake, providing the only light around the area. Off on the furthest side of the lake silently sat Koharu, legs tucked against her chest and deep in thought. Exactly what she was thinking about, he couldn't say, but she certainly didn't look too happy.

A minute or so passed as he walked round to her, before starting to speak. ''Penny for your thoughts?''

''Surprised you're awake, it's 2am...'' She laughed, though it was clear that she found it hollow.

''Yeah, my pillow went missing.'' He smirked at his own joke, and received no response.

''Do you ever feel like we're not making enough progress? It's been nine months now, and we're not even a fifth of the way through...'' Koharu asked, looking out into lake. For a moment, Jet thought about it - she had a point. They'd been fighting constantly for nine months now, and so far they hadn't reached the Twentieth Floor yet. If they reached the Twenty-Fifth by the one year mark, it would've been good going at current rate.

''Perhaps, but think about it this way, Ko - we're nearly a fifth of the way there. Sure, it's not been easy, nor will it be easy, but we're making pretty damn good progress, or at least, I think we are. If you think back to the first floor, it took us a month to clear it. At that rate, we'd be here about four years, and that's just assuming every floor is the same size or complexity as that.''

''I guess...''

''Still, heck of a way to go to clear your head, isn't it?''

''I figured it was quiet, so I could get some alone time...'' Jet's face fell into a weird contorted expression, as each train of thought passed the junction in his mind, before coming to a section of track marked ''obvious conclusion''.

''Ohh... uhhh, well, I-uhh...'' He attempted to speak, but failed miserably as he failed to prevent his mind from picturing Koharu doing... stuff, and as a result, his face turned bright red - the same shade as Rain's hair... ''I should- ya know, not be here?''

''I... don't mind you being here. We are dating, after all?'' Now, he simply looked blankly towards her. There was no way he'd read the implication in that sentence correctly, was there? ''We see each other before and after washing all the time, what's different to... well, whilst washing?''

He blinked repeatedly at that sentence. ''Oh, that was what you meant...'' He muttered to himself, as Koharu had turned around. Knowing she was getting undressed, he took the less dangerous path in life and tried to pull his shirt over his eyes... though to no avail. He settled for closing them instead, and by the time he'd reopened them, she had found her way into the water, and from her reaction, it was evidently rather cold.

He moved himself closer to the water, and placed a hand in it. ''Yup, definitely cold.'' He mumbled, as he pulled his hand out and wiped it against the opposite sleeve of his coat.

''It's not so bad when you're in it...'' Evidently, otherwise why was she shivering so much, he thought to himself. Still, if she could do it, then so could he...

His sisters had joked that he was more at home underwater than he was on land as a child, and once upon a time, he'd have agreed with them. There was something therapeutic about swimming, and just water in general to him. That was when it was a nice, clear, and more importantly, warm, swimming pool though.

A lake was a very different matter. He'd seen adverts of death standing over unwary children who'd found their way into dark and lonely waters, and that had made quite an impression on the seven year old Michael. Mainly in the form of night terrors for nearly six months, but it taught the young boy a lesson too - death sounded like a 1970s British man.

''Jet?'' Koharu asked, watching curiously as he stared off into space. ''Are you okay?'' Her voice snapped him back to reality, and he stood up, opening his menu.

''Uhh, Ko, could you, I dunno, turn around or something?'' He asked, watching his girlfriend hold her head back and stare at the skies obligingly. With a quick and almost blinding flash of light, he made his way into the lake. Shivers ran up his spine as he entered the lake, and the chills increased as more of him found its way into the water. Despite the shivering, he submerged himself up to about halfway up his torso, where he could still - just about - reach the sloped banks of the lake under foot.

''See? Not too bad!'' Teasingly, Koharu splashed him. Well, if that was how she wanted to play it, he thought...

He backed away, heading slightly deeper into the lake, to the point where the balls of his feet were hovering just off the bed of the lake, and made a slightly taunting gesture to his girlfriend. Hand flat out, and pulling all fingers in towards him - the sign of ''come on, if you dare...''. She did, and soon found herself swimming, rather than treading water... ''Hey! That's not fair!''

Jet shrugged, and grinned. ''Can't adjust my height. Not like I've got a nut on my leg that makes me taller or shorter...'' He joked, as Koharu swam around him... ''What are you-oh.'' He realised exactly what she was doing, as he felt her arms wrapped around his shoulders...

''Just for that, you can carry me...'' She'd pulled herself partially onto his back, her legs now wrapped around his waist, whilst her chest had wound up in a position that meant turning around would be... a bad idea. Surely she realised what she was doing, he wondered to himself. His thoughts were interrupted, as she called out from her new slightly elevated position... ''Hey, Jet, look!''

''Uhh, Ko? I daren't move my head right now...'' . Koharu was a beautiful girl, he wouldn't ever disagree with that statement, but perhaps bathing together was not the greatest idea in the world for two teenagers... certainly not for one of them, whose hormones were currently deciding to work at 110% right now.

''Huh?'' She questioned before looking down, realisation of their position setting in She almost immediately dropped off his back, heading back into the water with a splash and a very red face... ''I, uhh... I saw something. Like a tributary, but it was heading away from the river. Quickly too, almost like someone was siphoning water, maybe?'' She stated, her arms wrapped around her chest awkwardly.

''We should go have a look, you know whilst we're here.'' Jet thanked any deity possible for that well timed interruption, and made for the shore. As he got out, he quickly opened his menu, and put his clothes back on, forgetting that Koharu was still behind him...

''We, uhh... we don't speak about that, right?'' Koharu asked, now out of the water, and back in her combat gear.

''Yeah, that was... awkward.'' Jet admitted, looking through his inventory for a Light Crystal to follow the mystery distributary...

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About half an hour later, the pair had found the terminus of the mystery distributary - a random field, about a mile from the lake. With nothing else around, both of the couple were left wondering why exactly the branch would end here. It wasn't as if anything was actually here! The nearest civilisation was their base camp, still faintly visible, yet the distributary ended in a neatly defined way, almost as if someone had changed the path of the river...

''Look at the way the water flows at the end, Ko.'' She looked into the area illuminated by the Crystal. That was weird, she thought - the water flowed in such a way that she was certain that something was... scooping it out, perhaps?

''Maybe we're missing something?'' She questioned. Whatever was going on, it certainly wasn't the empty field that it looked like, and she figured that it would be best if she told everyone back at base camp what they'd found.

Whatever it was that they had found...

{Author's Comments}

Funny thing is, there really is a lost village of Nesse. It's a few miles south-west of Wellington, in Shropshire, England (although it crops up more often in sources as ''Nash'', and that's the name it's under on Wikipedia, if anyone's interested.)