Mystic Knight Online: Worlds to Sow
Chapter 8: Looking to the Future and Present
What, where am I? Harry thought as he looked at his surroundings. It seemed to be a living room, given the couch, chairs, and a few tables next to each. He saw a few books on the tables and he idly picked one up to look at the cover.
Huh, Tugger Nutts. He mused. Haven't seen any of those books since Aincrad. The English was fairly basic, with simple grammar and vocabulary, but he could appreciate how much skill it took to write something where someone who may have only learned the basics could still get the humor, even if the numerous plays on words went over their heads.
Putting the book down, he looked at the walls. He could see some familiar swords, shields and even a several daggers mounted on the wall. Each with a story behind them, and each which had been used by either him or Keiko in their adventures through Aincrad.
Heh, I remember those two, he thought as he looked at a seemingly simple and basic blade mounted over a similarly simple shield. Saved my life more than once until I replaced them a few floors after that field boss on the Twenty-Seventh.
He idly moved his right hand, as if opening a menu and blinked a bit as the Menu came up. Going to his equipment list, he saw the gear that he had at the end still there.
Well, that explains it, he thought. This is Aincrad, but why…?
His wondering was interrupted when the patter of small feet came to his ears and he turned just in time to have a small girl collide into him.
"Found you, Papa!" She said cheerfully.
Harry looked down at her and smiled. Papa? He wondered.
"Now, Sakura, you know you shouldn't be running around like that," came a familiar woman's voice.
Harry looked up to see an older Keiko walk in, her usually smooth gait only slightly turned into a waddle by the visible signs of pregnancy. A slightly larger Pina was hovering over his wife's shoulders, the feathered dragon's wings flapping in that seemingly lazy beat that allowed her to remain in the air seemingly indefinitely when she chose to.
He took in the sight of his wife's warm reddish-brown eyes, with her hair hanging loosely, as she just looked at him and smiled.
May 4, 2025 - Nerima, Potter-Black Apartment
Harry came awake as the sun's light became impossible to ignore. He yawned and shook his head to clear the residual drowsiness and looked around his small room. There was the bookshelf which held many of his books from Hogwarts, along with some of the various knickknacks he had picked up in Diagon Alley, his computer with the hooked up AmuSphere was on the desk next to the window. And his dresser was next to his closet.
"Been a couple of weeks since my dreams took me back to Aincrad," he said to himself as he got out of his bed. "At least it wasn't a bloody nightmare this time."
He looked at his bed and decided that he would make it after he wrote down what he could recall about his dream. Doctor Shimada had requested that he write down what he could remember of any dreams and nightmares that took him back to Aincrad. All part of his psychological counseling, of course.
Privately, Harry suspected that it was so that his psychological state could be monitored due to an understandable suspicion that his psychological counselor thought he had Shell Shock. Given his nightmares, not to mention his high awareness of everything even months later, he couldn't blame the man for thinking it.
He opened the journal he kept on the desk and flipped to a blank page.
5/4/2025
Last night, my dreams took me back to Aincrad, though it wasn't a nightmare this time, thank God. Instead, it was about one of those things we talked about, my desire to start a family with Keiko...
He continued to write down his recollections of the dream, which were surprisingly clear to him, smiling. It was a happy dream and something he felt would be a good future to work toward.
In a few years.
Nerima, Ayano Residence
Keiko finished writing down her dream, smiling at the thought behind it. Herself and Harry, in their own place, as parents. And the girl, so clearly their daughter, had the name she had occasionally thought that she would name one of her children. No need to come up with a name based on the Periodic Table, but following the floral motif that Harry's mother's did. It… fit for some reason.
Hmm, Sakura Potter? She thought before shaking her head. No, Sakura Lily Potter. That seemed most agreeable. A mix of Japanese and English, and honoring her husband- fiancé's- mother. She felt that she would be mentally correcting their relationship in the real world until they did marry.
Still the thought was a happy one, for all that it had been back on Aincrad. A nice reminder that not everything in SAO was bad, and that the two of them did wonder if they could have built a future there.
Not that doing so would replace reality. Dreams were nice, they could show possibilities to work toward, but they were a pale shadow to the Real World. Faults and all.
And SAO and ALO, those strange places in-between. World Seed worlds. Virtual worlds.
They were all Reality, but they weren't the same reality.
SAO was Reality in its own way, she thought. Just as ALO is. And the virtual worlds that will come. But they aren't our Reality.
Maybe in some other times and places, those definitions of Reality were the same as the Reality of the Real World was to her. And maybe she and Harry were in those worlds as well.
An interesting thought.
May 6, 2025 - Alfheim, Yggdrasil City
Rain reached into the forge with tongs and pulled the glowing hot metal out of it before placing it on the anvil. She picked up the hammer that she had lying on the bench next to it and took a measuring look at the ingot before nodding. Raising her hammer, she brought it down to strike the ingot with a loud clang.
One, two, three strikes, pause and assess.
One, two, three strikes, pause and assess.
One, two, three strikes, pause and assess.
On her fourth iteration of the routine she developed, the system began to take control and the ingot began to take shape.
One, two, three strikes, pause and assess.
The ingot was beginning to look less like a hunk of glowing hot metal and more like the blade she was looking to forge. Two, maybe three, more iterations left.
One, two, three strikes, pause and assess.
One, two, three strikes, pause and assess.
The system then completely took over and the hammered ingot began to morph in front of her into the blade of a sword, the end where the hilt should be narrowing so that it could be properly mounted and holes where the pins to hold it would be. As soon as it was done, she picked the still glowing metal and carefully placed it into a nearby quenching bucket of heated oil to complete the hardening process.
Taking out the blade, she cleaned off the oil scale with a coarse blacksmithing rag and then placed it into an oven designed to direct the heat where she wanted it to go in the amounts needed and watched it carefully, flipping the sword to ensure that it was evenly reheated on both sides.
As soon as the spine of the blade was a plum color, lightening to the edges to a straw yellow, on both sides- she had messed up this part a number of times while she was learning the hardening and tempering process from Liz- she placed it on a rack to cool.
""Huh, not bad, Rain," Liz said from behind her.
Rain turned to see her fellow Leprechaun and smiled. "You think so?" She asked.
"I did this for two years in SAO," Lisbeth replied. "I can tell when the metal is properly tempered, even with how ALO allows you to be more involved in the process than simply letting the system do all the work for you. Still simpler and quicker than how it would be in the real world, but they did their homework."
"They probably consulted professional blacksmiths on the process, even with the simplification," Rain noted. "At least with the more European style blades, the process is simpler than with katanas."
"Tell me about it," Lisbeth grumbled. "I still can't make them consistently without fully using the system assist. There are only five blacksmiths in ALO who can do it the hard way and I swear that they're trained to do it in the real world."
"How often do you manage?" Rain asked. "Without using the system assist the entire way that is?"
"About one in ten times," Lisbeth admitted. "Getting the differential hardening right is, well, hard. Worth it when you get it right, though."
Rain nodded. ALO's option to be more involved in the smithing process allowed for the production of higher quality blades on a more reliable basis than using the system assist the entire way as a reward for the added difficulty. The system assist provided consistent and serviceable quality, which is good enough for most players, but for blacksmiths like Lisbeth, being "good enough" wasn't what they wanted.
Lisbeth had made a successful business in SAO by being good at what she did, with a large player client base. While she wasn't the best blacksmith for forging weapons, Gilbrean held that position, she did good work. Steel Phoenix wouldn't have been some of her most loyal customers otherwise. The option to do it closer to the hard way was something she took to like a duck to water as soon as she learned of it.
Just as Rain was taking to it, even if smithing was going to be more a hobby for her than a chosen profession. It was a challenge, and anyone who went through SAO and made a living beyond the Twenty-Fifth and didn't retire from going out had only one response to a challenge.
They would accept that challenge.
Arun
Silica easily dodged her sparring partner's attack and gave a push to his chest that put him off balance before sweeping his legs out from under him. "You need to mind your footing," she said.
The Sylph who was her sparring partner, Rigel, picked himself up. "But the Grand Quest will be only in the air," he complained. "Why would footing matter there?"
"Because good footwork improves your balance and balance plays just as important a role in the air as it does on the ground," Silica replied. "Getting into the habit of keeping your balance in on the ground will help you with doing so in the air."
"She's right," Harry said as he walked up. "Dear, if you wouldn't mind, allow me to demonstrate."
Silica raised an eyebrow. "Oh?" She asked.
"Sometimes, it's best to show," Harry replied with a smirk as he manifested his wings and began to hover.
Silica returned his smirk before looking at the assembled players. "Everyone, watch," she said as the then closed the distance between herself and her husband in a blink.
##
Rigel's eyes widened in shock as he watched as Silica began to rapidly attack Hadrian from numerous different angles, the Sylph barely moving as he blocked or deflected each attack with his shield or his sword. How strong is he? He thought in shock.
"Hmm," a Gnome next to him said. "Now that's interesting."
"What is?" Rigel asked.
"Look at his movements." Came the reply.
Rigel watched the next series of attacks, paying attention to how Hadrian moved. Wait a second, he's… so that's how he's doing it. He watched a few more attacks, just to make sure he saw right. Hadrian wasn't bracing as if he was on the ground. He was moving slightly into the attack meeting momentum with his own. Not much, but that small amount of movement was ensuring that he was not being pushed back or being left open.
If looked from a wider perspective, it would seem as if he was standing on air, his feet braced against an invisible platform and his balance- "So that's how he's doing it," Rigel muttered. He had fought in the air plenty of times, he knew how easy it was to be sent off balance and to be left open due to the lack of a firm platform to brace himself against.
So Hadrian used movement to give himself just a little bit of momentum to keep himself from being forced back. Granted, in a full out fight, the movements would be greater and with more room, but he could now see how the habit of having good footing from the start could translate in the air once you made the counterintuitive leap of logic to translate that to fighting in the air.
After all, what is footwork, but making use of the upward force provided by what you're standing on to keep your balance? In the air, you didn't have that, so you had to do it yourself.
Hadrian was making it look easy, but Rigel chalked that up to his skill and a significant amount of practice. Wonder how many times he became a Dirt Dart getting the hang of it, he thought. But he now knew why Silica was emphasizing footwork and balance.
"So, you see what I was doing?" Hadrian asked as he landed.
Rigel nodded. "I do," he replied. "And can you give me some pointers on doing it right?"
Alfheim, Terun
Chrysheight let out a weary breath as he finished the spellcasting exam that all Undines were required to pass if they wanted to strike it out on their own. Despite the posturing and positioning between each faction, Undines were well known to be in high demand due to the fact that they were the faction best at healing magic. Meaning that they were often asked to join groups and raids heading into challenging and dangerous areas within Alfheim Online. Lord Hollen, not unaware of this, managed to use this fact as a way to improve the influence of the Undines as well as ensure that Undine territory was never threatened.
He had demonstrated his basic competency with the main healing spells an Undine was required to know, as well as demonstrating that he also practiced some offensive magic. Technically, he could strike it out on his own right now, and he intended to make a trip to Arun soon enough, but he knew that he still needed to cover for other areas he was weak in, such as flight. He could use the controller and go through the basic practice courses easily enough, but unassisted flight was still beyond his abilities right now and was likely to be something he would probably continue to be working on for some time.
So be it, He thought as he made the gesture with his hand to bring the controller up. I am now able to head out. Now, I should probably check Arun or Yggdrasil City first. That's where they seem to be based from the information I gathered.
Now he just had to find those he was seeking. It shouldn't be too difficult, should it?
May 9, 2025 - Kamakura, Japan
Gabriel put the report down on the desk and got a thoughtful frown on his face. It was to be expected that someone would see different potential in VR than everyone else and try to do something with it, but he was surprised at the details of it. Mind control, manipulating how people thought, he thought. Small thinking, but in the right direction.
It had taken the team some digging, including some careful hacking of RECT's own networks, the exploited vulnerabilities of which were shortly closed, Levi Grayson, the hacker that lead his penetration team, was already chewing them out for getting caught and losing a vulnerability that could have been exploited more. Not to mention the risk of being backtracked.
Not that it was likely. The various teams working the cyber end knew to use something that would make them effectively anonymous and there were apparently dozens of services, legal, semi-legal and outright illegal that could be used. And his penetration team used systems that they personally put together, purchasing the components needed via their own methods and with numerous cutouts.
Though why they needed systems that had all the capability of a high end Gaming PC puzzled him. No matter, if they said they needed that capability, he was willing to trust their expertise in the matter.
He considered the report again. Noboyuki Sugou's plans for using the VR environment for something as mundane as mind control or altering the thoughts of people was, while promising and something that he would forward to some of his peers back in Langley, not what he was looking for.
What was mind control and manipulating what a person thought, than manipulating the soul and treading into the realm of gods?
And without relying on something like magic and those who could use it, he thought to himself. Magic users were useful, if they could be brought out of their arrogance, provincialism and not invented here attitudes, but were not an asset that he considered completely reliable. Good for using for his own ends, yes, but not one that should be relied on exclusively.
After all, No-Majs like him had already exceeded what magic users had ever done of in numerous fields as it stood. Who was it who made it to the moon? Split the Atom? No-Majs, not users of magic. Granted, at cost and a lot of trial and error, but tell them something is impossible and they would ask why was it impossible and how they could make it possible.
They had even begun to figure out how to break the Light Speed Barrier, even if they didn't have the technology or resources to do so right now. Miguel Alcubierre developed the math and science, and with that knowledge, it was only a matter of time.
And by the time they did that, humanity, with himself, Gabriel Miller, paving the path to the future, will have usurped the gods themselves.
May 12, 2025 - Nishitokyo, SAO Survivor School
Asuna looked at Mizore when she and the others met up with her in the school's courtyard. Earlier that day, the disguised kitsune had informed her that she needed to talk with everyone about something, but it wasn't so critical that it couldn't wait until the end of the day.
"Ah, Aa-chan," Mizore said with the closest thing to a normal smile that she seemed capable of on her face. Not her "I know something you don't" smile, or the smile that heralded her about to do or say something that had everyone in the group semi-affectionately refer to her as a pain in the ass gadfly on occasion. A more normal one, as it seemed to be in Argo's nature to have at least some teasing edge to her smiles.
"Mizore," Asuna acknowledged. "You said you had something to tell us?"
The kitsune nodded as she seamlessly integrated herself into the group as they headed for the school's gates. "I do," she replied. "Nothing secret or requiring privacy, or I would arrange to either have you all meet me at my apartment or have us meet somewhere else, but it's something I found out that I think you all need to know."
"Given that you're wanting to meet us all out here, rather than inside ALO, what bit of stupidity is about to come our way?" Harry asked.
Mizore shrugged "Don't really know if it's going to be stupidity or not," she replied. "But someone's been asking questions for the last week about you all inside ALO."
"That's not exactly new information," Silica said drily. "For all that we don't make it a habit of advertising it, it's no secret in ALO that we're SAO Survivors and we've been approached and asked about it."
"Not what I mean," Mizore countered. "This person has been asking about you all specifically, and not in the context of being SAO Survivors. But what you're up to, where you're usually operating from, times you're normally active, things like that."
Asuna looked at the others for a moment before turning her attention back to the kitsune. "We're listening," she said.
Mizore nodded. "He's been careful about it," she said. "He wouldn't ask for all those details on any one person, and any questions on details were general and indirect. You guys are known in ALO, especially with how you've been helping train groups up so that they could stand a chance when tackling the Grand Quest, so you have a reputation. It's the fact that the questions were varied over time that I was pieced together that he would be able to build a very accurate profile of everyone's habits within ALO."
"I can see where this is going," Nijika sighed. At everyone's looks she shrugged. "It's basically how Hiyori and I tracked you all down in SAO when you all got active again after… well, after that one incident." She shrugged. "More subtle, but basically the same."
"Wouldn't he have learned what he needed to know sooner?" Hiyori asked. "Wait, that's not it. He knows where we would normally be in ALO when we're on and our usual activity times. If all he was doing was trying to approach and meet us, he's had opportunity."
Asuna nodded. She knew what Hiyori was implying. Whoever it was, was not trying to approach them, he or she was trying to get them to approach. "And there is no reason to believe that this person isn't aware that other SAO Survivors are playing ALO, like a certain information broker."
"Trying to get us to approach, rather than approach us," Kazuto murmured. "Control the meeting, or so this guy thinks. In the real world, that tactic would work, but in ALO?" He smirked. "Whoever it is doesn't know us, but thinks they do. Probably has a bit of knowledge of how we would act on this from the SAO streams."
"Hasn't been watching enough of them, then," Harry said before looking at Mizore. "So, we have a name for this player?"
Alfheim, Yggdrasil City
Crysheight walked into the Sword's Rest Tavern and gave it a cursory look to see if Steel Phoenix was here, as it was a known haunt of theirs, not that he expected them to be here. He had been to the tavern before and they never were, after all.
It was not an overly large place, with only enough tables to hold maybe five or so groups, a bar, and so on. Other taverns and restaurants were much more spacious, but the smaller size of the place didn't make it seemed cramped. Instead, it seemed cozy. As if it was one of those small places where one could get food for lunch in many of the side streets of Tokyo. And the small size gave the service a more personal feel.
"So, you're the one who has been looking for them," came a voice from the side, catching Cryshieght's attention. He looked to his right and saw a Salamander and a Leprechaun giving him looks.
"Them?" He asked.
"Steel Phoenix," The Salamander replied.
Chrysheight must have shown his shock at them realizing what he had been up to due to the Salamander's smirk.
"You underestimate Argo," the Salamander replied. "She ran the best information network in SAO and has been building one here in ALO. She sent the info out to those of us who went through SAO when she connected the dots. She probably told Steel Phoenix personally in the real world as well."
Chrysheight nodded. "And now there are SAO Survivors out on the lookout?" He asked.
"Naturally," the Salamander replied. "Regardless of what some may think of them, a lot of people owe them big for getting us all out of SAO."
Chrysheight nodded again. He could also hear and understand the unstated assertion that the SAO Survivors were also going to look out for each other. By now, they were well aware of just how Japanese society saw them and that what was already being done for them was going to be the extent of it.
It was already being seen as favoring them far more than they deserved, despite the fact that every SAO Survivor was going to be undergoing regular counseling for the foreseeable future and they had all been put on watch lists for potential future criminal activity. Even with those aspects to salve the opinions of the critics, showing that the Japanese Government was taking the potential threats they could pose to Japanese society into account, criticisms still abounded.
He had kept track of the demographics of the SAO Survivors, what they were doing now that they were free of it, what they were making of their lives, and saw the signs that they were becoming a very tightly knit community of their own. Their own response to the quiet social isolation that was forming.
But the social issues of the SAO Survivors, a microcosm of issues that the Japanese people were aware, if not publicly acknowledging, of were not his concern. There were answers he hoped to get, either directly, of via inference from what was said and not said, by Steel Phoenix.
Despite Kayaba's assertions when he stated his motives for SAO, Chrysheight did not believe that they were the extent of what he was doing. Too many things were going on behind the scenes in SAO. And he had a feeling that Steel Phoenix, the Heroes of Aincrad, had an inkling of what.
Chrysheight kept these musings from his expression with some effort, it was harder to hide one's thoughts and emotions online due to the direct neural linking. Instead, he gave a friendly smile to the Salamander. "So, if they are aware that I have been discreetly looking for them, then where are they?" He asked. "And where are my manners? I am called Crysheight here in ALO. And you are?"
"Call me Keita," Keita replied. "My Leprechaun friend here is Sasamaru." The Leprechaun nodded and turned back to his drink. "As for where they are…" He looked over Crysheight's shoulder.
Crysheight turned and saw six players sitting around a table on the opposite side of the tavern, giving him searching looks. They weren't there before, he thought. So how did they arrive without me noticing?
"Well, now that you've noticed us," the Sylph among them said drily. "Why don't you order a drink and come on over here. I believe you want to discuss something with us?"