[SAO] Auld Lang Syne

[Muphrid]

And now for something moderately different?

I got into Sword Art Online in the fall, and as with a lot of things with mediocre writing, I haughtily decided I could do better, or something.  Hopefully this is fun for people who've played MMOs or at least are in touch with that culture.

So, without further ado,

Chapter 1: Londinium
Aincrad Floor 25 - August 20, 2023

Spoiler: ShowHide

Near the end of closed beta, there was a lot of buzz about Sword Art Online.  The virtual-reality technology dominated the news, of course.  Never before had the smells, tastes, sounds, and sights of a digital world been made so palpable, so real.  You could feel the wind on your skin.  If a mob slashed at your chest, the throbbing wounds would stay with you for hours, long after the HP damage had healed.

But there were a number of skeptics, too.  What were the long term effects of virtual-reality immersion?  Could it be dangerous?  I guess all of us who were trapped in SAO are proof that the VR wasn't the most dangerous thing, but that's another matter for another time.  Still, I think it's funny how much everyone focused on the VR aspects.  If you weren't paying attention, it'd be easy to forget that SAO was first and foremost an MMO.  It still had all the common elements for a game of that type.  There had to be mobs—roaming monsters in the world—and bosses.  Bosses had to be interesting and engaging.  I remember, back in beta, one of the main complaints about the bosses was the lack of replay value in killing them again and again.  I guess we know now that Kayaba never intended for a boss to be downed twice, which explains a lot in hindsight.

I never thought SAO's encounter design to be so bad, though.  True, it wasn't groundbreaking, but it was perfectly serviceable, at least when I thought it was a game.

After all, where else would you have the experience of facing an angry woman with an iron whip?

I should say this woman was a boss, and her whip could possibly be called a flail instead, but that's no fun.

It was the middle of August, 2023.  In ten months, the hardcore guilds had cleared through Floor 34—not bad progress considering it took two months for any of us to get our acts together and clear Floor 1.  The hardcore progression group had reduced the effort of mapping a dungeon, scouting a boss's tactics, and defeating that boss to an exacting, precise science.  Typically, a strategy meeting would be held a day or two before the first attempts.  There, a raid leader would take charge, based on a rotating draw from the top hardcore guilds; he would be responsible for implementing the agreed-upon strategy in the heat of battle.  By that point, almost all of the regular raid leaders had at least three or four boss kills under their belt, on top of many more attempts.  Their selections were not controversial.

The bigger task was to decide on the strategy itself.  In other MMOs, information about a boss's abilities, as well as the best tactics to counter them, was common, freely available knowledge.  The challenge was mostly execution, or perhaps the raid leader's ability to make small tweaks to a strategy to match their group's strengths.

That wasn't the case in SAO.  The scout team might spend a dozen attempts just collecting information about a boss's abilities, and even then, what they found out was regarded as incomplete intelligence at best.  Strategies were by necessity conservative, designed to incur minimal casualties and to maximize margin for error.  If that meant it took longer to kill a boss, so be it.

In that sense, I think pretty highly of SAO's encounter design.  Kayaba Akihiko clearly understood the challenges of putting together bosses that are difficult at first blush, that require sophisticated strategies, and yet are still "easy" enough that most of them can be defeated with no deaths.  It's a completely different set of criteria compared to most other games, where you might be expected to wipe repeatedly to a boss just to figure out how best to attack it.

In SAO, if your strategy or execution fail, you're not just wiped out.  You're dead.

For a lowly solo player like me, the finer points of a boss strat weren't really something I could change.  That was all decided by higher-up members of the top guilds.  I focused on execution of my role in a boss fight, nothing more.

And that meant staring down a beautiful, three-meter-tall maiden who kept cracking her metal whip while I waited for my turn to switch in.

Maybe some guys would've enjoyed that feeling.  I didn't.  I was sweating, and not just because of nerves.

The pit of lava below us might've had something to do with it.

In a lot of ways, it was the simplest threat in the world.  With one wrong step, any one of us could tumble into the lava below.  There were rumors that lava wouldn't kill a player instantly.  Rather, it only damaged one's health in a few large ticks, so there would be enough time to feel one's skin slough off and melt—at least, so long as the system had some way to replicate the sensation.  I wouldn't put it past Argus and Kayaba to bury someone in lava with sensors attached to their head as they died.  Clearly, they would do anything for "realism."

Above the lava ran a series of paths in a triangular pattern.  The roads intersected three at a time at a handful of nodes, and the boss—Hecate, Goddess of Crossroads—only occupied one of those nodes at any given time, teleporting from node to node when all three pairs of forwards switched off her.

I said three pairs of forwards because Hecate had three bodies:  a young maiden, whom I faced; a motherly woman; and an old crone.  The three stood on a pedestal, slightly above the level of each intersection, but they never walked or moved.

Each of the three bosses—the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone—had separate health bars, but overall we had the boss down to about 25%, a reasonably good look for just our fifth attempt.  Hecate was a straightforward encounter, with no adds to deal with.  The challenge was all in managing the tank switches and keeping Hecate's movement to a minimum.  Each switch had to happen on a precise schedule, and if it occurred too early—

"Kirito, switch!"

That was my partner in tanking the Maiden boss, a DDA forward named Schmitt.  I'd learned through the last few attempts that Schmitt, though well-geared, was also a panicky and nervous tank.  He used healing crystals as early as 75% health, and while it wasn't unusual to try to start crystal cooldowns as early as possible, he'd often waste up to 15% of healing just to keep himself buffered.

"Kirito, switch!"

In this case, he was just a hair over 50%—still quite safe, really, for the Maiden didn't hit as hard as the Mother or the Crone.  Still, I asked the raid leader his opinion.

"Klein, you think we need to switch yet?"

To my left was the guild leader of Fūrinkazan, the katana-wielder Klein.  While Schmitt and two other forwards kept the bosses busy, the rest of the raid DPSed from the bosses' sides.  Klein was among them, but as the raid leader, DPS wasn't his top priority.  He monitored the overall health and status of the raid, and he knew—as I did—that Schmitt was in no immediate danger.  Klein said as much.

"I'd like to get fifteen more seconds of DPS on them, at least.  Just hold on a bit."

Schmitt didn't take that well.

"I'm going to die over here while you're squeezing in a few extra percent?  No way!  Kirito, switch, now!"

To my horror, Schmitt leaped back, away from the Maiden boss, leaving her untanked.  The DPS on her sides scattered, in case she'd turn her whip to them, but there was no chance of that.  Ours was the last pair to switch, and with the Maiden's tank target out of range, that would count as far as the encounter was concerned.  All three bosses—Maiden, Mother, and Crone—stopped swinging at their targets, and the pedestal they stood on disappeared in a flash of light.

"Get away!  She's porting out early!"

That was Klein, who led his group of DPS down one of the narrow roads.  His call wasn't a moment too soon, for once the bosses were gone, the lava beneath the intersection began to bubble and froth.  It erupted in a towering pillar, engulfing the intersection and anyone who still stood near.

"AGH!"

And the wall of lava claimed two victims, clipping them on their way to the next node.  The wounded fell face-first onto the hovering road, their health down to 25% and continuing to drop, thanks to a burn debuff.  I could do nothing to help them, though.  I had to get to the Maiden.

The network of floating paths meant there were many ways to get to a particular platform where Hecate had teleported to, but they became more and more difficult to navigate as the fight went on.  While even one of Hecate's bodies was untanked, the three ladies stomped and pounded on the roads each of them faced.  They cracked and shattered the roads, and if a floating road took enough damage, it would fall into the lava, killing anyone who still stood upon it.  Already, about a quarter of the walkways had shattered, and only Klein's keen monitoring of the walkways' durability had kept everyone alive.

But even though we'd suffered no casualties, each lost walkway put more and more pressure on the raid.  With some of the paths destroyed, it was taking longer for the raid to reach Hecate after each cycle.  Even a single detour cost us time and durability of other walkways.  To add to that, each time Hecate destroyed a set of three walkways, she gained an attack speed and damage buff, stacking indefinitely.  It was a classic soft enrage effect:  while we wouldn't die instantly if we failed to kill her in a specific time limit, it would prove more and more difficult to kill her the longer we let the fight wear on.  Tanks would have to switch more often to save themselves, and eventually, there would come a point where even healing crystals used on cooldown couldn't keep us alive.

At the beginning of the fight, we were able to do 15% of Hecate's health before the first set of switches.  As Hecate had destroyed roads and gained damage, that number had dropped for each cycle.  From 15% to 12%, to 9% now.  That meant it could take at least three more cycles—probably more—to finish her off.

I was only halfway to Hecate's new position—an intersection on the far side of the room—when three more walkways crumbled and disappeared into the lava.  There were still three other roads into that intersection, so Hecate only turned her bodies to them and started pounding again.  With that extra stack of the attack speed buff, we would probably get only 7%, maybe less, if we decided to keep going with the cycle.

I jumped from walkway to walkway, taking my position opposite the Maiden.  She was, contrary to her name, not a beautiful creature, only young.  She snarled and hissed as she struck at me with her metal whip.  Dealing with her was mostly about dodging; the whip couldn't be parried or blocked effectively.  It was part of why Schmitt was so panicky: reliant on his shield, he didn't feel safe when the whip curled around the edge of the barrier and still managed half damage against him.  But there weren't many forwards who didn't use shields at all, so Schmitt had been pressed into service.

If we had to go through another cycle where he'd just panic again, people could die.  Every time someone was critically wounded like that, at least one or two people had to hang back to defend them.  That took four DPS off the boss; that would slow us down even further.

The longer we fought this boss, the more risk we faced.  Schmitt's cowardice and selfishness weren't debuffs that would fall off if he stopped tanking the boss for a little while.  They were indelible parts of his character.

And I had no tolerance for a person like that.  People who'd prioritize themselves over others—who put their own happiness and security over the lives of others—didn't deserve to be in that raid.  They didn't deserve any boss drops or a share of the col.  They were worse than useless:  they were dangerous to the rest of the raid, to anyone they partied with.

If I let this fight continue, Schmitt's weakness could get someone killed.

I dodged another whip from the Maiden.  I saw her health tick past 15%, and I made the call.

"No more switches!  Burn it down!"

One of the other forwards glanced at me in alarm.

"Are you nuts?  We couldn't survive 15% even on the first cycle!  What makes you think we can do it now?"

"We need to do it, or we're going to fall too far behind and wipe.  Hold fast, and blow everything you have to survive these last few seconds.  Have your teleport crystals ready in case we have to reset it."

There was some murmuring and confusion in the raid, but Klein stepped in to silence it.

"You heard the man.  No more switches; burn this boss down, but be ready for the reset.  Go, go, go!"

With all of us in agreement, I focused on my opponent, the Maiden.  She was definitely a lot more vicious than she had been at the start of the fight.  She whipped at me with unreal speed, and my ears rang from the constant cracks of the whip.  I watched her eyes, hoping she would telegraph her attacks, and that worked for a while.

Until we reached 10%.  The three bosses turned red with rage, and the Maiden, to my horror, closed her eyes.

"It's a frenzy!  Watch out!"

A second whip materialized in the Maiden's off hand, and she swung with them blindly, in a wild craze.  I could weakly deflect one for minimal damage, but the other—

"Urgh!"

The other caught me across the face.  There was no blood, but that single hit lopped off 10% of my health.

The other tanks weren't faring so well, either.  From the corner of my eye, I watched their health bars dwindle:  the Crone's tank lost life in a steady drain while the Mother's tank fell in massive, frightening chunks. 

But Hecate was going down.  As the last percent on the Maiden vanished, I started to breathe easy.

Instead, she only started to glow green.

"Maiden's healing!  Finish the other two, now!"

Klein directed the DPS on Maiden to the other two bosses, but I was left alone as her whips cracked all around me.  If this is how I would die, it was quite fitting.  I should die alone. 

But that wasn't to be that day.  The group was too well-prepared for this possibility.  When a boss comes in a group of three or more, it's not uncommon that all of them must be defeated within ten or fifteen seconds of each other, or else they will start healing one by one.  Hecate was no different, and we'd discussed the possibility at length in the strategy meeting.  Since the bosses were already within a few percent of each other, finishing off the Mother and the Crone didn't take long.

Still, it was uncommon for a boss to keep swinging while it was healing.  If I'd known about that....

Well, it was what it was.  When Hecate's death cry went out, I was still alive.  I had only 20% health left, but I lived.  A few muted cheers went through the group after that harrowing fight, but Klein was quick to try to lift everyone's spirits.

"Good work, everyone!  Grats on loot, and we'll be in touch about clearing Floor 35.  Be safe, and see you out there."

A couple people looked excited enough to have received major upgrades.  I didn't get anything, and that suited me fine.  I didn't care for earning items on the backs of the dead or wounded.  I reached into my pack for a teleport crystal.  Others would find the stair to Floor 35 and a teleport plaza up there.  I'd had enough excitement for one day, I thought, and I wanted nothing more but to get home.

"Ah, Kirito, do you have a minute?"

That was Klein, who blocked the walkway, as if that meant something.  He couldn't stop me from using a teleport crystal, but he knew that, and he knew I knew that.

"I'm trying to remember if we discussed when we were going to burn the boss down.  Was it really 15%?  It seems awfully high, but if you thought it was 15%, that must've been what we agreed on."

"You don't need to beat around the bush with me, Klein.  We said we'd burn it down at 10%.  I changed the strategy, and only the raid leader should do that.  I'm sorry."

He shook his head and sighed.

"This isn't about respect for leadership.  The other forwards weren't ready for that.  You could've gotten someone killed out there."

"You'd have called the wipe and reset it before anything like that happened."

"Those bosses were swinging extremely fast.  We had almost no margin for error there.  I know Schmitt made a mistake panicking like that, but we have to all be on the same page.  If people know or think something different from everyone else, it puts everybody in jeopardy."

"I know the consequences of not sharing information.  You don't have to remind me."

Klein pursed his lips and nodded.

"Right, I know you do.  Take care, Kirito.  See you at the next strategy meeting, yeah?"

I nodded, and I held the teleport crystal over my head.

"Teleport:  Londinium."

The lava pit and floating walkways disappeared around me.  In their place came a stone road flanked by sidewalks and grassy fields.  It was a pleasant warmth, not the oppressive heat of the lava pit, and I closed my eyes for a moment just to feel the wind on my face.

"Rough fight today?"

My eyes snapped open, settling on a girl with short dark hair, blue armor, a lighter blue skirt, and boots up three-quarters of the way to her knees.

"It wasn't too bad.  A little rough at the end, that's all."

"Anything nice drop?"

I shook my head.

"You have terrible dice."

"It's fine.  I get by with what I have.  It'd be wrong to ask for more since there are some people..., well, you know."

She nodded, and she turned away from the teleport point.

"Let's go home."

Sachi started down the stone road, and I followed after her.



Sachi and I were the only survivors of Black Cats of the Full Moon.  A small guild of real life computer club members, Black Cats had aspirations on joining the ranks of the hardcore raiders.  I ran into them on Floor 11 while farming some mats well away from the front lines.  Even then, Black Cats was having some trouble.  They had an unbalanced party with only one forward, and tied to that forward's health, they could only beat a slow retreat when overwhelmed.  I offered to help them out, and they took me in as one of their own.

I was almost twenty levels higher than the rest of Black Cats, but I hid that from them.  I selfishly told myself I could be one of them, and as long as they didn't know I was a hardcore raider, that I was a beater, I could maintain that illusion.  I lent them the benefit of foreknowledge.  I'd seen all the dungeons and farming areas they might use, and I knew tricks to get the best Exp and col per hour.  Black Cats started leveling at a fast pace, but not all of them were happy about joining the front lines.  Sachi was never happy in battles.  The guild leader, Keita, had tried to convert her into a shield-using forward, but she didn't have the wherewithal to face down monsters one-on-one.  She ran away from the guild one night, just to be alone, but I tracked her down.  That's when she confided in me how frightened she was, how terrified she was of fighting, how she wished never to have left the Town of Beginnings.

I'd wanted to comfort Sachi then.  I wanted to tell her everything would be all right, that she would survive, but that would've been a terrible lie.  I'd already lied to her about who I was.  I couldn't—I wouldn't—lie to her about her prospects then.

"If you're afraid of fighting, you shouldn't fight."

That's what I told her then.  Someone who's terrified is a liability, to herself and to her party.

"But what about the others?  I can't abandon them; they're working so hard to reach the front lines."

There were lots of ways to contribute to progression.  Most hardcore raiders focused on combat-related skills.  In this game, with a limited number of skill slots that unlocked with level, that left little room for useful professions—for crafting or appraising items, for instance.  She could still be useful to the guild in a way that didn't put her in personal jeopardy.

It took some time, but Sachi converted herself into a merchant character.  She opened a stand in the Londinium market on Floor 25.  She made cloth and leather armor and brewed potions.  With the help of another merchant I know, she started making a decent amount of money for the guild, and we soon had the funds for our very own guild housing.  It was a Roman-style villa on the outskirts of Londinium, a bit far from the teleport plaza, but that way we could buy it cheaply and still have enough living space for the six of us.

The others would never live in that house.  While Sachi had gone to deliver the guild's funds for the purchase, we'd gone back into a dungeon to keep pushing toward the front lines.  Our mistake was opening a trapped treasure chest.  My mistake was not insisting strongly enough that we should leave it alone.  I'd known the traps were a higher level than anything we'd seen before, but I didn't tell them that.  They'd know I was a beater then, that I wasn't one of them.  I hoped and prayed I could defend them in case it was a trap and they needed help.

I was wrong.  All I could do was save myself.

The first time I saw the villa was when I came back from that massacre.  Sachi had given us all the coordinates to come back to, but I was the only one who came.  She'd opened the door, hoping to welcome us all.

"Kirito?  Why are you—where are the others?"

My throat closed up.  I couldn't speak; I couldn't breathe.  I couldn't even look at her, but I saw the tears well up in her eyes anyway.  She lost her balance and fell against the doorframe.  I tried to catch her; we only ended up catching each other.

I told her the truth that day:  that I was a hated and despised beater, that I outleveled them all, and that was why I survived.  I'd thought for sure she would hate me, that she would despise me, but Sachi did nothing of the kind.

"You may have made a mistake, but you were looking out for us.  You watched over and protected all of us.  If not for you, we could've died in that dungeon you found us in months ago.  You gave us a chance.  Don't blame yourself."

That was too kind of her, really, but I needed that kindness from her.  I needed it as I shed every tear my eyes could muster.

"Don't blame yourself.  If anything, I should've been there.  I should've been there...."

If Sachi had been there, she'd have died, too.  She wasn't the one who deserved blame.  But, grief isn't a logical thing.  I've learned that well.  All we can do is keep going, no matter what is behind us, because the future is always ahead.

What was ahead of Sachi and me was the house we shared, the official home of Black Cats of the Full Moon, all two of us.  As I said, it was built in the style of an ancient Roman villa.  The first thing you'd notice was the hole in the roof over a square pool.  Apparently it was meant to collect rainwater for safe drinking.  In this day and age, it only contributed to a slight draft.  For summer, though, that wasn't so bad.

Further in, there was an interior courtyard, lined with white columns.  Most of the rooms around the courtyard opened to the outside, with just a little shade from an overhanging roof.  The Romans, I'd learned, quite liked their scenery.  The courtyard was well suited for the inhabitants of five rooms to enjoy even just through their windows at night.

A pity there were only two of us left, then.

From time to time, I'd thought the house was too big and cavernous to enjoy.  It must've been like what parents feel when their children move away and go to university or find jobs elsewhere.  Sachi and I had never had the pleasure of the rest of the guild in that house, but it still felt too large.  It had too much room, enough to be haunted with their spirits.

"It'd be hard to find another place in town, though.  And as long am I'm working in Londinium, it's good to be on this floor.  Besides, I think the others would want us to use this house.  This was something we all had a part of, and I don't want to be away from them."

And so, Black Cats' villa had become our home.

It was still rather early that afternoon—the raid had been planned to go at least two more hours if need be—but Sachi and I agreed it was a good time for dinner.  The market was rather slow on Sundays, and I was more than ready to relax for the rest of the day.  Exploring Floor 35 would make for a long, intense day come morning.

Neither of us really cared for Cooking skill in this game, so dinner was really a set of unprepared foods.  SAO was a lot of things, but it would seldom kill you from starvation.  Lots of foods were more or less ready to eat, and Cooking was more of a luxury—an enjoyable luxury, but a luxury nonetheless.  That day, we dined on skewers of hog meat and carrots.  The meat was, to be honest, a little thin and unfulfilling.  We might've done better feeding the carrots to the pigs before butchering them.

Our dining room wasn't particularly comfortable, either.  Apparently the Romans liked to lie on their sides while eating, so instead of a low, Japanese-style table or even a Western-style set with chairs, all we had was a set of three low couches and no table whatsoever.  We made do with a few wooden trays and sitting upright, but it was still an off-putting experience.

"So, tell me about this boss today."

That was Sachi, at my left.  We sat on the same couch usually, leaving the other two reserved.

"It was kind of a council-type boss.  A little unusual in that it couldn't actually move; you just had to tank it from three different sides.  Nothing too weird.  I'd call it a simple test of tank execution and a DPS check.  I liked the soft enrage mechanic, though."

"What was that?"

I scoffed a bit.

"You're awfully interested in the raids all of a sudden."

When Sachi was unhappy about something, she could make a whiny, petulant expression.

"It's boring in the market some days.  Can't you give a girl a little excitement once in a while?"

"It's not any less tedious in the raids, either.  Like today, there was a lot of emphasis on tank execution, but the DPS just had to follow the boss and not run off the walkways into the lava.  If you already know how to execute a good rotation, there really wasn't much to learn."

"But what about this soft enrage?"

"Ah, that was about the walkways.  Hecate would try to destroy the walkways when she teleported, and if you left her alone, she would collapse them and gain a stacking damage buff.  Each time she succeeded, it would make it more and more difficult to get to her, and the tanks wouldn't be able to tank her as long without having to switch, which is what made her teleport in the first place.  It was a simple concept fight, but you had to be really careful about figuring out all those little details to make it work."

"You make it all sound so simple."

"It got a little tense.  Hecate was an angry woman with a whip whom I'd just as soon never see again.  Knowing this game, I'm probably not so lucky."

I put down an empty plate and looked across the couch, back at Sachi.

"What about you?  There had to be something interesting that happened at the market today."

She pursed her lips.

"I don't know about interesting so much as weird.  I had a customer come by looking to make a stack of paralysis potions."

"Paralysis potions?  I don't know anyone who uses those except for red players."

"That's what I thought, too!  So I was real concerned about it.  A couple of the other merchants took an interest, also, but the man explained he was a beast tamer, and he was hoping to paralyze some birds to tame a lizard they were hunting.  He wanted to use paralysis because he believed if he indiscriminately killed the birds, he might kill a lizard by mistake, and then none of them would approach him to be tamed."

"Stands to reason, I guess."

"But he was kind of bad at math.  He didn't realize he had mats only for 19 potions instead of 20.  When I told him that, he wanted to cancel the transaction completely, saying he had to go back and farm one more herb so it would be an even 20."

"What?  You're joking."

"I'm not!  It was the strangest thing I'd ever seen.  I'm not sure if I want him to come back."

I shrugged at that.

"People are superstitious, especially in games.  I knew someone who was convinced that crossing his eyes and singing would get him better rolls on loot."

Sachi giggled.

"Ducker was the same way!  We used to play Day of Saggittarius VIII, and he liked the most RNG attacks you could imagine.  He thoroughly believed he was lucky, but only as long as he had this plastic, glow-in-the-dark ring on his finger."

"Where on earth did he get that?"

"He said a girl gave it to him when he was seven.  They were playing in an arcade, and when he put that on his finger, he got the high score on some shooting game, so he held on to it ever since."

"I think he missed the point there."

"He usually did.  There was a girl who would come by the club room from time to time, looking for help with her laptop, and she always asked for Ducker.  He never got the hint."

Sachi smiled during this reminiscence, but her gaze went to one of the empty couches opposite us, and she soon went quiet.  It was like this a lot, ever since we'd moved into this place.  Sometimes, the others would come up in conversation.  At first, it was awkward, almost taboo, but after abruptly changing the subject a few times, I think we both got tired of avoiding it.  It happened.  It was reality.  Not talking about them wouldn't change the fact that they were dead.

"Well, if that man comes back, I guess I'll have something interesting to talk about tomorrow."

"You're doing good work.  Didn't you have some KoB people buy some potions the other day?"

She nodded, but after that it was quiet again.

We spent the next couple hours tending to the house.  There was a garden on the back side of the house that we used for her farming.  That way, Sachi could sell some potions on her own, without needing mats from customers.  Still, even that chore didn't take long, and we retired early.  Since most of the outside areas were dangerous at night, days in SAO tended to start early.  Ironically, since most dungeons had their own lighting, they could be explored and farmed at any time of day or night.  The player did that at his own risk, however, against his sense of fatigue.

There were six bedrooms in the villa, one for each member of the guild, but Sachi and I only used one.  It was technically my room.  Sachi kept a chest of belongings outside her personal inventory in the adjacent bedroom.  The nights in that villa were deathly silent, and even sleeping in adjacent rooms, it was uncomfortable for us.  Sachi was the one who suggested it—that we sleep in the same room, at least—and I'd agreed.  Neither of us wanted to force the other to sleep in a cot or futon, though—and SAO had very limited options for either—and so, we began sleeping in the same bed, too.

Let me be clear:  the relationship between Sachi and me wasn't what I'd call romantic.  There were no blown kisses or awkward giggling.  There wasn't a momentous confession scene involving heartfelt notes tucked into each other's shoes.  Given that our boots were stored in inventory at night, such a thing would've been thoroughly impossible.

That's not to say Sachi was an unattractive girl.  I don't know if Sachi ever had such thoughts, but for my part, it was hard enough to feel I deserved even just a little companionship.  Anything more would be asking for too much.  We were just a couple of broken-hearted people, trying to survive in that deadly world.  That's why we needed each other.  That's why she'd given me more than enough already.

Besides, SAO had strict controls against unwanted touching.  Anything more than minor, incidental contact could be flagged by the system, and the offended player could receive a prompt to follow through with disciplinary action.  I'm told this has ruined more than one spontaneous moment of passion between people, but I had no personal knowledge that this was the case.

But, there were times I felt tempted.  As Sachi lay beside me that night, I looked across the bed at her sleeping face.  It was tense, I thought, and perhaps a bit stressed.  There was a furrowing of her brow that looked the opposite of relaxed, the opposite of the way a sleeping person should be.  I had to wonder:  did Kayaba really go to the trouble to model how a sleeping person's face should look, based on how they felt, on what dreams came to them?

I couldn't know, but I reached across the space between Sachi and me anyway.  I brushed some hair from her eyes, tucking it behind her ear.

"YAH!"

And she sat straight upright, eyes wide.  She panted and heaved, and she stared curling up into a ball.

"What is it?  What happened?"

She whimpered a bit, burying her head between her chest and her knees.  I slid over, holding her lightly, and asked a different question.

"Who was it today?"

She wiped her cheek with her hand and spoke haltingly.

"It was...Tetsuo.  He always used to smile, remember?"

I remembered.  He was one of the most cheerful forwards I'd met in the game.  Most were aggressive and moody to a fault, but Tetsuo used to swing his mace at enemies with an apologetic look of gratitude, as if to say, "I'm sorry, but I do need to kill you for money and experience, so please take this mace to your skull with my sincerest apologies."  He was a good guy.  He deserved better.

I rubbed Sachi's back, trying to calm her down.  I didn't say anything.  If she wanted to talk about it more, she would.  She did.

"I was watching through a doorway, and he was surrounded by dwarves.  He kept swinging at them, fending them off, but every time he did, he looked the doorway—at me—and said something like,

" 'Sachi?  You're coming to help me, aren't you?'

"And all the while he had that pleasant smile on his face, like he believed I'd come to help him, absolutely.  But I just stood there.  My feet wouldn't move.  Even as the dwarves hacked and picked at his body, he kept smiling at me!"

I pulled her closer, trying to damp the trembling in her body.

"It's all right.  It's over.  You're safe now.  You're with me."

She sniffled and nodded at that, but she turned her head away from me and stared at the wall.

"Still, I should've been there, too."



The next morning, I found out the hardcore guilds had already set up camp at the town on Floor 35.

Mishe, as it was called, was a German-sytle village with a medieval feel.  Some of the NPCs like to boast about the timber frames two-tone exteriors, patterned in brown and white.  A series of walls with walkways and arches ran through the town, culminating in a stone fort that must've cost a small fortune to use as guild housing.  The cobblestone streets gave the city a sophisticated and historic feel.  There was even a two-story inn that advertised its cheesecake.

It was a quaint and comforting village, but whatever it felt like, a lot of towns like these would be used and discarded almost immediately.  Londinium was an exception; it was twice the size of any other town, and after spending weeks and weeks struggling on Floor 25, a lot of the hardcore raiders had made permanent homes there.  But Mishe, though an interesting change of pace, wasn't like Londinium.  Its use (or disuse) would be decided by the strength of the bosses that blocked our way.

But it would be at least a few days until anyone ventured into the Labyrinth on this floor.  At least as important to progression was the acquisition of resources and the ability to level in a safe environment.  The open areas and side dungeons on Floor 35 had to be assessed and explorered to determine their worth.  Most of this information would be circulated between the hardcore guilds, but only over the course of several days.  Since I was a solo player, I could do it by myself—and do it faster.  Selling such information for a fair price was, in part, not a bad way to make a living, either.

I discovered that most of the outlying areas were part of the "Forest of Wandering."  With paths dividing the Forest into blocks, failure to traverse a single block inside of a fixed time limit would result in random teleportation to another location in the Forest.  Further, teleportation crystals would only relocate the player somewhere else in the Forest, so unnatural escape was impossible.  A few hardcore raiders spread the word about a map that could be bought from a vendor in town, which would show which parts of the Forest were linked to each other.  In this way, the Forest could be navigated more quickly, if a particular destination were desired, by letting the Forest teleport you.  Some of the hardcore raiders felt that the giant fir tree on the far end of the zone must've been important for some quest or event, but no one had any idea what that could be.

Due to the time limit, the Forest was a particularly bad spot for farming in a controlled manner, but the mobs within gave quite a bit more EXP than expected for their level.  Giant "Drunk Apes" liked to roam the Forest in groups.  They were particularly nasty mobs to run into, though, and after a bad experience with one pack, I decided it was better to engage other packs and stall until just before the teleport timer went off.  Then, I would run for the next area while the mobs within the last were spirited away.

Other denizens of the Forst were giant bees.  Their nests were formed of honeycombs in the ground, and if you approached them from within three blocks on the map, they would come out and attack in a swarm.  While some of the hardcore raiders were still exploring, they could fight back in numbers and keep the bees at bay, but more likely, when the front lines moved on, this area would have to be farmed by dedicated groups.  Beeswax was a valuable commodity, despite the danger of fighting bees and dealing with their poison debuffs.  Sachi would find a little wax useful for making Wax-coated Thread, a critical ingredient in cutting-edge Tailoring recipes.

But at that point, I was starting to wonder: if I messaged Sachi about that, would she be excited?  Or would she say, "That's really nice, isn't it," and go back about her business?

Something wasn't right with Sachi.  To that point, I hadn't paid a lot of attention her nightmares.  Why?  Because I had nightmares, too.  You would have to be a monster not to have nightmares, not to be affected, by what happened to the rest of your own guild.

But it was to the point where I didn't even need to ask her what it was about.  I knew.

Sachi had stopped thinking hard about her work at the market, either.  That incident with the paralysis potion man was something far from her mind until she took a moment to remember it.  She asked a lot of questions about the raid, and to a great level of detail that that.

She must've wanted to feel connected to something.  That had to be it.  Ever since the rest of the guild had died, we'd lived together, but the cloud of the others' deaths had hung over us, casting a shadow.  I felt it all the time.  I felt it when Schmitt was so selfish and cowardly—the way I had been then, when I didn't speak up loud enough, when I didn't out myself as a beater, and the rest of the guild died for it.

But Sachi felt it differently.  They were all her friends.  They were her friends more than mine, honestly.  She knew them longer.  She knew them in real life.  They'd seen each other day in and day out for months, maybe years.

I'd told myself I didn't deserve more than what I had, but maybe Sachi wanted that, and I was the one pushing her away.

While the some of the hardcore players amassed to get a look at the field boss (I'm told it was a 20-meter-tall ant that breathed flammable acid), I took the teleport gate back to Londinium.  Though the teleport plaza there was far from our home, it was only a short walk to the market:  a collection of exhibition halls and covered walkways, where anyone could shop even in rain or snow without getting wet.  In the summer, the market NPCs kept the windows open for ventillation, and it was needed.  Seasons in SAO were mild compared to the real world, but you could still build up a sweat inside one of the market's halls in August.  That day was no exception.

In fact, it was as I wiped a bead of sweat from my brow that one of the merchants called to me.

"I think you've taken a wrong turn.  Shouldn't you be on Floor 35?"

That bald-headed man with a huge grin was Agil.  His stand was small, but Agil would say that was because he didn't need a lot of space to do his work.  Smiths needed a furnace and anvil at bare minimum, but Agil's specialization in Weapon and Armor Appraisal meant all he needed was a piece of inventory in front of him to do his work.  SAO was a remarkably opaque game; it wouldn't even tell you what the stats were on an item that dropped, and only someone with Appraisal skills could do the job.  Agil's skill level and presence in the progression group meant that he was a preferred contractor for this service.

But just because he was valued in the hardcore raider community didn't mean I had to put up with his jabs—not without giving back in kind.

"Shouldn't you be up there, too?  Or do you like hanging out ten floors behind?"

"Most of my clientele lives here.  There's a theory going around that every 25 floors is a particularly hard boss and a particularly large city, though.  Maybe I'll move when we get up to 50 or so."

He looked to his left where a smith had crowded the space next to Agil with an extensive collection of knives.

"I don't need a lot of room to work, but it'd be nice to have some space to myself."

"Not too much.  You don't want to live in a cavern.  Take it from me."

Agil nodded at that.

"How's Sachi doing?"

"She's all right, I think.  Haven't you seen her today?"

"A little bit in the morning, but...."

He pointed across and down the row of stands.  At Sachi's alchemy and tailoring stand, there was only a folded up card on display:

Back at 13:00.

"She's gone to lunch?"

Agil shook his head at that.

"I don't think so.  Most of us eat at our stands; we can't afford to lose the business.  Sachi used to do the same, until a couple weeks ago."

"A couple weeks?"

"She always comes back at one o'clock sharp.  Relax.  Klein told me you've been a little touchy lately."

"What do you mean?  Is this about that tank from DDA?"

"A little of that, yeah.  Not to say you didn't have good reason to ream him out, but as a solo player, you have to be careful.  A lot of the established guilds would rather do everything with their own members, or members from guilds who participate in common information sharing.  I hear it all the time from high-up guild officers in other guilds how solo players who hoard information and items for themselves are a thorn in the hardcore guilds' sides, and they'd just as soon as not deal with someone like you.  Humiliating a top tank and putting a raid in jeopardy gives them ammunition."

"I've been hated for worse things by better people.  I'll manage."

"I know you will.  Next time you need someone to watch your back, give me a call, all right?"

"Will do, Agil.  Will do."

I glanced back again at Sachi's stand.

"Well, I guess I should go track her down.  I wanted to take her out to lunch; as it is, I may only have enough time to tell her about the beeswax on Floor 35.  She'll need to know about that for thread."

Agil frowned at that, and I knew right away something was wrong.

"What?  What's with that look?"

"Kirito, Sachi gave up Tailoring."

"You're joking.  Did she drop Alchemy too?"

"No, she still makes potions for people.  But she specifically told me she was dropping Tailoring for now, until she had the skill slots open to pick it back up again."

"Skill slots don't open up spontaneously.  You only get new ones as you level."

"You know that, and I know that.  Sachi knows that, too."

So that's how it was.  Sachi had said it often:  that she felt she should've been there.  In reality, it never would've made a difference.  I would've tried to protect her to the end, but that chest trap triggered too many dwarf guardians and defenders.  More likely than not, she would've died there, and I never would've been able to do a thing about it.

But just becase that was the truth didn't mean Sachi had to believe it.  It didn't mean she would feel totally comfortable with the life she'd chosen to lead.  I'd thought this was just about feeling connected; it was much more than that.

My suspicions led me to track Sachi down through my friends list.  Sachi was still on this floor, but at the outskirts of the city, where the wilderness began.  That in itself was dangerous:  Floor 25 had had a lot of traps when we first arrived.  It gave the hardcore raiders hell trying to just get to town.  Most of the nearby areas had been thoroughly cleared; as long as she stayed close to down, there shouldn't have been too much danger.  That said, Londinium, like its historical counterpart, sat on the banks of a river, and Sachi's coordinates were just upstream.  Rivers were dangerous.  Water greatly reduced player mobility, and it made dodges and other acrobatics ineffective.  A pack of mobs you could easily defeat on land might kill you just as quickly in the water.

Sure enough, to my horror, I found Sachi wading ankle-deep in the river.  Her boots wouldn't take durability damage just from that, thankfully, but she was entirely at the mercy of whatever came after her.  Sachi had stopped trying to level on Floor 18.  The mobs on Floor 25 were all at least 10 levels higher.  Having neglected her combat skills for so long, she wouldn't have a chance!

"Sachi!"

She jerked in surprise, and only then did I see what she was wielding:  a one-handed sword and a bronze shield.  That was better for staying alive in one-on-one combat, but it would prolong battles and make her susceptible to getting ganged up on and zerged by a pack she couldn't hope to kill.

And what was worse, something was coming:  a fin stuck out of the water.  The veins within ran red and shimmered.

I ran from the path to the river's bank, and I offered my hand.

"Put your weapons away; get out of the water, before that mob gets here!"

But Sachi shook her head, and she waded deeper into the water, up to her knees.

I had no choice but to go after her.  This was exactly what I wanted her to avoid.  This was the kind of combat she should've been afraid of.

But the mob had closed too fast.  It reared its head out of the water, revealing the sharp, man-piercing teeth of a giant Brown Trout.  Sachi crouched down, into a fighting stance.

"Be ready to switch."

"You want to do what?"

The Brown Trout wiggled its tail and lunged at Sachi, but she thrust her shield at the mob at batted it aside.  Then, with her sword, she made a pair of diagonal slashes—the characteristic V-shape of a Vertical Arc.

"KEE!"

The fish squealed, and its HP dropped by about a quarter.

By a quarter?!  Sachi had done that, with a one-handed sword, in one attack?

The Brown Trout charged again, and this time, Sachi didn't even bother to block it.  She made an upward, diagonal slash from her forehand.  Then, she turned her wrist over and followed with a horizontal, backhanded cut.  Finally, another turn of the wrist led to a forehand slice, this time with a downward angle.  It was a correct, if stilted, Sharp Nail combo attack.  To make it fluid in combat, she'd have to make those cuts and turns with her wrist into a continuous motion, but for the moment, it did the job.  The Brown Trout dropped to 40%.

"Now, switch!"

That wasn't easily done in water, but I charged ahead anyway.  There was no need to be fancy.  For mobs of this level, a simple Horizontal slash would do.

"KEE...!"

The Brown Trout disintegrated in a shower of light, and for both Sachi and me, a results window came up with a report of accomulated Exp, col, and items.

"Can you believe it?  Only 50 col for that thing?  How cheap."

My jaw about dropped on the floor at that, but Sachi turned her sword over, admiring her reflection in its sheen.

"So, Kirito, how was your morning?"

Chapter 2: Iskandariya

[Jason_Miao]

Spoiler: ShowHide

The translated novels are no longer up, and the laptop where I downloaded my copies when they were still around is being repaired, so I'm going off of memory here...

> If a mob slashed at your chest, the throbbing wounds would stay with you for hours, long after the HP damage had healed.

Pain was disabled in the novels, so no throbbing ought to occur at all.

> After all, where else would you have the experience of facing an angry woman with an iron whip?

My first thought was to wonder if Kirito really wanted an answer to that.

> In that sense, I think pretty highly of SAO's encounter design.  Kayaba Akihiko clearly understood the challenges of putting together bosses that are difficult at first blush, that require sophisticated strategies, and yet are still "easy" enough that most of them can be defeated with no deaths.

Wasn't designing and maintaining that balance the purpose of the Cardinal system?

I could be wrong, though.  Evidently, there's a bit more detail of said system in one of the later Alicization(sp?) novels, but again, I don't have access to my translated copies.

>Intro/Black Cats discussion

The early part about the "hardcore guilds" and "any of us" supports that Kirito isn't the #1 SAO player in this fic.  But if so, the guilt over the trapped chest seems misplaced.  If he's not overpowered compared to SAO as a whole, there's no real reason to hide his levels. He's not a 'beater' because he didn't use his advanced knowledge to 'cheat'.

And if Sachi wasn't performing raids anyway, then what stops Kirito from just soloing high level areas like he used to?  Why is he engaged in group raids?  Agil's discussion later implies that he is still primarily a solo player.  Sure...but then why is Kirito raiding with lower level characters (IIRC Klein was part of a friends guild, not a clearing guild) if he's still a solo player?  If he's joining anyone at all in such an organized manner, it was for Floor Bosses.


The upshot of it all is that the writing is good, but the situation of what's different and what's the same from the novel isn't wasn't quite clear to me, other than that Sachi's decision to be a merchant saved her life.

[Arakawa]

but the situation of what's different and what's the same from the novel isn't wasn't quite clear to me

Yeah, this seems to be an odd aspect of the fic. I say 'odd,' because I suppose it gives a better impression if you just assume nothing from SAO carries over, and treat it like a completely standalone fic? But even that is a bit problematic, because it references the basic premise of SAO without explaining it. The fact that tons of things differ is unsurprising, given your comment along the lines "I thought I could do this better."

The standalone-fic experience could be remedied literally by an additional small paragraph or two of explanation if added in the right place. (And perhaps similar attention to the issue in further chapters.)

I read through the chapter, and it seemed perfectly comprehensible to me (aside from all the jargon like 'tank' and 'debuff' which goes way over my head as I have zero MMO experience...), but that's because I seem to have known the coincidentally magical right amount of info about SAO (i.e. "It's a story about a virtual reality MMORPG designed by a madman who locks all the players into the game and forces them to beat all the levels before they can leave. If they die in the MMORPG, their game console/VR-suit-helmet thingies kill them in real life." and absolutely nothing else besides that basic premise.)

From that point of view, it seems a solid introductory chapter. It sets up a bit of a mystery with what Sachi has been up to (and I could understand that it's a mystery), so that carries my interest forward into where this is going to go....

[Muphrid]

I can send you translations if you like, Jason; I managed to hunt around and snag 1-12.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Pain was disabled in the novels, so no throbbing ought to occur at all.

You're right; even when Kuradeel stabs Kirito, he describes it as merely weird and not painful per se.  Will revise.

Wasn't designing and maintaining that balance the purpose of the Cardinal system?

Hm, will have to research this more thoroughly.  I know Cardinal can be involved in automatic quest generation.  It doesn't seem implausible for Cardinal to be involved in tweaking bosses.  Certainly having Cardinal involved in this process would make sense, though how much Kirito should know about it might be a tougher question to answer.

The early part about the "hardcore guilds" and "any of us" supports that Kirito isn't the #1 SAO player in this fic.  But if so, the guilt over the trapped chest seems misplaced.  If he's not overpowered compared to SAO as a whole, there's no real reason to hide his levels. He's not a 'beater' because he didn't use his advanced knowledge to 'cheat'.

And if Sachi wasn't performing raids anyway, then what stops Kirito from just soloing high level areas like he used to?  Why is he engaged in group raids?  Agil's discussion later implies that he is still primarily a solo player.  Sure...but then why is Kirito raiding with lower level characters (IIRC Klein was part of a friends guild, not a clearing guild) if he's still a solo player?  If he's joining anyone at all in such an organized manner, it was for Floor Bosses.


The upshot of it all is that the writing is good, but the situation of what's different and what's the same from the novel isn't wasn't quite clear to me, other than that Sachi's decision to be a merchant saved her life.

I didn't intend for there to be any divergence up until the point where Kirito convinces Sachi to abandon leveling.  Perhaps that should be made more clear.  With that in mind, though, I felt that Kirito felt guilty in canon, therefore he should feel guilty (but perhaps not quite as much) here.  I never felt Kirito's guilt was enitrely reasonable in canon, but it seems like it was a big point for him.

I based Kirito's involvement in this raid on a couple things. In the anime, he takes part in a strategy meeting and disagrees with Asuna on a point of tactics prior to the Murder Case in the Area episodes.  While this isn't in the novels per se, Kawahara did write a manga-format story on it.  Second, Asuna mentions that she was looking for Kirito about a raid:

Asuna looked back at me and pouted her lips in discontent. "Hey, what's this? After all the trouble I went through to see if you were alive for the boss fight that's going to take place soon."

Additionally, when Kirito first meets Heathcliff, they have this exchange:

"Is this the first time I've met you outside of a boss fight, Kirito?"

"No...we had talked for a while during the sixty-seventh floor strategy meeting."

This all implies to me that Kirito is regularly a part of the raiding scene, though perhaps not important enough for Heathcliff to remember or recognize.

Given these comments and Arakawa's, it seems clear to me that a more definitive statement of what is the same and what is divergent from canon may be necessary.  As Arakawa says, I'd prefer that all of this be done in-line--with minimal use of notes--but obviously it's difficult for Kirito to comment on what's different compared to a timeline he doesn't experience.  Maybe it would all be clear enough in a summary:  "Rather than encourage Sachi to fight on her own terms, Kirito convinces her to step back from leveling for her own safety instead.  Now, after the rest of Black Cats are gone, Sachi's growing dissatisfaction with the life of a merchant drives her to pick up a shield and sword once again."

That's a crappy summary, but maybe it gets the point across?

Perhaps I could cut down on jargon in narration also, save for some common terms that can't avoid discussion.

[Arakawa]

Perhaps I could cut down on jargon in narration also, save for some common terms that can't avoid discussion.

As the one who raised the jargon issue, I have to say the MMORPG terminology wasn't really a point of detraction, but something that one would expect if you pick up a story that takes place in the MMORPG. It's fine as long as someone like me can get the gist of it (e.g. the boss consists of three people, and each of the instances they have to send a group of people to gang up on, and they retreat periodically to recover... then the dilemma he faces between retreating for another cycle vs. ordering them to finish killing it in one go is fairly clear and thoroughly explained).

[Jason_Miao]

I can send you translations if you like, Jason; I managed to hunt around and snag 1-12.

Nah.  I have them on my laptop, which should hopefully not take too long to repair, and would mainly have used them to verify minor details (e.g pain) anyway.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Wasn't designing and maintaining that balance the purpose of the Cardinal system?

Hm, will have to research this more thoroughly.  I know Cardinal can be involved in automatic quest generation.  It doesn't seem implausible for Cardinal to be involved in tweaking bosses.  Certainly having Cardinal involved in this process would make sense, though how much Kirito should know about it might be a tougher question to answer.

I recall some mention that someone didn't know whether to curse or be thankful for Cardinal, since the game wouldn't be a cakewalk but wouldn't be unreasonably impossible.

However, I don't remember that being in book 1 itself.  It may be in the book 1 continuity (probably in the ALF book), or it may be in the continuity where they are following through from the early levels and why Kirito decides to be a loner (the details of when he first meets Asuna slight differ from Asuna's account in book 1, so I'm mentally considering it a different continuity).

And honestly, it's not really all that important.  I try to be a perfectionist about little details like this when writing, so unless Cardinal or trying to second-guess encounter design ends up being a major part of your fic, you probably don't need to worry about it as much unless you have the same tendencies as I do.

I didn't intend for there to be any divergence up until the point where Kirito convinces Sachi to abandon leveling. 

I got that.  What I didn't get is how what Kirito is doing "today" as a result of the divergence.

<snip>
This all implies to me that Kirito is regularly a part of the raiding scene, though perhaps not important enough for Heathcliff to remember or recognize.

Manga aside (haven't seen it) and anime aside (also haven't seen it), the comments about him joining up with others made me think that he deals with "important" raids.  This is somewhat backed up by the stories in the later books where he'll adventure with people if there's an important end-goal (even if the important end-goal is only important to the other person).  e.g, Pina isn't important to anyone but Silica, but Kirito adventures with her until the resurrection.  After that, they split.  My impression (and I could be wrong) of the 67th floor discussion was that it was concerning the floor boss, which is obviously important because it is required to escape.  Even the details of the Black Cat story only happened when he was trying to mug Santa - a once-in-a-year opportunity.

Rather than encourage Sachi to fight on her own terms, Kirito convinces her to step back from leveling for her own safety instead.  Now, after the rest of Black Cats are gone, Sachi's growing dissatisfaction with the life of a merchant drives her to pick up a shield and sword once again."

Again, I understood this much.  It's Kirito's current status (Beater?  Retired beta player?  Does he adventure with Klein often?) that I found to be confusing.

Perhaps I could cut down on jargon in narration also, save for some common terms that can't avoid discussion.

IIRC in the books, Kirito usually gives a brief explanation to someone else.  Since Kirito is monolouging, you might have him remark to himself what he'd expected.  e.g, "tank" : 'Schmitt's panic attacks made me wonder why he chose to play a tank in the first place.  If he was so scared about losing health, why not play a support role instead?  But there wasn't enough time to think it though while a fight was in progress.'

As long as the reader understands the basics of what is needed to keep the action moving at the time he's reading the scene (Schmitt's job is to get hit, and he won't do his job), you're probably okay.

[Muphrid]

Well, I intended this boss fight to be the Floor 34 main boss fight--as you say, Jason, something essential toward clearing the game and escaping.  The raid consists of representatives from several hardcore guilds--Klein's guild being among them because the impression I got was that they were a hardcore raiding guild, not just a casual friends-only guild (though they may still be rather restrictive in that respect).  To quote:

They said that all the members of «Fuurinkazan» had known each other even before SAO had started. Klein had protected and guided all of them, without losing even a single member, until each of them had become a capable player of the front lines.

Admittedly, given that Klein's guild raids on the "front lines," I found it pretty unlikely that he wouldn't know Asuna at all, but that's not really relevant at this point in time.

So, with all that in mind, what I intended was that Kirito's a part of a full raid to clear the boss that blocks the way to Floor 35. I felt this was a fairly representative activity for him, at least prior to his joining Black Cats.  I had indications that Klein and his guild were also involved in this activity; therefore, I concluded that having them both be part of this raid should not be suggestive of a divergence--at least, not one more significant than Sachi's survival.

If given those facts it still seems puzzling, then I can consider adding some more narrative to explain the circumstances.  Ideally, this passage should not raise anyone's suspicion that something is out of the ordinary.  It should feel like a typical day, something representative of what Kirito might be involved in on a daily basis.  That's the target, but I can understand that, simply by having filled in a lot of blanks with respect to how the hardcore raiders go about clearing Aincrad, it may seem unusual.

While this is the first scene, it's not my intention to depict Kirito as being present for every single new boss kill; he is not that tightly integrated.  Perhaps one way to emphasize this is to adjust the description of the Maiden boss; Kirito explicitly says that shield tanks are somewhat ineffective against her.  Someone like Kirito, who doesn't play with a shield but is still capable of engaging an enemy defensively as a forward, could be sought out specifically for a situation like this.  So perhaps I should say that Kirito was planning on having a leisurely day, but someone in the hardcore raiding scene caught up with him and convinced him he was needed for this somewhat-unusual boss fight.  Maybe that would be the best compromise to try to keep from giving a misleading impression about the level of Kirito's involvement.

[Jason_Miao]

Bleh.  Not sure why they felt the need to reimage my drive based on a power issue.  I may need those copies from you after all.

To quote:

They said that all the members of «Fuurinkazan» had known each other even before SAO had started. Klein had protected and guided all of them, without losing even a single member, until each of them had become a capable player of the front lines.

Okay.  Makes sense.

So, with all that in mind, what I intended was that Kirito's a part of a full raid to clear the boss that blocks the way to Floor 35.

...

Ideally, this passage should not raise anyone's suspicion that something is out of the ordinary.  It should feel like a typical day, something representative of what Kirito might be involved in on a daily basis. 

That may be part of my feeling of dissonance.  My impression was that Floor Bosses were considered major hurdles.  If you're trying to give a "day in the life of AU Kirito" feel, it's not something that would happens every day.

The other misleading aspect is that Kirito seemed to know the characteristics of the Sisters boss pretty well, whereas my impression of the Floor Bosses is that while they were scouted to the best of the trapped players' ability, they generally had surprises up their sleeves.   The surprise in this case was a panicky character, and not something particular to the boss itself, so I'd assumed that they were just farming a powerful miniboss for some useful item or other.



Before I forget, other idle thought is that you've packed quite a bit into one chapter, event-wise.  By contrast, the original chapter 1 had Kirito go hunting for rabbit, and then looking for a chef.  You may want to consider whether you've set your pacing too fast.

I'm not saying that it is too fast; SAO was a book, and a fanfic may not need to be as long or establish the setting as throughly as the book.  But something to consider as you're writing.

[Muphrid]

Perhaps daily is a bit of an overstatement.  Just doing some quick napkin math, SAO lasts 732 days and they kill 75 floor bosses, so that's under 10 days per boss, even including the 2 months or so it takes to kill the first floor boss.  Not sure how to get across that kind of frequency of doing things.  I don't imagine Kirito being involved in every boss kill, either.  Something like every other boss, so like once or twice a month?  I dunno.

The other misleading aspect is that Kirito seemed to know the characteristics of the Sisters boss pretty well, whereas my impression of the Floor Bosses is that while they were scouted to the best of the trapped players' ability, they generally had surprises up their sleeves.   The surprise in this case was a panicky character, and not something particular to the boss itself, so I'd assumed that they were just farming a powerful miniboss for some useful item or other.

So you think the enrage effect I described near the end of the fight wasn't enough of a surprise?  Granted, they couldn't really do anything about it other than keep going or abandon the attempt, so maybe that point didn't make enough of an impression.

Before I forget, other idle thought is that you've packed quite a bit into one chapter, event-wise.  By contrast, the original chapter 1 had Kirito go hunting for rabbit, and then looking for a chef.  You may want to consider whether you've set your pacing too fast.

I'm not saying that it is too fast; SAO was a book, and a fanfic may not need to be as long or establish the setting as throughly as the book.  But something to consider as you're writing.

Hm. Right now I have somewhere around 55k words of this fic written. I'm expecting it to end up around 80k or so, and I think that should be roughly comparable to the length of the first novel (which comes in around 70-75k).

It could be structurally I've made things nevertheless rather dense event-wise (so length is no real counter to that).  For the sake of investigation, this chapter is about 9000 words; chapters 13-16 of Aincrad Part 1 are about 11-12k.  That covers Kirito's duel with Heathcliff, the subsequent scene with him telling Asuna about his past with Black Cats, the whole tryout run with Kuradeel and Godfrey, and the follow up scenes as Asuna takes Kirito home after that affair.

Now, I won't pretend this kind of event density was entirely planned so much as it just worked out that way.  Perhaps it would be more appropriate for later on in the story, when things are already humming?  After all, I just compared the beginning of this story to the middle of SAO vol. 1, so they're not entirely similar circumstances.


Thanks for your continued thoughts on this, though.  I'm planning on finishing adjustments to chapter 2 and posting it sometime next week.  By the by, I investigated your thoughts on the lack of pain sensation also.  As far as I could tell, Kirito definitely doesn't feel pain when Kuradeel poisons him with paralytic toxin, but I could find no other references to how pain works in Aincrad.  Of course, there's the infamous scene in Fairy Dance where Kirito sets ALO's pain absorption to 0 to torment Sugou.  Given that, I do wonder if Kirito felt no pain because he was paralyzed, or if SAO and ALO worked differently in this respect.  I'm not sure how best to present this in the story, then; it seems this matter will have to be resolved one way or the other, though.

(Fun fact: I actually wrote another battle scene with your thoughts in mind, having neither combatant feel pain, until I investigated further, so with contradictory scenes, I'll have to rewrite something at some point either way.)


Anyway, thanks again, and if you like, I can send you those pdfs; if that's the case, let me know privately and we can discuss the best medium to do so.

[Muphrid]

Chapter 2: Iskandariya
Aincrad Floor 37 - September 17, 2023

[spoiler]
The designers in MMOs aren't really that imaginative.  Or, I guess I should say, they have too much content to create and not enough time to do it all originally.  It was a pretty common trend in the genre to rip off elements of other media, either in whole or in part.  The extent depended on the setting of the game and the tone it took to its material, but most games had at least a little of that.

SAO was no different, really.  In fact, you could say it was a little worse.  One of the touted features of the game was an automatic quest and environment generation system called Cardinal.  In theory, Cardinal would free up development for big, expansive projects while providing players with a dynamic and evolving world.  In practice, however, all I'd seen so far told me that Cardinal was just exceptionally good at cribbing locations and stories from the Internet and integrating them into the game.  Don't get me wrong:  it was an impressive system.  Cardinal seemed to do at least as well as a dedicated developer would.  If it were really automated (and not actually Kayaba and his team of criminal deviants messing with us for laughs), then it was a pretty solid feat to make so much content automatically.

But Cardinal or no Cardinal, the basic principles of MMO content were the same.  Most cities and towns were based on real-life settlements, though much smaller in scope because they would house only a fraction of the population, and perhaps somewhat different because they were depicted at some point in history.  Because of all that, I won't bore you with an in-depth description of Iskandariya.  With ocean on one side and desert on the other, you probably have a good idea of it already.

SAO's ripping off of other media extended to the outskirts of town, too.  All through the deserts around Iskandariya lived some peculiar, eyeless critters called Sandfish.  These small, diamond-shaped creatures didn't care for saltwater—thank goodness, or else the ocean would've been a dry bed of salt flats—but they'd already drained a nearby oasis all the way to the bottom.

Luckily, the Sandfish were more of a nuisance than a serious threat.  But for a few savvy players who thought covering their bodies in Sandfish might give them a powerful, long-lasting buff, most people ignored the Sandfish.  There were much more dangerous threats in the desert, anyway.

"Do you think they're close?"

That was Sachi, who'd added a white hooded cloak to her equipped items to keep the sun off her face.

Truthfully, that was a hard question to answer.  The inhabitants of this desert didn't use Stealth, but they had sophisticated pathing AI and were keenly aware of nearby players.  They tended to creep from cover to cover when players weren't looking, which was almost as good as Stealth, with the added benefit of being impervious to Searching.

It would be easier to find them if we fanned out, but that would also mean exposing ourselves to an unknown number of enemies while split up.  Just because we could handle a few packs on this floor didn't mean it was wise to rush headlong into unfamiliar terrain.  At any moment, the dunes could start to shift or collapse, thanks to the violent eruptions of—

"Kirito!"

Sachi grabbed my arm, pulling me closer to her.  The earth beneath our feet lurched and shifted, and I didn't know whether to flee or stay in place until I saw a bulge of sand form about ten meters away from us.  The sand rose to a peak, and then—

KA-WHOOM!

A wave of gas spewed from the ground.  It kicked up a shower of sand, and the gas carried with it a sweet, pungent odor.  It stuck on my tongue, giving a slight buzz.  I looked to Sachi, and she felt it, too.  Apparently, anyone close enough to the blow event benefited from a five-minute buff to attack and movement speed.  This sweet, energetic sensation was just how that buff manifested itself to our senses.

But there were more benefits than that.  The shock of the blow had surprised some nearby mobs.  Hiding near a dune, a masked humanoid creature caught my eye and quickly took cover, but it was too late.  I knew they were there.  I caught her eye and instructed her how we should proceed.

"Stay back.  I'll pull."

"You're pulling?  How am I supposed to keep all the mobs off you like that?"

"Sometimes other people will pull.  Maybe because they're impatient, or on accident.  Still, the group needs to be able to recover even in that less-than-ideal scenario."

"So you want to see what I'll do in a pinch."

She gets it.

"I see.  So, we've just finished a grueling pull.  I'm at low health, but my good-for-nothing second forward is impatient for more loot, and so he goes searching for more mobs to piss off."

She clapped her hands together for her conclusion, positively beaming, and finishes, saying,

"Is that about the scenario you were thinking of?"

Some tanks let everything go to their heads.

While Sachi giggled at the base of a dune, I headed up to challenge the mobs that had scouted us out.  My approach got their attention:  a group of five "Dusken Raiders" sprang from the back side of the dune.  Four of them drew swords, but the last had a different, more exotic weapon:

A grappling hook.

SAO had no ranged weapons for players, but NPCs were another story.  While none of them had bows or arrows, they occasionally had other long-range tools to spice up this melee-heavy game.  The Dusken Raiders' shoulder-fired grappling hook was an example.  It wasn't a traditional hook, though, because what it actually did—

"ARGH!"

...was stick in your chest, sinking its hooks in.  On a technical level, this was a debuff.  More practically, it really hurt.  Once the Duskens got their hooks into you, they mechanisms on their rifles would reel you in like a fish.  The hook would disengage and disappear once they were done—thankfully!—but in the blink of an eye, you'd find yourself in the middle of a pack of Duskens, utterly surrounded.

If I'd remembered they had these weapons, I would've let Sachi pull instead!

Seriously, it would've been good practice for her.  I wouldn't do that just to be mean, or to get back at her for that cute remark about me being overaggressive.  I would never do that.

Ahem.

Anyway, being surrounded by five Dusken Raiders would do just as well for testing Sachi.  If she failed, I would probably fall to half health just trying to fight my way out!

There were rushed footsteps on the other side of the dune.

"Kirito!"

It was going to take her a bit just to get to us—grappling hooks move you pretty quickly—so it seemed appropriate to even the odds a bit.  I charged at one of the Duskens and bowled him over, breaking through the circle of mobs.  Duskens were reasonably intelligent, but they weren't very strong.  Once stunned and disarmed, all it took was a couple sword swings, and the first one bit the dust.

Sachi came over the top of the dune just in time to see the first Dusken disintegrate.

"You started without me?"

"I didn't exactly have a choice!"

And the four other Dusken Raiders weren't going to wait for us to finish squabbling about it, either.  The four that remained charged at us, and I stepped back, letting Sachi take the brunt of the hit, and four swords bounced off harmlessly.  That was the perk of having a shield.  I would've expended a lot of effort trying to dodge or parry all four of those hits.

But a shield didn't make its wielder impervious.  There was actually quite a fine art of being a sword-and-shield forward, a true tank, as it were.  What the shield cost in terms of raw offense, it gave back in control and defense.

For instance, as Sachi faced the four Dusken Raiders, two of them stayed at her front, occupying her attention, while two others flanked her, one on each side.  In real life, this would be a very dangerous and weak position, but in SAO, there were skills for shield-users meant specifically to turn the tide of this scenario.  A Swirling Charge would do the trick, and that's exactly what Sachi did:  she barreled forward through the pair of enemies in front of her (she gave a pretty spirited shout here), knocking them down and stunning them with the shield; then, she whirled for a 270-degree backhanded slash, cutting both of the enemies on her sides.  This discouraged them from staying so closer to her and letting down their defenses.  Sachi continued ahead, past the trampled Duskens, finishing a 540-degree turn, so that she faced opposite of where she began, and now, all her foes were in front of her.  If they wanted to flank her again, they would have to contend with her sword.

Swirling Charge was a strong, mid-level Shield Skill, the bread-and-butter of a tanking forward at our level range.  Sachi had practiced it extensively.  Still, Sachi had difficulty identifying when she should chain separate motions together.  In this case, it was the second 270-degree turn.  She should've known that her simple Horizontal slash wouldn't kill either of the mobs on her sides, so finishing the whole maneuver should've been automatic.  Instead, Sachi hesitated to look at both mobs' health bars before jumping over the trampled mobs and turning to face the rest of them.

For that reason, I had to be a little harsh in my grading.

"I give you 7.7 out of 10 there.  You need to put it all together a little more fluidly."

"7.7?  That was worth at least a 7.9!"

Sachi delivered a backhanded Shield Bash to one of the Duskens, and I finished it off with a Vertical.  Still, her ability to argue my grading while fending off Dusken Raiders wouldn't influence my decision.

"Anything above 7.8 would be a heinous crime against the Aincrad Accreditation Authority.  I won't compromise principles just to make you happy."

"You're pretty cold, you know that?"

"What?  Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

Somewhere in this back and forth, I think a few more Dusken Raiders died, but I wasn't finished.

"You don't want me easing up on you just because we're friends.  You came to me saying you wanted to be a forward after all.  That means I'm going to test you, and I'm not going to let up.  Understand?"

"Yes, Sergeant Kirito!  I apologize!  It won't happen again!"

She was having way too much fun with this.  Ah well.  I would've broken into a smile over it too, if it hadn't been for the sudden vibration in the earth.

"What's that?  Another blow?"

That wasn't another blow.  It was too arrhythmic, too disorderly.

I hiked back to the top of the dune.  Sure enough, there were more Dusken Raiders hiding in the sand.  They were crouched down, and they bared their swords while they protected a machine.  With four moving pistons, each pounding the earth and sand, the machine was making quite a racket.  If left alone, the device would attract more attention than just other Dusken Raiders.  To deal with it, I briefed Sachi on my plan.

"Jump in there and distract the Duskens.  I'll dismantle the Attractor."

Sachi peered over the dune, looking a bit nervous, but she gulped, steeling herself, and charged into the fray.  With a giant leap, she landed in the middle of the pack and slammed her shield into the sand.  The Colossal Wave, as it was called, was excellent for surprising and knocking down enemies.  It wasn't quite as good as a Stun effect, but a Knockdown bought the player enough time to set her feet and prepare for the next attack without having to worry about her entry.

Or it would've been, had the ground not been made of sand.

"Ah, Kirito!"

Sachi's shield ended up buried under the surface sand layer.

"What am I supposed to do now?"

"Is that really—wow, I didn't think the weapon-environment interaction was that sophisticated."

"This isn't the time to be impressed!"

She had me there.  Since Sachi was defenseless, I gave up on trying to damage the Attractor.  One of the Duskens had already gone back to guard the machine while the other three closed in around Sachi.

Well, make that two.  These guys really didn't stand up well to my sword.  I cut down the Dusken who had gone for Sachi's back, leaving two engaged with her and the last one by the Attractor.  Finally, Sachi yanked her shield from the ground, and she went to work.

"Can you get my right?"

I nodded.

"Thanks."

It was a lot easier for tanks to attack on their off-hand side—usually, their left—because the shield was a lot easier to attack with in a backhand motion.  I covered Sachi's forehand while she set her sights on a single mob.  She backhanded him with her shield.  Then, she followed up with a diagonal, horizontal, and another diagonal slash.  It was, essentially, a Shield Bash plus a Sharp Nail, but some designer had had the bright idea to call it a Blunt Nail.

Did I mention designers aren't very creative?

Sachi took care of one Raider while I dispatched of another.  That just left the last Dusken Raider guarding the Attractor.  Ah, that's not really the full name for it.  Abbreviating it that way really doesn't do the device justice.

It was properly called a Worm Attractor.  I bet you can guess what it did:  it shook and pounded the sand to create a disturbance.  The Sandfish that so liked to roam through the dunes would, when they matured, grow into Sandworms.  These Sandworms took the vibrations of an Attractor as an indication of prey, and the Dusken Raiders used this behavioral tendency to their advantage, summoning worms to fight against unsuspecting players.

At least, that was the theory.  The reason there weren't many Worm Attractors was that a Sandworm liked to devour the Attractor once it surfaced—along with anyone or anything else too close to the device at the time.

Alas, that would've included the last Dusken Raider, who was so fixated on us that his semi-sophisticated AI forgot to tell him to get away from the surfacing worm.

The Sandworm's mouth had three moving parts.  I don't know if I could reasonably describe it as a jaw.  Whatever the best way to think about it, the Sandworm had no trouble devouring the Dusken Raider and its Attractor.  I guess, unlike the worms in that book series, these Sandworms had no trouble with taking water-filled creatures as meals.

The Sandworm reared its head—its eyeless head that only had a gaping maw to face us—and reared back to strike.

"Over here!"

Sachi slapped her sword against the ground.

"Don't go for the guy in all black!  He tastes boring!"

That Sandworm cocked its head, and I felt I had to step in to clarify.

"She means as food!  Just food!"

At that, Sachi cracked a smile.

"What did you think I meant?"

The Sandworm didn't wait for my answer.  It roared, and the wind was like a gust from a sandblaster.  Sachi blocked the burst of sand with her shield, and she uncovered her eyes just in time to see the Sandworm bearing down on her.  She looked between the worm and her shield and winced.

"I don't think blocking this worm is going to work!"

"Stay cool.  Even getting devoured isn't a one-shot.  If you get swallowed, I'll break you out."

Sachi's eyes went a little wide, but she faced down the Sandworm anyway, raising her shield high.

And it dove at her.

She stepped aside, and the edge of the worm's mouth impacted her shield.  The worm batted her back like a ping-pong ball, and she slid in the sand, tumbling down.  That one, indirect hit took off nearly 30% of her health.  Getting swallowed might've been safer.

The Sandworm slithered past us.  It circled back to make another pass at Sachi, but that's when I stepped in.  Big monsters like this—that didn't use conventional weapons—were better handled by unconventional forwards like me.  Shields were heavy.  They slowed you down, costing mobility and speed.  When the defensive benefits of a shield were outclassed this way, it was my turn to step up.

Sachi still lay on her side in the sand.  Class was over.

I stood between them, and I cut the worm.  I slashed and stabbed at it.  I think it was eight times, but I can't be sure.  With each blow, the Sandworm shuddered and screamed, but its monstrous, lumbering body couldn't keep up with me.  I danced circles around it.  I cut it to ribbons and left pieces strewn in a ring behind me.

And as the worm whimpered before me, left with only a sliver of health, I called back to the girl halfway down the dune.

"Sachi?  Sachi, are you with me?"

She crawled to her feet, shaking the sade from her hair.

"I'm here."

"This is all yours.  Get the last hit."

She trotted up to the side of the beast, and she slashed at it with a Vertical.  The Sandworm disintegrated into polygonal shards, and our reward came in the results window.  I hoped we'd get something nice for all our trouble, and my hopes weren't in vain.

"Look, look, it's a shield!"

A Worm-tooth Shield, as a matter of fact.  Sachi scanned through her inventory and equipped it straight away.  It was a barbed shield, with white teeth sticking out of the surface.  It would be a good way to balance Sachi's defense with a bit of extra Thorns damage every time she was attacked.

Sachi turned the shield over, admiring how the worm's teeth reflected the desert sunlight.

That light was nothing compared to the smile on her face, though.  Sachi wasn't a finished product as far as tanking forwards go, but she was close.  Even in this difficult situation, facing a variety of mobs, she'd kept her head.



I might not be getting across just how miraculous this transformation of hers was.

When I'd found Sachi by the river on Floor 25, I'd thought she was in over her head.  I'd thought she was crazy for going out against mobs that were so high in level, so far beyond her.  But they weren't beyond her.  Sachi had been leveling on her own—in the mornings, before she went to market; during lunch hours; and even after the market closed each day—for over two weeks before I'd discovered it.  Because we controlled what was left of Black Cats' guild bank, we had an ample amount of col for just two people, enough for Sachi to buy top-notch crafted gear for her level.  All that, plus some patience and dedication, had helped her catch up to Londinium, but it hadn't been easy.

"When I got started, I was really rusty.  I fought one of the mountain trolls on Floor 21.  You remember them, right?  Well, when the troll enraged, I had to burn through a healing crystal within the first ten seconds!  It was scary to realize I was so unprepared.  After that, I went way lower, back down to Floor 15.  I needed a lot more breathing room, and I found it there.  Still, I'm glad you found me.  Now I can ask for your help."

My help was what she wanted.  At the time, I didn't know if I could offer it.  Sachi wasn't a total noob to the game.  She'd played a couple MMOs in the past, so she was familiar with all the basic concepts.  It was the VR technology that made combat real that troubled her.  It was the natural instinct for self-preservation that filled her with terror whenever a pack of mobs faced her down.

At least, that's how I'd remembered Sachi before.  The Sachi I met by the river was different.  She still griped when the mob didn't drop as much loot as she wanted, but that was all.  The fear in her had gone.  An unexpected mob pack was more of a minor inconvenience than a serious threat.  It was no more worth comment than having a crosswalk signal change in front of you, making you wait for traffic before you could get on your way.  That's how Sachi reacted to fighting these days.  Being afraid was just one of those obstacles that would tire her out or wear her down if she let it get to her.  That's what she told me.

"I just couldn't do it anymore.  I'd sit in the market all day, nice and safe.  A lot of the people there have contact with the hardcore guilds.  They understand, but not everyone does.  They hear about the raids, they read the casualty reports, and they pretend it can't happen to them.  A lot of them don't have dead friends haunting them in their sleep.  They don't see ghosts in their dreams!"

Sachi had said the last sentence so forcefully her whole body had shaken.  I'd offered to hold her, but she'd turned away, taken a breath, and continued.

"I don't have the right to be so safe.  I made a choice to go with them when we left the Town of Beginnings.  That was the right choice.  I just didn't have the strength to see it through then.  I do now.  I have to have it now.  You're going out there every day, Kirito.  I don't know what I'd do if you didn't come back, or how I'd feel if I knew I could've been there to help you, and I wasn't.

"I'm tired of being afraid.  I'm tired of that weight pressing down on me.  And you know what?  I think that's good.  It's good that I'm tired of it because now, I can do something.  Now, I'm so tired of it that I can't even feel that fear anymore.  I could look in the mouth of a dragon and laugh!  And that's good, on the one hand, because it means I can do things I couldn't bring myself to do anymore.  But it's also bad because I don't feel afraid even when I should.  That's why it's better that you found me, I think.  You can tell me when I'm about to do something that would get me killed, and I need that voice from someone.  So, please, Kirito.  Please help me."

Given Sachi's heartfelt sentiment, I'd lacked the heart to refuse her.  She wanted to make herself into a forward, just the way Keita had intended for her all those months ago.  There was no doubt it was what she wanted.  Back then, the topic of of her chance of spec had made her uncomfortable.  When the others suggested we use guild funds to upgrade her gear, Sachi had politely refused.  She'd already known, at that time, that she had no desire to do it.

But Sachi's change of heart was real.  Some days, it was all she would talk about:  when new skills would unlock, how to integrate them into a rotation, when to blow a healing crystal safely but for maximum benefit.  At times, I felt I came home to a second raid strategy meeting.

Sachi's enthusiasm had translated into real ability and skill.  True, she wasn't the perfect tanking forward yet, but for the purposes of a progression raid, I thought she would do.  She certainly couldn't be worse than that scaredy-cat DDA tank.  If you put them side-by-side, she would put him to shame, and he was an officer in that guild!

But in reality, I wasn't the one Sachi needed to convince.  Though we'd spent the last month working and training (it was, frankly, quite easy to powerlevel her, since I could deal with most low-level mobs myself; actually, the hardest thing was keeping from one-shotting them, so Sachi could get the last hit), I wasn't an expert on how true tanking forwards operate.  Sachi was nervous about bringing in other people to our party.  In a way, we both valued that time as something private between us, but no one would trust Sachi in a raid if they hadn't seen her tank in a less-dangerous setting.  This was, after all, a game of life and death.  Forwards bore a lot of responsibility.  One bad switch could wipe a raid and kill dozens.

Still, there were ways for even cutting-edge raiders to see someone like Sachi and evaluate her.  A lot of guilds ran simple tryout runs in side dungeons to evaluate potential members.  Sachi and I weren't interested in joining another guild—though honestly, it would've helped her immensely to have those resources at her disposal—but there was a guild or two in the progression group who ran open tryouts, even for people who hadn't submitted applications.

And I happened to know a certain deputy guild master in one of those guilds.

Well, I used to know her.  How she became deputy guild master in a hardcore raiding guild is a bit of a story in itself.

Anyway, I felt this request was only properly made in person.  After all, I was Kirito, the arrogant beater.  I kept to myself, and I couldn't expect any help from other hardcore raiders, even though I'd fought alongside them from time to time.  It wasn't too different from how Sachi felt she couldn't expect to feel safe and secure when others were fighting for her life and freedom.  We all feel those expectations, don't we?  And as often as not, we feel inadequate and undeserving of others' actions on our behalf.

Where was I?  Right, there was a certain deputy GM to track down.  She was a busy girl—and quite popular at that.  As a major representative for the Knights of the Blood Oath, she played a big part in orchestrating future progression.  Part of her responsibilities, which she shared with other high-ranking officers from partner guilds, was running the scouting raid—a raid of players sent blind to discover a boss's abilities and tactics.  It was one of the most dangerous and challenging assignments.  At any time, an unexpected mechanic could force the group into a sudden retreat.  For instance, if part of a boss fight happens in one room, and then the floor shatters, forcing the raid to fight on unfamiliar terrain below, it wouldn't be surprising for the scouting raid leader to call for a reset—to have all raiders use their Teleport Crystals and escape to the nearest teleport plaza.  It would cost a lot of time to get back to the boss, but scouting team raids were notoriously cautious.  They could spend hours and hours and never get a boss below 90%, just to make sure there was nothing funny going on right on the pull.

It may have been very timid of them, but these precautions weren't without reason.  If someone died on the scout team, everything they learned about the boss fight would be lost, and their death would mean nothing.

Anyway, the guild officer I hoped to meet with was leading the scout team on this floor.  Messages were blocked to anyone inside a dungeon, so I had no choice but to wait in the teleport plaza—the central garden of the city library.

The Library of Iskandariya was part of a larger museum.  Two wings for collections stood on each side of a forward atrium and a rectangular pond and walking area.  It was more than what we'd call a library these days; it was a place for scholars to meet, walk, discuss, and even eat.  The scholars' dining hall was a popular place to sit down and eat.  There was even a lecture room that would've resembled anything in a university, if only it had a blackboard.

I had to wonder, though:  what was the point of such a place?  There were no real scholars to study in this musuem.  A few NPCs roamed the halls, and some people said there was a hidden event to save the Library from a fire.  Still, I can't believe all this attention to detail—to the peeling paint on some of the fake Egyptian paintings to the lines and grooves on the supporting columns—was just for a leveling experience.

So why was it there?  Why was any of it there?  Why were we there?

I wasn't the only one who asked these questions.  Sometimes, when Sachi felt really down, she would sit with her knees to her chest, look to the sky or ceiling, and ask just those questions.  What was the point of this world?  And why should a frightened teenaged girl like her be in such a brutal, vicious place?

I'd never had a good answer to those questions, and honestly, neither the marble flooring of the Library nor its pearly white pillars gave me a good answer.

Ironically, for a library, you couldn't check out any books or documents, and if you took a scroll off the shelf, all you'd find were ancient glyphs and symbols.  So really, the library wasn't a great place to pass the time.  Wandering around was as good as anything else to do, and that got old pretty quickly.  At worst case, I'd catch the scout team when they called the raid.  Even the hardcore guilds didn't like to raid for more than three or four hours at a time.

Luckily, I didn't have to wait that long.  It was just as I wandered back into the main garden—a series of hedges and flowers surrounding the teleport gate—that the scout team materialized, one by one.

"Okay, let's take a break, yeah?  Half an hour to rest up and refresh yourselves.  Get something to eat from the dining hall.  We march on the Labyrinth again at 1445."

That was the raid leader, the girl in red and white.  Her rapier had no equal in speed or technique.  For this reason, she was known as "The Flash," but I'd known her even before she'd put on that uniform or taken on that nickname.

"Yo, Asuna."

I caught her on the steps as she'd been making her way into the library, and she jeked in surprise.

"Kirito-kun?  Well, this is a surprise, isn't it?  How long has it been?  Too long, right?"

Too long for sure—a couple months, if I'd had to guess.  We still caught glimpses of each other from time to time, but we hadn't spoken in quite a while.  KoB was still pushing hard to progress.  That surely kept Asuna busy.  Leading a scouting raid was no small commitment.  And to think she'd been a total MMO noob when I'd met her.

"Walk with me, won't you?  I have to grab a quick bite before we head back.  Are you here to get something to eat?"

"Actually, I'm here to see you."

"Me?"

Her eyes went wide at that, but she quickly shook her head.

"I'm sorry.  All requests of that nature have to be made in writing.  If I choose to reciprocate your interest, you'll have to consent to an escort of no less than one KoB member at all times.  Guild policy."

"Huh?  My interest in what, exactly?"

"What?  Oh, you're not....  Well!  Don't get the wrong idea.  It's just a common thing that happens.  I didn't ask for it.  It was probably this outlandish getup that had a lot to do with it, you know?"

Ah.  That kind of interest.  Well, I had to disagree on one point:  that ostentaious outfit—like something from a knight on the Crusades—certainly didn't hurt, but that girl would've looked good in anything.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to give the wrong impression.  I wanted to ask you about an open tryout run."

"Why?  You're looking for a guild?"

"Ah, well, not exactly...."

Asuna frowned at that, and I couldn't blame her.  I'd just denied her twice.  I was asking an awful lot, wasn't I?

"I see.  Well, come on then.  You can explain to me over lunch.  We've been raiding for the better part of three hours, so I'm at least going to be satisfied before I head back."

We headed for the scholars' dining hall, in the basement level of the library.  It wasn't a place to buy food—so not like a cafeteria or anything like that—but there were plenty of tables for the raid group to share.  Even there, shelves with scrolls lined the walls.  I guess the library couldn't spare a square centimeter of wall space for anything else but storage.

Asuna and I took a circular table in a corner of the room.  Even there, the decor was striking:  the chairs were made of straw and backless, so they offered no support.  The table didn't stand on legs.  Rather, it had just a central column that was curved inward, sort of like an hourglass, and with a wide base.  It looked flimsy, but the base of was surprisingly heavy, and it kept the table from tilting even a single degree.

"So, it's all right if I eat?"

Asuna materialized a sandwich from her inventory.  Just what was that smell coming from her food?  Something like fish and...mayonnaise?  Not possible.  They didn't have mayonnaise in this game!

"What, do you want some?"

No, no, I shouldn't.  I'd already eaten, and it'd be rude to ask for some of her food.  That said, it wasn't like you could get fat in this game.  Why did she have to torment me with such a tasty meal right in front of my nose?

"No, that's all right.  It's yours, isn't it?"

I turned aside.  Better not to see that sandwich than be tempted by it.  Just the sounds of it crunching with Asuna's bites were torture enough as it was.

"So, who's this tryout for?  If not yourself, then someone you know?"

"Ah, it's just...a guildmate of mine, you could say."

"Really?  I've never met anyone from your guild before, except for you."

"I'm not surprised.  She'd have said something if she'd met you."

Asuna raised an eyebrow at that, and I couldn't blame her.  That was a bad slip on my part, but to my relief, two other people approached the table, interrupting our conversation.

"Are we intruding?  I hoped we could discuss some aspects of the boss fight before returning to the Labyrinth."

Asuna looked to me first and winced.

"Sorry, is this okay?"

"It's fine.  I'm the one taking time out of your work."

"Good, sorry again.  Kirito-kun, I think you know Pascal, from Fūrinkazan?"

Pascal, a woman in her late twenties, was Klein's second-in-command.  I'd seen her around a bit before, but we were only just acquainted, nothing more.

"Klein will be happy to hear we ran into each other.  It's my pleasure, Kirito."

That was accompanied by a sidelong glance from the man beside her—a thin, younger man in full plate armor.  Asuna began to introduce him.

"This is Lind, leader of DDA.  Lind, this is Kirito.  He used to be a solo player, but now he's part of Black Cats of the Full Moon."

"Oh really?  I've never heard of that guild.  Must be a bunch of noobs and wannabes."

I think you can guess Lind's attitude toward me.  Having insulted his best tank might've had something to do with it, so I expected a barb, but insulting the rest of the guild?  People he didn't even know?  People who died far more nobly than Lind had ever conducted himself?

Asuna grabbed my wrist and kept it under the table.  That was the only way she could keep me from unsheathing my sword.  She met my eyes, and there was just a slight shake of the head.

Count yourself lucky, Lind.  If not for her, we would've fought right then and there.

Pascal noticed the tension in the room, and she cleared her throat, trying to get back down to business.  She took a seat across from Asuna and me while Lind split the difference, leaving a chair's space on either side to separate himself from everyone else.  Once everyone was comfortable, Pascal began.

"Again, I'm sorry to intrude.  I just wanted to express some concern about how high we're getting the boss's stacks to."

At that, Asuna stiffened a bit.

"How high were they?"

"Fifteen.  At that point, it was taking +300% damage and swinging for +650%."

"Swinging for +650%, so 750% total?"

"Yes, 750% total."

That was a crucial distinction.  If the bonus to the boss's attack damage was 650%, then the true damage was 7.5 times normal.  That kind of error in calculation could've been the difference between life and death.

That's not to say I had any idea what exactly these people were talking about.  Asuna seemed to notice my confusion, though, and she took me aside to whisper in my ear.

"Sand golem boss.  Takes almost no damage while sand, but if you move it into a beam of hot sunlight, it starts to melt into glass.  Each second in the beam stacks the buff.  It hits harder, but it takes more damage."

Aha.  This was a classic encounter mechanic.

"So the question is, how high can you safely ramp up the stacks, how many forwards are you going to need in rotation to deal with that damage?"

Asuna nodded, but before I could gather my thoughts on the matter, Lind spoke up.

"I think any further testing of the stacks is a waste.  Forwards are precious commodities.  There's no reason to put a large number of them at risk with an aggressive switch strategy.  Keep the boss's stacks low—no greater than five—and stack the rest of the raid with DPS."

Pascal frowned, and she watched Lind through narrowed eyes.

"So you want to test the enrage timer?"

A boss left alive for too long could enrage, gaining a dangerous increase in damage or attack speed (or often, both).  Hecate, the boss on Floor 34, had a "soft" enrage mechanic, in that her difficulty increased progressively through the fight.  Confusingly, the slight damage buff that Hecate gained at the end of her fight could also be called an enrage, but that wasn't instantly deadly or dangerous, so it hardly bears mentioning.

Otherwise, when Pascal said enrage, she meant a "hard" enrage mechanic, which could instantly and lethally punish the raid for taking too long.

It was rare to see a hard enrage in SAO.  Most of the raids had rather aggressive strategies that, if they went sour, would be aborted in favor of a reset.  No one wanted to trigger a hard enrage; that could mean dozens of people dying in the blink of an eye, without even the chance to teleport out.

But, the people who did have to worry about it were the scout team.  Typically, they would intentionally prolong a boss fight by not sending anyone in other than forwards.  Then, they would see just how long the boss could be safely fought, and the real raid to kill the boss would know just how long they had before they were in unsafe territory.

"I disagree."

That was Asuna.

"I think the fight is probably intended to start with the boss brought to a medium number of stacks—say seven or eight.  Then, when the stacks are about to fall off, the forward he's engaged with should drag him into the sun beam to quickly add a single stack and refresh the buff."

Pascal nodded and ran with the idea.

"The question, then, would be what is the maximum number of stacks we can safely deal with by the end of the fight."

That question had no easy answer.  Without a full complement of DPS—which the scout team didn't have—they couldn't know for sure.  Pascal, perhaps fitting her namesake, started to do the math.

"Let's see....  Assume 1500 DPS per person, times 48 raiders, with an average damage multiplier of 2.6, so about...200,000 DPS raidwide, right?"

Asuna, Lind, and I all looked at each other blankly.

"The boss ought to have somewhere between 80 and 100 million HP, so somewhere around 7 to 10 minutes?"

Lind rolled his eyes.

"I don't think we should be trusting our lives to goddamn theorycraft here."

"It's just an estimate.  It's something we can test, cautiously."

"It requires putting our forwards at unnecessary risk.  Some of the forwards here are my guildies, you know!"

Asuna's eyes flashed at that.

"Some of them are mine, too.  We may not have had a choice to stay in this game, but we've volunteered ourselves for the good of everyone who's left.  We know the risks.  Your people know them, too.  People can't be sheltered or coddled from that reality.  There's no point in doing so.  We should act like we want to win, not like we're afraid to play."

Lind snarled at that.  He peered around Asuna to catch my eye.

"What about you, beater boy?  We know you like to take risks with people's lives."

"Only when cowards endanger all of us by acting in their own self-interest rather than the good of the raid."

"Why you—"

"I like Asuna's strat, but as a possible fallback, I would consider letting the boss's stacks fall off if the forward rotation can't be maintained.  A period of low damage on the forwards would buy time for crystal CDs to finish.  This seems to me like a fight than be tuned dynamically, based on the damage the forwards can take."

Pascal nodded.

"We can start with a few fixed numbers of forwards—anywhere from four to eight—and see what damage level is comfortable.  Keep a couple of extra forwards out of the rotation to use as safety nets in case those in the switch rotation have no more CDs left."

Asuna dabbed at her lips with a napkin and looked upon Lind and Pascal with cool, steady eyes.

"That sounds like a good place to start when we get back to it.  We can discuss more of the details on the way back, but we may need more forwards to adequately test this idea."

Lind was quick to jump in there.

"DDA has no problem providing backup forwards in case of emergency.  Anything for the good of the raid."

Pascal rolled her eyes..

"Roles should be assigned fairly and equally.  Equal risk for equal reward.  Klein insists on it."

"Fine, fine, we'll see what happens when we get to lottery.  But if KoB holds back their best players, it's not exactly equal risk, is it?  When's the last time Heathcliff tanked for a progression raid, anyway?"

Asuna shrugged.

"The GM does a lot of organizing and outreach to casual players.  He levels on his own time, and he doesn't ask for col from raids he doesn't attend, unlike some people."

Lind turned away to stare down the length of the room, grimacing.  Asuna ignored him completely.

"Now if you'll excuse me, Kirito and I have some unfinished business to discuss.  If there's anything else, we can discuss it on the way back, yes?"

Pascal nodded and rose, but Lind was more leisurely about it, and he made an exaggerated bow—full of contempt and animosity—as he left.  At once, Asuna's icy demeanor melted, and she slumped back in her chair with a sigh.

"Sorry again.  I didn't mean to involve you in that.  Lind had no right to challenge you about any of that stuff."

"No, it's fine.  It was fun to be a part of the planning, at least a little bit."

Asuna smiled, relieved, but still, there was something a bit off about her expression.  I knew Pascal was an avid theorycrafter and that Lind was pretty hard-headed and combative, but Asuna surprised me.  Her words were reasonable, but her behavior was contradictory somehow.  There was the warm girl in front of me, apologetic and forthright, who'd happily offered me part of her sandwich in kindness.  Then, there was the cool and determined guild officer, who traded barbs with Lind and made decisions about who to put in danger and who to spare without batting an eye.

It shouldn't have been a surprise.  Asuna was always about finding the best and fastest way out of this world.  She was the girl who fought to exhaustion on Floor 1, and why?  Because she felt sleeping would be an act of surrender to the game.  I'm sure it was that sternness and determination that propelled her to number two in KoB.  Still, it was surprising to see how her position had helped her shape that determination into results.  There were no doubts about the results.  KoB was a successful guild on the rise.  Asuna had helped make it that way.

To be honest, I was a little more uncomfortable asking her for a favor, having seen how cool and serious she could be.

"Well?  What was it you were saying about a tryout run?"

On the other hand, it definitely would've been rude to decline her help now.  There was definitely no getting out of asking, at least.

"Ah, right.  Like I said, it's for my guildmate.  She's been trying to convert from spears to shield and sword tanking."

"That's difficult, isn't it?  It's a totally different mentality."

"A bit yeah.  I've spent the last month or so training her.  I think she's a lot better than she used to be, but she could use a real run with a full six-man party.  Ultimately, she wants to join the raid group, so this is really her tryout for that.  Having KoB's support, even if she doesn't join the guild, would go a long way toward making that happen."

Asuna folded her arms and smiled slyly.

"You don't ask for cheap favors, do you?  This guildmate of yours must be a good friend."

"She is."

"So, what happened?"

I gaped at her, and just a slight sound came out of my mouth.

"Ah...."

"You nearly stabbed Lind in the chest when he made that remark about your guild.  That's pretty rare.  You're not the type to flip out over something that isn't serious.  There's a reason no one's ever seen another member of Black Cats, isn't there?"

There was some commotion at the other end of the room.  Other members of the progression group, part of Asuna's scout team, were filing into the dining hall.  I turned away from them, hiding my face.

"I don't want to talk about it."

I said that in the quietest, most solemn voice I could muster.  It was all I could manage without breaking up.

"You don't have to do this for us.  I can ask someone else."

"No, no.  That was rude of me to ask.  It's fine.  KoB was looking to do a tryout run soon anyway.  I'll round up some applicants.  Let's say...the day after tomorrow?  I'll send you a message with more details.  And sorry."

I shrugged.  It wasn't her fault for asking.  Any reasonable person would.  I wasn't reasonable.  That's why I didn't answer.  The best I could do was just walk away.

"Ah, Kirito?  Just one more thing.  This guildie of yours—I'm going to test her with everything I've got.  I owe every hardcore raider here—yes, even the ones in DDA—my best effort.  I hope it's not a problem if I'm a little tough on her.  You understand, right?"

That was fine.  Asuna was the kind of person who did what she had to and didn't hesitate.

That is, she wasn't like me.



Asuna chose a side dungeon on Floor 31 for the tryout.  From the tropical settlement of Sao Pedro, Sachi and I journeyed through a dense jungle, with giant caterpillars, earth-shaking worms, panthers, and cobras.  Sachi and I stayed on the path, though, and we ran into few mobs.  We arrived a few minutes early, so we camped out at the entrance to the dungeon.  It was little more than a nook in a rock formation, with jungle vines and moss hanging from above.  We setup a campfire to keep our spirits up and to scare off animals.

"It's nice that fire frightens most mobs, isn't it?"

I hoped that would help break the silence, but Sachi wasn't biting.  She clenched her fist around her sword's handle, and she already had her shield equipped in her left hand.  She stared into the shadows where the niche ran.  She was as still as a statue.

"You want anything to eat before we get started?  We can cook something...well, sort of."

Without Cooking skill, probably the best we could do was burn some meat over the fire, but it was a nice treat to have warm food you didn't have to pay for.  Or at least, I felt that way.  With Sachi fixated on that rock formation, there was no way for me to know one way or the other what she was thinking.

"Hey."

I waved a hand in front of her face, and she jumped back, raising her sword and shield.

"Whoa, whoa, I'm just trying to get your attention.  Relax."

"Sorry.  I guess I was a little worried."

She sheathed her sword, and she let the shield fall to her side.

"Worried about what?  You're going to be fine.  I wouldn't have asked Asuna for this if I didn't think you were ready.  Just be yourself.  Hold what you can.  Even if Asuna's KoB tryouts don't know what they're doing, the three of us can clean up a little mess.  Asuna will try to test you, but she'll be fair.  There isn't a thing to worry about."

Sachi smiled at that, and let me tell you, Sachi's smiles are unique.  There's something about her eyes—when she really smiles, it's unmistakable.

"You must've been through a lot of effort to do this.  Thanks for that.  Really."

"It was nothing, honest!  I'm glad to do it and glad to give you a chance to do right by them.  I don't know if I ever will have that chance, but you can.  That's what matters, right?"

At that, Sachi's gaze turned serious.  I thought she was going to scold me, like I was wrong to think I couldn't make up for what happened to the others.  That's what I expected.

Instead, she pulled me by my shoulder and kissed me.

She held that pose for a few moments, our lips touching but no more.  I didn't know what I was supposed to do.  My hands remained at my sides, useless and usnure what to do.

Should I have held her?  I didn't know!

Strangely, it was a relief when she pulled back.  The moment was over, and I didn't have to be conscious of every square millimeter on my lips anymore.

But it would've been nice to do that again, when I was a little more prepared!

Sachi must've seen how conflicted I was.  She blushed a bit and turned aside, watching me from one eye.

"Sorry.  I know that was a little sudden.  Was it good for you?"

I thought better of trying to explain the full gamut of my feelings in that moment.

"Yeah, it was.  A bit of a surprise, but I think it was good.  For you, too?"

Sachi stared for a second, and only then did she smile and nod.  It was just a smile, though, and not a real smile.  It was the kind you put on when you're expected to smile, but it wasn't real.  There was no comfortable warmth in Sachi's eyes.  She was on guard.  She was alert.

She was probably just a little embarrassed about it.  That's what I told myself.  A first kiss for a couple is awkward for everyone, right?  There are boundaries you have to feel out, or something.  Right?

Right?

"You two are awfully quiet.  Am I interrupting a moment?"

That was the voice of the most aggressive matchmaker I knew, the expert blacksmith Lisbeth.

She sprang out from the jungle with a sly grin, sizing us both up.

"I see.  You two just had a moment of intimate romantic contact!  I can tell.  It's all over your faces."

What?  How could she—?  How long had she—?

"It's not all over our faces!"

That was my best counter.  It was also pathetically transparent.

"Oh, so you did?  That was all just a bluff, but I see it's true!  Well, about time for both of you.  Sachi, what's his skill level in that category, hm?"

Sachi buried her face in her hands, and it was all I could do to get between Sachi and Lisbeth.  This gadfly girl had taken too keen an interest in our love life ever since Sachi had set up shop in the Londinium market.  Without a doubt, Lisbeth was a knowledgeable smith.  She helped Sachi discover just how onerous and taxing on skill slots a full suite of smithing skills was.  Lisbeth had never demanded payment in col for her advice; her preferred medium of exchange was gossip.

"Is this what you do on Tuesdays—you follow people for fun?"

Lisbeth put her hands on her hips and scowled.

"Just who do you take me for?  I'm invited to this party.  There's a diamond in that dungeon, and I want a piece of it."

"Invited by who?"

"That would be me."

Three more people came down the path—Asuna and two other KoB guild members.

"Kirito-kun, Sachi, I'd like you to meet Tandan and Vix.  They're initiates in KoB, so I'm sure they'll be on their best behavior to represent the guild.  Am I right?"

"Yes, ma'am!"

The two initiates stiffened up and stood at attention, drawing a laugh from Asuna.

"Relax!  Honestly, we're not the Army."

Asuna looked back to Sachi and me.

"Of course, you already know Liz.  She'll be accompanying us to collect the diamond.  You'll have to make someone here a nice sword with that."

"I could make ten new weapons with that diamond!  Did you know just a tiny inset of Nightmare Diamond on the hilt of a sword increases its Durability and Base Damage by five whole percent?  It makes no sense, but it works, so I'm not gonna complain when we finish this place.  Everyone's going to want one of Lisbeth's swords!  Ehehe."

Lisbeth was practically walking on air with anticipation.  I'm pretty sure it was the new pink hair she was sporting; the hair dye must've come with a bonus to enthusiasm and energy.

As the six of us filed through the entrance, Lisbeth's jubilant dance brought her to the fore of the group, with Sachi.  The two of them couldn't be more different.  Sachi was a quiet and contemplative person.  Lisbeth, on the other hand, said whatever was on her mind at the time, and she was quick to pounce on even a hint of insult toward her work.  Still, they had worked as neighbors for the better part of two months in Londinium.  They were an odd pair of friends.

"It's quite nice of Asuna to let you take the diamond when we finish.  Did she ask you along so you could make a sword for her?"

"For her?  Not a chance!  Honestly, you'd think a girl would be the first to clue her best friend in when there's a run to acquire some rare crafting mats, but that's just not so these days.  There I am, minding my stand in Londinium, when I see Asuna blaze past like I'm a piece of dead codfish."

Asuna winced at that.

"Last I saw, you were crafting off a Vendor's Carpet.  I didn't know you had a stand in Londinium!"

"Anybody who's anybody has a shop in Londinium!  Honestly.  If I hadn't asked what you were doing, I never would've heard about this, would I?"

"Can I buy you some clothes to make up for it?  Please, Liz?"

"I could be persuaded to accept a donation."

Lisbeth picked at her smithing gloves and her brown, leathery apron.

"Maybe something a little more colorful.  Something red."

I eyed the bubblegum pink strands on her head.

"Don't you already have that part of the spectrum covered?"

"Pink isn't red.  I see why you only wear black, Kirito.  No sense of fashion."

I could see how this argument would go.  I'd say my armor was functional.  She'd say she wore the gloves and apron for skill bonuses, and she'd be right: plus-15 to smithing skills was nothing to sneeze at.  There was only one style of smithing armor at our level, whereas I had no excuse for my preference for black.

Never get into an argument with Lisbeth.  She is too cunning and devious to outwit.

"So, Asuna, how did that investigation go?"

Asuna stopped dead in her tracks, like she'd been caught stealing gum from a convience store.

"It—well, it went fine!  Just fine.  It's an officer's responsibility to look into the players who try out for your guild.  That's understandable, isn't it?"

The two KoB initiates looked at each other and gulped nervously.  I tried to put them at ease.

"It's just due diligence for a guild that aspires to lead the effort for progression.  I'm sure that's routine.  If you're here with Asuna, you're going to get a fair chance to prove yourselves to KoB, and you won't be judged solely based on reputation or rumors.  That's how KoB operates, isn't it, Asuna?"

She nodded.

"It is.  It means a lot that you see it our way."

I hadn't realized it was a matter of opinion.  In other games, the best guilds always looked into the backgrounds of their recruits.  They'd look at statistics from raids.  They'd have people fill out questionnaires and interview them at length.  It was a natural and expected part of the process.  Asuna may have been new to MMOs at one time, but she'd become a full-fledged officer of KoB.  She knew what was expected of her, and of KoB's recruits.

And I had every reason to believe she had expectations of Sachi, too.  After all, I'd recommended Sachi to her.  She'd put Sachi to the test just as much as her guild recruits.

Or at least, that's what I'd thoughts she would do.  This dungeon we'd entered—the Den of the Nightmare Diamond—wasn't exactly at the bleeding edge of content.  It was a good seven floors below the front lines.  That wasn't to say it was a dull dungeon.  It wasn't.  The Den hosted a semi-random series of bosses, all fighting over the fabled Nightmare Diamond.  The first boss was always a previous owner of the diamond.  While we pulled trash—useless other monsters meant to slow us down on the way to the boss—several of these cursed individuals would brawl with one another on a raised platform, out of our range to safely jump to.  Once we cleared all the trash mobs, the winner would descend and engage us.

This time, it was a sailor—a ship captain who had lost the diamond at sea.  Though SAO lacked player magic, NPCs could do quite a bit more than players.  From the stone and earthen walls of a jungle temple, the cursed captain summoned an illusion of the open sea.  We swam through shark-infested waters while the captain's crew shelled us with cannonballs from his battleship.

I want to say that a daring attempt to board the vessel and slay the captain is what saved us and broke the illusion.  I could hardly call it daring, though.  The sharks keeled over at one hit from my sword, and Sachi's new shield—covered in worm teeth—reflected so much damage from the captain's saber that he practically killed himself.

When the illusion ended and we were put back in the torchlit underground temple, I took Asuna aside, at t

[Muphrid]

This is a complete second draft, in case anyone wondered what happened with this piece.

[Jason_Miao]

VERY quick notes from casually eyeballing the draft

p56:
"plus-50" Perhaps change to "+50"? 

p69+:
"support group, computer cannot heal mental states" What about (yurei?  yume?  The psychological AI who was adopted by Asuna and Kirito in the original book?)

p82:
"32 GB RAM"
What year was SAO supposed to be in?  Failing that, what year was book 1 published?  Available RAM support for a top-of-the-line machine tends to be specific to an era.

p115+:
Drunk.  Heh.

p220ish
Wasn't Norse theming part of the world of a different book?  Don't quite recall...

You probably mentioned it earlier, but I just picked it up around here.



Since it's been awhile since I've read the translations...did the books use onomatopeia?  The times you do aren't out of place, so there's no problem if you decide to stick with it.

[Muphrid]

The thing with the computer being unable to heal mental states: it was a little bit of saying, ok, we know that AI was disabled, but we don't know exactly why. It seems a little less cartoonishly evil if they thought she would simply be ineffective.

The story takes place in 2023 mostly, so I felt 32 gb of ram would be a plausible number for a high end machine set a few years before that.

The norse theming was only for that one particular floor.

I don't think the books used as much onomatopeia as I do, no.

[Jason_Miao]

Ch2: I faintly recall that Kirito didn't personally remember Asuna until she reminded him that he'd guarded her while she slept.  But since this is an AU and the reboot rewrote how they know each other, this may work.

Hmm...I usually read through fics I'm trying to C&C three times.  The first to see what immediately leaps out at me, the second with the framework of the story in mind, and the third with a focus on consistency.

That's what I did with chapter 1, when you'd posted it earlier.  I started the second pass this time around, but I don't think I have the time to finish it or start a third pass.  So, I'll end with my impression of the fic:  I think it works.  It doesn't end with Kirito conquering the world, so doesn't keep to the focus of the original.   But given that the fic premise involves Sachi, and given the Sachi-story in the books, where you take the fic makes sense.