Nasuverse FSN + SAO
- Thread starter daniel_gudman
- Start date
linkhyrule5 said:
Well, sure, but that's because the connection is too shitty to let him trace it, not because of any fundamental limitation of the digital world 
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*edit: I meant bit at a TIME, dont know how i misspelled it as type though*, also meant Bit as in Bits and Bytes, as in a piece of data.
16.2 Ilya's Disciples
Like always, Harper was humming.
He claimed it was a cheap way to draw Aggro against ambush-type mobs, so (he claimed) it was just part of his duty as the tank. Maybe it was even true.
But Bel knew it was an excuse; after all, Harper was always humming, and occasionally, whistling, inside the Safe Zone as well as out in the field. That's how Bel knew it was a really an excuse.
But Harper was really good at it, so it wasn't like Bel minded. Harper said he was going to get an Instrument Skill once he got his third skill slot.
Even if he was bad though, Bel still wouldn't have minded. Because Harper was his important party mate.
Three days after the game had started, Bel had been in a funk, scared and alone. Sometimes he had sniffled, crying because he missed mom and he wanted to be sleeping in his own bed and not in the inn. And he had been running out of Col, so he wouldn't be able to afford the inn anymore.
Mom had always said that if he was a big boy he should pick himself up, so he'd picked himself up and gone out in the field to hunt mobs.
After that he'd met Harper. Adults were scary, but Harper hadn't told him to stay in the Safe Zone like most adults. Instead Harper had asked if he wanted to party up, since Harper was a tank, he needed somebody to be DPS for him.
After that they had been a party. Harper said "good night" to him every night before bedtime and "good morning" every morning when they left the inn. They ate together. Bel wondered if this was what it would had been like if dad hadn't left. That was a secret though.
Chuck held up his hand, as he stopped in place.
Harper stopped too, his whistle ending.
Bel stopped behind them, and he nervously dropped into a fighting stance as his hands came to rest on the handles of both daggers on his hips.
"See something?" Bel whispered.
Chuck replied after a moment. "Yeah." He replied, reaching over his shoulder to unhook his halberd and swing it around. "Get ready for battle."
"Let's go." Harper said, stepping forward as he drew the greatsword off his back. "Same drill as always?"
"Should be." Chuck replied. "Careful, this is about the area where [Lizard Berserkers] start appearing."
Chuck had been in the Beta test. Bel could tell that Chuck didn't like him because he was a kid, even if Chuck never said anything. But kids could see more than adults gave them credit for, so Bel could tell. Still, Chuck didn't talk down to him, so Bel tried to be as good a party member as any adult, so Chuck wouldn't have anything to complain about. Mom said that getting along with people even if you didn't like them was something a big boy would do, and since Chuck was trying to get along with Bel, Bel felt like he should also try and pretend.
They moved forward, Harper in the lead with Chuck and Bel at his sides. The [Drill] they used was to gang up on one mob at a time, with Harper drawing it off so Chuck and Bel could double-team it.
They scrambled through the woods, climbing up a slight slope. There was a pile of rubble in front of them, that looked like a stone house that had fallen apart.
And yeah, that was where the mobs came from.
Four popped out, heads poking out of the ruined house, making that same half-growl, half-chirping sound that all Kobolds make.
Three were [Armor Scavengers], the regular tank-types that appeared around here. They always had a random mix of equipment so their defenses were always a little different. It didn't really change the way the party handled them, though.
The last one was wearing a beat-up robe and holding a stick. He was smaller and thinner than the other three, and his icon said he was a [Worm Initiate].
"Think we should go for the Caster type?" Bel asked.
Chuck grunted. "The only spells in town are buffs, right? So I think it can only use Reinforcement. Between preventing buffs or decreasing the number of attackers, which would be better?"
Harper made a thoughtful hum sound before speaking. "We're better suited to peeling off the Scavengers one by one and dealing with them that way. Charging the caster might get us swarmed."
Chuck nodded sharply, before shouting. "Here they come!"
Harper roared, stepping forward and using a Sword Skill to attack one of the Armor Scavengers.
Chuck followed up, using his bigger weapon to do repeated damage. Bel darted forward, whipping out his daggers. He didn't want to fall behind.
"Oooh!" Harper shouted, swinging his sword up.
The [Worm Initiate] started chanting, waving his staff around.
Bel dodged the attack of a second Armor Scavenger, ducking under Harper's arm to launch forward with a double-slash, before pulling back out again.
The [Worm Initiate] finished chanting, and pointed his staff at Harper with a sound that was half shout and half croak.
"Geh!" Harper grunted, stumbling in place. He was moving awkwardly, his body stiff. He almost fell over before he managed to catch himself with a jerky movement.
"A debuff?" Chuck asked.
"Yeah, seems like it." Harper said, voice slightly slurred.
"Damn." Chuck said, eyes darting from party member to party member.
"Damn!" He repeated, as he used a skill.
A minute later, Bel figured out why. All three of the Armor Scavengers were ganging up on Harper.
And Harper was having a hard time dodging with his body under a partial paralysis like that.
The [Worm Initiate] was chanting again.
"Damn!" Chuck was screaming this time, as he frantically hacked at the kobolds. "Let's retreat!"
"Good... idea." Harper said, stumbling as he fell back, awkwardly walking as Chuck covered him.
The [Worm Initiate] finished chanting, and pointed his staff at Harper again.
And Harper stopped moving, grinding to a halt.
"Oh damn." Chuck moaned, eyes darting around, before they rested on Bel.
"Kid." Chuck said, eyes intense. "Get running."
"But Harper-" Bel protested.
"I said run!" Chuck screamed, eyes jerking forward as he swung his halberd, attacking an [Armor Scavenger] and interrupting it's attack on Harper. "Run you brat!"
"But-" Bel said again, uncertain.
"Do as I say!" Chuck shouted, turning back to engage the mobs. "Goddamit Harper, I called you an idiot for dragging a brat along, but I was an idiot for going along with it." He swung his halberd again, frantically trying to keep up. But he wasn't.
Harper's HP was in the red.
And the [Worm Initiate] was chanting again.
"Get out of here kid, we'll catch up!" Chuck was screaming at him. Telling such an obvious lie, was Chuck the kind of adult that thought kids couldn't tell?
But Bel swallowed, tears forming in his eyes, as he turned, and ran.
He turned, sight blurry, as he sprinted away, not wanting to see. Not wanting to hear.
But he slammed into something, and fell backwards.
He looked up.
The [Worm Initiate] was standing in front of him, standing above him as he lay sprawled on his back, and then it finished chanting, and raised it's staff and pointed at him -!
And Bel woke up.
Gasping for air while his heart pounded in his chest, fingers balled in his blanket with his hands clenched in fists, Bel woke up. His eyelids stretched wide as they darted around the room.
His room, that he shared with Huntar. Huntar was asleep in the bed next to him. Bel hadn't screamed this time.
They were safe. This was a [Safe Zone]. This was their dorm room in the [Boarding School] in [Elvengrad]. He wasn't back out in the field on the First Floor.
Two weeks after the [Official Launch], the player named [Berserker], called [Bel] for short, had Retired from the game.
He checked the clock in his menu. It was 5:45 in the morning. Still really early, but he didn't feel like going back to sleep.
Bel decided to go hang out in the cafeteria. The [Lunch Lady] was an NPC, so she was there 24 hours a day.
He was a little thirsty, so he thought it would be good to have some of the red juice that was always available. It tasted a little weird, like apples but not really, but he kind of liked it.
And… there were always lights on in the cafeteria. That was good, too.
Quietly, with his arms wrapped around himself, Bel slid out of bed and scampered away, head down as he refused to look into the shadows.
I I I
Hexadecimal knelt, eyes closed with head bowed, and with his hands clasped together in front of him.
“Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee, and for those who do not have recourse to thee, especially the enemies of the Church and those recommended to thee. Amen.”
It was still a little weird, like he was cosplaying in bad taste. Maybe not just like, that was kind of exactly what he was doing.
Still, he raised his head, put his hands on his thighs, and pushed up so that he was standing.
“Thanks for teaching me.” He said, quietly.
“It wasn't a problem.” Kains replied, gently. “Go and be blessed, my son.”
“Yeah, thanks.” Hexi mumbled, feeling awkward again as his eyes drifted to the side, as he turned and walked away.
Kains was a good guy, and he was comforting without being pushy, and when he talked about redemption it seemed really genuine, somehow, so that was at least kind of cool.
But there was a fundamental misunderstanding about why Hexi was here, and at this point he was a little embarrassed to admit to it. Diabel had been gently encouraging, and it had kind of felt like his intestines were tying themselves in a knot.
Because he wasn't getting involved with the Church because he wanted to be redeemed of sin or whatever. He'd heard rumors while Scouting that Priests could store stuff in pages of the Bible, and that was the closest thing to a Bag of Holding that Hexi had heard of so far. Kains acted like Hexi was making an excuse when he asked about it, but Kains was also seriously teaching him, so Hexadecimal couldn't really resent him. Probably he was just quietly waiting for Hexi to slowly trust him more, to open up more. The heck of it was, that was working; Hexi didn't know how he felt about that, either.
Hexi sighed, slapping his cheeks with his hands, the material of his gloves making a muffled clapping sound against the fabric of his mask.
He jogged outside, grunting at the evening sun as he pushed out into the wide central plaza of the First Floor, coming out from the big Church that faced onto it. No, wait, it was technically a Cathedral now, wasn't it? Because Yulier was the Bishop? Hexadecimal didn't think girls were allowed to be Bishops, but he really didn't want to be the one to make that objection, so he just kept his mouth shut.
There wasn't a line for the Teleport Gate, and the Plaza was pretty much deserted, long shadows across the paving stones. Unless someone came to the Cathedral to visit the Monument of Life or meet with a priest, there really wasn't any reason to even visit the First Floor anymore. And since the Item Vendors that had been lining the plaza calling out to Players had kind of broken the mood the Church Aid Association was going for, all those NPCs had been shuffled out and the slots filled with empty placeholders. It was just as quiet outside the Cathedral as it was inside.
So coming off that sombre mood onto the bustle and shouting of Elvengrad was always kind of a trip. Main Street was always busy these days, all day every day, with Rear Liners and Mid Liners buying and selling mats and equipment, and then partying during the night. [The Wheel and Eel] that he was walking past right then was a particularly famous spot for trading mob drops.
Broadly speaking, Hexi ignored them. The highest-tier stuff they had on offer was second-hand goods that was obsoleted off the Front Line. He wasn't interested in buying back his own trash.
No, he was going somewhere because Shishou had called a meeting. He checked his minimap, ducking around a corner and going down a sidestreet as he walked towards the meeting place.
He glanced up at the sign, and immediately cringed.
[Meido Paradice!]
That's what the sign hanging over the door said, in misspelled English with an exclamation point and everything.
Hexadecimal sucked air in through his nose, and then stepped forward, pushing the door open and stepping across the threshold. A bell on the back of the door jingled.
“Welcome home, master!” Two girls on either side of the door chorused, as they bowed to him.
Hexi instinctively bowed back, lower, even though they were almost certainly NPCs instead of Players. Well, he certainly hoped that they were NPCs.
He opened his mouth.
“Would you like dinner?” One asked, coquettishly.
Hexi stumbled over his tongue as it cut him off, and tried to open his mouth again.
“Or a bath?” The other said, fluttering her eyelids at him.
“Or maybe...” They chorused, suggestively.
Hexadecimal darted back outside, the door slamming behind him. He breathed in, and then out.
He pushed the door open again and stepped back inside.
“Welcome home, Master!” They chorused again, exactly the same.
“I'm meeting someone.” Hexi hurriedly said, before they could speak again. “Can you tell me where Shishou is?” He asked, feeling flustered. “Shishou is [The White Witch].” He corrected himself.
With matching smiles like professional idols, they both tilted their heads to the side at the exact same angle.
“This way please!” One said, bowing to him, before it turned and walked away.
Hexi bowed back, again reflexively, and then hurried three steps to catch up with her.
She led him around to the back, pushing aside a sliding Shoji door (which clashed really badly with the linoleum, pseudo-fluorescent lights, and cafe tables) and bowing as she gestured inside the room.
“Ah! Deshi!” Ilya said, waving from the head of the table.
“Sorry I'm late.” Hexi mumbled, glancing around at the people gathered. He recognized Silica-kun, but the guy slouched in his chair on Ilya's right with the creepily intense gaze and the boy sitting his his head down were both strangers to him. No, the creepily intense guy looked familiar now that he thought about it, but the kid was definitely a total stranger.
“It's no problem, you're right on time exactly!” Ilya said, smiling kindly as she patted the chair on her left side.
“Now I'm sure you already know Silica-chan”, Ilya said, “but I don't believe you have been introduced to these other two.” She stood, pushing her chair back with her hands.
The guy sitting next to her quickly followed her lead, pushing himself up quickly and standing with his back straight. It was quite the contrast to his slouched-over posture while sitting.
The other boy stood as well, although he was actually shorter standing than sitting in the chair.
“Everyone,” Ilya said, “This is my wonderful apprentice, Hexideshi! You can call him Hexadecimal, and even though he's part of the [Paladins], please treat him well!”
What was that, Hexi thought to himself. “Good to meet you.” He said, half-mumbling.
“And of course, I am pleased to introduce you to the newest recruit into the [Brotherhood of Saint Mark], this is our own Kuradeel-kun.” Ilya said, as she gestured with her palm towards the creepy guy. “We expect great things of him, so please look after him.”
“Much obliged.” Kuradeel said, voice stiff, even though his lip twitched like he was suppressing a grin.
“A-ah.” Hexadecimal agreed.
“And of course, the star of today's show, the reason we've gathered here today, the fine Rear Liner, [Berserker]. Please treat him well.” Ilya said. Her smile somehow looked a little plastic to Hexi.
“You can just call me Bel.” The kid said, eyes down.
“Tut tut!” Ilya said, clapping her hands together once. “When you have such a fine name like Berserker, it would be a shame if you didn't use it. Wouldn't it? Berserker-kun.”
So this was that, huh.
There was a rumor going around on the Front Line.
Retired Players who didn't really participate in the game.
Rear Liners who only did the minimum needed to support themselves.
Mid Liners who slowly explored the already-conquered Floors.
And Front Liners, who were actively clearing the game.
To those four broad categories stacked by Floor, it was whispered that Diabel was trying to add a fifth category that was separate to them.
“So, Berserker-kun is a [Side Liner], huh?” Hexadecimal asked, glancing at the kid speculatively.
Science Liners, or Side Liners. Kibaou was pushing for the second one because his sense of humor was kind of terrible. Hexi was just going along with that at this point since he didn't really care either way.
“Um?” The kid asked, tilting his head to the side, looking confused.
“Yes, that's correct.” Ilya cheerfully said.
The four layers of Player, divided by Floor, obviously applied to the people who actually went out and engaged mobs, but it was even obvious when looking at support and crafting Players. For example, considering two [Smiths] that Hexi knew, even though he went out into the field more frequently than she did, Grimlock was clearly a Mid Liner, while Lisbeth was clearly a Front Liner. So it wasn't like there was an absolute dividing line, but it was also true that jumping up a category was a big hurdle that a Player really had to struggle to clear.
But theoretically, that didn't have to apply to a certain category of Players: the people who developed [Spells]. Because while having a high Skill in the spells mattered to using them quickly and reliably, it was also true that [Magecraft Traits] didn't really improve. Someone that was [Level One] could theoretically be just as good at Magecraft as someone at [Level Ninety-Nine]. Or rather, it was actually plausible that a Rear or Mid Liner could develop [Spells] useful to the Front.
Creating that category of Player was Diabel's new secret project. Well, since it was the subject of Fronter gossip even Hexi had heard about it, but until it was officially published in the [Argo Guide] it wasn't like the Mid or Rear Liners would really know about it.
“I see.” Hexadecimal said, as he finally sat down at the table.
Ilya smiled, and pushed a drink in front of him. Ah, it was a spare that she had already ordered for him.
She had an expectant look on her face.
Hexadecimal grunted, and materialized a drinking straw from his inventory.
Ilya pouted, but turned back to the conversation. “Well, that's essentially the case. Berserker-kun has been actively developing Spells while at the Boarding School, and I heard about him through a mutual acquaintance.” Ilya said, nodding at Silica.
“Ah! Yes.” Silica said, blinking as the floor was suddenly turned over to her. “I met Bel-kun, I mean, Berserker-kun, in the [Wheel and Eel] when he was recommended to me by the [Barbarians].” Silica had a weirdly professional smile while she said that.
“R-right!” Berserker said, looking uncomfortable. “Um, I wanted to know if there was anyone that could help me, since I'm working on a [Pure Eye] spell. And, um, since Silica-nee-chan has the [Mystic Eye of Charm], I was pointed to her.”
Hexi grimaced under his mask. Was Ilya trying to steal a march on Diabel? Hexi wanted to complain to his Shishou about her putting him in the middle of that again, but he already knew it was useless.
“Um.” Kuradeel said, looking surprisingly hesitant. And wow, he could really fade into the background, even with such an intense appearance.
“Ah, haven't I said?” Ilya said, touching her finger to her lip in a cute gesture. “Well, just like I put the [Mystic Eye of Whisper] into you, Kuradeel-kun, Silica has the [Mystic Eye of Charm], and Hexideshi is the senpai to both of you with his [Mystic Eye of Binding].”
Ilya clenched her fist in front of her in a guts pose. “All three get!”
“Uh, White Witch-sama,” Berserker said, hesitating, “I've heard of Binding,” and he glanced shyly at Hexi, before looking away, “But what are the eyes of Charm and Whisper?”
Ilya pouted, considering. “The simplest answer,” she said slowly, “is that Binding interferes with the body, Charm interferes with the emotions, and Whisper interferes with the mind.” She nodded, and then corrected herself. “Well, since they're still fundamentally actuated by your Magic Circuits just like any Spell Phenomena, splitting them up like that is overly reductionist, but it's a simple way to understand how they're different.”
Hexadecimal traded glances with Silica. Fortunately the Sixth Ranger wasn't here, or they'd really go off on an incomprehensible jargon-filled tangent. Only Kirito even tried to keep up with that any more. They had to pull Ilya back on track before it was too late, though.
“So if my [Mystic Eye of Binding] allows me to, uh, interfere physically, then I can see how it allows me to puppet-control mobs who fail against the spell. How is [Mystic Eye of Charm] different?”
Silica magnificently picked up her prompt. “Well I've only had it for a few days,” she said with a self-depreciating laugh, “but [Charm] is more like, I can change the mob's reaction state from [Enemy] to [Neutral] or even [Friendly]?”
Ilya chuckled delicately into her palm. “Traditionally the [Charm Eye] made the target fall in love with the caster. Ah, but Silica-chan, you use it with your Beast Element, isn't that right? I wonder what that means.” Ilya trailed off suggestively.
“Mou.” Silica whined slumping over in her chair. “Ilya-chan, you said you wouldn't tease me about that again.”
Silica was just plain better at communication skills that Hexi was, but he was getting good enough that he could tell that Silica was actually bothered by that, at least a little bit. Ilya could get pretty rough when she teased people, and only the Sixth Ranger was capable of really counterattacking. The best Hexi could do was deflect or evade.
“I can see where that would be really useful for you.” Hexi said. When she turned to look at him, Silica had a betrayed look in her eyes, and Hexi realized he really needed to complete the thought. “I mean, that means it's easy for you to tame mobs, right? To use as Familiars.”
“That's right.” Silica said, smiling up at him in relief.
“So then, uh, Kuradeel-san.” Hexadecimal said. He had almost used kun, but somehow the look in those sunken eyes was too intense. “What can you do with the [Mystic Eye of Whisper]?”
There was a pause, and then Kuradeel spoke. “I'll demonstrate.”
He frowned, closing his eyes as he concentrated, and then slowly opened them.
His irises were red. No, it was more like tiny magical shapes were shining red on top of his irises, making it look like his eyeballs were glowing. Hexadecimal knew a similar effect happened with his [Binding Eye], although his shined more of a flat yellow color.
redrum
Hexi blinked, cocking his head to the side. Had he heard something?
redrum
There it was again, like someone was whispering right behind his ear. Hexi turned to look behind him, an uneasy feeling rising out of his gut.
redrumredrumREDRUM
“Gah!” Hexi said, popping his Circuits open. The freaky chanting and the uneasy feeling both immediately ended, even though he hadn't even circulated prana.
“That was freaky.” Hexadecimal admitted.
Kuradeel smiled like that had been a compliment. Well, Hexi supposed it was better to let him think that.
“As you can see,” Ilya explained, “the [Whisper Eye] creates false sensory perception, primarily in the form of auditory hallucination.”
“If it's just hearing things, then what was with that creepy feeling?” Hexi complained.
Ilya hummed. “Fundamentally the [Whisper Eye] becomes a form of hypnosis. That's what it's for. Because of Kuradeel's unique talent, however, he's especially gifted at the kind of hallucination that works like the special effects in a horror movie.”
Kuradeel nodded proudly, even though Hexi was pretty sure that wasn't something to be proud of.
“So those are the three kinds of [Spell] that can be printed on the surface of an eyeball and automatically activated by circulating prana through them.” Ilya summarized, clapping her hands together. “Although considered basic, they are highly-regarded for their efficiency and reliability, so please use them well.”
“Now, you said something interesting earlier. Berserker-kun.” Ilya said, turning to the kid among them. And what was up with that weird emphasis on his name?
“Um, right.” He said, taking that as his cue. “So I've developed a spell that's a [Pure Eye], um, and it lets me see like, sound waves, I can look at things like a bat.” His explanation was a little weird, but Hexi mostly followed it.
“That's not technically correct.” Ilya said, shaking her head with a put-upon sigh, shaking her head in theatrical dismay.
“Please teach us, Ilya-shishou.” Hexi loyally replied to her prompt.
“What you're doing is neither a [Pure Eye] nor even truly a [Mystic Eye].” Ilya lectured, not bothered at all as the kid shrunk in his seat. She was in full-blown lecture mode so she didn't even notice.
“In the first place, a [Mystic Eye] is a formal spell that is engraved on the iris, a magecraft circle that forms a film across the pupil that is projected outwards onto the object of your vision. Since you haven't engraved the spell onto your eyeball by surgically altering the appropriate Circuits, it isn't a [Mystic Eye] by definition, instead it is a vision-enhancing spell.” Ilya nodded in agreement with herself.
“Ah!” Silica said, tilting her head to the side. “But because it's adding a new kind of vision instead of improving existing sight, it's [Alteration] instead of [Reinforcement], right?” She smiled encouragingly at Berserker.
“Um, right!” He replied with an uncertain smile.
“In the second place”, Ilya continued heedlessly, “although they can be organically encouraged and developed, [Pure Eyes] are a phenomena that occur, not an effect that humans can directly cause. And finally and most importantly, something of that grade simply doesn't rise to the level of Pure Eye. It's just two points drawing a line, after all.”
Despite himself Hexi was kind of curious about that. “What do you mean by that, Ilya-shishou?”
Ilya turned to him, smiling patiently. “A [Mystic Eye] is fundamentally something that is projected from one person onto a target. From A to B, it's a line. Whereas a [Pure Eye] is always... triangular, because it draws on karma, or possibly even destiny. Rather than projecting the effect onto the target, it's more like the [Pure Eye] takes a photograph, submits the photograph to Google Image Search, and returns the resulting information to the one who bears the [Pure Eye].”
Kuradeel opened his mouth, and then closed it, frowning.
“Yes, Kuradeel-kun?” Ilya gently asked.
“How's that different?” He finally asked. “I mean, how can you tell the difference. Like, uh,” he was clearly struggling to articulate his question, “like let's say that you used a Pure Eye, to, I don't know, check the HP of a mob. Then a [Pure Eye] would pull the information off the server, I guess? While a Mystic Eye would look at the particular mob?” He frowned. “Since mobs are hosted server-side, I dunno that's any different.”
Ilya nodded. “That's actually insightful, and works towards the fundamental way to test the difference between a [Pure Eye] and a psychic [Mystic Eye].” She pursed her lips, considering. “In order to defeat a Mystic Eye, you can shroud the target with a defense. But in order to fool a Pure Eye, you have to interfere with the bearer's connection to the World. Their karma, or destiny.”
Hexadecimal nodded slowly, frowning as he digested that. “So it's much harder to fool a [Pure Eye] then a [Mystic Eye], is that it?” It sounded like a [Pure Eye] was some kind of, Super Observe command, while a Mystic Eye was 'just' a spell. More limited, but more powerful inside those limits, that kind of tradeoff.
Ilya tilted her head to the side, making an uncertain face. “Yes, but that's really just a side effect? For a magus it's more like, a [Pure Eye] is interesting, while a [Mystic Eye] is useful.”
I I I
Front Liners were mean.
Bel stared down at the table in front of him, hands folded in his lap as he tried not to pout. He didn't want to look uncool in front of Silica.
He tried not to take it personal, but he had been really proud. He had been asked to show off his cool Spell to [The White Witch]! He'd been feeling really low, and working on his Spells made him feel better, and when he'd been asked to show off his Spell to Front Liners, he'd been really happy and proud.
But they didn't even ask to see it. Instead, The White Witch had just started lecturing him about how wrong he was. She didn't even see his Spell first, how would she know? It was his Spell. He had thought it up, even though listening to the NPC trainers was just as confusing and frustrating as listening to his math teacher in school. He had tried really hard, and she didn't even look before making fun of his Spell!
What did she know, anyway.
Bel felt like he was gonna cry. He didn't want to give her that.
“Um.” He said, without looking up. “I gotta go, or I'll be late.”
“Thank you for visiting us. Berserker-kun.” The White Witch said, curtsying. Some [Titled Player]. Bel wanted to tell her that the Sixth Ranger wouldn't be mean like her, but he didn't want to pick a fight. Mom always said it was wrong to pick fights.
And why did she say his name like that, anyway?
“You're welcome.” He mumbled, without looking up.
“Um, you want...” The weird guy with the mask looked like he was gonna offer to walk Bel home. Like Bel was a kid.
“No.” He shook his head. “I'll be fine.”
Silica smiled at him and waved goodbye. Bel nodded stiffly. She was still really cute, but she had just let him get picked on. He still wanted her to think he was cool, but Bel didn't really want anything to do with her. He wasn't sure.
He was weirdly grateful to the masked guy for asking, even if he had to say no, cause he didn't want to be around them no more.
“Later, I guess.” Bel mumbled, turning and walking out. He held himself back from running, he didn't want to look like he was running away.
He didn't want to go back. If he went back then Huntar and Emily and Sasha would all ask about how it went, and he didn't even want to think about it, let alone talk about it. Maybe not ever, but definitely not right now.
The sun was just setting. It would be dark soon. He opened his menu, and typed up a message to Sasha, making excuses that he was still in the meeting. He didn't like to lie, but he had especially been given permission to go out late after dinner, he wanted to wait until after bed time to go back. If he told Sasha he didn't want to talk about it she would let him not talk about it, and she wouldn't ask. Sasha was like a good mom like that. But Huntar and Emily were just as excited as he was. Had been. He didn't want to talk to them.
He wished there were swings somewhere he could go sit on. Instead he wandered aimlessly, between the back alleys in the city. It was spooky, kind of, but he was in a Safe Zone so he would be okay.
“I-” He stopped himself. He didn't say it. If he started talking to Harper, then he'd cry. Bel didn't want to cry.
He sat down, drawing his knees up and wrapping his arms around them.
He thought about his cool spell, and playing with Huntar, and how they'd sneak off to learn Spells together, and compete with Emily over who had the coolest spells. He didn't think about Harper or Chuck. He thought about how Sasha always pushed them to eat lots even though it was VR and they didn't need to eat at all. He heard a long note in the background, real low and deep. He didn't think about how Harper always whistled even during dinner, and said “Good night” every night when he went to bed, and how Harper always said “Good Morning” and that made it so Chuck had to say “Good Morning” back even though he didn't want to. The note went slowly out.
Miserable, Bel tucked his chin tighter against his knees, wrapping his arms tighter. He could hear the note again, real funny like it was coming up his butt through the ground, not just through the air to his ears. He kind of wanted to turn on his Spell and see what it looked like, but he didn't want to at the same time. He didn't want to think.
He heard the note again. It wasn't any louder, it wasn't any closer, but it was more. Like, it was more in his mind. Even though he wasn't hearing it more, it was filling up his thoughts, pushing out stuff about other people that he didn't want to think about anyway.
It was good. Bel relaxed, his arms unclenching from around his knees, and his back relaxing as he sagged, since he wasn't holding his back real tight any more. He didn't have to think.
He heard the note again, it was really big in his mind. It wasn't any closer though, it still sounded, it still felt really far away.
Bel stood up. He wanted to get closer to the note. He didn't want to think about anything else but that.
Mechanically, he started to walk towards the note.
End
I I I
1) Ugh so long I haven't even been THAT busy, I just got out of the habit of writing. And it's not like I was particularly dealing with writer's block, I just broke the habit of writing regular.
2) Yeah, this is the kid from that anecdote Sasha told back in 14.3, I figured it would be a shame to waste that.
3) Front Liners play rough, huh?
4) Rather than mood whiplash precisely, I was trying to create a feeling of disconnect there. Where Ilya and her crew were talking but missing that essential point, and they were all pointing in completely a different direction than the kid. Or, fundamentally Ilya is still a jackass and the rest of her crew are too used to it? Like that maybe.
Like always, Harper was humming.
He claimed it was a cheap way to draw Aggro against ambush-type mobs, so (he claimed) it was just part of his duty as the tank. Maybe it was even true.
But Bel knew it was an excuse; after all, Harper was always humming, and occasionally, whistling, inside the Safe Zone as well as out in the field. That's how Bel knew it was a really an excuse.
But Harper was really good at it, so it wasn't like Bel minded. Harper said he was going to get an Instrument Skill once he got his third skill slot.
Even if he was bad though, Bel still wouldn't have minded. Because Harper was his important party mate.
Three days after the game had started, Bel had been in a funk, scared and alone. Sometimes he had sniffled, crying because he missed mom and he wanted to be sleeping in his own bed and not in the inn. And he had been running out of Col, so he wouldn't be able to afford the inn anymore.
Mom had always said that if he was a big boy he should pick himself up, so he'd picked himself up and gone out in the field to hunt mobs.
After that he'd met Harper. Adults were scary, but Harper hadn't told him to stay in the Safe Zone like most adults. Instead Harper had asked if he wanted to party up, since Harper was a tank, he needed somebody to be DPS for him.
After that they had been a party. Harper said "good night" to him every night before bedtime and "good morning" every morning when they left the inn. They ate together. Bel wondered if this was what it would had been like if dad hadn't left. That was a secret though.
Chuck held up his hand, as he stopped in place.
Harper stopped too, his whistle ending.
Bel stopped behind them, and he nervously dropped into a fighting stance as his hands came to rest on the handles of both daggers on his hips.
"See something?" Bel whispered.
Chuck replied after a moment. "Yeah." He replied, reaching over his shoulder to unhook his halberd and swing it around. "Get ready for battle."
"Let's go." Harper said, stepping forward as he drew the greatsword off his back. "Same drill as always?"
"Should be." Chuck replied. "Careful, this is about the area where [Lizard Berserkers] start appearing."
Chuck had been in the Beta test. Bel could tell that Chuck didn't like him because he was a kid, even if Chuck never said anything. But kids could see more than adults gave them credit for, so Bel could tell. Still, Chuck didn't talk down to him, so Bel tried to be as good a party member as any adult, so Chuck wouldn't have anything to complain about. Mom said that getting along with people even if you didn't like them was something a big boy would do, and since Chuck was trying to get along with Bel, Bel felt like he should also try and pretend.
They moved forward, Harper in the lead with Chuck and Bel at his sides. The [Drill] they used was to gang up on one mob at a time, with Harper drawing it off so Chuck and Bel could double-team it.
They scrambled through the woods, climbing up a slight slope. There was a pile of rubble in front of them, that looked like a stone house that had fallen apart.
And yeah, that was where the mobs came from.
Four popped out, heads poking out of the ruined house, making that same half-growl, half-chirping sound that all Kobolds make.
Three were [Armor Scavengers], the regular tank-types that appeared around here. They always had a random mix of equipment so their defenses were always a little different. It didn't really change the way the party handled them, though.
The last one was wearing a beat-up robe and holding a stick. He was smaller and thinner than the other three, and his icon said he was a [Worm Initiate].
"Think we should go for the Caster type?" Bel asked.
Chuck grunted. "The only spells in town are buffs, right? So I think it can only use Reinforcement. Between preventing buffs or decreasing the number of attackers, which would be better?"
Harper made a thoughtful hum sound before speaking. "We're better suited to peeling off the Scavengers one by one and dealing with them that way. Charging the caster might get us swarmed."
Chuck nodded sharply, before shouting. "Here they come!"
Harper roared, stepping forward and using a Sword Skill to attack one of the Armor Scavengers.
Chuck followed up, using his bigger weapon to do repeated damage. Bel darted forward, whipping out his daggers. He didn't want to fall behind.
"Oooh!" Harper shouted, swinging his sword up.
The [Worm Initiate] started chanting, waving his staff around.
Bel dodged the attack of a second Armor Scavenger, ducking under Harper's arm to launch forward with a double-slash, before pulling back out again.
The [Worm Initiate] finished chanting, and pointed his staff at Harper with a sound that was half shout and half croak.
"Geh!" Harper grunted, stumbling in place. He was moving awkwardly, his body stiff. He almost fell over before he managed to catch himself with a jerky movement.
"A debuff?" Chuck asked.
"Yeah, seems like it." Harper said, voice slightly slurred.
"Damn." Chuck said, eyes darting from party member to party member.
"Damn!" He repeated, as he used a skill.
A minute later, Bel figured out why. All three of the Armor Scavengers were ganging up on Harper.
And Harper was having a hard time dodging with his body under a partial paralysis like that.
The [Worm Initiate] was chanting again.
"Damn!" Chuck was screaming this time, as he frantically hacked at the kobolds. "Let's retreat!"
"Good... idea." Harper said, stumbling as he fell back, awkwardly walking as Chuck covered him.
The [Worm Initiate] finished chanting, and pointed his staff at Harper again.
And Harper stopped moving, grinding to a halt.
"Oh damn." Chuck moaned, eyes darting around, before they rested on Bel.
"Kid." Chuck said, eyes intense. "Get running."
"But Harper-" Bel protested.
"I said run!" Chuck screamed, eyes jerking forward as he swung his halberd, attacking an [Armor Scavenger] and interrupting it's attack on Harper. "Run you brat!"
"But-" Bel said again, uncertain.
"Do as I say!" Chuck shouted, turning back to engage the mobs. "Goddamit Harper, I called you an idiot for dragging a brat along, but I was an idiot for going along with it." He swung his halberd again, frantically trying to keep up. But he wasn't.
Harper's HP was in the red.
And the [Worm Initiate] was chanting again.
"Get out of here kid, we'll catch up!" Chuck was screaming at him. Telling such an obvious lie, was Chuck the kind of adult that thought kids couldn't tell?
But Bel swallowed, tears forming in his eyes, as he turned, and ran.
He turned, sight blurry, as he sprinted away, not wanting to see. Not wanting to hear.
But he slammed into something, and fell backwards.
He looked up.
The [Worm Initiate] was standing in front of him, standing above him as he lay sprawled on his back, and then it finished chanting, and raised it's staff and pointed at him -!
And Bel woke up.
Gasping for air while his heart pounded in his chest, fingers balled in his blanket with his hands clenched in fists, Bel woke up. His eyelids stretched wide as they darted around the room.
His room, that he shared with Huntar. Huntar was asleep in the bed next to him. Bel hadn't screamed this time.
They were safe. This was a [Safe Zone]. This was their dorm room in the [Boarding School] in [Elvengrad]. He wasn't back out in the field on the First Floor.
Two weeks after the [Official Launch], the player named [Berserker], called [Bel] for short, had Retired from the game.
He checked the clock in his menu. It was 5:45 in the morning. Still really early, but he didn't feel like going back to sleep.
Bel decided to go hang out in the cafeteria. The [Lunch Lady] was an NPC, so she was there 24 hours a day.
He was a little thirsty, so he thought it would be good to have some of the red juice that was always available. It tasted a little weird, like apples but not really, but he kind of liked it.
And… there were always lights on in the cafeteria. That was good, too.
Quietly, with his arms wrapped around himself, Bel slid out of bed and scampered away, head down as he refused to look into the shadows.
I I I
Hexadecimal knelt, eyes closed with head bowed, and with his hands clasped together in front of him.
“Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee, and for those who do not have recourse to thee, especially the enemies of the Church and those recommended to thee. Amen.”
It was still a little weird, like he was cosplaying in bad taste. Maybe not just like, that was kind of exactly what he was doing.
Still, he raised his head, put his hands on his thighs, and pushed up so that he was standing.
“Thanks for teaching me.” He said, quietly.
“It wasn't a problem.” Kains replied, gently. “Go and be blessed, my son.”
“Yeah, thanks.” Hexi mumbled, feeling awkward again as his eyes drifted to the side, as he turned and walked away.
Kains was a good guy, and he was comforting without being pushy, and when he talked about redemption it seemed really genuine, somehow, so that was at least kind of cool.
But there was a fundamental misunderstanding about why Hexi was here, and at this point he was a little embarrassed to admit to it. Diabel had been gently encouraging, and it had kind of felt like his intestines were tying themselves in a knot.
Because he wasn't getting involved with the Church because he wanted to be redeemed of sin or whatever. He'd heard rumors while Scouting that Priests could store stuff in pages of the Bible, and that was the closest thing to a Bag of Holding that Hexi had heard of so far. Kains acted like Hexi was making an excuse when he asked about it, but Kains was also seriously teaching him, so Hexadecimal couldn't really resent him. Probably he was just quietly waiting for Hexi to slowly trust him more, to open up more. The heck of it was, that was working; Hexi didn't know how he felt about that, either.
Hexi sighed, slapping his cheeks with his hands, the material of his gloves making a muffled clapping sound against the fabric of his mask.
He jogged outside, grunting at the evening sun as he pushed out into the wide central plaza of the First Floor, coming out from the big Church that faced onto it. No, wait, it was technically a Cathedral now, wasn't it? Because Yulier was the Bishop? Hexadecimal didn't think girls were allowed to be Bishops, but he really didn't want to be the one to make that objection, so he just kept his mouth shut.
There wasn't a line for the Teleport Gate, and the Plaza was pretty much deserted, long shadows across the paving stones. Unless someone came to the Cathedral to visit the Monument of Life or meet with a priest, there really wasn't any reason to even visit the First Floor anymore. And since the Item Vendors that had been lining the plaza calling out to Players had kind of broken the mood the Church Aid Association was going for, all those NPCs had been shuffled out and the slots filled with empty placeholders. It was just as quiet outside the Cathedral as it was inside.
So coming off that sombre mood onto the bustle and shouting of Elvengrad was always kind of a trip. Main Street was always busy these days, all day every day, with Rear Liners and Mid Liners buying and selling mats and equipment, and then partying during the night. [The Wheel and Eel] that he was walking past right then was a particularly famous spot for trading mob drops.
Broadly speaking, Hexi ignored them. The highest-tier stuff they had on offer was second-hand goods that was obsoleted off the Front Line. He wasn't interested in buying back his own trash.
No, he was going somewhere because Shishou had called a meeting. He checked his minimap, ducking around a corner and going down a sidestreet as he walked towards the meeting place.
He glanced up at the sign, and immediately cringed.
[Meido Paradice!]
That's what the sign hanging over the door said, in misspelled English with an exclamation point and everything.
Hexadecimal sucked air in through his nose, and then stepped forward, pushing the door open and stepping across the threshold. A bell on the back of the door jingled.
“Welcome home, master!” Two girls on either side of the door chorused, as they bowed to him.
Hexi instinctively bowed back, lower, even though they were almost certainly NPCs instead of Players. Well, he certainly hoped that they were NPCs.
He opened his mouth.
“Would you like dinner?” One asked, coquettishly.
Hexi stumbled over his tongue as it cut him off, and tried to open his mouth again.
“Or a bath?” The other said, fluttering her eyelids at him.
“Or maybe...” They chorused, suggestively.
Hexadecimal darted back outside, the door slamming behind him. He breathed in, and then out.
He pushed the door open again and stepped back inside.
“Welcome home, Master!” They chorused again, exactly the same.
“I'm meeting someone.” Hexi hurriedly said, before they could speak again. “Can you tell me where Shishou is?” He asked, feeling flustered. “Shishou is [The White Witch].” He corrected himself.
With matching smiles like professional idols, they both tilted their heads to the side at the exact same angle.
“This way please!” One said, bowing to him, before it turned and walked away.
Hexi bowed back, again reflexively, and then hurried three steps to catch up with her.
She led him around to the back, pushing aside a sliding Shoji door (which clashed really badly with the linoleum, pseudo-fluorescent lights, and cafe tables) and bowing as she gestured inside the room.
“Ah! Deshi!” Ilya said, waving from the head of the table.
“Sorry I'm late.” Hexi mumbled, glancing around at the people gathered. He recognized Silica-kun, but the guy slouched in his chair on Ilya's right with the creepily intense gaze and the boy sitting his his head down were both strangers to him. No, the creepily intense guy looked familiar now that he thought about it, but the kid was definitely a total stranger.
“It's no problem, you're right on time exactly!” Ilya said, smiling kindly as she patted the chair on her left side.
“Now I'm sure you already know Silica-chan”, Ilya said, “but I don't believe you have been introduced to these other two.” She stood, pushing her chair back with her hands.
The guy sitting next to her quickly followed her lead, pushing himself up quickly and standing with his back straight. It was quite the contrast to his slouched-over posture while sitting.
The other boy stood as well, although he was actually shorter standing than sitting in the chair.
“Everyone,” Ilya said, “This is my wonderful apprentice, Hexideshi! You can call him Hexadecimal, and even though he's part of the [Paladins], please treat him well!”
What was that, Hexi thought to himself. “Good to meet you.” He said, half-mumbling.
“And of course, I am pleased to introduce you to the newest recruit into the [Brotherhood of Saint Mark], this is our own Kuradeel-kun.” Ilya said, as she gestured with her palm towards the creepy guy. “We expect great things of him, so please look after him.”
“Much obliged.” Kuradeel said, voice stiff, even though his lip twitched like he was suppressing a grin.
“A-ah.” Hexadecimal agreed.
“And of course, the star of today's show, the reason we've gathered here today, the fine Rear Liner, [Berserker]. Please treat him well.” Ilya said. Her smile somehow looked a little plastic to Hexi.
“You can just call me Bel.” The kid said, eyes down.
“Tut tut!” Ilya said, clapping her hands together once. “When you have such a fine name like Berserker, it would be a shame if you didn't use it. Wouldn't it? Berserker-kun.”
So this was that, huh.
There was a rumor going around on the Front Line.
Retired Players who didn't really participate in the game.
Rear Liners who only did the minimum needed to support themselves.
Mid Liners who slowly explored the already-conquered Floors.
And Front Liners, who were actively clearing the game.
To those four broad categories stacked by Floor, it was whispered that Diabel was trying to add a fifth category that was separate to them.
“So, Berserker-kun is a [Side Liner], huh?” Hexadecimal asked, glancing at the kid speculatively.
Science Liners, or Side Liners. Kibaou was pushing for the second one because his sense of humor was kind of terrible. Hexi was just going along with that at this point since he didn't really care either way.
“Um?” The kid asked, tilting his head to the side, looking confused.
“Yes, that's correct.” Ilya cheerfully said.
The four layers of Player, divided by Floor, obviously applied to the people who actually went out and engaged mobs, but it was even obvious when looking at support and crafting Players. For example, considering two [Smiths] that Hexi knew, even though he went out into the field more frequently than she did, Grimlock was clearly a Mid Liner, while Lisbeth was clearly a Front Liner. So it wasn't like there was an absolute dividing line, but it was also true that jumping up a category was a big hurdle that a Player really had to struggle to clear.
But theoretically, that didn't have to apply to a certain category of Players: the people who developed [Spells]. Because while having a high Skill in the spells mattered to using them quickly and reliably, it was also true that [Magecraft Traits] didn't really improve. Someone that was [Level One] could theoretically be just as good at Magecraft as someone at [Level Ninety-Nine]. Or rather, it was actually plausible that a Rear or Mid Liner could develop [Spells] useful to the Front.
Creating that category of Player was Diabel's new secret project. Well, since it was the subject of Fronter gossip even Hexi had heard about it, but until it was officially published in the [Argo Guide] it wasn't like the Mid or Rear Liners would really know about it.
“I see.” Hexadecimal said, as he finally sat down at the table.
Ilya smiled, and pushed a drink in front of him. Ah, it was a spare that she had already ordered for him.
She had an expectant look on her face.
Hexadecimal grunted, and materialized a drinking straw from his inventory.
Ilya pouted, but turned back to the conversation. “Well, that's essentially the case. Berserker-kun has been actively developing Spells while at the Boarding School, and I heard about him through a mutual acquaintance.” Ilya said, nodding at Silica.
“Ah! Yes.” Silica said, blinking as the floor was suddenly turned over to her. “I met Bel-kun, I mean, Berserker-kun, in the [Wheel and Eel] when he was recommended to me by the [Barbarians].” Silica had a weirdly professional smile while she said that.
“R-right!” Berserker said, looking uncomfortable. “Um, I wanted to know if there was anyone that could help me, since I'm working on a [Pure Eye] spell. And, um, since Silica-nee-chan has the [Mystic Eye of Charm], I was pointed to her.”
Hexi grimaced under his mask. Was Ilya trying to steal a march on Diabel? Hexi wanted to complain to his Shishou about her putting him in the middle of that again, but he already knew it was useless.
“Um.” Kuradeel said, looking surprisingly hesitant. And wow, he could really fade into the background, even with such an intense appearance.
“Ah, haven't I said?” Ilya said, touching her finger to her lip in a cute gesture. “Well, just like I put the [Mystic Eye of Whisper] into you, Kuradeel-kun, Silica has the [Mystic Eye of Charm], and Hexideshi is the senpai to both of you with his [Mystic Eye of Binding].”
Ilya clenched her fist in front of her in a guts pose. “All three get!”
“Uh, White Witch-sama,” Berserker said, hesitating, “I've heard of Binding,” and he glanced shyly at Hexi, before looking away, “But what are the eyes of Charm and Whisper?”
Ilya pouted, considering. “The simplest answer,” she said slowly, “is that Binding interferes with the body, Charm interferes with the emotions, and Whisper interferes with the mind.” She nodded, and then corrected herself. “Well, since they're still fundamentally actuated by your Magic Circuits just like any Spell Phenomena, splitting them up like that is overly reductionist, but it's a simple way to understand how they're different.”
Hexadecimal traded glances with Silica. Fortunately the Sixth Ranger wasn't here, or they'd really go off on an incomprehensible jargon-filled tangent. Only Kirito even tried to keep up with that any more. They had to pull Ilya back on track before it was too late, though.
“So if my [Mystic Eye of Binding] allows me to, uh, interfere physically, then I can see how it allows me to puppet-control mobs who fail against the spell. How is [Mystic Eye of Charm] different?”
Silica magnificently picked up her prompt. “Well I've only had it for a few days,” she said with a self-depreciating laugh, “but [Charm] is more like, I can change the mob's reaction state from [Enemy] to [Neutral] or even [Friendly]?”
Ilya chuckled delicately into her palm. “Traditionally the [Charm Eye] made the target fall in love with the caster. Ah, but Silica-chan, you use it with your Beast Element, isn't that right? I wonder what that means.” Ilya trailed off suggestively.
“Mou.” Silica whined slumping over in her chair. “Ilya-chan, you said you wouldn't tease me about that again.”
Silica was just plain better at communication skills that Hexi was, but he was getting good enough that he could tell that Silica was actually bothered by that, at least a little bit. Ilya could get pretty rough when she teased people, and only the Sixth Ranger was capable of really counterattacking. The best Hexi could do was deflect or evade.
“I can see where that would be really useful for you.” Hexi said. When she turned to look at him, Silica had a betrayed look in her eyes, and Hexi realized he really needed to complete the thought. “I mean, that means it's easy for you to tame mobs, right? To use as Familiars.”
“That's right.” Silica said, smiling up at him in relief.
“So then, uh, Kuradeel-san.” Hexadecimal said. He had almost used kun, but somehow the look in those sunken eyes was too intense. “What can you do with the [Mystic Eye of Whisper]?”
There was a pause, and then Kuradeel spoke. “I'll demonstrate.”
He frowned, closing his eyes as he concentrated, and then slowly opened them.
His irises were red. No, it was more like tiny magical shapes were shining red on top of his irises, making it look like his eyeballs were glowing. Hexadecimal knew a similar effect happened with his [Binding Eye], although his shined more of a flat yellow color.
redrum
Hexi blinked, cocking his head to the side. Had he heard something?
redrum
There it was again, like someone was whispering right behind his ear. Hexi turned to look behind him, an uneasy feeling rising out of his gut.
redrumredrumREDRUM
“Gah!” Hexi said, popping his Circuits open. The freaky chanting and the uneasy feeling both immediately ended, even though he hadn't even circulated prana.
“That was freaky.” Hexadecimal admitted.
Kuradeel smiled like that had been a compliment. Well, Hexi supposed it was better to let him think that.
“As you can see,” Ilya explained, “the [Whisper Eye] creates false sensory perception, primarily in the form of auditory hallucination.”
“If it's just hearing things, then what was with that creepy feeling?” Hexi complained.
Ilya hummed. “Fundamentally the [Whisper Eye] becomes a form of hypnosis. That's what it's for. Because of Kuradeel's unique talent, however, he's especially gifted at the kind of hallucination that works like the special effects in a horror movie.”
Kuradeel nodded proudly, even though Hexi was pretty sure that wasn't something to be proud of.
“So those are the three kinds of [Spell] that can be printed on the surface of an eyeball and automatically activated by circulating prana through them.” Ilya summarized, clapping her hands together. “Although considered basic, they are highly-regarded for their efficiency and reliability, so please use them well.”
“Now, you said something interesting earlier. Berserker-kun.” Ilya said, turning to the kid among them. And what was up with that weird emphasis on his name?
“Um, right.” He said, taking that as his cue. “So I've developed a spell that's a [Pure Eye], um, and it lets me see like, sound waves, I can look at things like a bat.” His explanation was a little weird, but Hexi mostly followed it.
“That's not technically correct.” Ilya said, shaking her head with a put-upon sigh, shaking her head in theatrical dismay.
“Please teach us, Ilya-shishou.” Hexi loyally replied to her prompt.
“What you're doing is neither a [Pure Eye] nor even truly a [Mystic Eye].” Ilya lectured, not bothered at all as the kid shrunk in his seat. She was in full-blown lecture mode so she didn't even notice.
“In the first place, a [Mystic Eye] is a formal spell that is engraved on the iris, a magecraft circle that forms a film across the pupil that is projected outwards onto the object of your vision. Since you haven't engraved the spell onto your eyeball by surgically altering the appropriate Circuits, it isn't a [Mystic Eye] by definition, instead it is a vision-enhancing spell.” Ilya nodded in agreement with herself.
“Ah!” Silica said, tilting her head to the side. “But because it's adding a new kind of vision instead of improving existing sight, it's [Alteration] instead of [Reinforcement], right?” She smiled encouragingly at Berserker.
“Um, right!” He replied with an uncertain smile.
“In the second place”, Ilya continued heedlessly, “although they can be organically encouraged and developed, [Pure Eyes] are a phenomena that occur, not an effect that humans can directly cause. And finally and most importantly, something of that grade simply doesn't rise to the level of Pure Eye. It's just two points drawing a line, after all.”
Despite himself Hexi was kind of curious about that. “What do you mean by that, Ilya-shishou?”
Ilya turned to him, smiling patiently. “A [Mystic Eye] is fundamentally something that is projected from one person onto a target. From A to B, it's a line. Whereas a [Pure Eye] is always... triangular, because it draws on karma, or possibly even destiny. Rather than projecting the effect onto the target, it's more like the [Pure Eye] takes a photograph, submits the photograph to Google Image Search, and returns the resulting information to the one who bears the [Pure Eye].”
Kuradeel opened his mouth, and then closed it, frowning.
“Yes, Kuradeel-kun?” Ilya gently asked.
“How's that different?” He finally asked. “I mean, how can you tell the difference. Like, uh,” he was clearly struggling to articulate his question, “like let's say that you used a Pure Eye, to, I don't know, check the HP of a mob. Then a [Pure Eye] would pull the information off the server, I guess? While a Mystic Eye would look at the particular mob?” He frowned. “Since mobs are hosted server-side, I dunno that's any different.”
Ilya nodded. “That's actually insightful, and works towards the fundamental way to test the difference between a [Pure Eye] and a psychic [Mystic Eye].” She pursed her lips, considering. “In order to defeat a Mystic Eye, you can shroud the target with a defense. But in order to fool a Pure Eye, you have to interfere with the bearer's connection to the World. Their karma, or destiny.”
Hexadecimal nodded slowly, frowning as he digested that. “So it's much harder to fool a [Pure Eye] then a [Mystic Eye], is that it?” It sounded like a [Pure Eye] was some kind of, Super Observe command, while a Mystic Eye was 'just' a spell. More limited, but more powerful inside those limits, that kind of tradeoff.
Ilya tilted her head to the side, making an uncertain face. “Yes, but that's really just a side effect? For a magus it's more like, a [Pure Eye] is interesting, while a [Mystic Eye] is useful.”
I I I
Front Liners were mean.
Bel stared down at the table in front of him, hands folded in his lap as he tried not to pout. He didn't want to look uncool in front of Silica.
He tried not to take it personal, but he had been really proud. He had been asked to show off his cool Spell to [The White Witch]! He'd been feeling really low, and working on his Spells made him feel better, and when he'd been asked to show off his Spell to Front Liners, he'd been really happy and proud.
But they didn't even ask to see it. Instead, The White Witch had just started lecturing him about how wrong he was. She didn't even see his Spell first, how would she know? It was his Spell. He had thought it up, even though listening to the NPC trainers was just as confusing and frustrating as listening to his math teacher in school. He had tried really hard, and she didn't even look before making fun of his Spell!
What did she know, anyway.
Bel felt like he was gonna cry. He didn't want to give her that.
“Um.” He said, without looking up. “I gotta go, or I'll be late.”
“Thank you for visiting us. Berserker-kun.” The White Witch said, curtsying. Some [Titled Player]. Bel wanted to tell her that the Sixth Ranger wouldn't be mean like her, but he didn't want to pick a fight. Mom always said it was wrong to pick fights.
And why did she say his name like that, anyway?
“You're welcome.” He mumbled, without looking up.
“Um, you want...” The weird guy with the mask looked like he was gonna offer to walk Bel home. Like Bel was a kid.
“No.” He shook his head. “I'll be fine.”
Silica smiled at him and waved goodbye. Bel nodded stiffly. She was still really cute, but she had just let him get picked on. He still wanted her to think he was cool, but Bel didn't really want anything to do with her. He wasn't sure.
He was weirdly grateful to the masked guy for asking, even if he had to say no, cause he didn't want to be around them no more.
“Later, I guess.” Bel mumbled, turning and walking out. He held himself back from running, he didn't want to look like he was running away.
He didn't want to go back. If he went back then Huntar and Emily and Sasha would all ask about how it went, and he didn't even want to think about it, let alone talk about it. Maybe not ever, but definitely not right now.
The sun was just setting. It would be dark soon. He opened his menu, and typed up a message to Sasha, making excuses that he was still in the meeting. He didn't like to lie, but he had especially been given permission to go out late after dinner, he wanted to wait until after bed time to go back. If he told Sasha he didn't want to talk about it she would let him not talk about it, and she wouldn't ask. Sasha was like a good mom like that. But Huntar and Emily were just as excited as he was. Had been. He didn't want to talk to them.
He wished there were swings somewhere he could go sit on. Instead he wandered aimlessly, between the back alleys in the city. It was spooky, kind of, but he was in a Safe Zone so he would be okay.
“I-” He stopped himself. He didn't say it. If he started talking to Harper, then he'd cry. Bel didn't want to cry.
He sat down, drawing his knees up and wrapping his arms around them.
He thought about his cool spell, and playing with Huntar, and how they'd sneak off to learn Spells together, and compete with Emily over who had the coolest spells. He didn't think about Harper or Chuck. He thought about how Sasha always pushed them to eat lots even though it was VR and they didn't need to eat at all. He heard a long note in the background, real low and deep. He didn't think about how Harper always whistled even during dinner, and said “Good night” every night when he went to bed, and how Harper always said “Good Morning” and that made it so Chuck had to say “Good Morning” back even though he didn't want to. The note went slowly out.
Miserable, Bel tucked his chin tighter against his knees, wrapping his arms tighter. He could hear the note again, real funny like it was coming up his butt through the ground, not just through the air to his ears. He kind of wanted to turn on his Spell and see what it looked like, but he didn't want to at the same time. He didn't want to think.
He heard the note again. It wasn't any louder, it wasn't any closer, but it was more. Like, it was more in his mind. Even though he wasn't hearing it more, it was filling up his thoughts, pushing out stuff about other people that he didn't want to think about anyway.
It was good. Bel relaxed, his arms unclenching from around his knees, and his back relaxing as he sagged, since he wasn't holding his back real tight any more. He didn't have to think.
He heard the note again, it was really big in his mind. It wasn't any closer though, it still sounded, it still felt really far away.
Bel stood up. He wanted to get closer to the note. He didn't want to think about anything else but that.
Mechanically, he started to walk towards the note.
End
I I I
1) Ugh so long I haven't even been THAT busy, I just got out of the habit of writing. And it's not like I was particularly dealing with writer's block, I just broke the habit of writing regular.
2) Yeah, this is the kid from that anecdote Sasha told back in 14.3, I figured it would be a shame to waste that.
3) Front Liners play rough, huh?
4) Rather than mood whiplash precisely, I was trying to create a feeling of disconnect there. Where Ilya and her crew were talking but missing that essential point, and they were all pointing in completely a different direction than the kid. Or, fundamentally Ilya is still a jackass and the rest of her crew are too used to it? Like that maybe.
Hooray, an update!
And the [Pied Piper] made its first move! The first to fall is [Berserker]-kun, the one to snatch the nickname from Illyasviel. She's still sore about it.
The three canonically creatable types of [Mystic Eyes] make their appearance. Also, the [Church]. I guess we will see an [Executor] NPC in action, maybe in a joint raid against the [Piper]?
(I'm somewhat reminded about Bell Cranel from DanMachi. Must be the name though, since [Berserker]-kun doesn't have the sheer drive to become stronger like Bell.)
Edit: Danmachi, not Oregairu. I blame SB.
And the [Pied Piper] made its first move! The first to fall is [Berserker]-kun, the one to snatch the nickname from Illyasviel. She's still sore about it.
The three canonically creatable types of [Mystic Eyes] make their appearance. Also, the [Church]. I guess we will see an [Executor] NPC in action, maybe in a joint raid against the [Piper]?
(I'm somewhat reminded about Bell Cranel from DanMachi. Must be the name though, since [Berserker]-kun doesn't have the sheer drive to become stronger like Bell.)
Edit: Danmachi, not Oregairu. I blame SB.
Wow that opening segment was really pulling at my heart strings. Good job, man. So seeing as Bel survived the encounter with the Worm Initiate I guess it's safe to assume that Shirou swooped in to save him but was too late for Chuck or Harper. Speaking of Harper forgive me if it's meant to be obvious but he's the player piloting the piper right?
Leaving that aside I digged the world building in the chapter from the maid cafe to Kains returning as a member of the CAA to Diabel try to make Sid-liners a thing. That and little touches like the fake apple juice at the boarding house make the world feel real.
Also seeing the development of the main characters magecraft was nice. Sillica learning attract that is super effective on monster and Kuradeel's eyeballs have a horror filter seems oddly fitting. Hexi learning about black keys is going to help a bit with his inventory problem but having only having thin long blade would limit Hexi style of using different weapon such as maces and bolas in conjunction with different curses.
God I ended up rambling anyway can't wait to see more.
Leaving that aside I digged the world building in the chapter from the maid cafe to Kains returning as a member of the CAA to Diabel try to make Sid-liners a thing. That and little touches like the fake apple juice at the boarding house make the world feel real.
Also seeing the development of the main characters magecraft was nice. Sillica learning attract that is super effective on monster and Kuradeel's eyeballs have a horror filter seems oddly fitting. Hexi learning about black keys is going to help a bit with his inventory problem but having only having thin long blade would limit Hexi style of using different weapon such as maces and bolas in conjunction with different curses.
God I ended up rambling anyway can't wait to see more.
They were probably one of the first groups to meet a Worm Initiate within the first month or so of the game.
I enjoyed the chapter, especially how the disconnect about the meeting's purpose and what was actually discussed didn't occur to anyone except Bel himself. It kind of put me off until we got to his second PoV and I realized he was feeling the exact same way I did. I can't help but wonder if the main reason Ilya called Bel there was so she could harass him for stealing her name, with the fact he was misusing the term "Pure Eyes" just being gravy on top.
I enjoyed the chapter, especially how the disconnect about the meeting's purpose and what was actually discussed didn't occur to anyone except Bel himself. It kind of put me off until we got to his second PoV and I realized he was feeling the exact same way I did. I can't help but wonder if the main reason Ilya called Bel there was so she could harass him for stealing her name, with the fact he was misusing the term "Pure Eyes" just being gravy on top.
Based on Daniel's post on SV, she apparently was entirely genuine in trying to bring Side-Liners into her orbit. She just doesn't understand why Players like Bel are experimenting and disregarded his (admittedly useless) spell in favor of a lecture. Although that doesn't preclude her subconsciously wanting to bully Berserker a bit.
16.3 Black Cats
The [Black Cats]. That was the name of the guild that Keita was in, with his friends from Outside.
"Three Birds!" Sasamaru shouted, thrusting forward with his spear. It howled, flaring up with the combined effects of wind, fire, and ether mixing together as they were emitted by his spear.
Well, that was what everyone called them, but technically, the full name entered into the system was [The Moonlit Black Cats].
Sasamaru's thrust pierced the mob in front of him, a ghostly corpse that hung in the air, mortal wounds still visible in his transparent form. The thrust ripped into him, scattering the ghost like fog being blown into sunlight.
Keita was pretty sure this was the first time they had actually been out running a quest in the moonlight, though.
Even as the light died down from Sasamaru's burst, Tetsuo stepped forward, shield raised defensively in front of him as he swung his strange mace-sword, striking the mob he was engaging. Rather than his weapon passing through and damaging with the elements, instead it was more like his solid blow could naturally touch ghosts, solidly smashing into his own ghost-soldier's skull.
Although the majority of Players lived in Elvengrad on the Seventh Floor, the Floor itself wasn't actually that populated. Never mind the Front Liners, even the Mid Liners tended to adventure on higher level Floors, while meanwhile, most Rear Liners were underleveled for it. Additionally, since the mobs were mostly an Orcish Horde theme, they didn't drop any mats that were interesting to the Familiar-crafters, and there weren't any resource nodes worth much, either.
The commander of the ghosts wailed, throwing his head back and screaming like a banshee. Actually, it was probably literally a banshee's scream in terms of effect, but it sounded strangely muted and far away, like he was screaming on the other side of a thick wall, rather than across open space.
As a result, even though they weren't that far from Elvengrad, there weren't any other Players around the whole area, except for them. What that meant practically was, the atmosphere of the quest was actually kind of creepy, even though they were not only overleveled for this Quest, but also over-buffed and extremely over-geared.
Likewise, Keita could feel the wail on a spiritual level, but instead of feeling like it was on the other side of a wall, instead it founded like someone had rapped on his head while he was wearing a baseball helmet.
Over-buffed... that was probably the effect that made him feel like he was wearing a baseball helmet, that spiritual attacks were on the other side of a wall. Painted on his face (Kirito had glossed over what the paint was made out of and Keita hadn't asked) was the number [1292].
Adding up the values of the letters in [Keita] according to Numerology, [Keita] was 19, and [The Moonlit Black Cats] was 68. Multiply them together, and that was 1292.
Sasamaru had 1428 painted on his face; [Sasamaru] was 21, and 21 times 68 was 1428. Likewise, since [Tetsuo] also happened to be 19, the number on his forehead also happened to be 1292, just like Keita.
"Get him!" Keita said, even though it was strictly unnecessary. His Rumblecloset surged forward, doors swinging wide with a strange creaking sound, ether threads shooting out to entangle the ghost-commander and drag it in. A half-dozen swords lined the inside of the closet, like an iron maiden.
Inside the guild, only Sacchi had managed to [Inherit] the spell from Kirito. Called [Key of the Guild], it was something their Front Liner patron had developed; based on principles of Cryptography, by multiplying their individual numerological values with the value they shared as a [Guild], they could spiritually protect themselves by preventing access to people that didn't comprehend the meaning of the number displayed on their foreheads. Against unthinking AI mobs, that wasn't much of a weakness at all.
The ghost commander struggled, resisting getting dragged in with all it's power. But a strange blur approached from behind, and Ducker snapped into view as his Invisibility spell abruptly failed from the ghost disturbing the mana in it's close vicinity.
The ghost commander turned, struggling against the threads to raise it's weapon, but Ducker smiled impishly, launching a jumpkick before it could respond, knocking it off-balance.
It was all the opening Keita's Rumblecloset needed, and the off-balance ghost was abruptly dragged the rest of the way inside, the doors snapping shut around it.
It howled again, this time in pain instead of as an attack, but that cut off abruptly as it's HP went to zero and it died, the [Congratulations] text popping up.
"Does anyone need a top-up?" Sacchi asked.
Keita glanced around, shaking his head slightly when she met his gaze. Sasamaru and Tetsuo both also shook their head.
"I could do with some, actually." Ducker said. "That [Invisibility] is a total gas-guzzler."
"Alright." Sacchi said, smiling gently, before she closed her eyes, focusing. "[Extension Cord]." Invoking the name of her spell, ether converged into a string, too thick to be called a thread, and drifted out, darting back and forth like a living thing, before it abruptly struck the rest of the way towards Ducker, like lightning.
It shined, pulsing as Sacchi fed her prana down it from her Circuits to Ducker. The glow was actually less bright than usual; Sacchi said that it was an unexpected side-effect of the Encryption Defense. Since [Key of the Guild] expressly recognized them as guildmates, it actually reduced the innate magic resistance of spells they cast on each other. Since the shining glow was prana being dissipated as resistance, the lower resistance meant less glow.
"Good job everyone." Keita praised. "We're really making good time."
"Yeah!" Ducker cheered.
It had been the same session where Kirito had taught them [Key of the Guild], or rather, when he had finished developing it, using them as test subjects. Keita hadn't asked why Kirito hadn't developed it on himself. Since Kirito didn't like talking about his relationship with the [BSM], Keita figured that Kirito had just wanted to avoid an awkward situation.
Kirito had offered to teach them the spell as a reward for their cooperation, and although it was shameless, Keita had accepted the offer. Like always Keita offered additional payment to be fair, and like always Kirito declined with a random excuse; this time had been that his real reward was a Social Link Up with the NPC Magecraft Instructor that Kirito had for Numerology. Privately Keita wondered if that was a lie, since even the Argo's Guide didn't list any Numerology Instructors, and Kirito was just making it up. But since it wasn't like Keita could actually afford to pay a fair price for the spells Kirito taught them, Keita felt like he couldn't challenge those excuses anyway.
Still, the only one that had successfully managed to learn it that session was Sacchi. Well, privately Keita felt that was fine; Sacchi contributed the least during combat, but this added another way she could uniquely support the party. In a way, her ability to buff their defenses, top up their Circuits, and maintain their Mule Familiars meant she contributed a lot to the guild as an excellent supporting caster. It headed off a lot of friction in the guild.
"I think we're getting closer." Sacchi quietly volunteered.
"Yes." Tetsuo agreed, nodding as a smile slowly spread across her face.
Because she was becoming more useful, Sacchi didn't hesitate as much to speak up when they were planning what to do. And because she was so useful, the rest of the guild were happy to go along with her suggestions. Like that, Keita was relieved that the worst stress-seam in his guild didn't actually crack open into a problem.
Her suggestion had been to do something for Kirito as a surprise.
Since Kirito had also been complaining in that same session about the unfinished [Haunted Castle Quest] that the BSM Guild Headquarters had (apparently [The White Witch] had aborted it with mind-control somehow), they had stumbled on an idea: follow the ghost-quest to the End, so they could tell Kirito about it. Then he could run it himself, or just be satisfied from hearing the end of the story.
As a result, the [Moonlit Black Cats] were out chasing ghosts in the moonlight.
So far, as near as they could figure, the story went something like this:
The great [Orc King Gorm] had rampaged across the field, conquering castles and towns one after another, enslaving the populace and killing the nobles. He had been halfway across the Floor when great heroes rose up and defeated him, in the name of justice.
Well, leaving aside that the Front Liners hadn't even known that was going on when they cleared the boss, it was true that what quests were left on the Seventh Floor mostly amounted to follow-up actions and cleaning up the broken remainder of the Orc Horde, before a new Orc King could arise. (And that was a flag that bothered Keita a little bit.)
In one of those castles that the orcs had conquered, enslaving the populace and killing the nobles, some brave knights had given their lives, so the Knight Commander could escape with the only child of their Duke, a young daughter. While the Duke died bravely leading a last stand, all his knights had been slaughtered to the last by the Horde.
Without even knowing if their princess was still alive to even retake the Ducal throne, their spirits couldn't rest. Broadly speaking, Keita wasn't sure which way the Quest would break for the ending, but since the whole premise was that the castle was available for [The White Witch] to inherit in the first place, Keita was about 90% sure a tragic conclusion to the quest arc awaited them.
That was the Quest Arc they were trying to complete right now.
Having just dispersed the restless spirit of some of those knights, they were following the trail the Knight Commander had taken as he fled the castle during the attack; the uncertainty of the dead knights turning them into restless spirits that followed the same pilgrimage.
Cardinal was pretty obnoxious about chaining quest objectives together, so rather than the end of the trail being something definitive like the bones of the lost princess, they would probably just get a marker that would send them on the next leg.
"Hey." Ducker said, interrupting Keita's monologue, coming to a stop, cocking his head to the side. "You guys here that?" He asked.
Keita frowned. "No." He admitted.
Sasamaru shook his head, making an uncertain expression. "Yeah. It sounds like... really slow flute music? It's far too low-pitched for a flute, though."
"Yeah, exactly!" Ducker said, enthused. "I want to check it out!"
"You think it's the next leg of the quest?" Keita asked. It felt like a complete non-sequitur, so it could just be a random encounter, or maybe even a red herring.
Ducker shrugged. That's right, Keita ruefully thought, even if it was a distraction, as long as it was interesting, Ducker wouldn't care.
"We might as well check it out." Tetsuo said. Keita turned, surprised that he would speak up.
Tetsuo shrugged, a little uncomfortable with the attention.
"I mean," Tetsuo began, "we're high-leveled for the Floor. We've got Front-Liner grade weapons, so our damage output is way above our levels, and we've got a Front-Liner grade defensive spell, so our magic defense is also way above our levels. Even if we stumble across a field event with an event boss, if you think about it, we should still be good for it."
It was true, and it had occurred to Keita. Still, Tetsuo was usually pretty conservative about risk, so seeing him volunteer like this was a surprise.
Tetsuo was quiet, and had seemed content, so Keita hadn't considered if he was dissatisfied like Ducker or Sacchi. Maybe that had been unfair of Keita. He should try to do better in the future.
"Yeah, let's go for it." Sasamaru said, visibly warming to the idea.
Keita nodded turning to Ducker. "Do I even need to ask?" Keita asked, raising an eyebrow.
Ducker just chuckled, lowing his head in a half-nod.
That really left only one vote.
Sacchi frowned, looking thoughtful. "If... I think you're right." She said, after a long pause. She looked up. "Let's do it."
Keita nodded slowly. "Alright, let's go." He turned. "Ducker, lead the way."
Ducker nodded sharply, and then crouched down, pulling up the hood of his cloak as he turned, jogging forward with his body low. His outline blurred, wavering like the shadows of branches swaying in the wind. It wasn't full invisibility, but it was significantly cheaper in upkeep and a great deal more robust. Ducker spent most of his money buying Spellbooks for sneaking magic, so he had a lot of options.
The followed behind him, moving through the moonlit night.
The sudden silence was creepy, just the sound of wind through the branches of the forest they were hiking through, everything cast in black-and-white in the pale moonlight.
He heard it. It was just like the music that Sasamaru and Ducker had been describing.
It sounded far away, but it also sounded like it was on the other side of a thick wall.
Keita stiffened, and dropped down into a crouch as Sasamaru and Ducker moved ahead of him. Quickly, he typed up a PM and sent it to his guild, warning them what he suspected; that the music they were hearing had some kind of mental or spiritual effect, and to keep their Circuits open and active to help fight it off. If it wasn't for experiencing how the [Key of the Guild] interacted with that ghost's attack like a banshee's wail, he wouldn't have known.
He glanced around, and the three guildmembers he could see nodded, letting him know they had gotten his PM. Keita would just have to hope that Ducker saw it and listened. Since actively circulating prana disrupted all spells, it would degrade his camouflage magic.
They hiked through the woods, moving closer to the low, pulsing music. It was also moving, but at a slow walking pace.
They dipped down into a gully, and clambered up the side onto a mild ridge, when Ducker appeared in front of them, for all the world like he had just materialized there.
"Hey." He said. "You really need to check this out." Ducker's voice was urgent.
With a quick check on the rest of the guild, Keita nodded, and they moved more urgently, as fast as they could while still staying at least a little quiet, and reached the crest of the hill.
Keita frowned.
Marching through the woods was a shrouded figure. It was taller than a normal human, and looked like it was completely wrapped in black bandages. It's back was arched, a long tube like a simple recorder raised straight up into the air from where it's mouth maybe was, both arms holding it up. Despite not looking where it was going, it was confidently walking through the woods, without stumbling or tripping. Well, it didn't really look like it was actually putting it's weight on the ground, though.
That was weird enough, but what bothered him more was the children.
Following behind the strange musician were three children, two boys and a girl. They looked like elementary-schoolers.
It would have been bad enough if they were NPCs. But with their mismatched clothes that looked like modern pajamas, they were almost certainly Players.
Were they….
Were Retired children being dragged through the field at night by an event boss? Keita's breath stopped. This wasn't just an event boss. This was big. This was more than a Mid Liner like him could handle.
Keita urgently gestured, gathering his guild into a huddle.
"We need to tell Diabel." Keita led with his conclusion.
"Yeah." Tetsuo said, looking as troubled as Keita felt.
Ducker grunted in disagreement. "Not that!" He said. "We need to do something!"
Sasamaru sucked his air in through his teeth. "Should we tail them? So we can lead the Front Liners right too them?"
"That might be too late!" Ducker argued. "Didn't the Pied Pier drown the kids in a river? We can't let something like that happen!"
Keita grimaced. "Yeah." He agreed, heavily. "But... what if we attack, and those kids get caught in the middle? They could...." He didn't finish.
"They could die." Sacchi whispered, finishing the thought for him. "They could die, and that would be our fault."
Ducker groaned, kneeling down and grabbing his head. "So we split in two; half the party nabs the kids and drags them off, and the other half engages the mob."
"Split the party?" Tetsuo asked, dryly.
"I don't know." Ducker said. "But we can't just, we can't do nothing! Would Kirito stand by? Would he just let it happen while he sent for help?" Ducker leaned forward. "Listen. Kirito teaches us any Front-Liner class spell we can learn from him. And he hooked us up with Ranger-tier gear. Custom Ranger-tier, just for us!"
Ducker bit his lip, making a complex expression. "We have so many advantages. Kirito's done so much for us! Can you really look him in the eye if we don't use those advantages now? If we don't live up to Kirito now, then what the hell are we even doing with ourselves every day?"
Keita hadn't known. That Ducker felt like that. Keita felt like he had been underestimating his friend all this time, and only now saw the true depth of the person in front of him.
There was a long silence. No. None of them spoke, but that damned music was still playing so slow and so low behind them.
Tetsuo sighed, a long exhale. "When you put it like that...."
"You're right." Sacchi said, with a watery smile. "We absolutely can't let them die."
Sasamaru grinned, shaking his head. "So how are we going to handle this?"
Keita pursed his lips, mind racing as the guild, his guild, his friends, looked to him. "Let me think." He said, lowering his head, thoughts racing as he considered, eyes darting around.
"Alright." He said, looking up. "Here's what we'll do. Tetsuo, Sasamaru, Sacchi. Each of you, run down and grab one kid, and then run back here. If that mob doesn't follow you, great, then we'll make a break for town with the kids. If it does follow you, then you can draw it in for Ducker and I to ambush it with Countdown, okay?"
Keita looked for any objections, but they all smiled, nodding.
Keita grunted, and glanced down. "Tetsuo. Get the boy in front. Sasamaru, the girl in the middle, and Sacchi, you get the boy in the rear, okay?"
Keita glanced around, and pointed at the base of the slope they were standing on, and pointed. "There. See that forked tree and the big rock? Run between them. I'm not thrilled about having you run uphill, but it lets Ducker and I attack from higher ground."
"Any questions?" He asked, looking at his friends.
"Let's do it!" Ducker said, speaking for them.
"Right." Tetsuo nodded.
"Then let's not waste any more time. Go." Keita said.
They all nodded.
"Then Ducker and I will get ready. You three, get ready to go on my mark."
After making sure they agreed, Keita sighed, breathing out and closing his eyes as he focused his mind, pressing his hands together.
He had eighteen swords, and Ducker had the nineteenth. They were all a little different, but they were each stamped with a number. Well, since Ducker's [Number] was eight though, he had the [Number Eight] in the series rather than the first or the last.
And Keita had the other Eighteen swords.
Six were in his strongest Furniture, [Rumblecloset]. It did high DOT and bound the enemy, although there were problems if the mob was too big. Since Rumblecloset was his favorite, he always had it with him. For the remainder, he tended to build and rebuild his furniture into whatever was most appropriate for what they were doing.
Right now, the rest of his Furniture was deployed as a set; a kitchen table with four high-backed, armless wooden chairs. A dining room set, basically. The table had four swords, and each of the four chairs had two swords.
So... he arranged them, ordering them forward, putting them in different positions.
He moved quickly, aware that the longer he took, the farther his friends would have to run.
"Okay." He said. "Go."
Sasamaru, Tetsuo, and Sacchi each ran, sprinting forward.
Sasamaru pulled ahead while Tetsuo and Sacchi stayed together and Keita grimaced and wished he had remembered to tell them to keep pace with each other.
Still, Sasamaru almost tackled the girl, not even breaking stride as he body-checked her, flipping her up on his shoulder and peeling around to run back towards the appointed goal posts.
As expected Sacchi had the hardest time, having to stop and lift the dumb-founded boy onto her shoulders in a fireman’s carry, while Tetsuo picked the second boy's legs, grabbing and pinning the kid against his chest by the thighs, using his shield like a backstop.
The music abruptly stopped, the strange bandage-wrapped mob no longer walking or playing.
Tetsuo and Sacchi ran, and Sasamaru took a quick glance behind him.
Keita's breath hitched as Sacchi stumbled.
The mob twisted without moving it's feet, and played a single note.
It was sharper. Angry. Like knives trying to drive into his mind.
But fortunately, he was still wearing his baseball helmet, so the knives just skittered and slid against the sides without getting inside his mind.
The mob turned, and started walking forward, slow but implacable, like a car that was slowly accelerating behind them. Like a car trying to run them down.
But as the mob drove forward along the road that they had set for it, it naturally went right through the traps that Keita had set for it.
Two chairs pounced, leaping out from the bushes. Their legs were loaded like springs, as they struck at the mob like snakes. From each chair, two swords whipped forward from the back, swinging out to slash at the mob as they attacked.
“Nineteen and Eighteen!” Keita shouted out loud, as the first one struck. The second followed a moment later, and he shouted again. “Seventeen, Sixteen!”
The mob turned when he yelled. It didn't lower it's arms to protect it's body as the chairs slashed at it's torso. The sword-blades passed between the bandages harmlessly, but enhanced with Ether they still struck the Astral Body, so the mob flinched each time it took damage.
But it walked forward, implacable, as it followed the guildmates carrying the kids.
And then the table came out. It was the kind of circular table you'd see in a kitchen, a round table of pale wood, with four legs. The way it moved was by rolling along the ground on the edge of the table proper, the feet of the table legs kicking off the ground each time.
And then as it closed, it swerved, sword-blades flicking out of each of the four the legs as it came to a finish.
“Fifteen-fourteen-thirteen-twelve!” Keita called out, as the blades cut at the mob like a circular saw. The table circled around, slashing at the mob with each pass.
The mob deigned to react, releasing the flute from it's mouth. The music stopped, and the silence was abrupt and somehow loud.
And in the negative space where the noise had ended, there was a sharp crack as the mob struck his table with it's flute, using it as a light club.
The table was smashed, split in half from that simple blow, the two halves of the wheel spinning off in different directions and crashing into the brush.
If that kind of blow connected with their bodies…
Keita swallowed, but urged his last two chairs to attack.
“Eleven and ten!” He shouted, as the third chair burst from the trees around it, attacking the mob from the front.
Since it still had it's flute equipped for melee, it counter-attacked, batting the chair aside and breaking it into scraps all in one blow. Still, the chair's attacks had connected, so Keita couldn't complain.
The fourth and last chair lunged from behind, stabbing both swords straight through the mob like snake-fangs.
“Nine! Eight!” Keita shouted, announcing what happened.
Instead of striking behind itself, though, the Mob raised it's flute back to it's mouth, and blew a note that was discordant, but somehow also clearly in a minor key.
Keita grimaced, eyes crossing in pain, as he felt the music attacking the connection he had with his furniture. Was it using the connection as a vein to pump poison into him, or was it plucking it like a guitar string to send harmful vibrations into his mind? Keita wasn't sure. Either way, the connection with the furniture broke even as he received damage, rendering it just an inert chair.
But he wasn't in the yellow yet. He could keep going. His trump card, his strongest servitor.
The Rumblecloset barged through the woods, bursting from among the trees, throwing open the doors on it's front, exposing the preternatural darkness within.
Jagged and unnaturally-moving black threads burst forth, like tentacles, like the lines of fisherman cast into the sea. The hooks made contact on the body of the mob, the tentacles grasped, and they tried once again to drag the mob into that dark cavity, where it would be ground up and digested by the Rumblecloset.
But the mob was heavier than the closet, so rather than being pulled inside, the closet dragged itself over. Well, that was fine in it's own way.
The Rumblecloset flew through the air, dragged by it's strings towards the stumbling mob, where the closet attached to the side of the enemy like a barnacle.
The doors attempted to slam shut, battering against the sides of the mob like the shell of a clam.
Keita licked his lips, and continued to the Countdown of the Spell. “Seven! Sixfivefourthree! Two!” He shouted, guessing at the numbers as the Rumblecloset bared the swords inside itself, stabbing the enemy with the fangs of digestion that were hidden away inside it's stomach.
The mob screeched, sounding like it was in genuine pain for the first time, even as the HP bar above it's head finally slid down into the Yellow Zone. No, it wasn't just a little bit in the yellow, it was actually closer to red than green, as the swords inside the closet continued to saw away.
And then that same note as before, like it was plucking the string, like it was poisoning his vein, and Keita groaned, collapsing to the ground as the connection with his Rumblecloset was severed, frayed, eaten, destroyed; it fell harmless and inert to the ground.
But Keita forced himself to his feet. “The last count.” He announced. It wasn't part of the spell, but he could feel the mob's attention on him. He was tanking it, drawing all it's attention, so it wouldn't see what was coming next.
“One.” Ducker's voice came from over and behind the mob. He abruptly came into view above it. Tracing back the arc of his movement, he had climbed a tree and jumped out, arcing over and down onto the top of the mob, his [Invisibility] failing as he got closer.
And he swung out, the [Series Eight] cane-sword in his hand flashing like an arc of moonlight as he came down on the head of the mob.
[Countdown]. A ritual just for Ducker and Keita, bestowed on them by their Front Liner patron. A spell of Numerology, that built weight blow after blow as Keita's Furniture connected attacks, until Ducker delivered the finisher. It was the same logic as a fighting game, chaining attacks together until a finishing move. Keita piled up blow after blow with his Furniture, his Familiars. Their fangs, their swords, all came from the same Set, as they gnashed against the target like teeth set in the same jawbone.
And after being ground down by Keita's fangs, it was Ducker who possessed the final incisor. The last, final fang, which pierced through the enemy's defenses to deliver damage without regard to it's protection. No, it wasn't that the defenses were pierced through, it was that Keita's familiars had peeled them back, like they had ground away the armor and exposed the flesh beneath, and all Ducker had to do was slide his fang through soft skin into the beating heart of the enemy.
That was the concept that underpinned their Countdown. Keita ritualistically prepared the ground, set the stage, so Ducker could step forward and deliver a guaranteed critical strike that stepped past all defenses.
Like a descending moon, that was how inevitable the pale light shining out from Ducker's freshly-drawn sword was.
And that cane-sword, didn't just part the ribbons as it slid along them. It sliced them. The thick black ribbons of the mob were split, frayed on the edges, bursting apart as they were sliced by Ducker's sword, even as the Astral Body was also carved in half by the descending blow.
Ducker pulled his sword lose, rolling as he hit the ground, pulling his shining sword free and sliding it smoothly back into the sheathe, hiding it as he rolled back, away from the mob.
It had only a fraction of health left.
It blew a great note. The last call, the final burst, more terrible than any noise yet. Even if he was wearing a baseball helmet, Keita couldn’t deny the sheer loudness of the howling note the mob produced.
He fell. They all fell, they stumbled.
Ducker didn't fade away, his invisibility faltering before it even properly started, and he rolled on the ground, struggling to push himself away from the mob.
The monster's note ended, and it pulled the flute from it's mouth, raising it high over Ducker like a club.
Keita grit his teeth, struggling to force himself to move. If he could just tackle the mob, and throw it's blow off course!
“NO!” Sacchi screamed. It was like the death-wail of a banshee.
And an arc of ether throbbed out, an intense white blaze, the crescent shape of a sword swing.
The [Linker Beam] connected with the side of the mob, blowing it off course, shaving away another fraction of it's HP. It didn't have much left.
“Don't kill him!” Sacchi shouted, her voice desperate and raw. And another [Linker Beam] connected with the side of the mob, knocking it fully off balance.
The mob tumbled, landing clumsily on it's side.
And then it burst apart, flying away into pixels as it dissolved. Because it had run out of HP from Sacchi's attack.
They'd done it.
The [Black Cats] had won.
“Yeah!” Ducker shouted, raising his hand in victory.
Tetsuo was shouting. Sasamaru was shouting. Keita swept his eyes over them. Over the kids, that were blinking, looking so confused as whatever effect they were under ended. At Sacchi, blinking with a cute confused expression, amazed that her desperation had succeed.
They'd done it.
The [Black Cats] had saved those kids.
End
I I I
1) How can I put it? The Black Cats won, but it wasn't like they accomplished anything themselves, they were just proxies? That kind of subtext, let me know if it worked.
2) If you're wondering about how exactly it ended up with three kids getting out here… well, I'm planning to have Diabel recap in the next section, so I'm answering it there, not here. Let's see if that works.
3) I'm going out of town for the next two weeks on vacation starting tomorrow afternoon, so my ability to respond will be pretty limited. I wanted to get this out before that, so I might check threads, but not respond until I'm back, FYI.
EDIT:
4) Description of the [Countdown] Ritual was expanded.
The [Black Cats]. That was the name of the guild that Keita was in, with his friends from Outside.
"Three Birds!" Sasamaru shouted, thrusting forward with his spear. It howled, flaring up with the combined effects of wind, fire, and ether mixing together as they were emitted by his spear.
Well, that was what everyone called them, but technically, the full name entered into the system was [The Moonlit Black Cats].
Sasamaru's thrust pierced the mob in front of him, a ghostly corpse that hung in the air, mortal wounds still visible in his transparent form. The thrust ripped into him, scattering the ghost like fog being blown into sunlight.
Keita was pretty sure this was the first time they had actually been out running a quest in the moonlight, though.
Even as the light died down from Sasamaru's burst, Tetsuo stepped forward, shield raised defensively in front of him as he swung his strange mace-sword, striking the mob he was engaging. Rather than his weapon passing through and damaging with the elements, instead it was more like his solid blow could naturally touch ghosts, solidly smashing into his own ghost-soldier's skull.
Although the majority of Players lived in Elvengrad on the Seventh Floor, the Floor itself wasn't actually that populated. Never mind the Front Liners, even the Mid Liners tended to adventure on higher level Floors, while meanwhile, most Rear Liners were underleveled for it. Additionally, since the mobs were mostly an Orcish Horde theme, they didn't drop any mats that were interesting to the Familiar-crafters, and there weren't any resource nodes worth much, either.
The commander of the ghosts wailed, throwing his head back and screaming like a banshee. Actually, it was probably literally a banshee's scream in terms of effect, but it sounded strangely muted and far away, like he was screaming on the other side of a thick wall, rather than across open space.
As a result, even though they weren't that far from Elvengrad, there weren't any other Players around the whole area, except for them. What that meant practically was, the atmosphere of the quest was actually kind of creepy, even though they were not only overleveled for this Quest, but also over-buffed and extremely over-geared.
Likewise, Keita could feel the wail on a spiritual level, but instead of feeling like it was on the other side of a wall, instead it founded like someone had rapped on his head while he was wearing a baseball helmet.
Over-buffed... that was probably the effect that made him feel like he was wearing a baseball helmet, that spiritual attacks were on the other side of a wall. Painted on his face (Kirito had glossed over what the paint was made out of and Keita hadn't asked) was the number [1292].
Adding up the values of the letters in [Keita] according to Numerology, [Keita] was 19, and [The Moonlit Black Cats] was 68. Multiply them together, and that was 1292.
Sasamaru had 1428 painted on his face; [Sasamaru] was 21, and 21 times 68 was 1428. Likewise, since [Tetsuo] also happened to be 19, the number on his forehead also happened to be 1292, just like Keita.
"Get him!" Keita said, even though it was strictly unnecessary. His Rumblecloset surged forward, doors swinging wide with a strange creaking sound, ether threads shooting out to entangle the ghost-commander and drag it in. A half-dozen swords lined the inside of the closet, like an iron maiden.
Inside the guild, only Sacchi had managed to [Inherit] the spell from Kirito. Called [Key of the Guild], it was something their Front Liner patron had developed; based on principles of Cryptography, by multiplying their individual numerological values with the value they shared as a [Guild], they could spiritually protect themselves by preventing access to people that didn't comprehend the meaning of the number displayed on their foreheads. Against unthinking AI mobs, that wasn't much of a weakness at all.
The ghost commander struggled, resisting getting dragged in with all it's power. But a strange blur approached from behind, and Ducker snapped into view as his Invisibility spell abruptly failed from the ghost disturbing the mana in it's close vicinity.
The ghost commander turned, struggling against the threads to raise it's weapon, but Ducker smiled impishly, launching a jumpkick before it could respond, knocking it off-balance.
It was all the opening Keita's Rumblecloset needed, and the off-balance ghost was abruptly dragged the rest of the way inside, the doors snapping shut around it.
It howled again, this time in pain instead of as an attack, but that cut off abruptly as it's HP went to zero and it died, the [Congratulations] text popping up.
"Does anyone need a top-up?" Sacchi asked.
Keita glanced around, shaking his head slightly when she met his gaze. Sasamaru and Tetsuo both also shook their head.
"I could do with some, actually." Ducker said. "That [Invisibility] is a total gas-guzzler."
"Alright." Sacchi said, smiling gently, before she closed her eyes, focusing. "[Extension Cord]." Invoking the name of her spell, ether converged into a string, too thick to be called a thread, and drifted out, darting back and forth like a living thing, before it abruptly struck the rest of the way towards Ducker, like lightning.
It shined, pulsing as Sacchi fed her prana down it from her Circuits to Ducker. The glow was actually less bright than usual; Sacchi said that it was an unexpected side-effect of the Encryption Defense. Since [Key of the Guild] expressly recognized them as guildmates, it actually reduced the innate magic resistance of spells they cast on each other. Since the shining glow was prana being dissipated as resistance, the lower resistance meant less glow.
"Good job everyone." Keita praised. "We're really making good time."
"Yeah!" Ducker cheered.
It had been the same session where Kirito had taught them [Key of the Guild], or rather, when he had finished developing it, using them as test subjects. Keita hadn't asked why Kirito hadn't developed it on himself. Since Kirito didn't like talking about his relationship with the [BSM], Keita figured that Kirito had just wanted to avoid an awkward situation.
Kirito had offered to teach them the spell as a reward for their cooperation, and although it was shameless, Keita had accepted the offer. Like always Keita offered additional payment to be fair, and like always Kirito declined with a random excuse; this time had been that his real reward was a Social Link Up with the NPC Magecraft Instructor that Kirito had for Numerology. Privately Keita wondered if that was a lie, since even the Argo's Guide didn't list any Numerology Instructors, and Kirito was just making it up. But since it wasn't like Keita could actually afford to pay a fair price for the spells Kirito taught them, Keita felt like he couldn't challenge those excuses anyway.
Still, the only one that had successfully managed to learn it that session was Sacchi. Well, privately Keita felt that was fine; Sacchi contributed the least during combat, but this added another way she could uniquely support the party. In a way, her ability to buff their defenses, top up their Circuits, and maintain their Mule Familiars meant she contributed a lot to the guild as an excellent supporting caster. It headed off a lot of friction in the guild.
"I think we're getting closer." Sacchi quietly volunteered.
"Yes." Tetsuo agreed, nodding as a smile slowly spread across her face.
Because she was becoming more useful, Sacchi didn't hesitate as much to speak up when they were planning what to do. And because she was so useful, the rest of the guild were happy to go along with her suggestions. Like that, Keita was relieved that the worst stress-seam in his guild didn't actually crack open into a problem.
Her suggestion had been to do something for Kirito as a surprise.
Since Kirito had also been complaining in that same session about the unfinished [Haunted Castle Quest] that the BSM Guild Headquarters had (apparently [The White Witch] had aborted it with mind-control somehow), they had stumbled on an idea: follow the ghost-quest to the End, so they could tell Kirito about it. Then he could run it himself, or just be satisfied from hearing the end of the story.
As a result, the [Moonlit Black Cats] were out chasing ghosts in the moonlight.
So far, as near as they could figure, the story went something like this:
The great [Orc King Gorm] had rampaged across the field, conquering castles and towns one after another, enslaving the populace and killing the nobles. He had been halfway across the Floor when great heroes rose up and defeated him, in the name of justice.
Well, leaving aside that the Front Liners hadn't even known that was going on when they cleared the boss, it was true that what quests were left on the Seventh Floor mostly amounted to follow-up actions and cleaning up the broken remainder of the Orc Horde, before a new Orc King could arise. (And that was a flag that bothered Keita a little bit.)
In one of those castles that the orcs had conquered, enslaving the populace and killing the nobles, some brave knights had given their lives, so the Knight Commander could escape with the only child of their Duke, a young daughter. While the Duke died bravely leading a last stand, all his knights had been slaughtered to the last by the Horde.
Without even knowing if their princess was still alive to even retake the Ducal throne, their spirits couldn't rest. Broadly speaking, Keita wasn't sure which way the Quest would break for the ending, but since the whole premise was that the castle was available for [The White Witch] to inherit in the first place, Keita was about 90% sure a tragic conclusion to the quest arc awaited them.
That was the Quest Arc they were trying to complete right now.
Having just dispersed the restless spirit of some of those knights, they were following the trail the Knight Commander had taken as he fled the castle during the attack; the uncertainty of the dead knights turning them into restless spirits that followed the same pilgrimage.
Cardinal was pretty obnoxious about chaining quest objectives together, so rather than the end of the trail being something definitive like the bones of the lost princess, they would probably just get a marker that would send them on the next leg.
"Hey." Ducker said, interrupting Keita's monologue, coming to a stop, cocking his head to the side. "You guys here that?" He asked.
Keita frowned. "No." He admitted.
Sasamaru shook his head, making an uncertain expression. "Yeah. It sounds like... really slow flute music? It's far too low-pitched for a flute, though."
"Yeah, exactly!" Ducker said, enthused. "I want to check it out!"
"You think it's the next leg of the quest?" Keita asked. It felt like a complete non-sequitur, so it could just be a random encounter, or maybe even a red herring.
Ducker shrugged. That's right, Keita ruefully thought, even if it was a distraction, as long as it was interesting, Ducker wouldn't care.
"We might as well check it out." Tetsuo said. Keita turned, surprised that he would speak up.
Tetsuo shrugged, a little uncomfortable with the attention.
"I mean," Tetsuo began, "we're high-leveled for the Floor. We've got Front-Liner grade weapons, so our damage output is way above our levels, and we've got a Front-Liner grade defensive spell, so our magic defense is also way above our levels. Even if we stumble across a field event with an event boss, if you think about it, we should still be good for it."
It was true, and it had occurred to Keita. Still, Tetsuo was usually pretty conservative about risk, so seeing him volunteer like this was a surprise.
Tetsuo was quiet, and had seemed content, so Keita hadn't considered if he was dissatisfied like Ducker or Sacchi. Maybe that had been unfair of Keita. He should try to do better in the future.
"Yeah, let's go for it." Sasamaru said, visibly warming to the idea.
Keita nodded turning to Ducker. "Do I even need to ask?" Keita asked, raising an eyebrow.
Ducker just chuckled, lowing his head in a half-nod.
That really left only one vote.
Sacchi frowned, looking thoughtful. "If... I think you're right." She said, after a long pause. She looked up. "Let's do it."
Keita nodded slowly. "Alright, let's go." He turned. "Ducker, lead the way."
Ducker nodded sharply, and then crouched down, pulling up the hood of his cloak as he turned, jogging forward with his body low. His outline blurred, wavering like the shadows of branches swaying in the wind. It wasn't full invisibility, but it was significantly cheaper in upkeep and a great deal more robust. Ducker spent most of his money buying Spellbooks for sneaking magic, so he had a lot of options.
The followed behind him, moving through the moonlit night.
The sudden silence was creepy, just the sound of wind through the branches of the forest they were hiking through, everything cast in black-and-white in the pale moonlight.
He heard it. It was just like the music that Sasamaru and Ducker had been describing.
It sounded far away, but it also sounded like it was on the other side of a thick wall.
Keita stiffened, and dropped down into a crouch as Sasamaru and Ducker moved ahead of him. Quickly, he typed up a PM and sent it to his guild, warning them what he suspected; that the music they were hearing had some kind of mental or spiritual effect, and to keep their Circuits open and active to help fight it off. If it wasn't for experiencing how the [Key of the Guild] interacted with that ghost's attack like a banshee's wail, he wouldn't have known.
He glanced around, and the three guildmembers he could see nodded, letting him know they had gotten his PM. Keita would just have to hope that Ducker saw it and listened. Since actively circulating prana disrupted all spells, it would degrade his camouflage magic.
They hiked through the woods, moving closer to the low, pulsing music. It was also moving, but at a slow walking pace.
They dipped down into a gully, and clambered up the side onto a mild ridge, when Ducker appeared in front of them, for all the world like he had just materialized there.
"Hey." He said. "You really need to check this out." Ducker's voice was urgent.
With a quick check on the rest of the guild, Keita nodded, and they moved more urgently, as fast as they could while still staying at least a little quiet, and reached the crest of the hill.
Keita frowned.
Marching through the woods was a shrouded figure. It was taller than a normal human, and looked like it was completely wrapped in black bandages. It's back was arched, a long tube like a simple recorder raised straight up into the air from where it's mouth maybe was, both arms holding it up. Despite not looking where it was going, it was confidently walking through the woods, without stumbling or tripping. Well, it didn't really look like it was actually putting it's weight on the ground, though.
That was weird enough, but what bothered him more was the children.
Following behind the strange musician were three children, two boys and a girl. They looked like elementary-schoolers.
It would have been bad enough if they were NPCs. But with their mismatched clothes that looked like modern pajamas, they were almost certainly Players.
Were they….
Were Retired children being dragged through the field at night by an event boss? Keita's breath stopped. This wasn't just an event boss. This was big. This was more than a Mid Liner like him could handle.
Keita urgently gestured, gathering his guild into a huddle.
"We need to tell Diabel." Keita led with his conclusion.
"Yeah." Tetsuo said, looking as troubled as Keita felt.
Ducker grunted in disagreement. "Not that!" He said. "We need to do something!"
Sasamaru sucked his air in through his teeth. "Should we tail them? So we can lead the Front Liners right too them?"
"That might be too late!" Ducker argued. "Didn't the Pied Pier drown the kids in a river? We can't let something like that happen!"
Keita grimaced. "Yeah." He agreed, heavily. "But... what if we attack, and those kids get caught in the middle? They could...." He didn't finish.
"They could die." Sacchi whispered, finishing the thought for him. "They could die, and that would be our fault."
Ducker groaned, kneeling down and grabbing his head. "So we split in two; half the party nabs the kids and drags them off, and the other half engages the mob."
"Split the party?" Tetsuo asked, dryly.
"I don't know." Ducker said. "But we can't just, we can't do nothing! Would Kirito stand by? Would he just let it happen while he sent for help?" Ducker leaned forward. "Listen. Kirito teaches us any Front-Liner class spell we can learn from him. And he hooked us up with Ranger-tier gear. Custom Ranger-tier, just for us!"
Ducker bit his lip, making a complex expression. "We have so many advantages. Kirito's done so much for us! Can you really look him in the eye if we don't use those advantages now? If we don't live up to Kirito now, then what the hell are we even doing with ourselves every day?"
Keita hadn't known. That Ducker felt like that. Keita felt like he had been underestimating his friend all this time, and only now saw the true depth of the person in front of him.
There was a long silence. No. None of them spoke, but that damned music was still playing so slow and so low behind them.
Tetsuo sighed, a long exhale. "When you put it like that...."
"You're right." Sacchi said, with a watery smile. "We absolutely can't let them die."
Sasamaru grinned, shaking his head. "So how are we going to handle this?"
Keita pursed his lips, mind racing as the guild, his guild, his friends, looked to him. "Let me think." He said, lowering his head, thoughts racing as he considered, eyes darting around.
"Alright." He said, looking up. "Here's what we'll do. Tetsuo, Sasamaru, Sacchi. Each of you, run down and grab one kid, and then run back here. If that mob doesn't follow you, great, then we'll make a break for town with the kids. If it does follow you, then you can draw it in for Ducker and I to ambush it with Countdown, okay?"
Keita looked for any objections, but they all smiled, nodding.
Keita grunted, and glanced down. "Tetsuo. Get the boy in front. Sasamaru, the girl in the middle, and Sacchi, you get the boy in the rear, okay?"
Keita glanced around, and pointed at the base of the slope they were standing on, and pointed. "There. See that forked tree and the big rock? Run between them. I'm not thrilled about having you run uphill, but it lets Ducker and I attack from higher ground."
"Any questions?" He asked, looking at his friends.
"Let's do it!" Ducker said, speaking for them.
"Right." Tetsuo nodded.
"Then let's not waste any more time. Go." Keita said.
They all nodded.
"Then Ducker and I will get ready. You three, get ready to go on my mark."
After making sure they agreed, Keita sighed, breathing out and closing his eyes as he focused his mind, pressing his hands together.
He had eighteen swords, and Ducker had the nineteenth. They were all a little different, but they were each stamped with a number. Well, since Ducker's [Number] was eight though, he had the [Number Eight] in the series rather than the first or the last.
And Keita had the other Eighteen swords.
Six were in his strongest Furniture, [Rumblecloset]. It did high DOT and bound the enemy, although there were problems if the mob was too big. Since Rumblecloset was his favorite, he always had it with him. For the remainder, he tended to build and rebuild his furniture into whatever was most appropriate for what they were doing.
Right now, the rest of his Furniture was deployed as a set; a kitchen table with four high-backed, armless wooden chairs. A dining room set, basically. The table had four swords, and each of the four chairs had two swords.
So... he arranged them, ordering them forward, putting them in different positions.
He moved quickly, aware that the longer he took, the farther his friends would have to run.
"Okay." He said. "Go."
Sasamaru, Tetsuo, and Sacchi each ran, sprinting forward.
Sasamaru pulled ahead while Tetsuo and Sacchi stayed together and Keita grimaced and wished he had remembered to tell them to keep pace with each other.
Still, Sasamaru almost tackled the girl, not even breaking stride as he body-checked her, flipping her up on his shoulder and peeling around to run back towards the appointed goal posts.
As expected Sacchi had the hardest time, having to stop and lift the dumb-founded boy onto her shoulders in a fireman’s carry, while Tetsuo picked the second boy's legs, grabbing and pinning the kid against his chest by the thighs, using his shield like a backstop.
The music abruptly stopped, the strange bandage-wrapped mob no longer walking or playing.
Tetsuo and Sacchi ran, and Sasamaru took a quick glance behind him.
Keita's breath hitched as Sacchi stumbled.
The mob twisted without moving it's feet, and played a single note.
It was sharper. Angry. Like knives trying to drive into his mind.
But fortunately, he was still wearing his baseball helmet, so the knives just skittered and slid against the sides without getting inside his mind.
The mob turned, and started walking forward, slow but implacable, like a car that was slowly accelerating behind them. Like a car trying to run them down.
But as the mob drove forward along the road that they had set for it, it naturally went right through the traps that Keita had set for it.
Two chairs pounced, leaping out from the bushes. Their legs were loaded like springs, as they struck at the mob like snakes. From each chair, two swords whipped forward from the back, swinging out to slash at the mob as they attacked.
“Nineteen and Eighteen!” Keita shouted out loud, as the first one struck. The second followed a moment later, and he shouted again. “Seventeen, Sixteen!”
The mob turned when he yelled. It didn't lower it's arms to protect it's body as the chairs slashed at it's torso. The sword-blades passed between the bandages harmlessly, but enhanced with Ether they still struck the Astral Body, so the mob flinched each time it took damage.
But it walked forward, implacable, as it followed the guildmates carrying the kids.
And then the table came out. It was the kind of circular table you'd see in a kitchen, a round table of pale wood, with four legs. The way it moved was by rolling along the ground on the edge of the table proper, the feet of the table legs kicking off the ground each time.
And then as it closed, it swerved, sword-blades flicking out of each of the four the legs as it came to a finish.
“Fifteen-fourteen-thirteen-twelve!” Keita called out, as the blades cut at the mob like a circular saw. The table circled around, slashing at the mob with each pass.
The mob deigned to react, releasing the flute from it's mouth. The music stopped, and the silence was abrupt and somehow loud.
And in the negative space where the noise had ended, there was a sharp crack as the mob struck his table with it's flute, using it as a light club.
The table was smashed, split in half from that simple blow, the two halves of the wheel spinning off in different directions and crashing into the brush.
If that kind of blow connected with their bodies…
Keita swallowed, but urged his last two chairs to attack.
“Eleven and ten!” He shouted, as the third chair burst from the trees around it, attacking the mob from the front.
Since it still had it's flute equipped for melee, it counter-attacked, batting the chair aside and breaking it into scraps all in one blow. Still, the chair's attacks had connected, so Keita couldn't complain.
The fourth and last chair lunged from behind, stabbing both swords straight through the mob like snake-fangs.
“Nine! Eight!” Keita shouted, announcing what happened.
Instead of striking behind itself, though, the Mob raised it's flute back to it's mouth, and blew a note that was discordant, but somehow also clearly in a minor key.
Keita grimaced, eyes crossing in pain, as he felt the music attacking the connection he had with his furniture. Was it using the connection as a vein to pump poison into him, or was it plucking it like a guitar string to send harmful vibrations into his mind? Keita wasn't sure. Either way, the connection with the furniture broke even as he received damage, rendering it just an inert chair.
But he wasn't in the yellow yet. He could keep going. His trump card, his strongest servitor.
The Rumblecloset barged through the woods, bursting from among the trees, throwing open the doors on it's front, exposing the preternatural darkness within.
Jagged and unnaturally-moving black threads burst forth, like tentacles, like the lines of fisherman cast into the sea. The hooks made contact on the body of the mob, the tentacles grasped, and they tried once again to drag the mob into that dark cavity, where it would be ground up and digested by the Rumblecloset.
But the mob was heavier than the closet, so rather than being pulled inside, the closet dragged itself over. Well, that was fine in it's own way.
The Rumblecloset flew through the air, dragged by it's strings towards the stumbling mob, where the closet attached to the side of the enemy like a barnacle.
The doors attempted to slam shut, battering against the sides of the mob like the shell of a clam.
Keita licked his lips, and continued to the Countdown of the Spell. “Seven! Sixfivefourthree! Two!” He shouted, guessing at the numbers as the Rumblecloset bared the swords inside itself, stabbing the enemy with the fangs of digestion that were hidden away inside it's stomach.
The mob screeched, sounding like it was in genuine pain for the first time, even as the HP bar above it's head finally slid down into the Yellow Zone. No, it wasn't just a little bit in the yellow, it was actually closer to red than green, as the swords inside the closet continued to saw away.
And then that same note as before, like it was plucking the string, like it was poisoning his vein, and Keita groaned, collapsing to the ground as the connection with his Rumblecloset was severed, frayed, eaten, destroyed; it fell harmless and inert to the ground.
But Keita forced himself to his feet. “The last count.” He announced. It wasn't part of the spell, but he could feel the mob's attention on him. He was tanking it, drawing all it's attention, so it wouldn't see what was coming next.
“One.” Ducker's voice came from over and behind the mob. He abruptly came into view above it. Tracing back the arc of his movement, he had climbed a tree and jumped out, arcing over and down onto the top of the mob, his [Invisibility] failing as he got closer.
And he swung out, the [Series Eight] cane-sword in his hand flashing like an arc of moonlight as he came down on the head of the mob.
[Countdown]. A ritual just for Ducker and Keita, bestowed on them by their Front Liner patron. A spell of Numerology, that built weight blow after blow as Keita's Furniture connected attacks, until Ducker delivered the finisher. It was the same logic as a fighting game, chaining attacks together until a finishing move. Keita piled up blow after blow with his Furniture, his Familiars. Their fangs, their swords, all came from the same Set, as they gnashed against the target like teeth set in the same jawbone.
And after being ground down by Keita's fangs, it was Ducker who possessed the final incisor. The last, final fang, which pierced through the enemy's defenses to deliver damage without regard to it's protection. No, it wasn't that the defenses were pierced through, it was that Keita's familiars had peeled them back, like they had ground away the armor and exposed the flesh beneath, and all Ducker had to do was slide his fang through soft skin into the beating heart of the enemy.
That was the concept that underpinned their Countdown. Keita ritualistically prepared the ground, set the stage, so Ducker could step forward and deliver a guaranteed critical strike that stepped past all defenses.
Like a descending moon, that was how inevitable the pale light shining out from Ducker's freshly-drawn sword was.
And that cane-sword, didn't just part the ribbons as it slid along them. It sliced them. The thick black ribbons of the mob were split, frayed on the edges, bursting apart as they were sliced by Ducker's sword, even as the Astral Body was also carved in half by the descending blow.
Ducker pulled his sword lose, rolling as he hit the ground, pulling his shining sword free and sliding it smoothly back into the sheathe, hiding it as he rolled back, away from the mob.
It had only a fraction of health left.
It blew a great note. The last call, the final burst, more terrible than any noise yet. Even if he was wearing a baseball helmet, Keita couldn’t deny the sheer loudness of the howling note the mob produced.
He fell. They all fell, they stumbled.
Ducker didn't fade away, his invisibility faltering before it even properly started, and he rolled on the ground, struggling to push himself away from the mob.
The monster's note ended, and it pulled the flute from it's mouth, raising it high over Ducker like a club.
Keita grit his teeth, struggling to force himself to move. If he could just tackle the mob, and throw it's blow off course!
“NO!” Sacchi screamed. It was like the death-wail of a banshee.
And an arc of ether throbbed out, an intense white blaze, the crescent shape of a sword swing.
The [Linker Beam] connected with the side of the mob, blowing it off course, shaving away another fraction of it's HP. It didn't have much left.
“Don't kill him!” Sacchi shouted, her voice desperate and raw. And another [Linker Beam] connected with the side of the mob, knocking it fully off balance.
The mob tumbled, landing clumsily on it's side.
And then it burst apart, flying away into pixels as it dissolved. Because it had run out of HP from Sacchi's attack.
They'd done it.
The [Black Cats] had won.
“Yeah!” Ducker shouted, raising his hand in victory.
Tetsuo was shouting. Sasamaru was shouting. Keita swept his eyes over them. Over the kids, that were blinking, looking so confused as whatever effect they were under ended. At Sacchi, blinking with a cute confused expression, amazed that her desperation had succeed.
They'd done it.
The [Black Cats] had saved those kids.
End
I I I
1) How can I put it? The Black Cats won, but it wasn't like they accomplished anything themselves, they were just proxies? That kind of subtext, let me know if it worked.
2) If you're wondering about how exactly it ended up with three kids getting out here… well, I'm planning to have Diabel recap in the next section, so I'm answering it there, not here. Let's see if that works.
3) I'm going out of town for the next two weeks on vacation starting tomorrow afternoon, so my ability to respond will be pretty limited. I wanted to get this out before that, so I might check threads, but not respond until I'm back, FYI.
EDIT:
4) Description of the [Countdown] Ritual was expanded.
The first impression I got from their victory was "Man were they lucky to be Ether". Any other group of their ability would have been wiped if they didn't have a way to attack the astral body directly. The same extends to their group protection buff.
Definitely liked the chapter, if the arc ended fast enough that it felt anti-climactic. I imagine the next chapter will help round that out.
Definitely liked the chapter, if the arc ended fast enough that it felt anti-climactic. I imagine the next chapter will help round that out.
the qoutation button seems to be malfunctioning on my PC, so just imagine im qouting TSB on his questions regarding the apparently short storyarc here.
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i agree that its a suprisingly short storyarc, but i personally feel that this seems more like what apears to be the "pied piper arc" is merely the opening to the "paranoia" storyarc. where the rearliners and retired players have to deal with the implications and the cast will explore the societal repercussions of the revelation that safe zone's are no longer safe.
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i agree that its a suprisingly short storyarc, but i personally feel that this seems more like what apears to be the "pied piper arc" is merely the opening to the "paranoia" storyarc. where the rearliners and retired players have to deal with the implications and the cast will explore the societal repercussions of the revelation that safe zone's are no longer safe.
Barely started it, but I already have to say: I thought Elvengrad was on the 8th floor.
EDIT: Also this, slightly further in: "instead it founded like someone had rapped on his head while he was wearing a baseball helmet."
Great chapter, really loved it. A question though. Is the player Yui recycled to be the Pied Piper the same guy that Berserker was partying with who whistles constantly?
EDIT: Also this, slightly further in: "instead it founded like someone had rapped on his head while he was wearing a baseball helmet."
Great chapter, really loved it. A question though. Is the player Yui recycled to be the Pied Piper the same guy that Berserker was partying with who whistles constantly?
I think you could probably have a line where Keita wonders if the reason they are struggling is because of their own weakness. From their perspective, they have every possible advantage, but this field/event boss is still about to kill them.
They can't blame their equipment, it's literally the best they can get.
Can't blame their spells, because it's something the front liners dreamed up.
Can't blame the level, because it's way below their danger zone.
So... what else is there to blame? Only thing left is themselves, for not living up to the faith Kirito placed in them.
I think it would fit in with their story arc, and make it all the more satisfying for them when they defeat the Piper. It's like the final proof that they're worthy of the support they've been given, and could be a great way to lead in to the eventual plot that will develop.
Out of curiosity, will completing the quest lead to the [Black Cats] getting control over Ilya's castle? The fact that the quest is still open could result in a bug/exploit that results in Cardinal reassigning possession to their guild, leaving Ilya out in the cold and with no way to get it back, because it's finally been "completed."
I think it might be a nice little joke to throw in there, especially since Kirito can make fun of Ilya's play style for causing the trouble. Probably resolved by the guild leader "selling" it to Ilya, possibly as a thank you or to gain official sponsorship.
They can't blame their equipment, it's literally the best they can get.
Can't blame their spells, because it's something the front liners dreamed up.
Can't blame the level, because it's way below their danger zone.
So... what else is there to blame? Only thing left is themselves, for not living up to the faith Kirito placed in them.
I think it would fit in with their story arc, and make it all the more satisfying for them when they defeat the Piper. It's like the final proof that they're worthy of the support they've been given, and could be a great way to lead in to the eventual plot that will develop.
Out of curiosity, will completing the quest lead to the [Black Cats] getting control over Ilya's castle? The fact that the quest is still open could result in a bug/exploit that results in Cardinal reassigning possession to their guild, leaving Ilya out in the cold and with no way to get it back, because it's finally been "completed."
I think it might be a nice little joke to throw in there, especially since Kirito can make fun of Ilya's play style for causing the trouble. Probably resolved by the guild leader "selling" it to Ilya, possibly as a thank you or to gain official sponsorship.
I like the idea that the 'over leveled, over equipped' [Black Cats] just managed to four-man a raid boss, that was actually above their challenge rating, and it should be addressed as such. A genuinely Front-Liner tier boss, if you will.
--
As for the quest of the castle...
How about Cardinal glitches it's way into two castles, side by side, one being Ilya's, the other the Black Cats.
--
As for the quest of the castle...
How about Cardinal glitches it's way into two castles, side by side, one being Ilya's, the other the Black Cats.
Rather than game logic, consider Nasu logic. This creature was most likely an Imaginary Demon, brought into existence at that moment and vanishing afterward meaning it had little metaphysical weight in the world. As a result it's unlikely to leave any piece of itself behind on dying.
Now I'm wondering when NPCs will start referring to some of the non-human bosses as Phantasmal Beasts.
Now I'm wondering when NPCs will start referring to some of the non-human bosses as Phantasmal Beasts.
16.4 Fallout
"Okay, I've got it here." Kibaou said, as he strode into the room and unrolled a map onto the table.
They were in the conference room attached to Diabel's office, on the top floor of the Paladin's Guild Headquarters. Diabel had it decorated in a wealthy-but-understated style; darkwood paneling, gilded ceiling, big leather chairs, that sort of thing. The room was dominated by the rectangular heavy table in
the middle of the room, which was wooden with a glass-like polished finish.
Diabel glanced at the people in the room with him.
Thinker was slouched in his chair, leaning back with his arms crossed over his chest. Despite his disengaged body-language, his jaw was tense and his eyes
would lock on whoever was speaking.
Next to him, Yulier was in her full-blown [Bishop Regalia], a strange cross between a simple nun's habit, with a lavishly embroidered stole hanging from her shoulders. Her hands were clasped together in front of her, like she was praying. Maybe she even was; whatever magecraft the Church used operated on different logic than other systems.
Kobatz from the Cavaliers, and his own Godfree, were standing stiffly behind him. Rather than acting as bodyguards, they were more like secretaries; Kobatz was taking notes of what everyone said, and Godfree was managing PM conversations with the deployed squads even while they were brainstorming.
It was Sasha that bothered Diabel the most. She had a dark, brooding look, and it had been hard to convince her that she would be better off here, at the nerve center of the rescue operations, rather than out scouring the town herself.
"Right." Kibaou muttered to himself, as he smoothed the corners.
It was a map of the City, with fine gridlines appended over the top. Along the side was a block of information divided into cells in a rectangular sidebar.
It showed information like the date that Kibaou had drawn the map, the dates he had updated it with a short description of what changed, a [Paladins] logo, and a stamp from where Diabel had [Approved] the drawing. Kibaou had been strangely neurotic about getting that right.
"What were the kids’ names again?" He asked, as he fished out some blank stones. They were like misshapen dice, with unequally shaped sides, lopsided and awkward. Each face was blank.
"Their names are [Berserker], [Huntar], and [Emily]." Sasha said, in a clipped voice.
Kibaou muttered under his breath, spelling each name in turn, tapping the side of a die with each letter. Shortly, he had a set of three dice, each with one of the children's names on it.
"Okay, here we go." He said, sweeping them up and cupping them in his palms. He closed his eyes, raising his arms and shaking his hands, before he threw them apart, letting the dice scatter on the table.
Each letter, each Rune used to spell their names glowed, and the dice bounced in strange, unnatural ways, like the red line on the drawing indicating the boundary of the Safe Zone was an actual wall they could bounce against.
But as they slowed, they converged suddenly, abruptly turning and, together, they rolled past the west edge of the city wall and slowed to a stop as they went past the map and nearly went off the edge of table.
There was a moment of silence. "Well, that tears it." Kibaou finally said, voice heavy. "They're not in the city; they left through the west gate."
"Are you sure?" Sasha said, voice demanding.
Kibaou glanced at him, and Diabel gave him a look, urging him to be patient.
"Yes, ma'am, I'm sure." Kibaou said, looking down at the map on the table with a sigh. "It's not just the map. In every building that me and my people draw, there's a little plaque with the name of the drafter, the date, and the customer we drew it for." He reached out and tapped the table. "Every single [Elven Dorm], every shop we modded off one of my designs, I can connect all of them to this map through those plaques." He sighed again, sitting back. "There's nobody with a stronger magical connection to this city than me. And I say, those kids aren't in town. They walked out the gate."
"But why?" Sasha demanded, sounding like she was ready to break down.
"We can figure that out later." Diabel said, keeping his voice firm, but also kind. "For now, what's important is that we have a lead." He turned. "Godfree, tell the Fuumanin to head west and fan out. See if they can track them down. After that, ask for Cuvie to coordinate our Gatherers. It's been a while since they've been on this Floor, but moving fast and rolling over any mobs they encounter is more important than letting the Floor Specialist MidLiners take the lead."
"Sure thing, boss." Godfree easily replied, voice a little distracted as his fingers danced across the keyboard only he could see.
"Speaking of." Diabel said. "Kobatz."
"Yes, sir!" Kobatz replied, snapping to attention, heels clicking together.
"Organize your people. There are at least a couple parties in the Cavaliers that focus on night-fighting, right?" It was a trade-off; the visibility and weather were often worse, but in exchange, the mobs were usually a little stronger, and there was less competition for them. For Mid-Liners that were serious about joining the Front, night operations weren't a bad idea.
"Yes, sir." Kobatz replied, even though it had been a rhetorical question. Well, that was the way Kobatz was.
"Get them coordinated with the Fuumanin." Diabel ordered. "Get them fanned out. Their objective is to make contact."
Diabel considered, and then turned. "Thinker."
"Yeah." Thinker quietly replied.
"Please have your people review which Safe Zones are closest to the West, and check if you have any resources from the Rear Line in any of them currently. If these kids made it to safety, then it would be good to know." Diabel ordered, and then paused.
"Yulier," he said, turning to face the leader of the [Church Aid Society], "do the same thing with your priests. See if you have anyone in the area, and direct them to prepare."
Diabel frowned, thoughts racing.
"Am I missing anything?" He asked aloud.
"I want to go." Sasha said, voice low. "I need to go myself and chase after them."
"You can't." Diabel replied automatically, and then he caught the look on her face. He wanted to grimace, but kept it off his expression. Since everyone else here answered to him, he had fallen into acting like the boss, but he couldn't really treat her the same way.
"I don't recall needing your permission." Sasha tartly replied. "After all, it's because of your Side-Liner foolishness that this even happened in the first place."
There were about three things he could say to that, but Diabel didn't think saying any of them would be productive.
In the first place, that Bel kid had developed the spell on his own, talked about it on his own, and caught the eye of the [White Witch] on his own. It didn't have anything to do with the official [Side Liner] program.
In the second place, Hexadecimal had confirmed that the kid had left the meeting, held inside the Safe Zone of this very city, so it wasn't like the meeting had anything to do with it.
Well, Diabel suspected that it did, actually, have something to do with it, but that was something to figure out later. Diabel really would prefer to have the boy here so he could get more details on that, but Hexi was a sensitive kid, and putting him in front of Sasha's recriminating anger wouldn't accomplish anything. Better to just have him out like any other Paladin, instead of forcing him to defend Ilya to Sasha.
Which lead to the third thing that Diabel didn't say. Why the hell had she allowed the boy to go to a meeting with [The White Witch] alone, unescorted? Had the kid not told her? Was Sasha really that ignorant of Front Liner gossip? It was true that the Titled Players were held up on pedestals by everyone, but the pedestals were different; while [The Sixth Ranger] was held in genuine awe, by comparison, [The White Witch] was more feared. As capricious and uncaringly cruel as a witch. And Sasha hadn't known about that?
But none of that would help. It wouldn't get the kids back, and it wouldn't make Sasha listen to him now. So Diabel swallowed his thoughts and turned back to the scenario at hand.
"Sasha." He said, smiling softly. "I know it's hard to stand on the sidelines, but your job isn't to be out looking for them. We have plenty of people for that. Your job is to wait, and as soon as they are found, go to them." He changed his smile from warm to friendly and rueful. "It's hard to wait while other people do the work, but right now, it's the right thing to do." There, something like that.
"I just." Sasha shook her head. "If I hadn't... if you..." She shook her head again, and exhaled. "I know. I know, but I don't want to agree." She sighed.
"Okay. I'll go along with it for now." And she scowled, her worry and fear congealing on her face. "But don't you think for one minute that we won't be having words about this after we're done." She threatened.
Diabel was pretty sure that he would win that argument by throwing her ignorance of Front Liner politics in her face and scolding her about letting her kids visit Ilya unescorted, but he wasn't really looking forward to winning that argument, and he didn't expect he'd feel good about it, so he just modified his smile again, looking chagrined. "I can accept that." He said. "For now, let's just believe in our people and hope for the best."
That was that for damage control. He turned and checked over his people again. Kobatz had stepped out of the room to do his own administration. Thinker and Yulier were both busily tapping away in their invisible-to-him menus, presumably dealing with PMs. Godfree caught his eye and gave him a curt nod, but he was similarly buried in his messages.
Kibaou was looking pretty antsy, his jaw clenched and his shoulders tight as he stared down at his map. It had been a shot in the dark, but it was at least helpful to confirm that the children weren't in the town. Rather than running through the streets, canvassing door-to-door, they could focus their efforts out in the field.
But it wasn't something that Diabel could call a good thing. If they were lost or even trapped somewhere in town, then at least they would still have the nigh-absolute protection of the [Safe Zone]. If they were out in the field, then....
Well, Diabel wasn't quite ready to ask Yulier if there was someone stationed at the [Monument of Life] that could check it for the names of the children.
Not quite yet. But if they hit the 12 hour mark, then at least the certainty would be useful in its own way, rather than allowing Sasha to place her hopes in the unknown.
And Kibaou was probably thinking in the same direction. But he probably wouldn't say anything. Diabel had been working on him, bringing him around to understanding the need for circumspection.
Ah, and he was distracting himself by thinking about that.
Diabel refocused his mind, and frowned down at the dice. Perhaps he could have Kibaou modify them as a dowsing spell? Something that, rather than giving the position, just indicated the direction? That would be a huge benefit, and would mean they could find the children as fast as Kibaou could move. But what if the kids had split up? Was there a range limit? Could Kibaou use [Inheritance] to give the spell to someone faster, like the Fuumanin? Ugh, was it even a possibility in the first place? Diabel frowned internally, as he quickly tried to formulate and plan out the different ways that discussion could go, and prevent it from getting derailed by Sasha.
Ah, his menu flashed. He had a PM from Kirito.
He crushed the flicker of hope, opened the PM, and then felt his mind sag in relief.
"Everyone," He announced, letting the relief show as a genuine smile, "the children have been found, and are safe."
"Thank god." Yulier whispered, as she turned, grabbing onto Thinker's shoulder, who patted her back, even as he breathed out with his eyes closed.
Godfree cheered, and Kibaou had a savage grin, and Sasha stumbled, catching herself on the side of the table, before her gaze snapped to Diabel and she pushed herself back up.
"I'm not sure where, but we'll figure it out." Diabel promised her. "I'll still need to trade a few PMs, but for now, let's head West and go meet them."
I I I
"And, done." Kirito announced, as he hit the [Send] button on his message screen. His finger lingered in the air, before he let it drop. He had a feeling his inbox was about to blow up, so he swept his gaze around the area quickly one more time.
Sacchi smiled at him. She was standing next to her [Pack Mules], and holding the hands of two children, a boy and a girl, that were sitting on the backs of two of them. Kirito gathered that the boy was named [Bel] and the girl was [Emily], but he still didn't understand what the heck kids that were like, Level Three, were doing out in the field.
Sasamaru and Tetsuo were standing guard, on opposite sides of the Mules, their weapons up and their eyes scanning around the area.
Ducker had actually gone and climbed a tree in the last thirty seconds, and was frowning as his head swiveled back and forth. He had a hand cupped over his eyes like he was shading them from sun-glare, but since his eyes were also faintly glowing, whatever vision-enhancement spell he was using might actually need the protection. Well, straight-up [Reinforced Optic Sensitivity] was a little simplistic. Kirito had gotten some tips when Rosalia did a lecture on vision-spells for the BSM (Ilya had forced her into it, somehow), and Kirito had crashed it.
Kirito reminded himself it was unfair to hold the Black Cats to the same standards as Front Liners.
Keita was standing off to his side, a little bit, where the third kid (who was named [Hunter] or something, he pronounced it with a strange emphasis Kirito thought) was looking up, star-struck, at Shirou.
Well, the two kids on the [Mules] were sneaking glances as well, but they didn't quite have the starry-eyed look that the third boy did. Kirito glanced back down at his menu, humming as he saw that Diabel had PM'd him back. Kirito opened it, scanned through, and popped back quick answers to the list of questions that Diabel had spammed him with, asking for their map coordinates and who exactly was there and stuff like that. Right before hitting send, he stopped, considering, and then added his own question. Sure they could just sit tight, but it wasn't like there was anything to worry about, so maybe they should move towards a rendezvous point?
Then he looked up, scanned the area again, and walked over to see what the kid was talking to Keita and Shirou about.
"Can you really shoot swords with your mind?" The kid asked.
Shirou looked distinctly uncomfortable. "Well, not exactly." He replied.
"Yes." Kirito said, interrupting as he walked up to them. "It is one of the [108 Skills of the Sixth Ranger], in the same category as [Ranger Rapid Fire], [Aimbot Ranger], and [Ranger Rocket Tag]." Kirito struck the one-finger-in-the-air pose that Shirou sometimes unconsciously took when he was lecturing about magecraft. "It's the 80s-series." By the way, Kirito had just made that up. It was a little hilarious that other people were taking his little gag seriously.
"Anyway," he said as he clapped his hands, interrupting Shirou's incoming overly-technical lore-dump, "I let Diabel know where we are." He ignored Shirou's dirty look, glanced at the complex expression on Keita's face, and then looked down at the kid. "I think it's become kind of a big deal."
The kid looked ashamed, and the expression on Keita's face started to look a little sour, while Shirou instead looked bashful, like he was beating himself up for not realizing that already.
Well, Kirito had only suspected a little himself. After a long day of doing math homework, of all things, (Ellis Bell wouldn't teach him more spells until he passed a literal trigonometry test), Kirito had wanted to get out and move, but not concentrate too much, which meant that power-leveling or exploring the Front Line were both out. So he'd dragged Shirou out so they could mess around with Lightsabers some more. The current prototype was just a clump of Ether that Kirito had realized and stabilized enough that Shirou could hammer the dang thing into the shape of a sword. It couldn't turn off, and they couldn't change the color it glowed, and it didn't hum at all, and it was slowly evaporating, which was characterized as a constant rate of durability loss.
But it actually worked as a sword without exploding, so it was progress of at least a sort.
So they'd been messing around with those prototypes when Kirito had gotten the PM from Keita asking for help, apparently escorting some lost kids through the Field. If it was just a Quest, then Kirito might have actually blown them off to hang with Shirou, but those kids were Players, not NPCs. That had really changed things. Kirito had raced off with Shirou in tow, and there they were.
"Woah." The kid replied. "Can you teach ME to shoot swords with my mind?"
"You'd be better off sticking with a bow." Shirou replied, looking like he was on slightly firmer ground. "It's much more reliable and prana-efficient. It's not as flashy, but simple is usually best."
Kirito decided to turn and talk to Keita instead. "So, you want to head back to town?"
Keita nodded, glancing at the kid before he trudged off to go tell the rest of the guild.
Kirito scanned the area, humming to himself. He really wanted to ask what the kids were doing out here. No, that wasn't accurate. He wanted to know the answer, but he didn't actually want to ask the question. He didn't really level his Talk skill enough, and if the kids had run away from home or something like that, he didn't know how to deal with that.
He caught Shirou's eye. His friend squinted, frowning with his eyes. Ugh, so he was thinking about that kind of thing too.
But Keita was waving to them, so they turned and walked over to the rest of the group.
Hunter, no, [Huntar]! With an "A" in it, that was the kid's name. Anyway, Huntar was sneaking looks at Shirou out of the side of his eye.
Huntar was cheerful, but his cheerfulness seemed a little... brittle? It was off. There was something about it that bothered Kirito. But figuring it out was intimidating. He didn't know what was wrong, and he wasn't comfortable asking.
The other two kids were doing the same. To be precise, the three of them weren't just sneaking looks at Shirou directly, but also at the blue-and-gold icon floating over his head, marking him as a [Titled Player].
And it wasn't like the other two kids were much better. The girl was still sniffling, and her eyes were red from crying. The way that the system handled [Crying] was a little weird. Runny noses and even tears hadn't been included in the Release Version of the game. They were left out like all other body fluids. Kirito had never actually cried in-game during the Beta, and had never talked to anyone that had, or at least, that had admitted to it. Looking back, it was something he hadn't even thought about. It was genuinely a gap in his knowledge on how the Beta had handled things.
In the name of [Increased Realism], the game had added in blood, sweat, and tears.
But the puffiness, the red eyes, the sniffling, all that ended as soon as people were "done crying." It wasn't something that Kirito had wanted to know, but sometimes you couldn't avoid it on the Front Line. Seeing people cry. Or crying yourself. It wasn't something he would ever, ever admit to, but Kirito had messed up spells badly enough that tears had leaked out.
So as long as someone still felt like crying, they kept looking like they had just finished crying.
The girl, [Emily], still looked like that.
Compared to that, [Berserker], who insisted on being called [Bel], he'd just looked straight-up haunted. (And wow about that name; Kirito couldn't even imagine how Ilya would deal, learning that the handle she'd wanted had been taken by some Rear Liner).
So Huntar was being deliberately cheerful, Emily looked ready to cry, and Bel looked like he'd just gone three rounds with Kuradeel.
Kirito felt out of his depth. He glanced around, scanning the area, instead of looking at the kids.
He met Keita's gaze, and the other boy nodded his head, an indecipherable look on his face, as he walked back to where Kirito was standing with Shirou and Huntar.
"I've let the rest know." Keita said, nodding as he got close enough to speak without shouting. "We're ready to head out whenever the both of you are."
"Sure." Kirito easily replied, while Shirou just nodded.
"OK!" Huntar said, smiling brightly.
"Huntar, right?" Keita asked.
"Yes?" The boy replied.
"Why don't you go sit with Bel and Emily on the Mules? I'm sure Sacchi had saved you a seat." Keita said, smiling.
"But..." Huntar said, glancing shyly at Shirou.
"I'll catch up in a minute." Shirou replied. Ha, he still looked ridiculously uncomfortable with the blatant Hero Worship. Not that Kirito would say anything, because his instincts as a Gamer told him not to raise a [Flag] like that.
"Alright then!" Huntar chirped, before he turned and ran over to join his friends.
There was an awkward pause. Kirito debated saying something.
"I, um, I think we're in over our heads." Keita admitted, after a moment.
"Yeah?" Kirito asked.
"Yes." Keita nodded, licking his lips before speaking again. "Um, Kirito, you said you PM'd Diabel-sama, right?" Kirito wasn't sure if Keita wanted confirmation on that or what, but Kirito nodded back just to be sure.
"Right. Well." Keita said. "He's PM'd me, uh, three times, and I've gotten messages from Hanzou-san, and from Kibaou-san, and somebody named Sasha, and Argo, and Lind-san." He swallowed. "I think this is a really big deal?"
Kirito nodded, making an encouraging motion with his hands. That probably explained why Kirito’s inbox hadn’t blown up; Keita’s had, instead.
"And, um, I just feel like we didn't really do anything special." Keita admitted, all in a rush.
Objectively speaking, the Black Cats weren't special. But...
"It's not a matter of what you thought you were capable of." Shirou interjected. "It wasn't a matter of whether you thought you could. There was somebody that needed saving, so you saved them. Because you were the only ones that could do it."
Kirito wasn't really a specialist at Social Traits, and Shirou was pretty stoic, but he felt like his friend was maybe blaming himself for that one.
Keita laughed, a little nervous. "Well, that's true, but that wasn't what was going through our heads. What happened was... we only felt safe trying because of all you've done for us."
Keita smiled again, and stood formally, before bowing formally. "Thank you both. Without your defensive spells, Kirito, we would have lost. And without your weapons, Sixth Ranger-sama, we wouldn't have been able to win." He stood, and awkwardly laughed it off. "It was only because of what you'd given us that we could save them."
"Yeah, no problem." Kirito replied, smiling back. It felt a little queasy on his face. It wasn't that big of a deal, it felt uncomfortable. All he did was kill time with them.
He glanced out of the corner of his eye, about to say something else as he opened his mouth, but then let it die, slowly closing his mouth again.
Shirou had his eyes closed, and his head down a little bit, and his expression was... it was soft. Relaxed.
Keita looked like he was about to say something, and Kirito shook his head back. Kirito had just thought that Shirou was pretty stoic, but at the same time, even though he didn't express it much, he got really emotional about saving people, and Keita had just sorta pushed those buttons.
Honestly, it was a little embarrassing to see from the side, but he also wanted Shirou to have this moment.
"Right." Shirou said, sighing as he opened his eyes, re-centering himself in the present. "You said we needed to head back?"
"Yes." Keita nodded. "There's a rendezvous point, um, that Diabel-sama asked us to head towards."
I I I
Tonight had been exhausting. Diabel slumped back in his chair in his private office, indulging in poor posture.
He'd personally escorted Sasha out to meet up with her lost kids, and he'd even managed to mostly figure out what had happened, around the edges of Sasha's relieved-but-angry-mom routine. It had taken too long, and it had been annoying to step lightly around the situation, but he'd made it work.
Broadly speaking, the first half of the night had gone about as Diabel had already expected.
Ilya had found out about Bel-kun's new Eye Spell through the grapevine. It hadn't been anything particularly useful, but at the very least the Fuumanin had been interested in it, as an alternate way to perceive their surroundings in total darkness. Hanzou in particular had been interested in the possible synergy between [Seeing Soundwaves] and his own Air spellcraft. Diabel had looked forward to that. An easy win, good publicity. A Rear-Liner helping out a famous Front Line guild. His biggest fear was that the Fuumanin would accidently contaminate a bunch of impressionable kids with their weirdness.
But Ilya hadn't known about any of that, and hadn't bothered to think it through. So she'd decided to try and get one up on Diabel, and then had been carelessly unimpressed by the boy's spell. And now that he was thinking about it, Diabel remembered that she'd been [Berserker] in the Beta as well, and now Bel-kun had the name instead. Of course she would cause trouble over that, too, just as an added benefit.
So the boy had left the meeting, gone off to sulk, and although it was exasperating, he was exasperated at Ilya, not at Bel. Diabel couldn't really have expected the boy to act any different.
Diabel made a mental note to talk to Shirou about it. It worried him to do that. If Shirou really was an artificial AI person, then it was genuinely possible he existed for Ilya's sake. He might be literally incapable of holding her in check. In that case, his disappointment and judgement was a bluff, and Diabel had to manage the situation enough that Ilya could be contained without actually calling that bluff.
No, regarding their relationship it didn't actually matter whether Shirou was a [Real Boy] or not. Diabel's instincts were telling him that Shirou couldn't really control Ilya, and that was true whether Shirou was a de novo AI, or a brainscanned dead person, or an Alpha Tester, or just plain talented at the game. Their relationship was off, somehow. It wasn't just that they were individually strange, although that was still true; there was also something strange about the bond between them. Diabel could sense that.
So Diabel suspected that there were a limited number of times he could ask Shirou to intercede, and he didn't actually know what exactly the limit-number was. The probable outcome of going over the limit was a collapse of the [Brotherhood of Saint Mark]. Frankly speaking, as long as Shirou kept Clearing, then Diabel didn't really mind that outcome. But the worst case scenarios were pretty bad, and Diabel didn't really want to test them. Ultimately, Diabel's goal regarding the BSM was just to keep the [Guild Drama] minimized.
So Ilya had been a problem, but that wasn't a surprise. She had just continued to be the same problem she'd been all along. Diabel didn't like it, but he could still plan around it to some degree. He was even comfortable using it in certain ways; regarding the Clearing Guild Leaders, she made it very, very easy for him to be the [Rational One].
Diabel sighed, closing his eyes. If he complained to himself about it, if he rehashed his thinking about it, he'd be wasting time. There were other, new problems to eat at his stomach tonight. So Diabel made himself set down the [Ilya Issue].
After getting harassed by Ilya, Bel had gone off to sulk. His friends, worried when he didn't come back, had snuck off to find him. And apparently [Huntar] had his own [Unique Spell] that worked off the literal [Power of Friendship] that had let him find Bel. That also bore looking in to. But later.
So Bel had gone off to sulk, and his friends had gone after him.
This was the second half of the night. It had not gone at all as Diabel had expected. It had been a surprise, and a horrible one.
Because Bel had never left the [Safe Zone].
Yes, he'd gone off to sulk, but he'd been at least responsible enough that he stayed inside Elvengrad. He hadn't secretly gone out into the field and gotten in over his head.
He'd been placed under some kind of compulsion. The lore called it [Mental Interference].
And he'd been ensorcelled inside the [Safe Zone], by a mob outside the [Safe Zone]. By a monster that used a musical instrument to lure children outside of the city at night. An obvious allusion to the old European fable, the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
[Good job recruiting [Retired Players] into the Game.]
It looked like their grace period had ran out.
There were still many Players in the Rear Line who hadn't done [Circuit Activation]. There was no way to hide this incident, not when he'd mobilized so many Players. He didn't regret that, but it also meant he couldn't sweep this under the rug. It wasn't like he could actively force Players to activate their Circuits, either. He was hesitant to make it a condition for receiving the stipend payments from the [Church Aid Society], because that would make the contrarians not do it just to get back at him. No, the best thing would be to lay out what happened, and just let it be obvious. If that still didn't motivate people, then....
Then the best thing to do was to just write them off.
But even that wasn't enough.
Because the kids that had been kidnapped, they'd had their Circuits opened already. And they'd still been taken by spells. It had been an attack at night.
It wasn't like their defenses would be any better while they were sleeping.
Would they have to put up protective [Bounded Fields] around every single [Elven Dorm] in the whole city? Was it realistic to put up a [Bounded Field] big enough to affect the whole city? What about layering and nesting defenses? It didn't seem like there was a better way than that. And it would have to be fast, too; if another attack happened in the interim, that would drastically undermine his authority. So Diabel would have to peel off human resources from other projects to put up the defenses. But first they'd have to go through some brainstorm-and-design. It wasn't enough to just react to this specific attack, Diabel needed to be more proactive, to anticipate other attacks.
No, Diabel corrected himself, it didn't have to be him. He needed to put his people on it. Probably put Kibaou on it. Inside the [Paladins], Kibaou was the best at area-based magecraft, and he was more intimately connected to Elvengrad than anyone. That had been on display earlier tonight.
Diabel groaned.
And he had to worry about the fluff.
The setting of the Boss Fight had been reclaiming the Floor from [Orcs]. It wouldn't be strange if there was an [Event] where a new [Orcish Horde] gathered to besiege the city or something like that. If certain rumors were believable, there was even a precedent for that.
What was the worst case?
A war that consumed the whole city. Spells that circumvented the spirit of the [Safe Zones]. No, if it was worst case, then maybe he shouldn't be relying on [Safe Zones] at all any more.
Oh.
Oh no. If it was possible for the [Safe Zone] feature to be removed, then....
[Increased Realism] was a problem, too. It was one that had bothered Diabel since the very first patch. Pain and blood and all that, that had worried Diabel because it was frankly sadistic. Being trapped at the mercy of a madman was bad enough, but knowing he was a sadistic madman was tangibly worse.
But then the [Item Tab] had been removed from the inventory, also in the name of [Increased Realism].
Since patches didn't allow just for features to be added, but also taken away, then... was the [Menu] reliable? It wasn't just a matter of losing the Dimensional Stowing of the [Inventory]. Since it was already possible to add and remove [Equipment] by putting it on the old-fashioned way. Frankly speaking, considering the amount of computational power needed just to interact with pants as soft fabric that he had to step into one leg at a time, Kayaba had to be expecting a payoff for that one. So [Equipping] would still be possible. It would just take longer, and they would lose the [Inventory]. That was not ideal, but they’d manage.
[Private Messages]. [Auto-Map]. The [HUD] displaying HP and MP bars. [Quests]. Maybe even [Shops] and [Trade Windows].
[Guilds].
If they lost the [Menu], then there would be social collapse. Diabel's entire command-and-control infrastructure was built on top of the [Menu]. There were no contingencies. He would have to rebuild everything from scratch.
Diabel groaned, lowering his face into his palms.
He sat, leaning back in his chair, allowing himself a moment just to feel sorry for himself.
And then he grunted, pulling his hands down his face as he sat up again, opening his menu to compose a [PM] to Argo.
First things first. He needed to get ahead of the rumors, to control the narrative. First, prepare a statement that could be put in a [Special Edition] of
the [Argo Guide]. Then, he would need to start recruiting a think-tank for creating [Bounded Field] protections. That would have to be fast and highly visible. Being seen "doing something" would help his authority a lot, aside from that it actually did need doing.
And after that... he would need to convene another think-tank, for the counter-measures to and replacements for losing the [Menu]. Diabel wasn't even sure whether he wanted to keep that one secret or not.
He was simply too busy to be going back to bed and getting any sleep tonight.
Well, that was fine.
He was too worried to be getting any sleep anyways.
Chapter 16 End
I I I
1) As you might be aware, this chapter has gone through a few different revisions, versions, outlines. I’ve actually cut it down to this much, but it’s still like 6k words.
2) The only scene that I cut that I wasn’t sure about cutting was the actual “Sasha getting reunited with the kids”. I cut it solely for length, thinking that it wouldn’t add anything that you couldn’t zip through in your imagination just by references to it.
3) Kayaba blinked, tilting his head to the side, as [Virtual Assistant #4] summarized what had happened over night. "Huh." He said to himself. "That was unexpected, but ganbarre Diabel-kun. I guess."
4) Next up is just the omake, and then the dang chapter will finally be done.
"Okay, I've got it here." Kibaou said, as he strode into the room and unrolled a map onto the table.
They were in the conference room attached to Diabel's office, on the top floor of the Paladin's Guild Headquarters. Diabel had it decorated in a wealthy-but-understated style; darkwood paneling, gilded ceiling, big leather chairs, that sort of thing. The room was dominated by the rectangular heavy table in
the middle of the room, which was wooden with a glass-like polished finish.
Diabel glanced at the people in the room with him.
Thinker was slouched in his chair, leaning back with his arms crossed over his chest. Despite his disengaged body-language, his jaw was tense and his eyes
would lock on whoever was speaking.
Next to him, Yulier was in her full-blown [Bishop Regalia], a strange cross between a simple nun's habit, with a lavishly embroidered stole hanging from her shoulders. Her hands were clasped together in front of her, like she was praying. Maybe she even was; whatever magecraft the Church used operated on different logic than other systems.
Kobatz from the Cavaliers, and his own Godfree, were standing stiffly behind him. Rather than acting as bodyguards, they were more like secretaries; Kobatz was taking notes of what everyone said, and Godfree was managing PM conversations with the deployed squads even while they were brainstorming.
It was Sasha that bothered Diabel the most. She had a dark, brooding look, and it had been hard to convince her that she would be better off here, at the nerve center of the rescue operations, rather than out scouring the town herself.
"Right." Kibaou muttered to himself, as he smoothed the corners.
It was a map of the City, with fine gridlines appended over the top. Along the side was a block of information divided into cells in a rectangular sidebar.
It showed information like the date that Kibaou had drawn the map, the dates he had updated it with a short description of what changed, a [Paladins] logo, and a stamp from where Diabel had [Approved] the drawing. Kibaou had been strangely neurotic about getting that right.
"What were the kids’ names again?" He asked, as he fished out some blank stones. They were like misshapen dice, with unequally shaped sides, lopsided and awkward. Each face was blank.
"Their names are [Berserker], [Huntar], and [Emily]." Sasha said, in a clipped voice.
Kibaou muttered under his breath, spelling each name in turn, tapping the side of a die with each letter. Shortly, he had a set of three dice, each with one of the children's names on it.
"Okay, here we go." He said, sweeping them up and cupping them in his palms. He closed his eyes, raising his arms and shaking his hands, before he threw them apart, letting the dice scatter on the table.
Each letter, each Rune used to spell their names glowed, and the dice bounced in strange, unnatural ways, like the red line on the drawing indicating the boundary of the Safe Zone was an actual wall they could bounce against.
But as they slowed, they converged suddenly, abruptly turning and, together, they rolled past the west edge of the city wall and slowed to a stop as they went past the map and nearly went off the edge of table.
There was a moment of silence. "Well, that tears it." Kibaou finally said, voice heavy. "They're not in the city; they left through the west gate."
"Are you sure?" Sasha said, voice demanding.
Kibaou glanced at him, and Diabel gave him a look, urging him to be patient.
"Yes, ma'am, I'm sure." Kibaou said, looking down at the map on the table with a sigh. "It's not just the map. In every building that me and my people draw, there's a little plaque with the name of the drafter, the date, and the customer we drew it for." He reached out and tapped the table. "Every single [Elven Dorm], every shop we modded off one of my designs, I can connect all of them to this map through those plaques." He sighed again, sitting back. "There's nobody with a stronger magical connection to this city than me. And I say, those kids aren't in town. They walked out the gate."
"But why?" Sasha demanded, sounding like she was ready to break down.
"We can figure that out later." Diabel said, keeping his voice firm, but also kind. "For now, what's important is that we have a lead." He turned. "Godfree, tell the Fuumanin to head west and fan out. See if they can track them down. After that, ask for Cuvie to coordinate our Gatherers. It's been a while since they've been on this Floor, but moving fast and rolling over any mobs they encounter is more important than letting the Floor Specialist MidLiners take the lead."
"Sure thing, boss." Godfree easily replied, voice a little distracted as his fingers danced across the keyboard only he could see.
"Speaking of." Diabel said. "Kobatz."
"Yes, sir!" Kobatz replied, snapping to attention, heels clicking together.
"Organize your people. There are at least a couple parties in the Cavaliers that focus on night-fighting, right?" It was a trade-off; the visibility and weather were often worse, but in exchange, the mobs were usually a little stronger, and there was less competition for them. For Mid-Liners that were serious about joining the Front, night operations weren't a bad idea.
"Yes, sir." Kobatz replied, even though it had been a rhetorical question. Well, that was the way Kobatz was.
"Get them coordinated with the Fuumanin." Diabel ordered. "Get them fanned out. Their objective is to make contact."
Diabel considered, and then turned. "Thinker."
"Yeah." Thinker quietly replied.
"Please have your people review which Safe Zones are closest to the West, and check if you have any resources from the Rear Line in any of them currently. If these kids made it to safety, then it would be good to know." Diabel ordered, and then paused.
"Yulier," he said, turning to face the leader of the [Church Aid Society], "do the same thing with your priests. See if you have anyone in the area, and direct them to prepare."
Diabel frowned, thoughts racing.
"Am I missing anything?" He asked aloud.
"I want to go." Sasha said, voice low. "I need to go myself and chase after them."
"You can't." Diabel replied automatically, and then he caught the look on her face. He wanted to grimace, but kept it off his expression. Since everyone else here answered to him, he had fallen into acting like the boss, but he couldn't really treat her the same way.
"I don't recall needing your permission." Sasha tartly replied. "After all, it's because of your Side-Liner foolishness that this even happened in the first place."
There were about three things he could say to that, but Diabel didn't think saying any of them would be productive.
In the first place, that Bel kid had developed the spell on his own, talked about it on his own, and caught the eye of the [White Witch] on his own. It didn't have anything to do with the official [Side Liner] program.
In the second place, Hexadecimal had confirmed that the kid had left the meeting, held inside the Safe Zone of this very city, so it wasn't like the meeting had anything to do with it.
Well, Diabel suspected that it did, actually, have something to do with it, but that was something to figure out later. Diabel really would prefer to have the boy here so he could get more details on that, but Hexi was a sensitive kid, and putting him in front of Sasha's recriminating anger wouldn't accomplish anything. Better to just have him out like any other Paladin, instead of forcing him to defend Ilya to Sasha.
Which lead to the third thing that Diabel didn't say. Why the hell had she allowed the boy to go to a meeting with [The White Witch] alone, unescorted? Had the kid not told her? Was Sasha really that ignorant of Front Liner gossip? It was true that the Titled Players were held up on pedestals by everyone, but the pedestals were different; while [The Sixth Ranger] was held in genuine awe, by comparison, [The White Witch] was more feared. As capricious and uncaringly cruel as a witch. And Sasha hadn't known about that?
But none of that would help. It wouldn't get the kids back, and it wouldn't make Sasha listen to him now. So Diabel swallowed his thoughts and turned back to the scenario at hand.
"Sasha." He said, smiling softly. "I know it's hard to stand on the sidelines, but your job isn't to be out looking for them. We have plenty of people for that. Your job is to wait, and as soon as they are found, go to them." He changed his smile from warm to friendly and rueful. "It's hard to wait while other people do the work, but right now, it's the right thing to do." There, something like that.
"I just." Sasha shook her head. "If I hadn't... if you..." She shook her head again, and exhaled. "I know. I know, but I don't want to agree." She sighed.
"Okay. I'll go along with it for now." And she scowled, her worry and fear congealing on her face. "But don't you think for one minute that we won't be having words about this after we're done." She threatened.
Diabel was pretty sure that he would win that argument by throwing her ignorance of Front Liner politics in her face and scolding her about letting her kids visit Ilya unescorted, but he wasn't really looking forward to winning that argument, and he didn't expect he'd feel good about it, so he just modified his smile again, looking chagrined. "I can accept that." He said. "For now, let's just believe in our people and hope for the best."
That was that for damage control. He turned and checked over his people again. Kobatz had stepped out of the room to do his own administration. Thinker and Yulier were both busily tapping away in their invisible-to-him menus, presumably dealing with PMs. Godfree caught his eye and gave him a curt nod, but he was similarly buried in his messages.
Kibaou was looking pretty antsy, his jaw clenched and his shoulders tight as he stared down at his map. It had been a shot in the dark, but it was at least helpful to confirm that the children weren't in the town. Rather than running through the streets, canvassing door-to-door, they could focus their efforts out in the field.
But it wasn't something that Diabel could call a good thing. If they were lost or even trapped somewhere in town, then at least they would still have the nigh-absolute protection of the [Safe Zone]. If they were out in the field, then....
Well, Diabel wasn't quite ready to ask Yulier if there was someone stationed at the [Monument of Life] that could check it for the names of the children.
Not quite yet. But if they hit the 12 hour mark, then at least the certainty would be useful in its own way, rather than allowing Sasha to place her hopes in the unknown.
And Kibaou was probably thinking in the same direction. But he probably wouldn't say anything. Diabel had been working on him, bringing him around to understanding the need for circumspection.
Ah, and he was distracting himself by thinking about that.
Diabel refocused his mind, and frowned down at the dice. Perhaps he could have Kibaou modify them as a dowsing spell? Something that, rather than giving the position, just indicated the direction? That would be a huge benefit, and would mean they could find the children as fast as Kibaou could move. But what if the kids had split up? Was there a range limit? Could Kibaou use [Inheritance] to give the spell to someone faster, like the Fuumanin? Ugh, was it even a possibility in the first place? Diabel frowned internally, as he quickly tried to formulate and plan out the different ways that discussion could go, and prevent it from getting derailed by Sasha.
Ah, his menu flashed. He had a PM from Kirito.
He crushed the flicker of hope, opened the PM, and then felt his mind sag in relief.
"Everyone," He announced, letting the relief show as a genuine smile, "the children have been found, and are safe."
"Thank god." Yulier whispered, as she turned, grabbing onto Thinker's shoulder, who patted her back, even as he breathed out with his eyes closed.
Godfree cheered, and Kibaou had a savage grin, and Sasha stumbled, catching herself on the side of the table, before her gaze snapped to Diabel and she pushed herself back up.
"I'm not sure where, but we'll figure it out." Diabel promised her. "I'll still need to trade a few PMs, but for now, let's head West and go meet them."
I I I
"And, done." Kirito announced, as he hit the [Send] button on his message screen. His finger lingered in the air, before he let it drop. He had a feeling his inbox was about to blow up, so he swept his gaze around the area quickly one more time.
Sacchi smiled at him. She was standing next to her [Pack Mules], and holding the hands of two children, a boy and a girl, that were sitting on the backs of two of them. Kirito gathered that the boy was named [Bel] and the girl was [Emily], but he still didn't understand what the heck kids that were like, Level Three, were doing out in the field.
Sasamaru and Tetsuo were standing guard, on opposite sides of the Mules, their weapons up and their eyes scanning around the area.
Ducker had actually gone and climbed a tree in the last thirty seconds, and was frowning as his head swiveled back and forth. He had a hand cupped over his eyes like he was shading them from sun-glare, but since his eyes were also faintly glowing, whatever vision-enhancement spell he was using might actually need the protection. Well, straight-up [Reinforced Optic Sensitivity] was a little simplistic. Kirito had gotten some tips when Rosalia did a lecture on vision-spells for the BSM (Ilya had forced her into it, somehow), and Kirito had crashed it.
Kirito reminded himself it was unfair to hold the Black Cats to the same standards as Front Liners.
Keita was standing off to his side, a little bit, where the third kid (who was named [Hunter] or something, he pronounced it with a strange emphasis Kirito thought) was looking up, star-struck, at Shirou.
Well, the two kids on the [Mules] were sneaking glances as well, but they didn't quite have the starry-eyed look that the third boy did. Kirito glanced back down at his menu, humming as he saw that Diabel had PM'd him back. Kirito opened it, scanned through, and popped back quick answers to the list of questions that Diabel had spammed him with, asking for their map coordinates and who exactly was there and stuff like that. Right before hitting send, he stopped, considering, and then added his own question. Sure they could just sit tight, but it wasn't like there was anything to worry about, so maybe they should move towards a rendezvous point?
Then he looked up, scanned the area again, and walked over to see what the kid was talking to Keita and Shirou about.
"Can you really shoot swords with your mind?" The kid asked.
Shirou looked distinctly uncomfortable. "Well, not exactly." He replied.
"Yes." Kirito said, interrupting as he walked up to them. "It is one of the [108 Skills of the Sixth Ranger], in the same category as [Ranger Rapid Fire], [Aimbot Ranger], and [Ranger Rocket Tag]." Kirito struck the one-finger-in-the-air pose that Shirou sometimes unconsciously took when he was lecturing about magecraft. "It's the 80s-series." By the way, Kirito had just made that up. It was a little hilarious that other people were taking his little gag seriously.
"Anyway," he said as he clapped his hands, interrupting Shirou's incoming overly-technical lore-dump, "I let Diabel know where we are." He ignored Shirou's dirty look, glanced at the complex expression on Keita's face, and then looked down at the kid. "I think it's become kind of a big deal."
The kid looked ashamed, and the expression on Keita's face started to look a little sour, while Shirou instead looked bashful, like he was beating himself up for not realizing that already.
Well, Kirito had only suspected a little himself. After a long day of doing math homework, of all things, (Ellis Bell wouldn't teach him more spells until he passed a literal trigonometry test), Kirito had wanted to get out and move, but not concentrate too much, which meant that power-leveling or exploring the Front Line were both out. So he'd dragged Shirou out so they could mess around with Lightsabers some more. The current prototype was just a clump of Ether that Kirito had realized and stabilized enough that Shirou could hammer the dang thing into the shape of a sword. It couldn't turn off, and they couldn't change the color it glowed, and it didn't hum at all, and it was slowly evaporating, which was characterized as a constant rate of durability loss.
But it actually worked as a sword without exploding, so it was progress of at least a sort.
So they'd been messing around with those prototypes when Kirito had gotten the PM from Keita asking for help, apparently escorting some lost kids through the Field. If it was just a Quest, then Kirito might have actually blown them off to hang with Shirou, but those kids were Players, not NPCs. That had really changed things. Kirito had raced off with Shirou in tow, and there they were.
"Woah." The kid replied. "Can you teach ME to shoot swords with my mind?"
"You'd be better off sticking with a bow." Shirou replied, looking like he was on slightly firmer ground. "It's much more reliable and prana-efficient. It's not as flashy, but simple is usually best."
Kirito decided to turn and talk to Keita instead. "So, you want to head back to town?"
Keita nodded, glancing at the kid before he trudged off to go tell the rest of the guild.
Kirito scanned the area, humming to himself. He really wanted to ask what the kids were doing out here. No, that wasn't accurate. He wanted to know the answer, but he didn't actually want to ask the question. He didn't really level his Talk skill enough, and if the kids had run away from home or something like that, he didn't know how to deal with that.
He caught Shirou's eye. His friend squinted, frowning with his eyes. Ugh, so he was thinking about that kind of thing too.
But Keita was waving to them, so they turned and walked over to the rest of the group.
Hunter, no, [Huntar]! With an "A" in it, that was the kid's name. Anyway, Huntar was sneaking looks at Shirou out of the side of his eye.
Huntar was cheerful, but his cheerfulness seemed a little... brittle? It was off. There was something about it that bothered Kirito. But figuring it out was intimidating. He didn't know what was wrong, and he wasn't comfortable asking.
The other two kids were doing the same. To be precise, the three of them weren't just sneaking looks at Shirou directly, but also at the blue-and-gold icon floating over his head, marking him as a [Titled Player].
And it wasn't like the other two kids were much better. The girl was still sniffling, and her eyes were red from crying. The way that the system handled [Crying] was a little weird. Runny noses and even tears hadn't been included in the Release Version of the game. They were left out like all other body fluids. Kirito had never actually cried in-game during the Beta, and had never talked to anyone that had, or at least, that had admitted to it. Looking back, it was something he hadn't even thought about. It was genuinely a gap in his knowledge on how the Beta had handled things.
In the name of [Increased Realism], the game had added in blood, sweat, and tears.
But the puffiness, the red eyes, the sniffling, all that ended as soon as people were "done crying." It wasn't something that Kirito had wanted to know, but sometimes you couldn't avoid it on the Front Line. Seeing people cry. Or crying yourself. It wasn't something he would ever, ever admit to, but Kirito had messed up spells badly enough that tears had leaked out.
So as long as someone still felt like crying, they kept looking like they had just finished crying.
The girl, [Emily], still looked like that.
Compared to that, [Berserker], who insisted on being called [Bel], he'd just looked straight-up haunted. (And wow about that name; Kirito couldn't even imagine how Ilya would deal, learning that the handle she'd wanted had been taken by some Rear Liner).
So Huntar was being deliberately cheerful, Emily looked ready to cry, and Bel looked like he'd just gone three rounds with Kuradeel.
Kirito felt out of his depth. He glanced around, scanning the area, instead of looking at the kids.
He met Keita's gaze, and the other boy nodded his head, an indecipherable look on his face, as he walked back to where Kirito was standing with Shirou and Huntar.
"I've let the rest know." Keita said, nodding as he got close enough to speak without shouting. "We're ready to head out whenever the both of you are."
"Sure." Kirito easily replied, while Shirou just nodded.
"OK!" Huntar said, smiling brightly.
"Huntar, right?" Keita asked.
"Yes?" The boy replied.
"Why don't you go sit with Bel and Emily on the Mules? I'm sure Sacchi had saved you a seat." Keita said, smiling.
"But..." Huntar said, glancing shyly at Shirou.
"I'll catch up in a minute." Shirou replied. Ha, he still looked ridiculously uncomfortable with the blatant Hero Worship. Not that Kirito would say anything, because his instincts as a Gamer told him not to raise a [Flag] like that.
"Alright then!" Huntar chirped, before he turned and ran over to join his friends.
There was an awkward pause. Kirito debated saying something.
"I, um, I think we're in over our heads." Keita admitted, after a moment.
"Yeah?" Kirito asked.
"Yes." Keita nodded, licking his lips before speaking again. "Um, Kirito, you said you PM'd Diabel-sama, right?" Kirito wasn't sure if Keita wanted confirmation on that or what, but Kirito nodded back just to be sure.
"Right. Well." Keita said. "He's PM'd me, uh, three times, and I've gotten messages from Hanzou-san, and from Kibaou-san, and somebody named Sasha, and Argo, and Lind-san." He swallowed. "I think this is a really big deal?"
Kirito nodded, making an encouraging motion with his hands. That probably explained why Kirito’s inbox hadn’t blown up; Keita’s had, instead.
"And, um, I just feel like we didn't really do anything special." Keita admitted, all in a rush.
Objectively speaking, the Black Cats weren't special. But...
"It's not a matter of what you thought you were capable of." Shirou interjected. "It wasn't a matter of whether you thought you could. There was somebody that needed saving, so you saved them. Because you were the only ones that could do it."
Kirito wasn't really a specialist at Social Traits, and Shirou was pretty stoic, but he felt like his friend was maybe blaming himself for that one.
Keita laughed, a little nervous. "Well, that's true, but that wasn't what was going through our heads. What happened was... we only felt safe trying because of all you've done for us."
Keita smiled again, and stood formally, before bowing formally. "Thank you both. Without your defensive spells, Kirito, we would have lost. And without your weapons, Sixth Ranger-sama, we wouldn't have been able to win." He stood, and awkwardly laughed it off. "It was only because of what you'd given us that we could save them."
"Yeah, no problem." Kirito replied, smiling back. It felt a little queasy on his face. It wasn't that big of a deal, it felt uncomfortable. All he did was kill time with them.
He glanced out of the corner of his eye, about to say something else as he opened his mouth, but then let it die, slowly closing his mouth again.
Shirou had his eyes closed, and his head down a little bit, and his expression was... it was soft. Relaxed.
Keita looked like he was about to say something, and Kirito shook his head back. Kirito had just thought that Shirou was pretty stoic, but at the same time, even though he didn't express it much, he got really emotional about saving people, and Keita had just sorta pushed those buttons.
Honestly, it was a little embarrassing to see from the side, but he also wanted Shirou to have this moment.
"Right." Shirou said, sighing as he opened his eyes, re-centering himself in the present. "You said we needed to head back?"
"Yes." Keita nodded. "There's a rendezvous point, um, that Diabel-sama asked us to head towards."
I I I
Tonight had been exhausting. Diabel slumped back in his chair in his private office, indulging in poor posture.
He'd personally escorted Sasha out to meet up with her lost kids, and he'd even managed to mostly figure out what had happened, around the edges of Sasha's relieved-but-angry-mom routine. It had taken too long, and it had been annoying to step lightly around the situation, but he'd made it work.
Broadly speaking, the first half of the night had gone about as Diabel had already expected.
Ilya had found out about Bel-kun's new Eye Spell through the grapevine. It hadn't been anything particularly useful, but at the very least the Fuumanin had been interested in it, as an alternate way to perceive their surroundings in total darkness. Hanzou in particular had been interested in the possible synergy between [Seeing Soundwaves] and his own Air spellcraft. Diabel had looked forward to that. An easy win, good publicity. A Rear-Liner helping out a famous Front Line guild. His biggest fear was that the Fuumanin would accidently contaminate a bunch of impressionable kids with their weirdness.
But Ilya hadn't known about any of that, and hadn't bothered to think it through. So she'd decided to try and get one up on Diabel, and then had been carelessly unimpressed by the boy's spell. And now that he was thinking about it, Diabel remembered that she'd been [Berserker] in the Beta as well, and now Bel-kun had the name instead. Of course she would cause trouble over that, too, just as an added benefit.
So the boy had left the meeting, gone off to sulk, and although it was exasperating, he was exasperated at Ilya, not at Bel. Diabel couldn't really have expected the boy to act any different.
Diabel made a mental note to talk to Shirou about it. It worried him to do that. If Shirou really was an artificial AI person, then it was genuinely possible he existed for Ilya's sake. He might be literally incapable of holding her in check. In that case, his disappointment and judgement was a bluff, and Diabel had to manage the situation enough that Ilya could be contained without actually calling that bluff.
No, regarding their relationship it didn't actually matter whether Shirou was a [Real Boy] or not. Diabel's instincts were telling him that Shirou couldn't really control Ilya, and that was true whether Shirou was a de novo AI, or a brainscanned dead person, or an Alpha Tester, or just plain talented at the game. Their relationship was off, somehow. It wasn't just that they were individually strange, although that was still true; there was also something strange about the bond between them. Diabel could sense that.
So Diabel suspected that there were a limited number of times he could ask Shirou to intercede, and he didn't actually know what exactly the limit-number was. The probable outcome of going over the limit was a collapse of the [Brotherhood of Saint Mark]. Frankly speaking, as long as Shirou kept Clearing, then Diabel didn't really mind that outcome. But the worst case scenarios were pretty bad, and Diabel didn't really want to test them. Ultimately, Diabel's goal regarding the BSM was just to keep the [Guild Drama] minimized.
So Ilya had been a problem, but that wasn't a surprise. She had just continued to be the same problem she'd been all along. Diabel didn't like it, but he could still plan around it to some degree. He was even comfortable using it in certain ways; regarding the Clearing Guild Leaders, she made it very, very easy for him to be the [Rational One].
Diabel sighed, closing his eyes. If he complained to himself about it, if he rehashed his thinking about it, he'd be wasting time. There were other, new problems to eat at his stomach tonight. So Diabel made himself set down the [Ilya Issue].
After getting harassed by Ilya, Bel had gone off to sulk. His friends, worried when he didn't come back, had snuck off to find him. And apparently [Huntar] had his own [Unique Spell] that worked off the literal [Power of Friendship] that had let him find Bel. That also bore looking in to. But later.
So Bel had gone off to sulk, and his friends had gone after him.
This was the second half of the night. It had not gone at all as Diabel had expected. It had been a surprise, and a horrible one.
Because Bel had never left the [Safe Zone].
Yes, he'd gone off to sulk, but he'd been at least responsible enough that he stayed inside Elvengrad. He hadn't secretly gone out into the field and gotten in over his head.
He'd been placed under some kind of compulsion. The lore called it [Mental Interference].
And he'd been ensorcelled inside the [Safe Zone], by a mob outside the [Safe Zone]. By a monster that used a musical instrument to lure children outside of the city at night. An obvious allusion to the old European fable, the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
[Good job recruiting [Retired Players] into the Game.]
It looked like their grace period had ran out.
There were still many Players in the Rear Line who hadn't done [Circuit Activation]. There was no way to hide this incident, not when he'd mobilized so many Players. He didn't regret that, but it also meant he couldn't sweep this under the rug. It wasn't like he could actively force Players to activate their Circuits, either. He was hesitant to make it a condition for receiving the stipend payments from the [Church Aid Society], because that would make the contrarians not do it just to get back at him. No, the best thing would be to lay out what happened, and just let it be obvious. If that still didn't motivate people, then....
Then the best thing to do was to just write them off.
But even that wasn't enough.
Because the kids that had been kidnapped, they'd had their Circuits opened already. And they'd still been taken by spells. It had been an attack at night.
It wasn't like their defenses would be any better while they were sleeping.
Would they have to put up protective [Bounded Fields] around every single [Elven Dorm] in the whole city? Was it realistic to put up a [Bounded Field] big enough to affect the whole city? What about layering and nesting defenses? It didn't seem like there was a better way than that. And it would have to be fast, too; if another attack happened in the interim, that would drastically undermine his authority. So Diabel would have to peel off human resources from other projects to put up the defenses. But first they'd have to go through some brainstorm-and-design. It wasn't enough to just react to this specific attack, Diabel needed to be more proactive, to anticipate other attacks.
No, Diabel corrected himself, it didn't have to be him. He needed to put his people on it. Probably put Kibaou on it. Inside the [Paladins], Kibaou was the best at area-based magecraft, and he was more intimately connected to Elvengrad than anyone. That had been on display earlier tonight.
Diabel groaned.
And he had to worry about the fluff.
The setting of the Boss Fight had been reclaiming the Floor from [Orcs]. It wouldn't be strange if there was an [Event] where a new [Orcish Horde] gathered to besiege the city or something like that. If certain rumors were believable, there was even a precedent for that.
What was the worst case?
A war that consumed the whole city. Spells that circumvented the spirit of the [Safe Zones]. No, if it was worst case, then maybe he shouldn't be relying on [Safe Zones] at all any more.
Oh.
Oh no. If it was possible for the [Safe Zone] feature to be removed, then....
[Increased Realism] was a problem, too. It was one that had bothered Diabel since the very first patch. Pain and blood and all that, that had worried Diabel because it was frankly sadistic. Being trapped at the mercy of a madman was bad enough, but knowing he was a sadistic madman was tangibly worse.
But then the [Item Tab] had been removed from the inventory, also in the name of [Increased Realism].
Since patches didn't allow just for features to be added, but also taken away, then... was the [Menu] reliable? It wasn't just a matter of losing the Dimensional Stowing of the [Inventory]. Since it was already possible to add and remove [Equipment] by putting it on the old-fashioned way. Frankly speaking, considering the amount of computational power needed just to interact with pants as soft fabric that he had to step into one leg at a time, Kayaba had to be expecting a payoff for that one. So [Equipping] would still be possible. It would just take longer, and they would lose the [Inventory]. That was not ideal, but they’d manage.
[Private Messages]. [Auto-Map]. The [HUD] displaying HP and MP bars. [Quests]. Maybe even [Shops] and [Trade Windows].
[Guilds].
If they lost the [Menu], then there would be social collapse. Diabel's entire command-and-control infrastructure was built on top of the [Menu]. There were no contingencies. He would have to rebuild everything from scratch.
Diabel groaned, lowering his face into his palms.
He sat, leaning back in his chair, allowing himself a moment just to feel sorry for himself.
And then he grunted, pulling his hands down his face as he sat up again, opening his menu to compose a [PM] to Argo.
First things first. He needed to get ahead of the rumors, to control the narrative. First, prepare a statement that could be put in a [Special Edition] of
the [Argo Guide]. Then, he would need to start recruiting a think-tank for creating [Bounded Field] protections. That would have to be fast and highly visible. Being seen "doing something" would help his authority a lot, aside from that it actually did need doing.
And after that... he would need to convene another think-tank, for the counter-measures to and replacements for losing the [Menu]. Diabel wasn't even sure whether he wanted to keep that one secret or not.
He was simply too busy to be going back to bed and getting any sleep tonight.
Well, that was fine.
He was too worried to be getting any sleep anyways.
Chapter 16 End
I I I
1) As you might be aware, this chapter has gone through a few different revisions, versions, outlines. I’ve actually cut it down to this much, but it’s still like 6k words.
2) The only scene that I cut that I wasn’t sure about cutting was the actual “Sasha getting reunited with the kids”. I cut it solely for length, thinking that it wouldn’t add anything that you couldn’t zip through in your imagination just by references to it.
3) Kayaba blinked, tilting his head to the side, as [Virtual Assistant #4] summarized what had happened over night. "Huh." He said to himself. "That was unexpected, but ganbarre Diabel-kun. I guess."
4) Next up is just the omake, and then the dang chapter will finally be done.
16.5 ID3
Kirito dodged, leaping backwards, springing off the trunk of a tree and spinning away.
The tree was smashed, blown down by the monster, the thing, that was chasing him.
It was uniformly white, glowing a strange off-blue alabaster color in the moonlight. When he struck it with his sword, it had been as smooth as marble, despite flowing like a mudslide rolling across the land.
The tree he pushed off of was knocked down, cracking loudly as it was broken in half as easily as snapping a splinter between someone’s fingers. The great white mass surged forward, pushing trees aside, and the formless blob took on a form. A snarling wolf-like head, with multi-faceted eyes like a beetle, that was probably staring at him.
Also, for some reason, a maid headband was formed out of the same homogenous stuff as the head.
Kirito grimaced, darting forward, his sword glowing as he slashed at it once, twice, three times, carving a triangle with the afterimages of his blows.
He hadn’t caught up with the Black Cats yet. He really, really didn’t want to think about what that meant.
“Whoa!” He shouted, leaping back as he rolled away from the monster’s mass as it simply surged towards him, like an avalanche trying to bury him alive.
Kirito didn’t want to call it the main body exactly, but something extruded from the top, like clay being pushed through a mold.
It was a person, more or less. A head with long hair-like tendrils, a featureless face, and another frilly maid headband. The torso was buxom, but the details were obscured by what looked like a frilled apron. Two arms, spread wide, before they came together to clasp like in prayer. The barest suggestion of hips merged into the main mass of the monstrous thing in front of him.
Floating above that fake head was a blood-red rhombus and a monster’s name. [The Queen of All Slimes].
It screamed without sound. A simple howl without words, expressed directly into his mind, without passing through the air.
“Gah.” Kirito stumbled, trapped by a sudden sense of vertigo. His sword slipped from his fingers. His Circuits, blazing-sharp lines of light within him, became blurred and unsure, washed out and obscured by a strange fog.
His body was melting. No, he realized, as his thoughts thickened and pulled apart. His very self was melting.
The demon rolled forward, covering him over with its mass, smothering him, crushing him, and digesting him.
His body melted into pixels before the damage could add up too much, though.
I I I
(DEAD END)
…(click)
IMOUTO DOJO
Take the suspicious advice? Y/N
….Y (click)
I I I
Kirito considered the firm, smooth hardwood beneath him, pressed against his cheek, arms and body and legs flat against the plane of the ground.
“What the heck was that?” He asked himself.
“Sorry, but brother was just unlucky!” The voice of a cheerful girl rang out, and Kirito raised his head.
It was a familiar scene. The dojo attached to his parents, or rather, his aunt and uncle’s house; to his side, it opened onto the yard, with the thing that went donk. In front of him was Sugu, upper body wrapped in a gi, and her legs in a full hakama. Her arms were at her sides, her fists clenched in the guts pose. Then, she thrust one hand up, pointing at him dramatically with her right hand, while her left hand flung out. Between her arms, was a lot of the kind of bouncing that Kirito firmly refused to recognize in his sister.
Behind Sugu was the shrine, with those old swords that Grampa insisted had been in the family since before the Reformation, and above them was a banner proclaiming that [Brother Love is Justice], which didn’t have anything to do with Grampa, and everything to do with Sugu. Kirito considered that, and then decided not to think about the implications, for the sake of his sanity.
“It was always a gamble to see what card Yui-chan would decide to play, and unfortunately, rather than re-playing a Character Card from the graveyard using her special field return command, instead she decided to steal a Card that had been slipped into another Duelist’s Deck! And that card had a really, really high stat for Special Attack because of all the Monster Fusion and Breeding specials that other Duelist had stacked on that Character Card!” Sugu explained. “On top of that, since you only had yourself in play without any other Character Cards, you totally lost! Maybe next time you should bring a friend, and hope that Yui-chan doesn’t draw something quite that crazy!”
Kirito considered that, and then responded. “Sugu.” For good measure, he pushed himself off the ground, since staring up at Sugu was giving him a crick in his neck.
“Yes! Oniichan!” Sugu responded, smiling brilliantly.
“I didn’t know you ever played trading card games.” Kirito responded, frowning.
“Ah!” Sugu blushed, looking down to the side. “Well, you know, there were a couple different Duel Monster card games that were popular during elementary school. I played them with my friends!” Sugu pushed her pointer fingers together, before shyly looking at Kirito through upturned eyes. “So you understand why you never got involved, right?”
“Guh!” Kirito said, staggering back as he clutched at his chest. “I – I had lots of friends during elementary school! It’s just that they were all net-friends, so meeting up IRL was really hard!”
“You don’t have to lie to Sugu, you know that, right Oniichan?” Sugu said, bottom lip pouting. “Even though you always ate lunch alone outside, even though you always bounced the soccer ball against the wall by yourself during recess, and even when you only ever told stories about what you did in games, Sugu can accept all of that!” Beaming, Sugu spread her arms. “Sugu can embrace everything of Oniichan, even the embarrassing parts!”
“I won’t accept it!” Kirito said, fists clenching and shaking. “Even if it’s a dead-tree-format analog game, there’s no way that an elite gamer like me would ever lose! I’ll learn all the rules, master the system, and win using my own style! Even if I only have one Character Card to play or whatever, the cool and reliable Black Swordsman doesn’t’ go down that easily!”
“That’s the self-assured Oniichan that Sugu respects more than anyone!” Sugu cheered, thrusting one fist into the air.
“And besides!” Kirito said, dramatically posing with one hand over his face. “I admit that a [Slime Girl] with a [Maid Outfit] has several hundred [Moe Points], but something like that will lose to [ASUNYAN], the cool big sis maid! With cat ears! And glasses! And knee-high socks! Such a ferocious combo is worth [Moe Points] in the thousands!”
“Mou!” Sugu said, pouting as she shook her hips back and forth. “But what about a little sister that’s not actually your little sister! Isn’t that the [Ultimate Moe] where love can transcend all?”
Kirito raised a finger in triumph, before playing the ultimate counter attack. “That applies to Ilya too, you know.”
“Guh!” It was Sugu’s turn to stagger back, one hand reaching back as the other clenched above her prodigious chest. “Just because she’s a little sister unrelated by blood doesn’t make her comparable to me! Even if you bullied me, that wouldn’t unlock a Yandere Bad End! Instead, I would cry, and you would awaken to a new fetish!”
“So go ahead.” Sugu continued, smiling radiantly. “Embrace the feelings you keep locked away in your heart, and then embrace Su-”
“No.” Kirito said, raising his hand and shaking his head. His instinct as a Gamer were telling him this was leading to a bittersweet ending where a brother and sister wearing trenchcoats got on a train, to start a new life in a new town, where people didn’t know why their last names were already the same. He needed to avoid that ending! It wasn’t like it would matter since all his friends were on-line anyway so as long as he had internet his social life would be unaffected from moving to that new town, but still!
“There’s still a different Card I could play.” Kirito announced, smiling devilishly. “I could draw it from the Deck of Friendship, the strongest Character Card with the worst balance! With Attack and Evade stats that look like misprints with an extra digit! If I just use that, then I can win without any tricks!”
“That’s my brother!” Sugu cheered. “Even if you always brag about being a strong and cool soloer, you don’t hesitate to rely on your friends!”
However, Sugu had put the word [Friends] in air quotes with her fingers.
Kirito collapsed to his hands and knees. “It’s not my fault we’ve never met IRL! It’s literally impossible with the setting being what it is! Besides, it’s really embarrassing to say stuff like ‘oh, we’re best friends’, even if it’s only thinking it in my own mind! A serious student council president wearing glasses! A smarmy playboy with seaweed hair with not-very-hidden self-esteem issues! Compared to that, I’m just some computer otaku! If it was a BL game, then I wouldn’t even be the most interesting route!” Kirito paused, hands in his head. “And I’m definitely hanging out with Silica way too much if that’s how I’m presenting that.”
“Gah!” Sugu staggered back. “Sugu can accept the BL thing, but what’s this with introducing another girl’s name all of a sudden!?”
“Hm?” Kirito said, glancing up. “Oh, Silica-chan? She’s in the guild, she’s like… I guess you could say she’s the official little sister of the guild? Since Ilya is too disturbing to pull that role off.”
“Official Little Sister!” Sugu shouted, suddenly holding a bokken. “I could hold my tongue about Asuna, and your best friend is NTRing Argo away so I’m ready to comfort you, and you never even entered the Liz Route which was good, but now I find out you’ve been cheating on me with another little sister!”
“Wait, what was that about Argo?” Kirito asked. “I’m pretty sure that’s not a real ship-”
“No!” Sugu said, swinging her sword to the side and then raising it to a guard position in front of her. “You don’t get to change the subject! Sugu is hurt that Oniichan is cheating, so put up your sword and prepare to take your lumps!”
“Raa!” Sugu roared, tears at the corner of her eyes as she dashed forward, and Kirito shivered unconsciously at the strange resemblance to some strange tiger, his instincts screaming.
And like that, we close the curtains on the strange advice corner, since it was a good place to end, what with the foreshadowing alluding to a crossover next time.
16.5 Imouto Dojo 3
End
I I I
1) I feel like I got about 800 works in, and was like “welp, that’s just about the content I wanted to put in there.” Then I just ad-libbed non-sense for another thousand words.
2) Originally I was planning on having Tiger crash through the wall, so I could bounce her off these two kids, but that’s not how this ended up working.
3) I guess at the end, my biggest concern is that maybe I made these two a little too exaggerated, but it’s kind of hard to tell if that can ever really be the case with an omake chapter like this. Like, as long as they’re still recognizably the same character, it works? I dunno.
4) I’m going to go back and make sure everything’s up to date, but I’ll finally push another chapter onto ffnet after what feels like a geologic age. I’d like to pick up writing speed again; we’ll see if that happens.
Kirito dodged, leaping backwards, springing off the trunk of a tree and spinning away.
The tree was smashed, blown down by the monster, the thing, that was chasing him.
It was uniformly white, glowing a strange off-blue alabaster color in the moonlight. When he struck it with his sword, it had been as smooth as marble, despite flowing like a mudslide rolling across the land.
The tree he pushed off of was knocked down, cracking loudly as it was broken in half as easily as snapping a splinter between someone’s fingers. The great white mass surged forward, pushing trees aside, and the formless blob took on a form. A snarling wolf-like head, with multi-faceted eyes like a beetle, that was probably staring at him.
Also, for some reason, a maid headband was formed out of the same homogenous stuff as the head.
Kirito grimaced, darting forward, his sword glowing as he slashed at it once, twice, three times, carving a triangle with the afterimages of his blows.
He hadn’t caught up with the Black Cats yet. He really, really didn’t want to think about what that meant.
“Whoa!” He shouted, leaping back as he rolled away from the monster’s mass as it simply surged towards him, like an avalanche trying to bury him alive.
Kirito didn’t want to call it the main body exactly, but something extruded from the top, like clay being pushed through a mold.
It was a person, more or less. A head with long hair-like tendrils, a featureless face, and another frilly maid headband. The torso was buxom, but the details were obscured by what looked like a frilled apron. Two arms, spread wide, before they came together to clasp like in prayer. The barest suggestion of hips merged into the main mass of the monstrous thing in front of him.
Floating above that fake head was a blood-red rhombus and a monster’s name. [The Queen of All Slimes].
It screamed without sound. A simple howl without words, expressed directly into his mind, without passing through the air.
“Gah.” Kirito stumbled, trapped by a sudden sense of vertigo. His sword slipped from his fingers. His Circuits, blazing-sharp lines of light within him, became blurred and unsure, washed out and obscured by a strange fog.
His body was melting. No, he realized, as his thoughts thickened and pulled apart. His very self was melting.
The demon rolled forward, covering him over with its mass, smothering him, crushing him, and digesting him.
His body melted into pixels before the damage could add up too much, though.
I I I
(DEAD END)
…(click)
IMOUTO DOJO
Take the suspicious advice? Y/N
….Y (click)
I I I
Kirito considered the firm, smooth hardwood beneath him, pressed against his cheek, arms and body and legs flat against the plane of the ground.
“What the heck was that?” He asked himself.
“Sorry, but brother was just unlucky!” The voice of a cheerful girl rang out, and Kirito raised his head.
It was a familiar scene. The dojo attached to his parents, or rather, his aunt and uncle’s house; to his side, it opened onto the yard, with the thing that went donk. In front of him was Sugu, upper body wrapped in a gi, and her legs in a full hakama. Her arms were at her sides, her fists clenched in the guts pose. Then, she thrust one hand up, pointing at him dramatically with her right hand, while her left hand flung out. Between her arms, was a lot of the kind of bouncing that Kirito firmly refused to recognize in his sister.
Behind Sugu was the shrine, with those old swords that Grampa insisted had been in the family since before the Reformation, and above them was a banner proclaiming that [Brother Love is Justice], which didn’t have anything to do with Grampa, and everything to do with Sugu. Kirito considered that, and then decided not to think about the implications, for the sake of his sanity.
“It was always a gamble to see what card Yui-chan would decide to play, and unfortunately, rather than re-playing a Character Card from the graveyard using her special field return command, instead she decided to steal a Card that had been slipped into another Duelist’s Deck! And that card had a really, really high stat for Special Attack because of all the Monster Fusion and Breeding specials that other Duelist had stacked on that Character Card!” Sugu explained. “On top of that, since you only had yourself in play without any other Character Cards, you totally lost! Maybe next time you should bring a friend, and hope that Yui-chan doesn’t draw something quite that crazy!”
Kirito considered that, and then responded. “Sugu.” For good measure, he pushed himself off the ground, since staring up at Sugu was giving him a crick in his neck.
“Yes! Oniichan!” Sugu responded, smiling brilliantly.
“I didn’t know you ever played trading card games.” Kirito responded, frowning.
“Ah!” Sugu blushed, looking down to the side. “Well, you know, there were a couple different Duel Monster card games that were popular during elementary school. I played them with my friends!” Sugu pushed her pointer fingers together, before shyly looking at Kirito through upturned eyes. “So you understand why you never got involved, right?”
“Guh!” Kirito said, staggering back as he clutched at his chest. “I – I had lots of friends during elementary school! It’s just that they were all net-friends, so meeting up IRL was really hard!”
“You don’t have to lie to Sugu, you know that, right Oniichan?” Sugu said, bottom lip pouting. “Even though you always ate lunch alone outside, even though you always bounced the soccer ball against the wall by yourself during recess, and even when you only ever told stories about what you did in games, Sugu can accept all of that!” Beaming, Sugu spread her arms. “Sugu can embrace everything of Oniichan, even the embarrassing parts!”
“I won’t accept it!” Kirito said, fists clenching and shaking. “Even if it’s a dead-tree-format analog game, there’s no way that an elite gamer like me would ever lose! I’ll learn all the rules, master the system, and win using my own style! Even if I only have one Character Card to play or whatever, the cool and reliable Black Swordsman doesn’t’ go down that easily!”
“That’s the self-assured Oniichan that Sugu respects more than anyone!” Sugu cheered, thrusting one fist into the air.
“And besides!” Kirito said, dramatically posing with one hand over his face. “I admit that a [Slime Girl] with a [Maid Outfit] has several hundred [Moe Points], but something like that will lose to [ASUNYAN], the cool big sis maid! With cat ears! And glasses! And knee-high socks! Such a ferocious combo is worth [Moe Points] in the thousands!”
“Mou!” Sugu said, pouting as she shook her hips back and forth. “But what about a little sister that’s not actually your little sister! Isn’t that the [Ultimate Moe] where love can transcend all?”
Kirito raised a finger in triumph, before playing the ultimate counter attack. “That applies to Ilya too, you know.”
“Guh!” It was Sugu’s turn to stagger back, one hand reaching back as the other clenched above her prodigious chest. “Just because she’s a little sister unrelated by blood doesn’t make her comparable to me! Even if you bullied me, that wouldn’t unlock a Yandere Bad End! Instead, I would cry, and you would awaken to a new fetish!”
“So go ahead.” Sugu continued, smiling radiantly. “Embrace the feelings you keep locked away in your heart, and then embrace Su-”
“No.” Kirito said, raising his hand and shaking his head. His instinct as a Gamer were telling him this was leading to a bittersweet ending where a brother and sister wearing trenchcoats got on a train, to start a new life in a new town, where people didn’t know why their last names were already the same. He needed to avoid that ending! It wasn’t like it would matter since all his friends were on-line anyway so as long as he had internet his social life would be unaffected from moving to that new town, but still!
“There’s still a different Card I could play.” Kirito announced, smiling devilishly. “I could draw it from the Deck of Friendship, the strongest Character Card with the worst balance! With Attack and Evade stats that look like misprints with an extra digit! If I just use that, then I can win without any tricks!”
“That’s my brother!” Sugu cheered. “Even if you always brag about being a strong and cool soloer, you don’t hesitate to rely on your friends!”
However, Sugu had put the word [Friends] in air quotes with her fingers.
Kirito collapsed to his hands and knees. “It’s not my fault we’ve never met IRL! It’s literally impossible with the setting being what it is! Besides, it’s really embarrassing to say stuff like ‘oh, we’re best friends’, even if it’s only thinking it in my own mind! A serious student council president wearing glasses! A smarmy playboy with seaweed hair with not-very-hidden self-esteem issues! Compared to that, I’m just some computer otaku! If it was a BL game, then I wouldn’t even be the most interesting route!” Kirito paused, hands in his head. “And I’m definitely hanging out with Silica way too much if that’s how I’m presenting that.”
“Gah!” Sugu staggered back. “Sugu can accept the BL thing, but what’s this with introducing another girl’s name all of a sudden!?”
“Hm?” Kirito said, glancing up. “Oh, Silica-chan? She’s in the guild, she’s like… I guess you could say she’s the official little sister of the guild? Since Ilya is too disturbing to pull that role off.”
“Official Little Sister!” Sugu shouted, suddenly holding a bokken. “I could hold my tongue about Asuna, and your best friend is NTRing Argo away so I’m ready to comfort you, and you never even entered the Liz Route which was good, but now I find out you’ve been cheating on me with another little sister!”
“Wait, what was that about Argo?” Kirito asked. “I’m pretty sure that’s not a real ship-”
“No!” Sugu said, swinging her sword to the side and then raising it to a guard position in front of her. “You don’t get to change the subject! Sugu is hurt that Oniichan is cheating, so put up your sword and prepare to take your lumps!”
“Raa!” Sugu roared, tears at the corner of her eyes as she dashed forward, and Kirito shivered unconsciously at the strange resemblance to some strange tiger, his instincts screaming.
And like that, we close the curtains on the strange advice corner, since it was a good place to end, what with the foreshadowing alluding to a crossover next time.
16.5 Imouto Dojo 3
End
I I I
1) I feel like I got about 800 works in, and was like “welp, that’s just about the content I wanted to put in there.” Then I just ad-libbed non-sense for another thousand words.
2) Originally I was planning on having Tiger crash through the wall, so I could bounce her off these two kids, but that’s not how this ended up working.
3) I guess at the end, my biggest concern is that maybe I made these two a little too exaggerated, but it’s kind of hard to tell if that can ever really be the case with an omake chapter like this. Like, as long as they’re still recognizably the same character, it works? I dunno.
4) I’m going to go back and make sure everything’s up to date, but I’ll finally push another chapter onto ffnet after what feels like a geologic age. I’d like to pick up writing speed again; we’ll see if that happens.