"Uff... Let's call it a day?"
Nautilus watched as the last << Ruin Kobold >> vanished into polygons, and nodded. Labyrinth mobs were so much harder to kill than the ones outside that it wasn't even funny.
Panting, the ash-brown-haired teen sheathed his blade with a familiarity no sixteen-year-old should have. Brushing the strands of hair falling over his forehead, Nautilus was once again glad Kayaba hadn't coded sweat into the game.
"Are you okay, Naut? That last kobold got you good."
"Yeah, I'm all right, Yun'. It got my arms numb for a while, but I didn't actually take much damage. Thanks to Liz's << Cyan Scale Bracers >>."
While saying that, Nautilus touched said piece of armor. Liz's newest creation, after many, many tries. The party was all wearing different variations of the cyan scale armor series, all created using the << Cyan Rock Fish Scales >> they brought her a few days ago as the base material. Nautilus had greaves, chestplate, and bracers, which suited his position as the frontliner. Drifter, on the other hand, had foregone the bulkier chestplate, since it would slow him down. Even Yuna was using some << Cyan Scale Light Bracers >> after much insistence from her party members. All in all, there had been an overall increase in survivability for all of them.
Raising his head, Nautilus snuck a glance at the man walking beside him. Drifter had just turned twenty a few months back, he had gathered from their conversations. Speaking about the real world was quickly becoming taboo amongst SAO players, but some things still slipped through from time to time.
Anyway, Drifter was twenty, not even four full years older than him. But the young man felt much more mature than him. Maybe it was because Drifter had already stepped into society while he was just a high-schooler, and a sheltered one on top of that.
Nautilus knew he had a problem. He wasn't just shy. There was a time in his youth when he actually couldn't talk with people other than his parents. He would open his mouth, but no sound would come out. It was only when he met Yuna, his cute, cheerful, beloved childhood friend that he got better. Unfortunately, his disease, his defect, wasn't cured. And it transferred over to SAO along with him.
He stole a glance at Yuna, who noticed and blinked at him. They still hadn't told Drifter about the incident. They would have to soon. The change in difficulty from the outside to the labyrinth showed him that SAO would only get more dangerous as they advanced. And his problem could prove deadly, not just for him, but for his entire party.
He looked over his shoulder to the older man, whose gaze seemed lost in the horizon. Yes, Drifter would have to know. Just... Not right now.
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A look. A sigh. Another look. Yuna had known Nautilus for long enough to understand he was overthinking again. It was a problem her childhood friend always had. Because of that situation, he tended to always think the worst. She didn't like that part of him.
It wasn't like Yuna didn't understand why people were sometimes - or all the time - pessimistic. Life wasn't easy. But she still didn't like it. She preferred to view the world from a more positive perspective.
Yuna had grown sheltered. Too sheltered, in fact. Since young, she had been taught by the best tutors, learned everything a rich young lady needed to know. And nothing else. Others might envy her because she lived a perfect life, but to Yuna, she just wanted to feel free.
That was why she had begged her parents over and over again to play SAO. They were good parents, if a little stern, and knew that of everything she had been forced to learn, Yuna only enjoyed music. So they eventually relented, and allowed her to buy a NerveGear, but not before placing a lot of restrictions. Of course, none of them imagined what Kayaba was going to pull, otherwise they wouldn't have let her approach the helmet even if she was wearing a hazmat suit.
She glanced at Drifter, the first one to hear her music other than Nautilus and her parents. Her first fan. Her new friend. He tried to hide it, but Yuna saw the pain inside of him. Emotion was indispensable to true music, and so Yuna had learned to see it in herself, and in others. Drifter blamed himself for the death of the girl he had told them about the day they met. It was drawing on his suffering that she had composed Rest. It was meant to comfort him. Instead, SAO transformed it into a skill. She wasn't sure how she felt about that.
Drifter felt responsible for them. Nautilus and her. She had been curious about why that was so. A few days ago, Yuna had asked the info broker, Argo the Rat, about Drifter, and now she understood. Drifter didn't just lose the first player he met in SAO, but he also saw another commit suicide in front of him, and in neither of the cases he could do anything to help. So when he partied with them, Drifter probably started to feel like he had to protect Nautilus and Yuna. Like it was his responsibility. She wanted to tell him that wasn't the case, but... She also liked having him around. And she knew even if she confronted him now, it would change nothing. After fighting together for so many days, they had started to care for each other. So she would just have to show him that she was capable of protecting him just as much as he protected her.
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Yuna and Nautilus were behaving weirdly today. They tried to be sneaky about it, but Drifter caught them stealing glances at him more than once during their journey back to Tolbana. He was curious as to why, but he trusted they would tell him if it was something he should know.
He looked at the date on his HUD. Today marked twenty days since they were imprisoned in SAO, and they were still stuck on the 1st floor of Aincrad. At this rhythm, they would never get out. He had a meeting with Argo later tonight to discuss the situation. Something needed to change.
The info broker had come to Tolbana a few days ago, saying that she wanted to be closer to the biggest source of information there was. He wasn't sure if she meant the labyrinth or the players. Maybe both. Either way, he welcomed her with open arms. He liked just sitting down and chatting away with her. Even the way they made each other pay for inconsequential and frankly useless intel had become a sort of game between them. One that Drifter was losing miserably, he would admit.
Yuna had already pointed out that Argo behaved differently around him than she did with others. Drifter had already seen the info broker working more than once. He even helped her intimidate a player who refused to pay for the information he brought. While cheeky and full of sassy responses, Argo could also be very intimidating, and surprisingly scary considering she was shorter than Drifter's shoulders. But when somebody showed you their claws and made a passing remark about your precious bits, their size didn't really matter, did it?
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Argo's and Drifter's interactions were different. Not of the romantic kind, he had already made that very clear to Yuna and Nautilus, but more akin to that of a big brother and his little sister. They clicked well together, and understood each other. Drifter saw the weight the girl carried on her shoulders, a beta-tester who knew much about the game's early stages, and yet couldn't stop hundreds of players from dying. And Argo saw in him a kindred spirit, who wanted to protect those close to him. And that included her.
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Yuna, Nautilus, and Drifter were acting strangely today, Liz thought. Well, Nautilus was never one for words, but Yuna and Drifter were usually quite chatty, but not on this occasion. They all seemed to be locked in their inner thoughts. Maybe something happened during their griding session? She was happy to see that her crafts were holding on, though.
Liz felt attached to the small party. Now she had a full line before her stall almost every day, but they were her first clients, the first ones to trust her. Even if Drifter worded it as if he was taking advantage of her, she knew he always intended to help. Maybe not for some grand, honorable motivation, but just because she was the first blacksmith he saw. Still, it didn't change the fact that she owed a large part of her recent success to him and his party.
Thinking of that, she had another rather faithful and early client who she hadn't seen in a while. That one put quite strange orders in, even quirkier than Drifter's. Liz would have to introduce them to each other sometime, she had the feeling they would get along.
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The sounds of weapons clashing came from deep inside the labyrinth. A slim hooded figure drew her rapier back, and sidestepped the axe of the << Ruin Kobold >> that was attacking her.
Jumping nimbly over a second mob, she turned in mid-air, and, with her weapon glowing green, unleashed a flurry of blows on the third and fourth monsters. Even as they shattered, she was already dodging a fifth mob. Unfortunately for the player, kobolds always came in multiples of three.
The sixth << Ruin Kobold >> hit her like a truck. She was barely able to place her rapier between herself and the incoming axe to cushion some of the force behind the blow, but was still sent flying. Her health dipped into the yellow zone.
Swaying, the player got up, and tightened her grip on the handle of her slim sword. The remaining four << Ruin Kobolds >> were encircling her, and she had her back against the wall. Literally.
Hmm, so this was how she died. Terrible, but expected. She should never have been here anyway. She could accomplish nothing, not in SAO, and not in real life. She was worthless.
That didn't mean she was going down without a fight. As the kobolds roared and charged at her, she lifted her rapier in a well-practiced stance, holding it at chest height, right arm pulled back as far as it could go. Just as she was about to activate the skill, the << Ruin Kobold >> burst into pixels.
Under her hood, the player blinked at the spot her enemy had just been in. The only evidence it ever existed were the vanishing shards in the air, and the murder weapon, what looked like a really long and sharp nail, thumping on the ground.
"Don't just stand there! Fight!"
She raised her gaze to see another player running towards her. The newcomer had black hair and eyes, was wearing little armor, and seemed very annoyed at her lack of action. Held in between their fingers were three other nails just like the one that killed the << Ruin Kobold >>. Even as she watched, the player waved their hand and threw the weapons, nailing - the pun came to her mind even as she cringed - each of the other kobolds in the back of the head.
Using the opening, the hooded girl stabbed multiple times with her rapier, killing two of the mobs whose health had already reached the red. She narrowly avoided the axe of the third and last one, and watched as her helper approached and stabbed it deeply in the left flank, slaying the final << Ruin Kobold >>.
"How are you?"
She gazed at the other player from under her hood. It was another girl, and now that she was closer, she spotted several nails on her body. Why someone would need so many, she had no idea. But, well, they seemed useful.
Without saying a word, she sheathed her rapier and walked past the other player. Her fingers idly opened her inventory, and she scowled. She was out of health potions. Just as well. It would be a waste to use them on her anyway.
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When she rescued the other girl - and she knew it was a girl beneath that cloak and hood - she wasn't expecting much. She just saw someone in danger, and came to help. She didn't need a reward or anything like that. But a 'thank you' would have been nice.
Instead, the girl didn't say a single word during the entire encounter. She just pushed past her, and walked deeper into the labyrinth. Deeper! For gods' sake, her health was still in the yellow! Did she want to die?!
No sooner than that thought came to her mind, she froze. That... Was exactly it. The other girl didn't want to live anymore. There was no other reason why someone would almost die fighting two << Ruin Kobold >> patrols at once, then head deeper into the labyrinth without healing. The hooded girl had a death wish.
Frowning, she watched the departing figure. If the other player wanted to die, there was nothing she could do. But she couldn't bring herself to leave, not like that. Not when she knew someone was about to forfeit their life. And it was just as well that she didn't go, because she saw the girl collapse for no apparent reason. Struggling internally for all of half a second, she cursed and ran.
"For fuck's sake!"
She rushed towards the fallen girl, and grabbed her. Pushing the hood back to get a better look, she paused. She was beautiful. Long chestnut hair, and hazel eyes which were, at the moment, struggling to stay open. Shaking herself out of her brief stunned state at the appearance of the girl, she took out a health potion and forced her patient to drink it. Only when she saw the girl's health rise back to green that she let out a sigh of relief.
When the girl finally came back to her senses, they stared at each other for a while. She had the feeling those hazel eyes would be strikingly clear and warm during normal times, but now they were clouded.
She recognized the emotions hidden deep inside them too well. She had felt the same once. Still did sometimes. This was why when the girl tried to get up and walk away again, still silently, she grabbed her arm.
"No you don't, miss. I didn't make you drink that potion so you could go off and die somewhere. I couldn't care less before, but if I let you go now, I will feel responsible for the rest of my days. You are coming to Tolbana with me, and we are gonna have a talk. Got it?"
It was not a question. If she needed to, she would carry the girl to the city. Luckily it didn't seem like that would be necessary. After a brief struggle, the previously hooded girl nodded weakly. She collected her throwing picks with a relieved smile.
"Good. Now, what's your name? I don't want to keep calling you 'crazy girl' inside my head."
"... Asuna."
"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Asuna. I'm Sinon."