[ Argo: Crystals? Ya sure 'bout that, Dri-bou? ]

[ Drifter: Very. I'm holding three of them right now, little rat. Two for paralysis and one normal heal. ]

[ Argo: Shesh! I dunno if I have enough cor I hand to pay ya for that intel. ]

[ Drifter: Just make sure that when you sell your guide, you put about twenty eye-catching arrows and warnings surrounding this information. We hunted 8 << Cursed Mantises >> to get the crystals, and now we are sitting on a 40% healing efficiency, 10% speed, and 25% attack debuff. ]

[ Argo: Jesus, that's no joke. Be careful. ]

Despite it being just a written message, Drifter could feel the concern from the writer, and smiled.

[ Drifter: Each debuff takes 1 hour to wear off, so we stepped out of the map for now and are waiting for Kirito and the others. We are being careful, so don't worry. ]

[ Argo: That's great. I'll get to writin' the guide right away. Also, Imma give ya a cut of the cor from when I sell the info to the big guilds. Should be enough to pay ya. ]

[ Drifter: Sure. Just don't forget the warnings. Seriously. Those things are deadly. Even to us it's dangerous. ]

[ Argo: Got it, got it. See ya! ]

Argo ended their short exchange, and Drifter closed his message tab. He was not exaggerating one bit with his warnings to her. After hunting a few more << Cursed Mantises >>, the spearman and his party realized that there was a huge pool of debuffs it would randomly curse you with when it was killed, and all of them were party-wide. Even a little bit of carelessness when dealing with the mobs could result in death.

Raising his head, Drifter saw the other members of his party lazing around while they waited. Of course, that expression was used very loosely. While they were sitting seemingly at ease, they all had their weapons at hand.

Ran and Yuuki were crouching next to each other, the younger twin using a knife to carve something on the ground while Ran entertained her. At least Yuuki looked amused. Merida was nearby, throwing her own two cents into the conversation every once in a while.

Nautilus had been chosen as the one responsible for keeping watch, so he was the only one standing. As for Yuna, she had been leaning on Drifter's side and reading his exchange with Argo over his shoulder - he had set his menu to public. Now she commented softly by his ear.

"You and Argo are really close, hum?"

"You jealous?"

Drufter grinned impudently since they both knew it wasn't true, and Yuna rolled her eyes.

"Please, she is my little sister. And yours too. Now that I think 'bout it, the family tree of Reaver's Requiem is pretty confusing, no?"

Drifter paused to ponder. He was the oldest one, so he pretty much saw everyone as younger siblings. But he dated one of them. And another two were also dating. And he was pretty sure two more couples were forming. And...

"You know what, let's not think about it that way ever again."

Yuna evidently had gone down the same rabbit hole as him, because she squirmed and nodded.

"Agreed. Back to the topic at hand then. I've never seen Argo that close with anyone but you. Not even Kirito."

The spearman shrugged, causing Yuna's body to fall even more against his. He caught Nautilus snorting at their display, raised his eyebrows, gestured with his head towards Ran, and winked. He had the pleasure of seeing Nautilus turn red.

"Stop teasing Naut and dodging the question!"

Yuna playfully punched his chest and pouted. Drifter just stared at her for a moment.

"As if you wouldn't make a bet in a heartbeat about his love life."

"Who said I didn't? It just wasn't with you. You cheater."

Drifter raised one of his hands, mock-affronted.

"Hey, I never cheated. I just left the victor undecided."

"Humph! You only did that so you could kiss me..."

"Oh? Who said I need a bet to smooch my girlfriend?"

To prove his point, he gently grabbed her chin and turned her face towards him. Yuna didn't even feign resistance and let him plant a quick, chaste kiss on her lips. When she pouted, he smiled.

"There's people around. You know I'm more than willing to give you more later. As for Argo... Yeah, we are really close. There's no special reason either. We were just using each other at first, but then we realized we were kinda similar. Just people trying to survive on their own way, you know? We bonded over that."

Drifter was smiling as he spoke, just a gentle tug of his lips. He always felt that kind of brotherly love when he thought about Argo.

"Hey, lovebirds! Step over here for a sec!"

Drifter and Yuna were interrupted by Merida. They looked at each other, then he helped her up before they walked towards the spot where the three other girls were huddled together. Merida also waved Nautilus over.

"What's up, Merida?"

"We were brainstorming how we could bypass those curses to hunt the mantises safely, and we think we've come up with something that might work."

"Oh? Go on."

Drifter was instantly hooked. After all, the drops from the << Cursed Mantises >> were too good to pass up, and he had even called Kirito and the others to farm them despite having to suffer the curses every time they killed a mob. It would be perfect if there was a way around it.

"You see, every time we killed a << Cursed Mantis >>, we got a party-wide debuff. So what if we simply dissolve the party and hunt as individuals? That way, only the person who lands the last hit will get cursed, and we can rotate."

That... Honestly, it could work. It was such a simple solution that it had never crossed Drifter's mind. Still, he had to point out the flaws in the reasoning.

"We don't know if the debuffs are applied per party or for anyone who damages the mobs or even everyone nearby. But we can just test it. Great thinking, you three."

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Merida and Yuuki grinned happily, and Ran showed a pleased smile. But she soon schooled her expression.

"We shouldn't get too excited. The Cardinal System isn't stupid, so I think it's very likely that it thought of that loophole. Let's not get our hopes up too soon."

Ran had a point, but Drifter slapped her on the shoulder and rubbed her head.

"If it doesn't work, we'll go with the original plan. Either way, it is worth a try. I knew we kept you around for a reason, Ran. Though I thought that reason was because you had a funnier twin. Ouch! I'm sorry, don't slap me! Hey, put the sword away! Ahh! Murder!"

Ran had been smiling during the first half of Drifter's praise, but her expression turned murderous as she realized it wasn't praise at all, and she glared at him. Drifter was smirking until she started chasing him around with a very sharp sword - which couldn't damage him since they had yet to dissolve the party, but it was the intention that counted. Meanwhile, the others were holding their sides and falling over themselves with laughter.

That was how Kirito and the others found them, with Nautilus, Yuna, Yuuki, and Merida struggling to breathe, and Drifter still running in circles while being chased by Ran. It said something about their familiarity with each other that they didn't even blink at the situation.

"Drifter made a bad joke."

"Yup."

"Did he apologize?"

"Yup."

"Ran didn't forgive him."

"Nope."

Nautilus barely managed to wheeze out answers to Kirito's questions. Asuna blew out her cheeks while the others just started laughing.

"Hah... Hah... Time-out, Ran! Please! Huff... The others are already here! I'm your vice-guild leader, leave me some dignity!"

"You never had any!"

Despite saying that, the purple-haired twin stopped running after Drifter and sheathed her sword. Looking at the spearman breathing heavily with his hands on his knees, and the other Reavers laughing their asses off, she blushed. She might have overreacted a tad. But Drifter deserved it.

"Humph!"

"Ouch!"

Walking over and slapping Drifter on the back of the head, Ran hid a smile. Somehow, Drifter always knew when to make terrible jokes whenever his guildmates were feeling down. Maybe that was why it was so easy to follow him.

Of course, that was a compliment she could never offer to Drifter. Who knew when he would ever let her live it down if she did? Ran glowered at the spearman one last time before walking over to the others, and realized someone was missing.

"Liz didn't come? I thought you said you were going to pass by the city to pick her up first."

Asuna nodded, then shook her head.

"She was going to come, but Klein popped outta nowhere and dragged her away. Apparently he found an NPC offering a quest that had a katana as a reward, but only players with the << Blacksmithing >> skill can take it."

Drifter pinched the ridge of his nose. Klein was really... Well, if Liz was on board with it, there was no reason why not. She did say she wanted to learn new forging skills.

"Right, we'll meet her later then. Kirito, while we were waiting, Merida and the twins came up with a strategy we think is worth trying. It goes like this..."

-----------------------

While Drifter, Kirito, and the rest of the Reavers went on to fight giant insects that cursed you when they died, Liz was on a very different mission. Namely, kicking Klein and his bunch around town on a string of fetch quests.

"Liiiizzzz! Please! We need to level up!"

"No way! You pulled me away to get you some ruddy sword, so you're gonna help me complete the quests! It's only fair!"

As if their ages had switched, Liz was scolding a whining Klein while his guildmates watched, with no small amount of amusement at the conundrum their leader had landed himself on, by no one's fault but his own.

After grabbing Liz earlier, saying he needed her to complete a quest, Klein led the girl to a hidden shop one of the Fuurinkazan players had found. The shop was actually a forge, and Liz spent at least half an hour browsing through all the items put on display. They were works far above her current skill level, which only gave her hope she might be able to learn new techniques here.

The smith was a grumpy old man, as stereotypical as they came, who kicked Klein out of the shop while shouting some very creative expletives, but gave Liz a chain of quests because she knew << Blacksmithing >>. The final reward was being able to choose any one type of weapon from the NPC's treasured collection. Klein obviously had his eyes on a katana.

Liz was happy to help him with that. Klein was a friend, and Fuurinkazan was one of Reaver's Requiem's staunchest allies. Furthermore, there was no reason for the questline to be specific for blacksmiths if all players had to do was run around town and gather items. There had to be something more to it, and Liz thought it was an opportunity to learn something useful for her guild.

We'll, her gut feeling was right. After two hours of getting items from one NPC and delivering them to another, Liz received her first real challenge. The NPC forger who first gave her the quest dunked a bunch of rare minerals on the counter, and told her to create something with it. Her HUD also updated, telling her she had 3 attempts to forge an item that impressed the NPC. If she accomplished that, other than the katana for Klein, she would also receive an opportunity to be guided by the NPC - which, in SAO, equaled a sharp increase on her << Blacksmithing >> proficiency.

It was also at that point that Klein tried to bail on her. Since Liz only had three tries, she was taking her sweet time to decide what to forge. She had already failed once - to create something impressive enough for the NPC, that was. The materials were still good enough that Harry One was more than happy to switch out his old greaves for the ones she had made.

'What now? A piece of defensive equipment? I already tried that. A weapon, then? But which one? Hammer, spear? A sword? Katanas seem appropriate, considering the theme. Humm...'

Not a katana. Klein was the only one interested in it for now, and he would already get one, as long as she completed the quest. Another weapon then. Liz swept Fuurinkazan with her eyes. She was fairly familiar with most of them, even if not overly so. They were an odd bunch. So, something that fits them.

"A-ha!"

Struck by inspiration, Liz took out the second set of materials and laid them out. She grabbed one, an oddly shaped lump of purple-ish iron, and put it on her anvil. Something that looked like a petrified branch and a piece of coral joined it. Then Liz brought down her hammer without hesitation.

She had a mental image of what she wanted to create, and, normally, that would be far from enough. She would need blueprints and whatnot unlocked. But she just felt this was going to work.

The system gave life to her imagination. After striking her anvil for longer than she ever was when forging anything in SAO, Liz saw her creation emerge.

It was a short sword, about 40 centimeters in length, almost a miniature katana. It was made for Klein, so Liz had forged it with a Wakizashi - a small sword used by samurais for ceremonial purposes - in mind. But it wasn't a weapon. She handed the item to Klein without even looking at the stats, already knowing she had completed the question. She could feel it.

"Here. Try it."

Klein took the short sword, skeptical at first. But then he opened the item's page, and his eyes opened wide as saucers.

"L-Liz... This is amazing! You can make buff items?!"

The blacksmith grinned widely. She should be tired, but she was burning with excitement, pride, and inspiration. Her urge to forge was at an all-time Hugh she hadn't felt in years.

The item she forged for Klein, the << Red Blossom >>, wasn't a weapon, but an accessory. Each player could equip two, and they were normally rings, bracelets, or small trinkets which gave some extra stats. But the << Red Blossom >> was different. As long as the party leader equipped it, the entire party would receive a buff to their attack power. It was unheard of, even as a reward from the multi-stage quest like << Elf War >>, much less being the work of a player. Somewhere else, a list of names updated.

"I only managed to forge that one 'cause the materials were amazing. This is probably stuff you can only find from the 25th floor up. But it's fitting for Fuurinkazan, don't you think?"

"More than that, Liz. This is... It's awesome!"

"Hahahaha! I'm glad you liked it, Klein. As payment, only if you don't mind... Could I take the last set of materials? It's about time a certain someone in my guild traded for a new weapon."

Klein was more than happy to oblige. And after Liz handed in the quest and received 120 points of mastery on << Blacksmithing >> - which at this stage would normally take her months of grinding - and raised her skill to over halfway to perfection, Liz raised her hammer again.