//------------------------------// // Episode 38 - A Day in the Life of Knightstar // Story: EQG: Sword Art Online - Aincrad // by Mindrop //------------------------------// Floor 59 April 14 – Year 2 Knightstar was the second Wondercolt awake. She was even up and moving before AFCK was. She put her armor on and headed down to the guild hall. Bladescape had gone out on an overnight trip and was already at her seat in the guild hall. Knightstar sat down in hers. Bladescape took a sip of her drink. “I want to stack the parties heavy on my side. With this Floor Boss, I want to sharpen us a bit more as a party.” “Rough night?” Knightstar asked, putting a reassuring hand on Bladescape’s. “Yeah, a bit,” Bladescape shrugged. “Boring mostly. But one mistake can leave a harrowing moment of fear. Thank goodness for the Battle Regeneration skill. It kept me out of the deep red and gave me the moment I needed to recover. It hurt. Badly.” AFCK skipped by them, paying them no heed. But that was normal by now. Her mind was on breakfast. “Then take who you want,” Knightstar said as she ran every group spread calculation through her head. “I trust you. We can handle it. It will make guide calculations a bit tough, but I can handle it.” “I also want to take some others out on overnight trips. Just another one or two. We slacked off, and this spot is worth it." "I'll back you any time," Knightstar said with a nod. "Because we did slack off. Well, everyone except for you." "I have been slacking off," Bladescape said, distracted. "I've been doing less overnight trips and I need to fix that. But level grinding is difficult. It's boring. And worse, it's for our lives." "Everything you are doing is amazing," Knightstar assured her. "You needed that rest. We all did. Now we have to start back up." "I guess," Bladescape said with a tired sigh. "I'm not saying you're wrong. It's just tiring. But I know that it shows in the boss battles and clearing this game." "Yes, it does," Knightstar said, getting up. "And, AFCK just passed us with food. We should get to breakfast. Before Thunderborne and Astro destroy it." "Yeah," Bladescape said. She began to yawn as she stood, causing her to fall back into her chair. Knightstar continued to run calculations as they walked to the dining room. They always sat at the far ends of the table, across from each other. "I think if we could do some overnight trips, we could all level up if we ran 36-12-36-12-12 rotation for time in the field, we could push us all another level in those first two 36s. But that is a lot of pressure on you." "I don't have to be the only one leading these," Bladescape stated. "Good morning," Doombunny greeted them. "Hey," Bladescape said before continuing. "I can easily start with showing Kiefer. It will put him in a better position and train him. I think he has real party leader potential. He has been doing well with the tasks he has been given." Bladescape turned her attention back to Doombunny and apologized for blowing her off in her distraction. Knightstar sat down and grabbed some fruit. Astro and Thunderborne would not pay attention to what they grabbed, so if she wanted any particular fruit, she needed to grab some now. A good portion of fruit and food, not a greedy one. Breakfasts were always interesting. They were usually calmer than dinners. Even for Thunderborne and Astro. Backbreaker had given up on competing against Thunderborne, and it worried Knightstar, but otherwise, there were no other concerning things Knightstar had noticed about her even keeled friend. Knightstar spent breakfast thinking about how to best run the 36-12-36-12-12 rotation. If Bladescape could get Kiefer trained, it would speed things up. It was a risky move and a big undertaking. It meant that the Wondercolts would be fighting and training for 36 hours, off for about 12, on for the next 12, then off for 12, and back on for 36 hours, which was followed by two normal days before they could go back to an overnight mission. That was assuming nothing special happened, like a boss raid. That might hold them up and endanger them from lack of sleep, but the strategy meetings were also usually announced in advance, meaning she would have time to plan around it. In other words, they would start in the morning, and continue overnight, not sleeping, and then be back in the field with the rest of the Wondercolts for a day of clearing before they would rest. The next day would be a normal day, and the day after they started a 36 hour training period again. It had proven to be effective in the past, but it was difficult for any of them to keep up for a sustained period. That was why Knightstar and Bladescape led alternating groups to keep guild members well rested for the time they needed to spend clearing. The last time, Knightstar had led the resting party into the 51st Floor’s Labyrinth while Bladescape trained the other members in a full training mission without clearing anything during that time. Bladescape was always better at leading the training missions and helping each member excel no matter how tired they were. Knightstar always took things slow, gaining as much information from each monster and each kill as possible. It made clearing slower, but it gave them valuable information that they could not only sell, but eventually turn into strategies for killing the creatures faster than when they had started. Often three times faster. Breakfast finished and Bladescape dismissed the others to get their gear. Backbreaker changed in the bathroom as usual and was ready as soon as Knightstar and Bladescape where. It was a quiet wait. Doombunny was the last there, but they all had changed quickly despite the vertical distance some of them had to travel to get to the top floors. They teleported from Mishe to Danac, the closest town to the Labyrinth. The front-line camp city was still on Floor 57, Marten, because it was better provisioned than anything on Floor 59. Danac was mostly made up of spread out fields with windmills and rolling hills breaking up the landscape. Knightstar had to try to not get angry at Astro and Thunderborne. They were fast, but they played a game where they jumped to as many cities as possible before the last of their group was at their target city. It was annoying, but harmless. It never held them up, but she was always concerned it would. Efficiency was what they needed to make it out alive. They had to spend as little energy as possible getting the maximum reward they could. That meant faster leveling, higher levels, better equipment, and all-around safer days as she made sure their safety margin was a big as possible. Sometimes it was almost nonexistent, especially at the start of a new Floor, which was why they needed to be as efficient as possible to reduce those days. Knightstar was running other numbers through her head as they walked out to the Labyrinth. It had been nicknamed the catacombs because of how it resembled the feeling of a real catacomb under a city and its monsters where skeletons and shadows. She knew all the stats of each, even without her papers detailing them, and she was trying to pay attention to how well they could do with XP and Col as they mapped and cleared the Labyrinth over the day. Neither of the enemies dropped anything useful. Knightstar had to refocus once they got inside. She had a party to lead. “Lessa, with me. AFCK, play forward for Diemond and Doombunny will be your damage dealer. Understood?” They all acknowledged the orders and they began to move out behind Bladescape’s party. When they were being baited in, Knightstar had her party watching their backs, in case the shadows came out from behind. They would not be caught unaware. They had been before, Floors ago, and they had learned that lesson well. It was all a part of playing the stats to be as efficient and safe as possible. When Bladescape led her charge into the hall, Knightstar waited a few seconds and then had her party charge. She needed to create room so that they could put the skeletons in a two-front fight for any that tried to surround the other party. The first skeleton Knightstar dispatched with Horizontal Square, a four combo Sword Skill for her One-handed Longsword. Knightstar took a swipe of a shadow’s claws on her shield and stabbed it in retaliation. It shattered as she took out all of its Hit Points in the simple, single strike. Their speed and near invisibility meant that they had comparatively no health for an enemy on this floor. The fight was standard from her view. She usually traded blows with the Skeletons. Block with her shield, respond with a one or two combo Sword Skill and repeat. It was perfect for working alone. She had Lessa by her side who would switch out with her at times, which made things even easier. The two of them worked well in combat since they could both work alone, yet switch out when needed. It gave Knightstar the ability to observe what was happening. She let out a sigh of relief when the battle was over. She was always nervous in combat. It was the exact opposite of analyzing stats, requiring instinctive reaction more often than deliberate strategy. She overthought everything in combat the same way she analyzed everything outside of it. Knightstar's had had to find a compromise between the two while getting the best results she could out of both early on. These days her health never even dropped into the yellow. She was safe, but it still always concerned her. Doing both was a huge strain, but she had to do it for her friends. For their safety. Lunch was a welcomed break after the long battle. They had worked for the territory gained. Knightstar was writing down statistical information when AFCK jumped up and approached Kirito  who had come into the safe zone a short while after they had begun lunch. She was surprised he took the offered cupcake. It was a trusting move to make in a Labyrinth. However, he was gone faster than they were. Knightstar went back to more calculations. She was approaching level 70. She needed to be ready. She had no idea what to choose for her next skill. Part of her wanted to choose a non-combat skill, but none of the ones she knew of caught her eye. She ended up just scrolling through the master skill list Argo had compiled for the players. Lunch was over on Bladescape's order. She was always the one on top of things. Without Bladescape, their entire guild would fall apart. The afternoon split them down two paths. Knightstar fought hard, leading her party into multiple battles as they mapped the current level of the labyrinth. They ran into a dead end, but they mapped it and got plenty XP and Col out of the fight. A dead end meant they didn't have to worry about it on a map. It also meant she was narrowing down on the exact set of algorithms that were being used. She could almost predict exactly how each skeleton would react. When they got back to the meeting point, Fuurinkazan was also there. Bladescape nodded to Knightstar. "We are going to call it early and join forces in the morning with Fuurinkazan to get a really good day in against the Labyrinth. After we joined maps, we saw a lot of the areas where the paths cross." The labyrinths loved to crisscross paths and create as many conflicts with mapping as possible. The higher the Floor, the logistically harder the Labyrinth was. That also wasn't counting the level of the monsters in the labyrinth. "Okay," Knightstar nodded. "That sounds like a plan." Knightstar's mind immediately went to things she had to do. She had a guide to finish for a client, and Argo was paying her for another set of calculations. Time outside the labyrinths meant she could do those things, but neither directly progressed the game. Both of those tasks were more fun to her than mapping and clearing a Labyrinth. It was a difficult conflict for her to balance. Outside the labyrinth, Knightstar contacted her client and set up a meeting with him. Back in their headquarters, she finished up the last touches, which she had been doing on the walk back, and prepared to finalize the sale. It was a crafting consultation guide. Much of it was compiled with information she had only acquired recently along with the Wondercolts' equipment upgrade. It was telling the player the best way for them to reach their desired level. This particular guide had to factor in lower economic considerations. The player met her in the greeting chamber of their headquarters and Knightstar walked him through the guide. He asked multiple questions and Knightstar answered every single one. She also wrote more down to make sure he understood. She had a reputation for assisting her clients past the immediate consultation. The game shifted and changed as new information became available. Changes that affected the game in drastic ways would require a second consultation, but she didn't want to charge them again if the change was something small. And they always seemed to have some follow up questions, which were easy to answer. After the consultation, Knightstar was exhausted. Explaining every detail had finally wiped her out. The day had been too busy and tomorrow would be worse. It would be faster action with three squads than with two. Which also meant less time for her to do calculations. Calculations were supposed to be secondary to any clearing action, but Knightstar struggled to set them aside. In her room, Knightstar picked up one of the books on her shelf. It was built like a magazine stand and Knightstar had her guides and encyclopedias laid on it. Each one she had made herself. They were the physical copies of all the information she had learned during their time in the game. She picked up the ones she needed and added the day's information. Most of it she had memorized, but it was better to have it written down. Even with as good as it was, it was safer than relying on her memory by itself. Observation By My Editor I Wanted To Share: You know, I know that things like Kirito and Asuna's cottage being destroyed in the destruction of Aincrad when the game was cleared was sort of a tragic scene, but this is almost moreso... Homes are very personal things, but even when you loose one, you can still take the memories with you and build another somewhere else. Knightstar's books though? The information may or may not be applicable to a game like ALO, but it's still a record of her time spent in this world, and something she made. That's going to be two years of work, blood sweat and tears just... gone. Bladescape (SS): Lvl 79 – Two-Handed Sword – Search – Weapon Defense – Leather Armor – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Sprint – Acrobatics – Blade Throwing – Extended Weight Carry Knightstar (TS): Lvl 69 – One-Handed Sword – Shield – Equipment Appraisal – Parry – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Light Metal Armor – Search – Armor Pierce Thunderborne (RBD): Lvl 72 – Rapier – Sprint – Acrobatics – Armor Pierce – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Leather Armor – Weapon Defense – Extended Weight Carry – Search Backbreaker (AJ): Lvl 75 – Heavy Shield – One-Handed War Hammer – Extended Weight Carry – Heavy Metal Armor – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Fishing – Search – Martial Arts – Acrobatics AFCK(PP): Lvl 72 – Two-Handed Axe – Parry – Cooking – Weapon Defense – Martial Arts – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Light Metal Armor – Thrown Weapon – Musical Instrument Diemond (R): Lvl 72 – Heavy Shield – Mace – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Heavy Metal Armor – Tailoring – Light Metal Armor Forging – Heavy Metal Armor Forging – Jewelry Making – Extended Weight Carry Doombunny (FS): Lvl 69 – One-Handed Dagger – First Aid – Hide – Search – Listening – Battle Regeneration – Fighting Spirit – Familiar Communication (Colorra) – Drug Mixing – Reveal Astro (PS): Lvl 72 – Two-Handed Spear - Purchase Negotiation – Armor Pierce – Acrobatics – First Aid – Light Metal Armor – Battle Regeneration – Weapon Defense – Parry – Extended Wight Carry Kiefer: Lvl 69 – One-Handed Curved Blade – Parry – Weapon Defense – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Light Metal Armor – Slash Weapon Forging – Katana – Martial Arts Lessa: Lvl 69 – One-Handed Sword – Shield – Light Metal Armor – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Equipment Repair – Metal Equipment Repairing – Armor Pierce – Search Joltron: Lvl 73 – One handed Axe – Heavy Shield – Heavy Metal Armor – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Metal Refining – Blunt Weapon Forging – One Handed Weapon Creation – Two Handed Weapon Creation – Extended Weight Carry