Episode 19 - Floor Two
Fourth Day in the Month of Holly (December 4) in the Year of the Hawk
Floor 2
Floor two was very different from the first floor, most notably in the hotter and more arid climate like a savannah. The background music was sorrowful, a single oboe playing, compared to the string orchestra of the first floor. Soon enough that music would fade into the background like it had for the first floor, but it was very present as they took in everything.
They were in the north, which made sense considering they had come up the northmost pillar between the floors, and they were overlooking grassland plains in between tabletop mountains. Boulders randomly dotted the landscape along with sparse trees. The closest mountain, south of them, clearly held a city at its top. It would be the closest one to the labyrinth exit.
"Let's see what that town has," Bladescape said. “From there, we can get a real sense of the floor.”
“Hey look!” Konpeito exclaimed. “I see two players all the way down there.”
“That must be Kirito and Red Riding Hood,” Bladescape said. “Their business is not ours. We need to focus on getting our friends to the second floor.”
Agil joined them on the cliff before they could start their descent. "I smoothed things over as best as I could after you left, but I think Beater is going to stick with you Natora, at least for a while. Kibaou has it out for any beta tester who he thinks used their knowledge for their own gain and he has the loyalty of some of the others. However, I caught up because I wanted to say thank you, again. I noticed the difference with my hits because of the new axe. I wish I had more, so that I could give to other players and help them out like you all helped me."
"A little generosity can go a long way, dear," Diemond said. "I would know. Generosity is sort of what I am known for. One kind gesture can snowball into a huge change for the better. I don't think you took a good look at the loot drop. You might be able to do more than you think.
"And think nothing of it," Bladescape added. "You, and those other two, I think one said his name was Hakowaru, were clearly deserving of the gifts we could give. If you meet anyone else who is way behind in weapons, especially straight swords, then send them our way. We still have a few left."
"I will,” Agil assured them. “And I won't stop telling players what you did for me and the others. I know you did what you could and was best for you and your friends. Like you said, eight players lived because of you."
"They can call me Beater if they need to,” Natora stated. "I–…Kirito–…all I know is we need to keep the heat off the beta testers who Kirito spoke about; the ones so green they couldn't level up. I didn’t learn much because I spent a lot of time playing around, and testing things, not actually trying to conquer the world. I tried almost every weapon available. I put my focus elsewhere. The point is, Diavel would have wanted it that way as well. He was clearly aware of the difference between beta testers."
"Wait, are you saying he was a beta tester?" Agil asked, shocked.
"We never officially met," Natora explained. "But I saw him at times, always with a different group and using the same name, same haircut and color, and same armor. After the full launch, He must have dyed his hair blue and had it cut to fit his old avatar. He wore the same bronze armor on top of the blue clothes. It was unmistakably the same guy."
"I'll take your word for it, but I don't think we need to soil his reputation though."
"We don't intend to spill that secret," Natora confirmed. "Aside from you, but I know you have the best interests of everyone in mind and can keep that secret. Diavel deserves the best memorial we can give him, because he got us to the second floor. And look at her, she is beautiful."
Agil gave a slow nod and asked a question. "You didn't really risk anything in the duel, did you?"
Natora chuckled. She liked being sly and tricking people who deserved it. "Good catch. I only had what the boss dropped. Everything else of importance was left with the two who stayed back. That was an advantage that the other raiders didn't have. It wasn't a cheat, it was just dumb luck of having eight friends to work with who I can trust. As well as two who don't want to fight floor bosses. That and being smart about how we applied that luck."
"It was good luck," Agil confirmed. "I should make sure the others make it out of there. I'll work to pay your generosity back but to those who need it, not you."
"Thank you," Diemond said. “Be well. I am sure we will see you soon enough.”
Agil headed back down the boss chamber stairs and the Wondercolts began to descend the cliffside stairs.
“Forty-eight!” Konpeito exclaimed when they were three quarters of the way down.
“Forty-eight what?” Thunderborne asked.
“Steps!”
“Huh?” Thunderborne asked, cocking her head.
“Each set of stairs has forty-eight steps before it pivots or turns,” Konpeito clarified.
“So?” Malus asked.
“I don’t know,” Konpeito shrugged. “I thought you would.”
“That is a very precise number, with too many repetitions to be random,” Bladescape said. “We will have to ask Knightstar about it.”
They finally got to the bottom. The short grass had almost a spring to it, because it was thick and lush despite the brown color. Not all grass was green. There was no dirt, and the only open ground was the boulders and the sharper mountainsides, which were rocks, not dirt. Trees dotted the area with high canopies that spread out wide.
It was a kilometer walk to the town. On the way, they faced a monster that was called a “Trembling Ox.” The oversized bovine targeted them from a long way off, and it picked out Natora as its enemy.
“We should take the opportunity to learn its attacks,” Bladescape said. “Spread out.”
Everyone followed the orders. Natora dodged its initial charge but it quickly turned, completely ignoring everyone else as it went for another charge for Natora. Natora jumped out of the way at the last moment, tucking and rolling and coming out into a fighting stance. She let it come a third time. Before it got to her, Malus rammed into its shoulder, shield first, forcing it out of its path. Natora thrust her spear into its neck as it thudded away, only to turn back around and charge at her again. It was relentless.
Natora dove out of the way again. Bladescape had set herself up and let loose an attack. Konpeito hacked at it, and Thunderborne came from behind it to score the final blow with her rapier.
“That’s a bit scary,” Natora panted. “And I have a feeling we will face a lot of those.”
“We will figure it out,” Bladescape assured her.
They made it to the mountain without another incident and scaled the carved steps to the top. The city, Urbus, was excavated out of the top of the mountain. It sat in its own crater, the builders decided to carve many key features out of the stone itself. The main street ran from north to south. Just off of it at the center, elevated a bit above the rooftops, was the town square and teleport plaza. Players were already coming through it.
They rushed to the town square and found Knightstar, Doombunny, Kiefer, Reisenki, and Soryuto waiting patiently for them. As they greeted each other, Bladescape caught sight of Kirito, hiding off to the side and watching the players coming into the new town. He was using Hide, but her Search Skill was above his and along with the circlet, she was able to detect him. Knightstar asked a question. Bladescape missed it, glanced at her for a split second to hold the question off while she tried to understand what Kirito was up to. When she looked back, he was gone. Not hidden from view, but gone from the area.
“Sorry,” Bladescape said. “Now, what was the question?”
“I asked if we were going to hit the field?” Knightstar replied.
“Yes,” Bladescape said. “It’s not even three yet, so we need to do some work. I highly doubt the shops have anything worth us buying, so we need to focus outside where many players won’t go. Most will explore the city rather than grind. Let’s capitalize on it. That XP we got was worth it and we can break thirteen quickly if we press our advantages. We need to get to twenty ASAP.”
“Steps!” Konpeito exclaimed.
“Uh, did she get knocked on the head?” Knightstar asked.
“No,” Bladescape sighed. “Well maybe. I don’t think so.” She caught Knightstar up on the steps.
“Hmm,” Knigthstar hummed as she thought. “It isn’t a prime number. Divisible numbers are one, two, three, four, six, eight, twelve, sixteen, twenty-four, and forty-eight. How many sets?”
“Uh, seven?” Bladescape replied, mostly sure 7 was correct.
“It was seven,” Natora confirmed. “Which is a prime number. Any ideas?”
“Well, one,” Knightar replied, thinking a little more. “I don’t understand seven, but it is a common perfect number in many cultures. For the forty-eight, we just got off of Floor One and are on Floor Two. Two plus forty-eight equals Fifty, the halfway point of Aincrad.”
“That makes sense,” Bladescape said. “We need to move though.”
Bladescape swiped up her menu and dissolved the party. She sent requests to Malus, Doombunny, Konpeito, and Reisenki. Natora partied up the others.
“I’ll take Doom and grab some rooms before they are taken,” Natora said. “I saw an inn. We need something closer to work out of.”
“So much of our stuff is back in Tolbana,” Diemond said.
“Renting the rooms won’t cancel the other rental,” Bladescape said. “I don’t think.”
“Considering the rental is under you, it shouldn’t,” Natora said. “Doom and I can easily catch up. Go southeast. Stick together so we can find you and so we can learn how to deal with the oxes.”
“Oxes?” Knightstar asked as they headed out.
“Yeah,” Bladescape said. “We will need you to help crack the code and find any advantages. But they are giant oxen with horns. The rest I will let you learn from observing.”
Knightstar just nodded back and they headed out. No one was in sight as they left the crater city and descended the mountain slope. The stairs were manageable, but it was still a lot to go up and down.
It wasn’t long until they found a trembling ox, or rather, it found them. It came crashing out of a small group of trees to charge across open ground and it thankfully went for Thunderborne. She vaulted over it, using its back to piston herself into a flip. She stuck the landing, bowed to an imaginary crowd, and turned to see the ox almost on top of her. She dove out of the way with no grace.
Malus smacked the ox in the head with her hammer, scoring a critical attack. Bladescape swung low, trying to hack off a leg. It failed to sever it, but it did a lot of damage. Diemond smacked it on the flank with her mace as it passed her, still going after Thunderborne. It barely did any damage. Reisenki buried his axe in its head, scoring a critical attack and shattering the ox.
“Impressive XP,” Knightstar said, writing it down. “Impressive. And I got a raw food item.”
“All yah did was watch and write stuff down, and you got the item?” Malus asked.
“Well, I didn’t just write down what I got,” Knigthstar stated. “I also wrote down speed, velocity, estimated targeting range, as well as beginning to map its strike zones, and the various weapons success for each area.” She showed them the notebook. It had two full pages of information and equations.
“You wrote all of that in the ten seconds we were fighting it!” Thunderborne exclaimed.
“It was Eight-nought-two seconds from the time it left the trees to the time Reisenki finished it off,” Knightstar said, correcting Thunderborne. “Heavy slashing weapons will work best against them. Stab will do less, and unless it is to the head, blunt weapons will do little damage. However, the critical attack factor for a blunt weapon strike to the head is twice that of an axe.”
“Slash and go for the head,” Natora said, joining them with Doombunny in tow. “I hate enemies that are weak to slashing. A spear is horrible for slashing. But more importantly, four rooms were rented for three days.”
“Wait, don’t we need five, or six?” Diemond asked. “If we are doubling up.”
“Blade and I will be going back to Tolbana,” Natora explained. “We are always up before you guys anyway, so the travel time won’t matter much. Now, let’s hunt more of these so that we can make sure your calculations are correct. More data is always better, right?”
“Absolutely!” Knightstart exclaimed. “Especially when I only have one fight logged.”
They went in search of the next beast. It went after Knightstar, giving her firsthand experience of its attack patterns. It didn’t allow her to run any calculation, but she was happy learning it. Happy after the fight was over, not while it tried to trample her.
The third one they found went for Doombunny. Every time Doombunny dove out of the way, she came out of the roll throwing a knife. She was very accurate with the throwing blades and quick on the draw and release. All three knives she threw buried themselves in the ox’s head.
They only fought two more. One went for Malus, the other targeted Diemond. They got to see the power of each tank, as they both stood their ground behind their shields for the first charge. Malus slid back, but stopped the ox. Diemond stopped the charge, but was sent rolling, unable to stay on her feet. Neither beast had time to make another move as the others pounced on it at the same time. What mattered and was the impressive part, was that both of them could stop the trembling oxen in their tracks in a head on charge.
With rented rooms, they didn’t have a place for Konpeito to cook. They had plenty of raw meat, but no stove or oven readily available. They ate at a restaurant, whose sole business was food. It had no rooms attached to it for renting. That was a first.
Natora and Bladescape set up a meeting point and time for the morning, and left the others to explore for the rest of the time before bed. Diemond went with them back to Tolbana, because her sewing supplies were back at the NPC house. She spent the night in the other room, taking advantage of having the bed all to herself.
It was odd for both Bladescape and Natora to not have to worry about the others knocking on the door. They had gotten used to always being aware that they might knock. Diemond certainly wouldn’t bother them. Both of them silently changed to comfortable clothing as they figured out how to proceed with breaking down the day.
"So, what is bothering you?" Natora asked.
"My lack of the will to win," Bladescape said. "I wasn't ready for it, and that is why I didn't kill Illfang in my last clash with him. I should have, but I lacked that drive. I saw it in Kirito. He was, is, solo, and I have not been, so our mindsets are different, however, I need to gain a similar mindset if I want to succeed as our leader. I may have it in my memories, or I may have to learn that lesson.
“What about you though? Are you okay about being called a Beater?"
"I've warmed up to it," Natora said. "Kirito is solo, so Beater does not hurt him status wise. I've been thinking on it and he made the right call. He took the blame, he took the heat, so the others would be trusted. He became an evil they could target their anger at. It sucks, but it was a bold move from him. Bold, wise, but stupid. He won't break that status easily, especially since we will no doubt continue to fight with him in boss battles. We need a guy like him, Beater or not, to deal damage.
"His single-handed sword is an interesting choice. He is choosing agility over defense, but while also using a heavier sword than a rapier would be. Another bold move, but crucial for him playing solo. His reaction time is impressive as well.
"He isn't the only one to watch. Kibaou has anger issues, probably due to losing at least one friend. Red Riding Hood is somehow faster with her rapier than Thunder. She is a pretty player too. Agil is powerful, and as a merchant, that is a good connection to have. I would love to build his business how we can. Hakowaru, who I gave the axe to last night, showed good promise too. Otherwise, the rest are nothing special.
"So, how do we get you to have that same instinct as Kirito?"
"I need to fight more," Bladescape stated. "While I do that, I can train that will and read my memories when I have the spare time, but combat is what I need. Levels too. Sleep and rest are important, but I need to figure out how to cut more out, to maximize my field time. I usually have a lot of free time in the evenings, which is purely wasted time for me."
"I agree," Natora nodded. "Outside that drive, what stopped you?"
"You guys," Bladescape said. "Not that I blame you, but you turned to defense when he was in the red, and we needed to press the attack."
"I agree we failed to do that," Natora said with a slow nod. "We will work on reading those moments. We don’t get those with regular monsters like we do with a boss. Really, we fought what, one boss? I don’t think my spear quest was a boss. He was tougher, but not a full boss. He didn’t give me any special drop for landing the last attack on him.”
“I should have given a clear order,” Bladescape stated. “That was my failure.”
“Learning all around,” Natora said. “What matters is that we won, we unlocked the second floor, and we only lost one life in the battle. One more than we wanted, but only one.”
“At least he sealed his own fate,” Bladescape said. “I feel bad, but he died due to his own greed, not due to an error made by anyone. I am certain Kirito noticed the change in the weapon when it was drawn, but not before. Even I could tell that the sword wasn’t a curved talwar. Kirito probably didn’t know that detail had changed.”
Natora nodded silently, and switched topics. “I would love to see more of the second floor than we saw of the first one."
"I agree," Bladescape nodded. "We need to explore more. We survived and made it off the first floor with great levels and solid skills and teamwork, so we can focus on exploring and dungeon diving. Now, let's go to bed."
“Yeah, but dumb question. Can I stay in here? I know we have two unoccupied rooms, but I am so used to sleeping in this one. I’m not sure if I could sleep in the others.”
“As long as you let me for the same reason,” Bladescape said with a laugh.
As Natora got into bed, she said one last thing. "I wish we could permanently rent this home. It would be nice, even though we need to have places closer to the front, to have a place to retreat to and store stuff."
"It would be nice," Bladescape agreed. “Although, I don’t see why we couldn’t keep renting it, so long as the NPC agrees. The price isn’t bad and easily sustainable for us.”
That was it as she closed her eyes.
BLADESCAPE: Level 13 — Two-Handed Sword — Searching — Weapon Defense — Leather Armor
NATORA: Level 13 — Two-Handed Spear — Purchase Negotiations — Sales Negotiation — Weapon Defense
KNIGHTSTAR: Level 13 — One-Handed Sword — Shield — Light Metal Armor — Equipment Appraisal
MALUS: Level 13 — One-Handed War Hammer — Shield — Light Metal Armor — First Aid
THUNDERBORNE: Level 13 — Rapier — Sprint — Acrobatics — Weapon Defense
KONPEITO: Level 13 — Two-Handed Axe — Cooking — Weapon Defense — Light Metal Armor
DIEMOND: Level 13 — Mace — Shield — Sewing — Light Metal Armor
DOOMBUNNY: Level 13 — One-Handed Dagger — Hide — Fighting Spirit — Blade Throwing
KIEFER: Level 8 — One-Handed Curved Sword — Slash Weapon Forging — Light Metal Armor
SORYUTO: Level 8 — One-Handed Sword — Shield — Light Metal Armor
REISENKI: Level 8 — One-Handed Axe — Shield — Light Metal Armor