Episode 48 — Star’s Knight
Nineteenth in the Month of Ash Tree (October 19) in the Year of the Dragon
Front Line Floor 41
Knightstar shelved her newly updated encyclopedia. It was now twelve volumes long and contained almost, if not every, monster, location, and item on each floor. Monsters had all of their stats and attack patterns listed. The items were broken down into weapons, armor, clothes, food, NPC items, as well as metal craft, food craft, fabric craft, miscellaneous craft, odds and ends, and junk drops. She had been paying various players to help fill in the missing gaps for her.
Besides the encyclopedias, she had two dungeon guides filled with dungeon specific information that were organized by floor. The first one went up to and included the twenty-fifth floor, while the second started after that. She also had two quest books full of step-by-step walkthroughs to complete the various quests that anyone could complete.
Most recently, she had released a very cheap guide for the guild creation quest. Yes, they were a long way from the third floor, but many of the intermediate players were without guilds. Groups that didn’t enter the game with close bonds of friendship to start with, and without the drive of pushing for the front or networking for crafting materials to force a need for greater organization and resource pooling, were just starting to settle in with their newfound friends, finally starting to form guilds. Knightstar was selling the guide through a player named Havic. He was posted up where the quest started. He kept track of the sales, including receipts, and split the earnings fifty-fifty with Knightstar. He was a well trusted contact she had been using to dig up information for a while to complete her encyclopedia. She trusted him and the major info brokers knew what the sale price was and where Havic was posted up.
Knightstar was no information broker. She was an information expert. She was no replacement for the brokers. She could give you all the information, but it was up to the player to interpret certain things. Knightstar didn't deal with rumors either, or the most recently unlocked information. All of hers was targeted at the already cleared floors.
Knightstar also had her skills books. Each one was separated by the skill and, using cooking as an example, included the cheapest way to level it up, the fastest way, and also a secondary list of all of the food items known as well as success rates and experience. Konpeito was keeping some secrets from Knightstar when it came to certain dishes, but the skill guides were for leveling and had a clear disclaimer that they were not comprehensive outside of level data. In the case of cooking, a cookbook would be better than her guide for those who wanted to actually cook once they had the levels.
She was almost ready to launch her consulting firm. The library was coming along nicely, now that she had everything organized and rewritten from her notes. Those took up a bookshelf, but Knightstar had two others. The first was only a quarter full while the second was full. The first was player written stories that had been published as books and sold. Not all of them were good, many were terrible, but they were trying. The second shelf was full of game published books. Since the Twenty-Fifth Floor boss was beaten, and player-written books were being sold, Sword Art Online began to sell classic books. All of them were fair access stories that no one could claim the rights to. They came from all over the globe.
Her library and consulting firm would be waiting for her after though. They had put in a good amount of clearing, but the Wondercolts were running a short day. Bladescape was launching her overnight training sessions to keep the Wondercolts' levels at the top of the curve. Natora, Thunderborne, Malus, Konpeito, and Kiefer, would be out all night with Bladescape at the best XP grinding location. The rest of the Wondercolts had the evening off, but would be on full duty for tomorrow and then running their own overnight training session with Bladescape. Bladescape and Natora had the leadership rotation worked out and, along with Knightstar, they had set their quotas for the next five boss fights. It was exploratory quotas, but the members didn't know that. They were hoping they could meet them, but there were a variety of factors they couldn't control. That would be what the next several weeks would be for. Hopefully Knightstar's projections from Bladescape's data were spot on.
Knightstar changed notebooks in her chest pocket, swapping out the general notes one for the Battle Dance Quest notebook. Being free for the evening, Knightstar was going to get back to her personal project: cracking the quest that had eluded her so far.
She teleported to Isonset on Floor Thirty and headed to the lower citadel where the guards and knights trained. The quest giver, Don Bane, was busy with another player. That was fine. Knightstar wanted her time sparring him, but observational data was important too.
Don Bane talked about learning to use a sword and shield in a fluid dance, the steps of battle. It was supposed to unlock a Skill. All the player had to do was beat the veteran in a duel, and he would teach them. Of course, he only dueled those with sword and shield skills actively set and so far, no one had gotten close to beating him.
He always got around the player faster than they could react and beat them. Knightstar watched him take down three intermediate players rather quickly. Then she was up.
Knightstar set her stance, this time changing her approach and placing her right foot forward, sword out, with her shield in reserve. She stepped in, cutting at him with her sword. He trapped it on his shield using his own sword before flicking his sword up her arm to her throat. Knightstar leaned back, shifting her shield. She blocked his sword. The first time. The master swordsman danced to her left, placing his sword against her throat once again, ending the duel.
Fifty-nine times she had now failed it. Either the sword ended up smacking her with the flat of the blade on her back or against her throat. The last twenty times she had found it at her throat. That was some progress. At least it wasn't as embarrassing as the slap, but it ended just as fast.
Knightstar stepped out of the sparring circle because of the line and watched as others failed either faster or almost as fast as she did. Several tried her sword first approach, but none of them were skilled enough to block his first strike with their sword. Knightstar's one-handed sword skill and shield skill were clearly higher than the intermediate players, but that wasn't a lot of comfort. Don Bane saw them as the same because they didn't have the skill to beat him.
His speech about using the sword and shield was appropriate. Knightstar was not well read on the medieval weapons treatises. She had browsed them briefly in preparation for playing SAO, but she didn't expect them to be super relevant due to the game mechanics. Don Bane’s actions looked very similar to what she recalled in the treatises. He spoke similar to how they were written too. The quest was appropriate because he was wanting to teach the player the steps of battle. In other words, how to pair the use of the sword and shield into a singular, ultimate fighting technique. A new skill, but so much more than just a skill.
The sword master always started the same, in a neutral stance with his shield bladed towards the player, with his sword tip touching the top. Knightstar knew exactly how he would react to whatever she did, or the player he was dueling, but no one was able to get more than four moves into the duel. The initial move by the player and his counter usually ended it. Sometimes Knightstar could block his counter, causing him to attack again, but he was too fast and often had danced out of reach for a full counter by her. Once she had been able to block and strike, pushing the duel into five movements. Don Bane's second counter was a duel finisher. She didn't believe that the duel would go past ten movements, but just getting past five was nearly impossible.
She had been doing this on and off for weeks. Some days, all she had time for was observation. Others she was able to actually engage in a duel or two. Far too often she was in the field too late with an early morning to get here. That or she had game data she needed to rewrite while it was still fresh in her mind.
If she could conquer this quest, it wouldn't just come with a new skill. Yes, that was the stated reward, but Knightstar would be able to publish the definitive quest guide and sell it for a lot of col. Most players in the assault team who used a sword and shield had attempted the quest, doing at least one duel. Many of the clearers were in the same position. The sword and shield combination was the dominant weapon choice for players by a wide margin. The assault team was more diverse, but they also were the elite of the elite.
There was a system to the duel. A set of steps to break how the NPC could counter and allow the player to win. Not only was there always one, but that's how SAO functioned. Everything in Aincrad was algorithms and coding. As expansive as the game was, it was limited. Just like how, as expansive and random real life could seem, it could be boiled down to a math problem that would project how people would act and react. It was not entirely the same, but the principal was similar to every action having an equal and opposite reaction. So long as the input was understood, the outcome was obvious.
Knightstar got in another duel before Don Bane ended the sparring for the night. Even though he was an NPC, he wasn't always available. He would go home to sleep. He would only teach players while it was light and a little past sunset.
Still, Knightstar had plenty of new intel. Every duel was recorded, including each action taken by both parties. She was able to accurately tell how Don Bane would respond to any opening attack.
BLADESCAPE: Level 63 — Two-Handed Sword — Searching — Weapon Defense — Leather Armor — First Aid — Battle Regeneration — Sprint — Blade Throwing — Extended Weight Carry
NATORA: Level 60 — Two-Handed Spear — Purchase Negotiations — Sales Negotiation — Weapon Defense — Light Metal Armor — First Aid — Battle Regeneration — Acrobatics — Armor Pierce
KNIGHTSTAR: Level 57 — One-Handed Sword — Shield — Light Metal Armor — Equipment Appraisal — First Aid — Battle Regeneration — Acrobatics — Extended Weight Carry
MALUS: Level 60 — One-Handed War Hammer — Greatshield — Heavy Metal Armor — First Aid — Extended Weight Carry — Battle Regeneration — Fishing — Search — Martial Arts
THUNDERBORNE: Level 60 — Rapier — Sprint — Acrobatics — Weapon Defense — Light Metal Armor — First Aid — Battle Regeneration — Armor Pierce — Martial Arts
KONPEITO: Level 60 — Two-Handed Axe — Cooking — Weapon Defense — Light Metal Armor — Martial Arts — First Aid — Battle Regeneration — Music — Blade Throwing — Bard
DIEMOND: Level 60 — Mace — Greatshield — Sewing — Heavy Metal Armor — First Aid — Battle Regeneration — Light Metal Armor Forging — Heavy Metal Armor Forging — Extended Weight Carry
DOOMBUNNY: Level 57 — One-Handed Dagger — Hide — Fighting Spirit — Blade Throwing — First Aid — Battle Regeneration — Familiar Cooperation — Mixing — Search
KIEFER: Level 57 — One-Handed Curved Sword — Slash Weapon Forging — Light Metal Armor — Weapon Defense — First Aid — Katana — Battle Regeneration — Slash Weapon Forging
SORYUTO: Level 56 — One-Handed Sword — Shield — Light Metal Armor — Music — First Aid — Battle Regeneration — Fighting Spirit — Armor Pierce
REISENKI: Level 58 — One-Handed Axe — Greatshield — Heavy Metal Armor — Equipment Repair — Metal Equipment Repair — First Aid — Battle Regeneration — Cooking