Instead, she looked up at the bottom of the floor above, shining dully with starlight, and muttered, “We’ll meet Kizmel on this floor, too, won’t we?”
Kirito didn’t have an immediate answer to this. Like Asuna, he looked up.
“…The flow of the campaign quest veered way away from how it went in the beta on the fourth floor. Before, General N’ltzahh and Viscount Yofilis didn’t even exist. So I can’t say anything for sure…but I hope we do.”
“Yeah,” Asuna agreed hopefully.
“Oh,” Kirito continued, “but we might be able to go see her from here.”
“Huh…?”
“Remember, we have to go get the viscount’s reward before they start tearing through the fifth floor in earnest.”
“Oh, right. Of course.”
After the battle at Castle Yofel on the previous floor, the castle’s master had offered them an eye-popping list of potential rewards, but at that very moment, they got word that the guilds had gone to challenge the floor boss and had to put off their selection and rush to the labyrinth tower. There was no time limit for their selection—they hoped—but they ought to return promptly.
“I don’t know if Kizmel will still be at the castle,” Kirito added, hoping not to get Asuna’s hopes too high. She checked the time: nine thirty at night. It wasn’t early, but it also wasn’t too late.
“Shall we go back to the fourth floor?”
“Hmm, yeah…I ought to move on to my next sword soon, anyway…”
“Oh? You’re not going to keep using that one?” she asked, glancing at the Elven Stout Sword slung over Kirito’s back. “Isn’t it really tough?”
“Yeah, it is…but I only have one upgrade attempt remaining on it. Even if it’s successful, this weapon won’t be useful to me for much longer.”
“Hmm…So I guess it doesn’t always work out.”
“Exactly,” he said, grinning sourly. “Well! Let’s take the teleporter back to Rovia and gather all the ingredients by the end of the night.”
“Ingredients…? Oh, right…”
To move on the canals of the fourth floor, they needed a gondola. But their trusty Tilnel was still moored at Yofel Castle. They’d need to create a fresh boat to get from the town to the castle again.
“Well…I’d like to see Romolo the shipwright, too…Let’s take care of business!” Asuna clenched a fist, burning with enthusiasm.
Kirito interjected fearfully, “We’re just making a normal gondola this time, right…? Not one that requires monster bear grease…?”
“Oh, fine. I suppose I’ll make do with a normal one.”
Her partner sighed in visible relief, but Asuna jabbed his shoulder and picked up her pace.
When they went from Karluin’s teleport gate into Rovia, the main town of the fourth floor, they were greeted by the pleasant scent of water and the sound of trickling waves.
It was night here, too, of course, but the sight of the residential lights reflecting off the waterways was as beautiful as a dream.
“We’ve opened up the fifth floor, but there are still so many tourists here,” Asuna noted.
“At this rate, we might have to wait awhile at old man Romolo’s place still…Well, let’s get collecting those materials for…”
He stopped. A deep baritone voice was hailing them from behind.
“Yo, you two!”
They knew who it belonged to before they even saw him.
It was the bald man who led the team of double-handed weapon warriors—Kirito called them the “Bro Squad”—that retained its independence from the two major guilds.
Kirito turned around and offered a breezy “’Sup.”
Asuna followed with a polite bow. “Good evening, Agil.”
“Hey.”
Agil the ax warrior grinned back at them, but his trademark ax was not equipped. Instead, he was hauling a large tubelike object over his shoulder. After staring for a bit, Asuna recognized it.
That object was a Vendor’s Carpet; the very same merchant’s item Kirito had received from Nezha the blacksmith and foisted off on—er, granted to—Agil afterward.
“Whoa, are you changing classes from fighter to merchant?” Kirito asked, stunned.
Agil grinned again.
“Well, since you gave it to me, I figured it shouldn’t go to waste.”
“N-no way…” Kirito groaned. Asuna was stunned, too. If Agil and his three companions put down their weapons, it would be a significant blow to the strength of the frontline group.
But Agil only looked at their concerned faces and laughed, leaning back. “Sorry, don’t mean to imply I won’t be helping out. But I figured I’d give this thing a shot and see how much better I can do getting rid of excess items with this, rather than selling to an NPC shop. I had a little business going earlier this evening.”
“Ahh…How did it go?” Kirito asked curiously.
Agil rubbed his neatly squared goatee and said, “Hmm…it seems to depend on the item. I was able to liquidate the items you need a lot of, like gondola materials, at a pretty good price. But the accessories with food ingredients or noncombat skill boosts didn’t sell out. Basically, if you’re going into serious trading, you need to keep an eye on the trends in high-demand items and work on your marketing.”
“Ahh, I see,” Kirito replied, rubbing his own chin with the back of his knuckles. “SAO doesn’t have one of those auction house features that everyone can access at any time. I guess if you’re going to be serious about selling items, you need to put in the effort…”
“Yeah. It’ll be hard for a fighter to sell off items he doesn’t need at the roadside. It takes time, and the buyers and sellers don’t know where to find each other…In fact, the lack of such a thing makes it really hard to set a market price.”
“If only there was a major middleman, something like those large-scale recycling shops in real-life Japan, the trading among players would be much busier…but no one has the money to pull off a business like that. Not for a while, at least.”
“But that means whoever pulls it off first is going to rake in the cash.”
Asuna had been listening to the two men ramble on and on about moneymaking schemes at a distance, but at this point, she interjected. “Pardon me, Agil…did I hear you say you were selling the materials for the shipbuilding quest?”
“Hmm? Yeah. My inventory was just bulging with wood and ores. Gotta do something with them.”
“D-do you have any left?!”
Kirito came back to his senses and pressed him. “Y-yeah! Do you have any, Agil?!”
The large man smoothly shrugged his shoulders and held out his empty hands.
“Didn’t I just say I sold off all the gondola mats? Not a single item left. But why would you want something like that now? Weren’t you the first to make your boat?” he asked curiously. Kirito gave him a quick rundown. The ax warrior nodded, thought it over for a bit, then opened his window, asking the two to hang on a minute. He was sending an instant message to someone.
Agil glanced over the nearly instantaneous reply and said, “My partners say it’s all right. You can borrow our boat.”
At the eastern dock of the teleport square, Agil loosed the mooring rope of the midsize Pequod and stood on shore as Asuna and Kirito waved back, steering the boat south down the main waterway.
Manning the oar at the stern, Kirito boldly proclaimed, “Ahh, there’s nothing so rich as generous friends.”
“You’re going to thank him properly the next time we meet. With a real gift.”
“…Which we’ll be splitting the cost of, I hope…?” Kirito asked nervously. Asuna only smiled back and turned to face forward.
It had only been a single day since the massive naval battle with the forest elves’ fleet on the southern lake of the fourth floor, but it felt like ages since they’d ridden on a gondola. The beauty of the town lights reflecting on the water’s surface, the occasional splash and spray, the gentle rocking of the pr
ow as it carved through waves—it was indeed a joy to ride on a boat.
“You were just talking about making money as a middleman earlier; couldn’t you make a business selling gondola tours on one of the big models?” Asuna suggested idly. “The NPC gondolas in Rovia can’t go outside town, right?”
Her black-garbed gondolier took the suggestion quite seriously.
“Hmmm. I bet there’s a demand. But there are monsters in the rivers outside…”
“Oh, good point. You can’t run a business that involves any kind of danger to a player’s safety…”
“But if you had smaller boats at the front and rear for security…or outfitted your passengers in heavy plate armor…”
“Sorry, forget about the cruising.”
As they chatted, the gondola left the south gate of Rovia and made its way into the river that wove through the outer terrain. The rapids took them farther south and through the central caldera lake that had once been the site of their battle with the Biceps Archelon.
They did meet a few urchins, jellyfish, and giant crabs on their trip, but a single sword skill was enough for most of them as the gondola continued onward past the village of Usco, in the middle of the crescent lake, and into the canyon straits of the southern part of the floor. For the next ten-plus minutes, Kirito carefully guided the Pequod, which was larger than the Tilnel, ensuring it didn’t hit any of the rocks, until they finally passed through the wall of white fog that marked the borderline between the regular field map and the instanced area—their own private copy of the destination.
As the elegant manor castle looming dark over the lake came into view, Asuna felt her heart leap in her chest.
It was just yesterday that she’d said farewell to the dark elf knight Kizmel at the labyrinth tower. But she couldn’t stop the pangs of her heart with a reunion so close at hand.
The gondola slid onward over the mirrorlike surface of the lake until it slowly docked at the pier of Yofel Castle. If they put the rope around the mooring bitt on the dock, the game would ensure that only Agil, the gondola’s proper owner, could release it again, so they simply jumped freely onto the pier instead.
Right next to the Pequod was a smaller gondola in white and green—the Tilnel, their own boat. Asuna whispered “we’re back” to the craft, then looked to Kirito briefly before they set off for the castle gate ahead.
The dark, gleaming gate was still shut tight, guarded by warriors with halberds. But when Kirito brandished the Sigil of Lyusula on his left hand, they saluted him and began to open the heavy gate.
The ring gave them a free pass through the front door of the castle itself, and they headed up the large staircase to pay their respects to the castle owner. When they reached the fifth floor, they knocked on the heavy door to the right.
It was nearly midnight, but a familiar, beautiful voice emerged at once, telling them to enter.
Kirito shot Asuna a brief glance, then pulled the door open.
The first time they had come to this room, it had been as dark as could be, with heavy curtains covering all the windows, but the first thing Asuna saw this time was the warm orange light of a multitude of lanterns and candles. At the back of the office, seated across a large desk, was a tall, thin dark elf.
The master of Yofel Castle, Viscount Leyshren Zed Yofilis.
His wavy black hair was tied in the back, and an old scar running from his forehead through his left eye and down to his chin marred his otherwise beautiful features. He had shut himself in the darkness (supposedly) to hide that scar, which he called “proof of his greatest shame.” The battle against the forest elves yesterday had apparently brought about a change of heart.
The viscount smiled at them both, his face a combination of youthful vitality and aged maturity.
“Kirito, Asuna, you have returned.”
“Yes. We…er, had an agreement with you, my lord,” Kirito said awkwardly. Even for him, it was a bit difficult to admit that they were only there to claim a quest reward. He looked over to his partner for help, but she ignored him and bowed to the viscount.
“Forgive us for intruding so late at night, my lord.”
“I don’t mind. You protected this castle from great danger; you are welcome at any time. Please sit.”
At Yofilis’s beckoning, they crossed the office and stood before the desk. There were no other NPCs in the large room.
“Um…where is Kizmel?” she asked, assuming the knight must be somewhere nearby. The viscount fixed her with his gray-green eye and shook his head.
“I’m sorry to tell you that she is no longer within the castle.”
“Huh?!” both players exclaimed together.
Yofilis leaned forward and steepled his fingers atop the desk, explaining calmly, “At the order of the priests, Kizmel undertook the task of transporting the Jade Key and Lapis Key to the fortress on the fifth floor. She should have arrived by now.”
“…Oh, I see…” Asuna mumbled, trying to contain her disappointment.
Yofilis let a faint smile crinkle across his lips as he said gently, “Kizmel wishes to see you, too, I’m certain. If you have the opportunity, I suggest you visit the fortress. That sigil will grant you passage.”
“Yes…we will!”
“We’ll go as soon as possible.”
Yofilis smiled again and motioned to the right wall of the room. There was a heavy-looking chest sitting there.
“I have not yet given you your proper thanks and reward for saving my castle. As I said before, you each have your choice of any two items from the chest.”
Asuna was about to jab Kirito with an elbow, given how openly relieved he looked that the offer was still on the table, but she was distracted by the appearance of a quest reward box with multiple options to select.
She found that she was just as excited about it as her partner. She thanked their benefactor briefly and scrolled through the lengthy list.
It took an entire twenty-five minutes before both of them had made a final decision on their rewards. The viscount waited patiently, but unless she was imagining things, Asuna thought she saw him stifle a yawn two different times.
They stayed the night in the castle and had breakfast the following morning before taking the Pequod back to Rovia. Once they’d moored the gondola to the eastern dock, dropped the anchor, and affixed the rope to the bitt, they sent a message of thanks to Agil. The center square was still packed with tourists, so they had to squeeze their way through the crowds to get to the teleport square.
As she went from watery Rovia to ruined Karluin, Asuna pulled her hooded cape up around her mouth to brace against the cold, dusty breeze. But instead—
They emerged from the gate into an even wetter environment than they’d found in Rovia. And it came in the form of millions of airborne droplets, falling in a sheet from sky to ground.
“…Rain?” she muttered, looking up. Her face was instantly pelted with large drops, and she hurriedly pulled up her hood.
“Yep, this is rain,” Kirito muttered in surprise, flipping up the lapels of his leather coat. That wasn’t enough to block the onslaught of water, of course, and within moments his black hair was plastered to his forehead.
Wet hair was only an annoyance, but if armor got covered in water, it would suffer a waterlogged effect that made it harder to move.
“W-well, let’s find someplace indoors to hide,” Asuna suggested, looking around the square. Even despite the early hour of eight o’clock, the weather meant that there were few people around. Large puddles formed on the dark cobblestones, riddled with ripples from the constant downpour.
“But we’ve already eaten breakfast…And we just upgraded our weapons and don’t have anything to buy at an item shop…”
“It doesn’t matter where we go, as long as there’s a roof!” Asuna hissed. Kirito thought it over for two seconds, then nodded, drops falling off the ends of his bangs.
“In that case, let’s start whittling down the quests we pi
cked up yesterday.”
“In the middle of the rain?”
“Don’t worry, there’ll be a roof.”
Kirito trotted off through the deluge, and she had no choice but to chase after him.
They splashed through the puddles of the square and into the north side of town, which they had yet to visit. After just a hundred feet or two, they came to another big plaza. In the middle of it was a large, crumbling ruin, but compared to the temple they’d been spelunking in yesterday, this one seemed more creepy and sinister.
Regardless, they plunged into the dark, dank ruins, which finally gave them some respite from the rain. Asuna brushed off the water clinging to her cape and skirt with both hands and exhaled at last.
She looked around to see that they were in a large dim space. The thick stone walls ahead and on either side had no doors, but set into the floor in the middle of the room was a descending staircase. Bizarre holy statues stood on either side, sending writhing shadows about the room in the flickering light of the fires, set in each corner.
“…What is this place?” she asked her partner, who was smacking off sheets of water from his coat. His answer was largely what she expected.
“The entrance to the underground catacombs I mentioned. There are other entrances, I guess, but this is the main one.”
“Ahh…And there are quests that we complete here?”
“Oh yeah, a whole bunch.”
Kirito swiped his wet bangs out of his eyes and opened his window, setting it to visible mode and showing Asuna his list of accepted quests.
“This one here, ‘Little Lost Jenny,’ is where you search for the girl’s lost puppy or kitty or whatever. ‘The Tasteless Collector’ involves finding a certain type of relic, and the ‘Thirty-Year Lament’ is where you have to find some kind of wandering evil spirit—”
“Nyet!” Asuna squawked abruptly, covering Kirito’s mouth with her hand.
Startled, he tried to mumble something through her palm, but she shot him a murderous look to silence him before finally letting go.
He stayed quiet for several moments, then faintly, hesitantly said, “…What was that nyet sound?”