We returned to the path and shared a short sigh of relief. The angle of the golden light from overhead was changing already, but we had plenty of time until nightfall.
“So, it should be right around here…”
“What is? Oh, that task you said you wanted to take care of.”
“Yes. We’re just initiating a quest…but the starting location of the NPC is a bit random. How are your ears, Asuna?”
I gave her a glance and saw that the fencer was backing away, holding her hands over her cute little pink ears.
“…Is that what you’re into, Kirito? You have an ear thing?”
“N-n-no! I was referring to your hearing, not the shape of your ears…”
“I’m just kidding. Besides, this situation has nothing to do with our hearing. We’re listening with our brains, not our eardrums.”
“Ah, good point. Well, let’s try to find it. If only one of us had the Eavesdropping skill.”
I straightened my back and cupped my palms behind my ears, knowing it was probably pointless. Asuna followed my example.
“So what sound am I listening for? Don’t tell me it’s a single leaf falling.”
“Don’t worry, it’s not a natural sound. We’re trying to find the clanging of sword on sword.”
Asuna looked startled for a moment, then nodded her understanding.
We stood in the middle of the path, our backs pressed together, focusing in all four directions with four ears. I often ignored them, but there was actually quite a lot of atmospheric noise in the game. The whistling of the breeze and rustling of leaves, scampering critters and chirping songbirds—I shut each and every one of those sounds out of my mind, searching for the harsh, artificial clang of metal on metal.
“…!”
Asuna and I twitched together. I turned to my right, and Asuna to her left…to the southwest. There was a faint but distinct clashing of blades coming from that direction.
“Let’s go,” I said, striding forward. Asuna pulled my coat from behind.
“Is it safe to go into the forest?”
“Don’t worry, as long as we start the quest safely, we’ll be able to return to the path.”
“…And what if we don’t?”
“Not a problem—I have a camping set. Let’s go!”
As I trotted off into the woods, I heard a skeptical “Camping?” It quickly turned to footsteps.
Away from the stone path, the ground was soft and mossy, with just enough give to be noticeable, but not uncomfortable to walk on. I wove around trunks left and right, trailing the source of the sound. Coming across any monsters here would disrupt our search, so I gave any cursors that popped up in my Search range a wide berth. The last thing I wanted to see was another treant, and fortunately we did not run across any.
After less than five minutes of jogging, the clanging of metal was much louder than before, joined by shouts and screams. Two NPC cursors appeared directly ahead, followed by the flashes of colliding swords peeking through the branches.
One more massive tree trunk, and we’d be at the battleground. I stopped before we rounded the tree and held Asuna back with an outstretched arm, holding up my index finger in a shushing motion. We leaned around the trunk to peer at the same time.
Two silhouettes were locked in fierce combat in the middle of a wide clearing.
One was a tall man wearing gleaming metal armor of gold and green. Even at a glance, it was clear that his longsword and buckler were high-level equipment. His long, platinum blond hair was tied at the back, and his face was that of a dashing Scandinavian lead actor in a Hollywood film.
The other combatant stood out in stark relief, with black-and-purple armor. The curved saber and small kite shield were dark in color but equally powerful. The fighter’s hair was short and smoky purple, which combined with darkly tanned skin, was strikingly beautiful. Luscious red lips and a swelling curve on the breastplate made it clear that the dark fighter was a woman.
“Haah!”
The blond man let out a fierce roar and swung down his sword.
“Shaa!”
The purple-haired woman struck back with her saber. A fierce clang echoed throughout the clearing, and the flashing light effect lit the deep forest for an instant.
“A-are those…really NPCs…?” Asuna murmured below me, her voice filled with wonder.
I understood how she felt. Their precise movements and realistic expressions were so lifelike, it was hard to see them as soulless avatars under the control of the game system. But…
“Technically, they’re classified as mobs. Look at their ears.”
“Huh…? Oh! They’re both pointy. Which means…”
“The man is a forest elf. The woman is a dark elf. Look above their heads.”
Asuna’s eyes traveled up a bit. She murmured in surprise again.
Both warriors had a golden ! mark above their heads. That was proof that they were quest-initiating NPCs. Normally, walking up and starting a conversation would automatically open up a quest log. But in this case…
“What does it mean that they both have quest marks and are fighting each other…?”
“It’s simple—you can only accept one. I need you to make a very important choice here, Asuna,” I said. She took her eyes off the elves and looked at me.
“A choice?”
“Yeah. The quest they’ll give us isn’t a one-off quest, or even a series of quests. It’s the first major campaign quest in the game. It lasts through several floors and won’t wrap up until we get to the ninth.”
“N—”
Ninth?! she was going to scream, but clamped her mouth shut in time. Her hazelnut-brown eyes were wide with shock. Secretly enjoying her surprise, I added another bombshell.
“And if you screw up along the way, there are no do-overs. No switching to the opposing side, either. The choice you make here is going to last us until the ninth floor of Aincrad.”
“Excuse me…Couldn’t you have told me this earlier…?” Her face went from anger to indecision. “Wait, opposing side? Does that mean those two elves…?”
“Exactly. We have to choose one to save and one to fight. Which one will it be: black or white?”
Asuna gave me a scorchingly appraising look. “This isn’t a real choice, is it? Maybe if this was a regular game, but not now. We have to follow the same route you took in the beta. In fact…I’m positive that I can guess exactly which one you chose.”
Now it was my turn to clam up uncomfortably. Her cold gaze bored into my face, and she spoke with absolute conviction.
“You chose the dark elf lady, didn’t you?”
“Y-yes, I did…b-but not because she was a lady. Because she was dark.”
But I knew that excuse wouldn’t fly. Asuna stood up straight and turned away in a huff.
“Well, fine. I would never take the side of a man to cut down a woman, anyway. Let’s help out the dark elf and defeat the forest elf. Agreed?” She hurried to pop out of our hiding spot, but I grabbed the back of her hood first.
“W-wait, wait, wait. One important thing first!”
“What?”
“Well, um…Just so you know, even if we help the dark side, there’s no way we can beat the forest elf.”
“Wh…what?!”
Her eyes went wide. I put a hand on her slender shoulder to calm her down. “As you can probably tell from the tough-looking gear, they’re both elite mobs. You don’t find Forest Elven Hallowed Knights or Dark Elven Royal Guards until the seventh floor. No matter how much of a safety margin we’re working with, we only just made it to the third floor. We can’t win.”
“Then…what do we do? I mean…if we die in this fight…”
“Don’t worry, there’s no death if we lose. Once we’re down half our HP, the fighter we’re helping will use her secret attack to win. We just have to keep focused on defense. Don’t panic when he starts chopping our HP away, just stay calm and wait for the lady to do her thing. Losing con
trol and running around is the worst thing that can happen here—you never know when you might pull in a nearby mob by accident.”
“…All right.”
“Good.” I patted her shoulder and let go. “Then we’ll jump out on the count of three. The quest starts automatically when we get near, so just stay next to me.”
She nodded in understanding, and I lined up next to her, counted to three, and said a silent apology.
There was one thing I hadn’t told Asuna. When we jumped in to save the dark elf—her name was Kizmel—she would unleash her forbidden art to save us from the forest elf knight, dying in the process. If we chose the opposite route and helped the forest elf, he would do the same thing. No matter the choice, both elves would die in this clearing, and we’d be embroiled in the war of the two races. That was the start of a long, long campaign…an epic tale.
“…Two, one, go!”
We leaped out into the clearing. The battling elves looked at us momentarily, then jumped backward to keep distance between them. Each of the ! marks turned into a ? to indicate a quest in progress.
“What is humankind doing in this forest?” the male elf demanded.
“Do not interfere! Begone from this place!” ordered the dark elf.
We had the option of leaving, of course. But that was beside the point of being here. Asuna and I made eye contact, drew our swords—and leveled the points at the gaudy forest elf’s chest.
His handsome features grew cold and furious. The yellow event-related mob cursor gained a blinking red border, a warning that the target was about to turn aggressive.
“You fools…For the crime of siding with this dark elf scum, your blood will quench my sword’s thirst.”
“That—”
“That’s right, but it’s you who will perish, you wife-abusing pig!” Asuna retorted, stealing my one-liner and adding a dubious charge of domestic abuse. The forest elf’s cursor shifted from pale yellow to a menacing dark crimson. Before I could even note the foreboding tint of red, the man put on a beautiful but haughty smile.
“So be it! I will start with you, humans.”
“Remember, just focus on defense!” I called out to Asuna, focusing on his longsword.
Of course, we’ll only last three minutes at best, I silently added. But when I glanced over at my partner’s face, I felt a distinct sense of unease. Even in the short time I’d known her, I could recognize the expression she was wearing now: the one that said she was dead set on something.
“Um…focus…defense?”
“I know, I know!” she snapped, but there was a ferocious glint to the rapier clutched in her right hand.
Twenty minutes later.
“This…can’t be happening…” the forest elf muttered as he collapsed to the ground.
“This…can’t be happening…” I repeated, blinking in surprise as I checked to confirm that his HP bar did indeed read zero. In contrast, both Asuna and my HP bars were at half, just before we would reach the yellow zone. During the beta, I’d been in a party of four, and we’d been thrashed in just two minutes.
“…Well. He wasn’t so tough, after all.”
I looked over to see Asuna, back straight despite her obvious fatigue. A few feet to her left was the dark elf, dark saber and gaze pointed right at the fallen foe.
Ya shoulda died, missy, echoed a mysterious, unsourced phrase inside my head. Kizmel the dark elf knight looked up at me.
Her onyx eyes seemed to be filled with shock, bewilderment, and an unanswered question of what she should do next. But that had to be my imagination.
I prayed it was my imagination.
2
IF THIS QUEST, THE “JADE KEY,” HAD DEVELOPED AS IT happened in the beta, the following should have occurred.
Whether we allied with the forest elf or the dark elf, ultimately both would end up dead. The elf we sided with would remain alive for a few seconds extra, long enough to say, “Deliver this key to such and such,” before perishing. The such and such being either the forest elf base on the north end of the woods or the dark elf base to the south. Once the bodies had vanished, a small bag of sewn leaves would be left behind, containing a large and beautiful key carved of green stone.
At that point, of course, the player was to take the key to the northern or southern camp; they could sell it at an NPC shop if they wished, but that would permanently prevent them from finishing the quest. If properly delivered without falling into temptation, the commander at the elf base would part with a special reward and the initiation of the next quest.
But I had no idea there was a different branching pathway in the quest, one in which the elf ally survived the battle. If I didn’t know it, no one else did—even Argo. We had to expect a totally new and unfamiliar story ahead.
A short distance away from me, Asuna, and the still-silent dark elf Kizmel, the forest elf’s body disappeared with a brief crackle. We received considerable amounts of experience and col, along with a couple rare items, but I didn’t have time to check that now.
A familiar bag of leaves was lying on the ground where the forest elf’s body had been. Abandoned items had to be claimed soon, before they disappeared into thin air, but I wasn’t even sure if I was supposed to pick this one up. What if I touched it, and that was the trigger that turned Kizmel hostile?
“Umm…gee, what’s this?” I said unconvincingly. Asuna bent down to pick up the key as though nothing was out of the ordinary, so I hastily grabbed the hood of her cape, which earned me a furious glare. Finally, Kizmel reacted.
She bent over and cradled the bag carefully in her black leather gloves. An exhalation of relief left her lips as she held it to her chest.
“…At least we can protect the sanctuary now,” she murmured to herself, put the bag in her waistpouch, and stood up to face us. The subtle way the ferocity returned to her eyes despite her wavering hesitation didn’t seem possible for a mere simple system-controlled object.
“I must thank you,” she said, her armor clanking as she bowed in salute. “The first secret key has been protected. Your assistance is appreciated. Come with me to our base, and the commander will wish to reward you for your help.”
Again, a ? appeared over her head to indicate quest progress. I was inwardly relieved, though I did my best not to show it. It seemed that the quest would proceed as normal, even after we beat the forest elf ourselves.
However, my original plan was to butt into their fight, let both elves perish, get the key, and return to the main town. We hadn’t taken a break to refresh and resupply since beating the second-floor boss. The elation at reaching a new floor was masking my fatigue, but exhaustion here was mental rather than physical and hit the player like a ton of bricks out of nowhere. My current partner Asuna had passed out from extreme exhaustion right after our first meeting down in the first-floor labyrinth. While it was rare to get that far, lapses of concentration led to mistakes, and controlling that fatigue safely was a vital tool for any solo player.
I peered sidelong at the fencer. She took a step forward without a glance at me and spoke to Kizmel herself.
“In that case, we’d be honored.”
“…”
I wasn’t the only one who held my tongue. Kizmel stared at Asuna in silence. NPCs in Aincrad—technically, the dark elf Kizmel was classified as a mob—did not respond to player comments unless they came in a clear yes or no form.
I coughed awkwardly, ready to give a simpler answer, but before I could get the words out of my mouth, the knight nodded and spun around.
“Very well. The base camp is through the south end of the woods.”
My quest log updated, and the ? over her head vanished. At the same time, a message appeared to the upper left indicating that a third party member had joined, and a fresh new HP bar was added to the list.
Kizmel strode off coolly, and Asuna sprang after her. I stood rooted to the spot for three seconds before hurrying off to catch up.
The elf must h
ave picked up an affirmative nuance from Asuna’s reply. But as far as I knew, the NPCs in the beta test had nowhere near that kind of conversation ability.
Perhaps it was as simple as the NPCs’ response database being expanded between the end of the beta and the start of the retail game. But something about Kizmel’s speech and expressions felt too natural for that to explain it. She was just like any other player.
I walked at the rear of the three-man team, examining her color cursor just to be sure. It was the yellow of an NPC—technically, an event mob—and her name was listed as KIZMEL: DARK ELVEN ROYAL GUARD. Players weren’t allowed to replicate monster titles within their names, so this was proof that Kizmel was indeed nothing more than a moving object controlled by the system. If SAO was a normally functioning game, there might be a faint chance that she was actually being played by a member of the game staff, but that couldn’t be true now that it was deadly.
…It must be my imagination.
I sped up to draw even with the two women.
Being an overpowered beater might have created a dangerously unpredictable set of circumstances in this case, but there was one way in which it was a definite improvement.
Reaching the dark elf base required venturing off the path and through the woods, increasing the chances of enemy encounters. And given the thick, obscuring mists that gave the forest its name, it was all too easy to lose sight of one’s location.
But Kizmel served us valuably in more ways than one: Her saber made quick work of any foes who happened across our path, and as an elf, she seemed to know exactly which way to go through the heavy mist. As an admirer of efficiency, I considered taking this opportunity to wander around and fight more mobs with Kizmel, but I thought better of it. I didn’t want to give the proud, elite elf warrior a reason to be angry with me.
So it only took fifteen minutes of hiking through the misty forest to reach the sight of many black flags rippling in the breeze.
“That didn’t take very long,” Asuna said next to me, and I had to reluctantly agree. Kizmel stopped marching and turned around to face us. She spoke with what I thought was a note of pride in her voice.