Sword Art Online – Progressive - Volume 3 - Chapter 2

2 
“SO WHAT KIND OF PLACE IS THE MAIN TOWN OF THIS FLOOR?” 
Asuna strode south up the white hill, the soles of her leather boots grinding against the sand. She was back in her usual outfit of hooded cape and leather skirt. 
“Umm…” 
I tried to recall the sight of the town. I was back in my customary black coat. 
“You know what? Forget it. We’ll be there in a minute, and I’d rather see it for myself.” 
“That’s a good idea. It’s one of the fun things about MMORPGs,” I agreed, but the sight of the stone-built town was already flooding back into my mind from memory. 
If anything, it was not a particularly memorable town. Compared to the mountain-carved city of the second floor or the monstrous baobabs of the third, this one was structurally quite plain. If there was any odd feature to mention, it was that the entrance to every house was on the second floor, for some reason. In order to get inside, you had to use a set of stone stairs. 
“Oh, there’s the gate!” Asuna called, her voice about 20 percent more excited than normal. A mossy stone arch was coming into view at the top of the hill. I glanced down at my window, which was still open from putting my gear back on. It was nearly two o’clock. 
A few minutes after reaching the fourth floor, a few minutes at the water’s edge, a few minutes with the donut tree—these all added up to about fifty minutes since we’d conquered the boss of the third floor. There must be many players down below at this exact moment, just waiting for the teleport gate to open into the new town. I felt bad that we’d taken this long to activate the gate, but they’d understand when they saw the lack of a footpath. 
I followed after the fencer as she trotted up the hill. When she reached the arch a step before I did, Asuna bubbled with excitement. 
“Wow…It’s so pretty here!” 
Pretty? 
All I remembered was a drab gray town. I strode up the last several lengths, curious now. The instant I passed through the cobblestone arch, countless lights flashed in my eyes. The plain, boring town in the squared hollow I remembered from the beta was now sparkling like a jewel. 
The source of the light was the midday sun glittering off of solid blue water. 
Everything that had been a stone-paved street before was now a deep waterway. The stone of the buildings had gone from dull gray to bright white, which made the entire place look like a city of chalk floating in the middle of a square lake. On sheer beauty, it easily eclipsed those of the second and third floor. No wonder Asuna exclaimed in wonder. 
“…I see…This was supposed to be the finished version all along. That explains the doors on the second floor,” I murmured. 
My partner waved me over impatiently. “Come on, hurry!” 
“Coming!” 
We continued along the stone path, which was now descending. On the descent, a thought occurred to me: The theme for the fourth floor had to be “waterways.” 
Once through the massive front gate of the town, the SAFE HAVEN label appeared in my field of view. Up ahead was a dock a good hundred feet long, complete with a number of small boats helmed by NPCs. 
“Oooh, look at the gondolas! It’s just like Venice!” Asuna marveled. I started to wonder if she had only seen Venice in pictures, or if she’d actually been there, then snapped myself out of it. It didn’t feel right to wonder about her personal life. 
The street ended at the dock, so we needed to use a gondola to get anywhere in town. I suppose we had the option of taking those swim tubes back out of storage, but Asuna’s eyes were currently gondola shaped, so I took the hint that my idea would be shot down instantly. I didn’t exactly relish the thought of showing off my cow boxers, either, even if there weren’t any other actual players in town yet. 
The gondolas at the dock came in a wealth of sizes, from small one-person boats (aside from the NPC gondolier) up to large cruisers that could seat ten or more. A number of copper plaques listed the prices, indicating that a two-person gondola cost fifty col for a onetime use. It was good to know that the price would be the same no matter where in town we were, but I didn’t like the idea of paying fifty col every time we wanted to visit a new place. 
For the moment, we didn’t have a better option. 
“Will this one do?” I asked, pointing to a nearby ivory-white two-seater. Asuna gave it a serious examination and nodded. We headed down the steps of the dock and hopped into the gondola, Asuna first. The burly gondolier, in his traditional straw hat and striped shirt, gave us a friendly greeting. 
“Welcome to Rovia, travelers! Fifty col, wherever you want to go!” 
“Take us to the teleporter plaza, then,” I answered, then wondered if an NPC would understand that terminology. Fortunately, he tipped the brim of his cap in acknowledgment. 
“Off we go!” he shouted. A purple payment window appeared briefly, then vanished. The gondolier gave one push of his long oar. The white ship slid away, and at the prow, Asuna pulled her hood back and cheered again. 
The gondola left the dock at the north end of the city behind and headed down the cross-shaped main street that split the town into four quarters. Er, no, not a main street, a main— 
“Hey, Asuna, what’s the English word for a waterway?” 
“Channel!” 
The main channel of town. 
Boats of all colors filled the wide canal, which was a good sixty feet wide, with shops large and small lining the sides. The displays of weapons, armor, and items were very tempting to me, but it would not be easy to take detours in this situation. No doubt we could change destinations on the fly, but I had a feeling that every time we stepped off the boat, it would cost another fifty to get on again. On top of that, I didn’t even know if the gondola would wait for us there. 
I told myself that we had to prioritize activating the town’s teleporter and asked the gondolier a different question. 
“Will this boat take us outside of the town as well?” 
Fortunately, this question was part of his recognized list, and he gave a proper answer as he rowed the powerful oar. 
“I’m afraid I can’t do that. I only work here, in the town of Rovia.” 
“Would another ship take us out of town?” 
“Sorry, I can’t answer that.” 
Either the question didn’t fit his recognized parameters, or there was a reason he couldn’t answer it. There were plenty of other things I wanted to know, but based on my experience in the beta, the most in-depth information on a town had to come from the right NPC—like a bearded village elder, a fishy informant, or a know-it-all child. 
For a moment, I was reminded of the Dark Elf knight and her stunningly realistic vocabulary, but there were things to be done before I could dwell on my loneliness. 
We’ll open the gate, take a short rest, then go about collecting information, I told myself. 
A large wharf appeared ahead. It was the teleport gate plaza at the center of the town. The gondolier drew our boat level to the dock at the southern end of the square with expert skill, then put his hand to his cap again. 
“Safe and sound! Hope to see you again!” 
We thanked him and stepped off the boat. As I feared, the gondola immediately pulled away from the wharf and headed back to the entrance of the town. But there were other gondolas at the dock here, so we could use them on the way back. Opening the teleporter quickly was the matter at hand. 
When I turned, I found that Asuna still had stars floating in her eyes. 
“That was so, so much fun!” 
“Um…I’m glad you enjoyed it.” 
“Let’s ride another one back!” 
“I…don’t think we have another option.” 
I almost had to wonder if she really was the same coolheaded, snarky fencer I’d been working with all this time. 
An hour after defeating the boss of the third floor, Asuna and I activated the teleport gate for the fourth floor and retreated to a corner of the plaza to watch the swarm of players that came barreling through the wavering blue portal. 
The rush of tourists, here for the custom of “town opening,” stood around in clumps within the plaza and marveled at the beauty of the town, but more than a few seemed to have a clear purpose in mind already. Middle-of-the-pack swordsmen who headed for the market area in search of better weapons, merchants after more valuable items to stock, and even a short-haired girl with a blacksmith’s hammer at her waist, poring over the map of the town. 
Glad to see that there were more fighters trying to catch up to the frontier group and crafters offering player support, I joined Asuna in entering a small inn at the outer edge of the plaza. 
We got two rooms this time, to avoid the mistake that happened in Zumfut down on the third floor, but we needed to have a meeting about our plans for the near future before we could lie down for a rest, and therefore, ended up on the sofas in my room. As usual, I had to be wary that her unnecessary danger radar was at max sensitivity, but with the gondola effect still active in her expression, her features were relaxed. 

 

I took a sip of tea from the set that was left in the room and looked at Asuna across from me. 
“Do you…like ships?” 
She blinked a few times and smiled shyly. 
“Not ships as a whole, really…but I’ve always wanted to ride in a gondola. I just never thought that dream would come true in Aincrad.” 
“I see. So it’s not all bad that the fourth floor got filled with water, then,” I noted. She seemed to realize something. 
“Oh…so there weren’t any of these canals and channels in the beta?” 
“Correct. It was just a boring, dusty, gray town. I barely remember anything about it.” 
“Then I like this one much more. I know the gondolas don’t go out of town, so we’ll probably have to deal with more swimming…but I can deal with it.” 
Despite being totally entranced with the boat ride, she’d still taken in every word of the conversation I had with the gondolier. I couldn’t help but smile at her capable nature. 
“That’s right. As for what’s next, we should take a break, then resupply, repair, and replace our stuff here in town; accept all the available quests; and find out as much info as we can about the fourth floor. Eventually we’ll have to leave the town for other locations, which means using those swim tubes again…” 
The dreamy look steadily faded from Asuna’s eyes, replaced by her typical cool expression. 
“I can handle the swimming—the problem is monsters. That lizard-tadpole thing earlier was a bit of a letdown when the body was barely larger than the fin, but it still had a bright red cursor, right? That meant it was a pretty high level…” 
“Exactly. And obviously that won’t be the only species of monster on the floor…We’d better try to outfit ourselves for underwater combat.” 
I only had a tiny bit of experience with that from the beta. Not only did a player have to deal with taking and holding breaths, but the resistance from the water was fierce as well. Fighters with big weapons had to be able to handle those weapons, while those with smaller weapons could only be so agile in the water. The most suited to water were spear-type weapons, with their long reach and jabbing attacks that met with minimal resistance from the water. And neither Asuna nor I had any spear skills. 
It was unrealistic to start training now, but Asuna could do her best with the spear-like jabbing of her rapier, and I could limit myself to thrusting skills… 
Suddenly, Asuna set down her tea and shouted. 
“Oh, right! I forgot, I need to make a swimsuit!” 
“Y-you were serious about that?” 
“Of course. I think I saw them selling some at the shops, but it would be a waste to spend that money when I’ve already got the Tailoring skill.” 
“W-well, you’ve got a point…Can I ask you to make me some swim trunks, too? Nice plain ones, no bull mark.” 
“Should I design it with that finned tadpole instead?” 
I was going to plead against it, but something else occurred to me first. 
“Uh, wait, hang on.” 
“Wh-what do you mean? I haven’t even started.” 
“No, I mean, I’m thinking…” 
I squinted, trying to pull the relevant information out of that conversation we’d had about tailoring back in the Dark Elf camp on the third floor. 
On the second floor, I’d seen the mountain of underwear that came out of Asuna’s inventory. Those weren’t meant to be worn, but were a by-product of her training to raise her skill proficiency. Afterward, she’d mentioned that she had already taken the Tailoring skill out of its slot. 
“…No, it won’t work.” 
“What won’t?” 
“You don’t have Tailoring in one of your slots anymore, do you? This might come as a shock if you didn’t know already…but once you remove a skill from its slot, the proficiency goes back down to zero,” I explained. 
She nodded without batting an eye. “I might be a beginner, but even I know that. Besides, it pops up that warning when you remove the skill from the slot.” 
“Oh…good. Er, I mean, are you going to train it up from nothing again?” 
She shook her head, exasperated. “I might be a hard worker, but I’m not that patient. As a matter of fact…” 
Asuna opened her game window, a skeptical look on her face. She flipped over to her inventory storage and materialized a small item. 
The small crystal bottle shaped like a nut thunked down onto the coffee table. There was a small amount of faintly glowing blue liquid inside the thick, transparent bottle. 
“…What’s this?” 
“You didn’t see one in the beta?” 
“No…not that I remember.” 
I reached out to pick up the vial, but she quickly cut me off. 
“Stop, if you don’t know what it is! Don’t you dare open it up.” 
“I-I know, I was just gonna read the description.” 
“I’m serious about that!” 
Her stern admonition made me just want to pop it open and gulp it down in one swift movement, but I wasn’t trying out to be a stage comedian, so I behaved myself. Carefully picking it up so as not to disturb the glass lid, I was surprised at how heavy it was for being just three inches long. I tapped the side of the glass with a fingertip and examined the properties window that appeared. 
“It’s called a…Crystal Bottle of Kales’Oh? Never heard of it. Let’s see here… This bottle allows you to save the proficiency of any skill currently equipped in a skill slot …Aha…” 
About three seconds passed. 
“Wh…wha…wha…huwhaaaattttuh?!” 
The shock wave of my scream put cracks in the walls, tears in the down blanket, and shattered every window in the room. 
Okay, in reality, it just caused a mere ripple on the surface of the teacup, but it certainly felt like it had that kind of destructive impact. My mouth was frozen open in shock. Asuna pulled the bottle out of my fingers and fiddled with the settings in the properties window, then promptly pulled out the stopper. 
The liquid at the bottom of the vial turned into a blue light that floated up into the air. She took a deep breath and sucked it into her nostrils, then breathed yellow light back into the bottle before replacing the cap. The contents now looked like lemon oil. She put the bottle back onto the table and smiled at me. 
“Now my Tailoring skill is back to its previous level, and my Sprint skill level is saved in the bottle.” 
“…I…I see…Erm, so, if I might ask, where did you get that item…?” 
“It was kind of chaotic so I couldn’t tell, but I think it was that one time. Remember right after we reached the third floor, and we helped Kizmel fight that Forest Elf knight? I think it must have dropped from the elf knight.” 
“Ohhh,” I nodded, still not over the shock. Now that she mentioned it, Kales’Oh was the name of the Forest Elf nation that once existed down on the surface, according to Kizmel’s tale. 
In fact, that overwhelmingly powerful elf warrior—strong enough that players should normally be unable to win, as it was a story-event battle—had dropped a number of fairly rare items for me as well. But I was so startled by Kizmel’s very un-NPC-like dialogue that I never went back to check the loot out. 
Asuna couldn’t have figured out the properties of the crystal bottle until later that night at the earliest. We didn’t describe or ask for each other’s skill choices or inventory contents unless it was absolutely necessary, so a week had passed without me ever knowing that Asuna had such a tremendously valuable item. 
“Are you just going to sit there in shock the whole time? If we’re done talking, can I go to my room and start making swimsuits now?” she asked. It broke me out of my paralysis effect. 
“Oh, uh, ummm,” I mumbled, trying to organize my thoughts. I held up my hands. “Just…just hang on. There are a few more things I want to be sure of.” 
“…All right, but why don’t you settle down first?” 
“Y-yeah.” 
I gulped down my cold tea and let out a long breath. The Crystal Bottle of Kales’Oh was still sitting right there on the table. I stared at the sparkling yellow liquid made of pure skill proficiency. 
The liquid filled about one-twentieth of the capacity of the vial. Assuming that Asuna’s Sprint skill had been around 50 or so, and the amount of liquid directly correlated to the proficiency, then this bottle could even save a completed skill at the maximum proficiency level of 1,000. 
I took one more deep breath and looked up at her. 
“Have you told any other player aside from me about this bottle?” 
The fencer shrugged and shook her head. 
“You’re sure? Not even Argo?” 
“Listen, you’ve been traveling with me for the entire week since I got this item. When would I have had a chance to meet with Argo behind your back?” 
“Oh…good point…” 
I felt relief flooding into me, but Asuna was still shooting me a skeptical look. 
“What’s with this overblown reaction? All this bottle does is let you put your skill level in and take it out—you still have to do the work to raise it. You’re acting like drinking it will automatically give you one hundred skill points or something. Is it that big of a deal?” 
“…” 
I was both stunned by what my temporary partner was saying and resigned—apparently this was just how non-RPG players thought. I tried my best to make her understand my surprise and apprehension. 
“The thing is…like I said, you lose your skill progress in SAO when you remove a skill from its slot. So at level sixteen like I am now, I can only improve four skills at any one time.” 
“I know that. You’ve got One-Handed Swords, Martial Arts, Search, and…Hiding, is it?” 
She knows! 
But it was too late to be alarmed by that at this point. I cleared my throat and continued. 
“Y-yeah, anyway, I’m seriously wondering if I should remove Hiding so that I can equip Swimming, instead.” 
“There’s a Swimming skill? What happens if you use it?” 
“You can swim faster, there’s not as much water resistance, and you can move longer underwater. It’ll be a real help on this floor, but I probably won’t end up using it. The terrain is bound to change on the next floor, so I would be giving up on all the hard work I’ve put into Hiding, just for the sake of this one floor.” 
“Ahh…So with that bottle there, you could save one of your other skills where it already is and temporarily set the Swimming skill in its slot just for this floor.” 
“Exactly. Every single player who comes to this floor is going to have to face that hard choice. If word gets out that there’s a player with a magic bottle that can save your skill progress, you’re going to get harassed by people looking to buy it, snooping around, and prying for information, and so on.” 
There was another much darker possibility that I could see arising, but I chose not to mention it. Asuna reached out and picked up the crystal bottle to stare at it, appreciating its true value for the first time. 
“I see…Now that I think about it, Nezha from the Legend Braves could have used this bottle to earn Martial Arts without having to give up on One-Handed Swords. Since it effectively gives you an extra skill slot, I guess I can see why people would make a big fuss about it…” 
As usual, she latched onto concepts very quickly for a beginner. Asuna looked up and went on, speaking faster than usual. 
“What if we just went ahead and released all the information we have about this thing? If we tell Argo, she’ll put it in her strategy guides, right? Then no one will need to come ask us.” 
“Yeah…I’m not saying that we should cover up its existence…
but…” 
I leaned over and rested my chin on my folded hands, thinking hard. 
“The problem is, the Forest Elven Hallowed Knight that you got the bottle from is only available to fight during that event battle in the Forest of Wavering Mists on the third floor, at this point. You basically only get the one opportunity. I’m guessing that the major players on the front line like Kibaou’s Aincrad Liberation Squad and Lind’s Dragon Knights Brigade have already beaten that event in the normal way by now…” 
“I see…So it’s kind of too late to publicize that info now.” 
“Yeah. Plus, it’s not like it’s easy to beat him, even if you still have the opportunity…” 
“We managed to do it, didn’t we?” she said simply. 
I had to admit that she was right, but I had my doubts. I scratched at my bangs and admitted something that had been on my mind all along. “…How do you suppose we were able to beat that Forest Elf, anyway…?” 
In the short silence that followed, I remembered a conversation I had with Kizmel in the bathing tent of the Dark Elf outpost. 
She claimed that she’d been having a strange dream lately. 
In the dream, Kizmel was fighting a powerful Forest Elf knight. In the middle of the duel, I showed up with a number of companions, none of which were Asuna. We helped her fight, but no one was able to handle the Forest Elf, and the group fell one after the other—until Kizmel was forced to release the protection of the Holy Tree to save our lives, thus perishing herself. 
Aside from the questions of why an NPC would dream or if an NPC actually “slept” in the true sense of the word, one thing stood out—the content of that dream was eerily similar to my experience with the “Jade Key” quest during the beta test of SAO . 
Kizmel was an extremely special NPC with a highly advanced AI. That much was clear. 
Was that the reason that she maintained memory from as far back as the beta test? Or was it the presence of that memory that turned her special? Was it because of Kizmel that Asuna and I were able to beat the deadly Forest Elf knight in the retail game at all…? 
“…I think it’s because we all tried our hardest,” Asuna murmured. I looked up with a start. “You and Kizmel and I all fought as hard as we could, believing we could win. That was the hardest I’ve concentrated in any battle since I came to Aincrad—even more than the floor bosses.” 
“…” 
As a gamer, I was used to the idea that an “auto-lose event” could never be overturned, no matter how hard one tried, but I couldn’t come out and put that into words. 
“…Yeah…exactly. You were really something during that fight. And after putting that much effort into it, you’d expect to get a really great piece of loot or two out of the deal.” 
“Just so you know, I wasn’t doing it expecting to be rewarded with items!” she retorted, raising a fist. I laughed and apologized. 
Sword Art Online wasn’t like all the other RPGs I’d ever played. It was a deadly game with no log-out button, and the world’s first VRMMORPG. If I stuck to my preconceived notions of how things should be, I was missing out on what was in front of my own eyes. 
I gave Asuna a serious look and asked, “Can we at least take some time to think about what to do with the crystal bottle info? Like I said, I don’t want to just keep it a secret forever. But as long as I know it might be a source of trouble, I want to keep your safety first and foremost.” 
I expected her to bite back with a snarky reassurance that she wasn’t a newbie anymore and could take care of herself, and I even went so far as to prepare a further statement to back my case. But Asuna only looked back at me in silence, then turned away in a huff. I could just barely see her mouth move behind the long hanging bangs. 
“…Well, if that’s what you want to do, then fine.” 
“Oh…y-you’re okay with that?” 
I was so surprised by her answer that I wondered what she was thinking and leaned over onto my right side to see around the side of her face. Instead, Asuna turned harder to her left, evading my gaze until she was seated completely backward, facing into the sofa. 
What’s going on here? 
I had a feeling that if I didn’t take it easy, the fencer was going to explode, so I sat back up properly and said, “A-anyway, let’s take a little rest now. How about we meet up at…the café on the first floor at six o’clock?” 
Asuna nodded silently and slipped off of the sofa, her back still facing me. She got up and placed the Crystal Bottle of Kales’Oh into her inventory, then left the room without ever facing me. 
What button of hers had I pressed? 
I sank into a sitting position. 
Five seconds after I had removed all my gear, sent a single instant message, and laid down on the bed by the window, I fell asleep. 
When the alarm I set rudely woke me up, the light in the room was the color of sunset. I slowly sat up and pulled open the curtain to look down at the teleport plaza of Rovia from my second-story vantage point. 
In just three hours, the square had filled up with countless players. Frontline members peered at the NPC shop wares, tourists noshed on food from the carts, and romantic-looking couples sat on the benches facing the water. 
This was the forty-fifth day since the game of death had begun. It felt both long and short, but I considered it a good thing if matters had settled down enough for people to consider themselves a couple—this was my most magnanimous opinion as a frustrated middle school boy. Meanwhile, I noticed a particularly long line at the gondola dock to the south. 
“Ugh…Crap, I forgot,” I moaned, kneeling on the bed. 
I should have expected this. There were only so many gondolas, so if too many players appeared, it was inevitable that a line would form. I had to get accustomed to the idea that moving around Rovia would take much more time than usual. 
At the very least, I was relieved to see that so many people could be crammed into a limited space and lining up politely without any trouble. 
No sooner had the thought occurred than a group of five armed players attempted to push their way to the front of the line and get on one of the larger gondolas that was just pulling in. Naturally, the group that was being cut protested. But the large, greatsword-wielding leader of the offending group was shouting back just as angrily. 
I couldn’t hear them from my distant second-story inn room, but I could imagine what was being said. 

“We’re fighting to liberate you normal players! Our needs should come first!” 
The tourists in their simple cloth gear had no choice but to unhappily let them go. The man and his partners brandished their gleaming metal equipment in a show of might and leaped onto the gondola. 
As the boat left the wharf, I muttered to myself, “That was a bad move, Haf.” 
The quintet that had cut in line were all wearing blue doublets. They were members of the Dragon Knights Brigade, a frontline guild that had just been established on the third floor. And the man with the greatsword at the lead was Hafner, one of the guild’s officers. 
They’d probably just finished resupplying and opening quests in town and were ready to start conquering the floor in earnest. I could understand how warriors on a mission might be frustrated with waiting around in line behind tourists with no greater purpose. 
But if there was one thing to avoid, it was the frontline population acting like it was special and earning the disdain of everyone else. One never knew if those who hadn’t been swinging swords yet might one day emerge from the safety of town and reach the frontier of their own will and ability. 
In fact, if that never happened, we couldn’t beat the game. The frontier group was barely fifty strong at this point and would certainly get bogged down eventually. We needed as many people as possible helping to advance the human progress in the game. 
I stifled a sigh and checked the time. Only three minutes left until our meet-up at six o’clock. 
Crawling out of the bed, I outfitted myself in all the usual gear and plodded out of the room. When I came face-to-face with Asuna for the first time in three hours below, she was back to her usual cool attitude. 
“Sorry about the wait,” I said, taking the seat across from her. There were no other players in the café aside from us—clearly the view paled in comparison to what was outside. 
“I just got here,” she said flatly, then slid the menu over to me. I saw that aside from drinks and sweets, they had a few items that looked like fish. 
“…Should we get an early dinner here?” 
“I want to get something to eat from the carts outside.” 
“Okay. Drinks only, then…or would you rather just leave?” 
“That’s fine with me.” 
It did seem like there was something different about her, but we hadn’t been working together long enough for me to be sure, so I set it aside as I got up. It was poor form to meet up at a coffee shop in the real world and leave without ordering anything, but the NPC waiters here just watched us off without a complaint. 
We left the inn without checking out. The underside of the floor above was somewhere between rose and indigo. Within another thirty minutes, it would be properly dark out. 
But if anything, the gondola line on the other end of the square was even longer. The stone buildings were lit up with lanterns whose light reflected off the water in an entrancing display. Perhaps nighttime was considered the peak of the boating business here. 
“Well, uh, you can see the line…Still want to queue up? Or should we forget the gondolas and just swim for ourselves—” 
I stopped as soon as I felt the cold glare from under her hood. 
“…Or not. I guess we should line up for a trip to the market area.” 
“But first I want to visit the food carts.” 
“Oh, right.” 
We made our way over to the east end of the square, where five or six stylish little carts were arranged. From what I could tell, only three of them were selling food that might make for a dinner. There was a meal set of fried fish and cooked veggies, a seafood pizza with squid and shellfish, and a panini sandwich with grilled fish and herbs. 
“I see. So the main style of food on this floor is fish,” I noted. 
“Don’t like fish?” 
I shook my head hastily. “No, it’s not that. It’s more that I was hoping for…a few traditional choices. Like boiled fish or sashimi.” 
“You know you’re not going to get choices like that in a town like this.” 
“Good point. I’ll have to hold out hope for the tenth floor…I think I’ll go for the panini. What about you?” 
“That sounds good to me, too.” 
“You wanna wait on the bench while I buy them?” 
Asuna gave me another upward glance beneath her hood, then turned away. 
What’s going on here? It feels like the time when she ate the cream bread down in Tolbana on the first floor. 
The paninis were twelve col each at the cart. I bought two and returned to the bench. I handed one to Asuna, then stopped her when I noticed that she was opening her trade window to pay me for the sandwich. 
“No, it’s on me.” 
“…Why?” 
“Because, um…Oh, because I’ll owe you for making me the swimsuit.” 
“…” 
Fortunately, she nodded and accepted my offer. She was still acting weird, but at least she wasn’t angry with me. 
I was just about to sit down next to her, shaking my head in confusion, when someone’s hand snuck out from the darkness behind us and a teasing voice sounded in my ear. 
“Thankee kindly, Kii-boy. I’ve been hungry.” 
I wasn’t sure whether to play it cool ( “Your Hiding’s as good as ever” ) or be honest and reject her ( “No! That’s my dinner!” ), so the result had a bit from both columns. 
“Your Hiding’s as good as ever, but that’s my dinner and no you can’t have any!” 
“Hmph. So you’ll buy one for her, but not for me. I see how it is.” 
“Wha…? I…You heard what I said, that was thanks for her making me an item! It has nothing to do with showing favor on anyone!” 
A short female player materialized out of the darkness wearing a plain beige hooded cape much like Asuna’s. Her eyes were hidden behind her curly bangs, but the three whiskers drawn with face paint on either cheek left no uncertainty about who it was. 
Argo the Rat, information dealer, leaped over the back of the bench with a grin on her face and sat next to Asuna. She looked to her left and lifted the hood back a bit. 
“Evening, A-chan. Good work with the third-floor boss and the fourth-floor gate.” 
“G-good evening, Argo. Um…would you like some of this?” Asuna asked, offering up her own panini. Argo cackled and shook her hand in denial. 
“No, no, I appreciate the offer. Eat up.” 
“Uh, okay…” 
Asuna looked as if she wasn’t sure whether Argo was hungry or not. I sighed and decided to set her at ease. 
“Don’t worry about it, Asuna. Her Teasing skill is the best in Aincrad.” 
“Teasing…?” 
Asuna recognized something about this scene, looking up at me, then at the panini in her hands, then to Argo on her right-hand side. 
“I-it’s not like that, Argo! We are not, at all, in any way, like that!” 
“Nyo-ho-ho, I get it, I get it,” she laughed creepily. 
I plopped down on the bench to Argo’s right and quietly clinched the message. “It’s true. Don’t go selling any funny rumors.” 
“Why, that hurts. You know it’s not my style to sell rumors and gossip.” 
“Yeah, sure. Anyway, the fact that you’re here must mean you’ve got all the intel you needed.” 
“You bet. In fact, it took just three hours from your message to look up what you wanted, so I figured that might earn me a free meal in addition to my fee, but…” 
She had me over the coals. After all, I’d told her I wanted it ASAP, just before I passed out for a quick nap. 
“F-fine, fine. What do you want?” 
“Gosh, I could sure go for a nice cheesy pizza,” she started. Before the sentence could finish, I had dashed at a sprint to the seafood pizza cart, bought one with three times the cheese, then bolted back to the bench. 
“Sorry about all the trouble. This is a mere token of my gratitude.” 
I presented the pizza with a flourish and Argo grinned back at me. 
“Very good, sir.” 
“Then let’s talk as we eat…Chow that down before it gets cold, Asuna,” I called to the fencer on the other side of Argo. The three of us said grace and started scarfing down our Italian-style dinner. 
I had never eaten a true panini in real life, but between the crispy and chewy bread, the fragrantly grilled whitefish, and the herb-scented tomato sauce, it seemed like this was probably a pretty good re-creation of one. Now if only the main ingredients were a nice thick slab of meat and a thick teriyaki-and-mayo sauce… 
Both Asuna and Argo were hungry, and we each gobbled down half the meal before finally stopping to breathe. 
Before I could prompt her, Argo pulled out a scroll of parchment from one of the many pouches at her waist and held it out between her fingers. 
“Normally I’d charge you an extra fee for quick service…but I’ll go with the normal rate this time as thanks for the pile o’ cheese you bought me. That’s five hundred col.” 
I pulled out the gold coin I’d stored in my coat pocket for just this occasion and handed it to Argo. Tapping the scroll she handed over caused it to automatically unfurl. 
“What information did you request from her?” Asuna asked, leaning over. I showed her the illustration on the scroll: a detailed map of Rovia. Argo herself hadn’t drawn this map, however. Anyone could produce the same thing by simply walking all over the town, then copying the map data to a scroll item like this. 
The difference was that Argo’s map had about twenty exclamation point markers placed all over the town. This was what the five hundred col paid for. 
“Are those…all of the quest NPCs?” Asuna wondered, as astute as ever. I nodded silently and got back an exasperated glance in return. 
“Well, I hate to be hard on Argo, since she did all the work…but you could find all of this stuff just by walking around town. And we’ll need to visit these spots to start the quests anyway.” 
“That was my assumption as well. And didn’t you already finish all of these quests in the beta, Kii-boy?” 
“That’s the thing,” I murmured, my mouth full of panini. “I feel like the longer I walk around town, the more my old memories will fade…I just wanted to be able to see the locations all at once like this.” 
“…Ohhh?” 
There was more than a hint of entertainment in Argo’s voice. I chose to stare at the map of the town rather than indulge her. 
As I suspected, the layout of the town itself was exactly the same. I tapped each icon in turn, remembering the dried, dusty form the settlement used to take. With each tap appeared a quick quest rundown written by Argo. 
Once I had examined all of them, I pointed out a single marker in the northwest corner of the map. 
“This one.” 
“…What about it?” Asuna asked, suspicious. I grinned at her. 
“This quest wasn’t there in the beta. This is the spot that’s the key to this town…no, to conquering this entire floor.” 
“If you get all the intel on this quest, I’ll buy it off you,” Argo had offered, and with a lingering whiff of cheese, she melted back into the darkness. 
Asuna and I finished the last scraps of our sandwiches and got up from the bench to watch the dock to the south. The line looked a little bit shorter than before, but it was still a good thirty-minute wait. 
Thanks to the power of a full stomach and a conversation with Argo, Asuna had recovered her normal mood. She noted, “I don’t mind lining up…but that dock has a terrible system.” 
“Oh? What about it?” 
“The little two-seaters and the big ten-person boats both stop at the same place. It’s taking extra time because one person will end up riding the big gondola, and then the larger groups have to split up and take multiple smaller ones. They ought to at least split the people up into three different lines.” 
“Good point. So…should we propose that idea?” 
“…That’s not really my style.” 
“I don’t know. You’ve got that class rep–style attitude, so I bet people will…” 
I let the rest of the sentence hang when I felt Asuna’s chilling laser beam stare on my face.? 
The nighttime sights of Rovia were truly enchanting now, as the colorful lamps and window lights of the town glimmered off the surface of the dark water. Even the gondolas full of smiling players had lanterns of their own, sitting on the prow and stern of the small ones and the overhanging roofs of the larger ones. The sight of the gondolas crossing in the canals was so beautiful that… 
“—Ah!” 
I snapped my fingers, a sudden idea lighting up my brain. 
“Wh-what?” 
“This way! I’ll explain later.” 
I prodded Asuna’s back and trotted toward the wharf at the north end, the opposite direction from the dock. There was no boat landing here, so the drop from the piled stone fence to the water was quite far. But that also meant the gondolas were floating quite low. 
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Asuna muttered, trying to back away. I grabbed the hem of her cape tight. 
“Don’t worry, it’s fine.” 
“It is not fine! I don’t like it!” 
“You’ll be perfectly all right.” 
“Do it by yourself if you’re so keen on it!” she shouted. 
I glanced left and right. Within a few seconds, one of the large twelve-seat gondolas came chugging closer on the right. Luckily enough, another gondola of the same size was approaching from the left. I calculated where the two would pass, given that traffic seemed to move on the right side here, then moved us three yards to the left and five yards back. 
“I’ll give you a five-second countdown.” 
“I-I told you, I don’t want to do this!” 
“That’s funny, Asuna, I could have sworn you had a higher agility than me.” 
“Rgh…y-you know that’s not fair to bring up…” 
“This should be easy for you, Asuna. I mean, since you have the Sprint skill and everything.” 
“But I just switched that one out…Arrgh, oh, fine!” 
“And five, four, three, two, one…” 
At zero, we started running. I hit the low fence in stride and launched off of it with my right foot. 
All the traffic in the canals of Rovia traveled on the right side, so I leaped and stretched out for the gondola approaching on the left. Once I had just barely landed by my tiptoes, the gondola shook fiercely and the passengers below shouted in alarm. I yelled a quick apology and cut across the roof to leap again. 
In midair, I glanced back to see that Asuna was keeping up. She had better jumping power than I did, so she should be able to make any jump that I did, but I was secretly relieved when I landed on the second gondola coming from the right. 
The people riding this gondola must have already noticed the display of ninja acrobatics going on overhead, as they applauded and whistled at the sight of Asuna leaping gracefully through the night sky. Glad that we weren’t being yelled at, I raced across the roof and jumped for a third time. 
But… 
“Ugh!” 
The far bank was farther away than I thought. I scrambled my limbs in midair, stretching my arms as far as I could, until I just barely caught the lip of the wall with my fingertips. 
As my entire body slammed up against the wall, I heard a light footfall over my head. When I looked up, I saw Asuna standing safe and sound above me, her hands on her hips and a disappointed look on her face. 
“If you weren’t sure you could make it, you shouldn’t have tried,” she scolded. I couldn’t be bothered to answer her. I had a very sudden and clear understanding of exactly why the passengers on the gondola had been cheering. 
“Um, Asuna?” 
“…What?” 
“You’re, um, in a bit of danger…angularly speaking.” 
“What do you mean…?” 
Asuna trailed off, looking down suspiciously at me as I hung there next to her feet, then suddenly went red enough that I could see it, even in the darkness. She quickly put her hands down over the hem of her skirt, then smiled for some reason and lifted one of her boots. 
“Better climb up quick before I step on you.” 
“O-okay, okay, I’m coming up!” 
I scrambled up the wall in a hurry. 
Rovia had a square layout with main channels that intersected—technically, the teleport square was in the center of town, so there was no actual intersection—and split the town into quarters. 
If north was the “top” of the town, then the top right was the sightseeing area, with a park, a plaza, and an outdoor theater. The bottom right was the market area, crammed full of a variety of businesses. The bottom left was the lodging area with inns large and small. And the top-left quadrant, where we were now, was the downtown area where all the NPCs lived. 
Naturally, each quarter had smaller canals that split it up, requiring the use of a boat to get around farther. But circling gondolas passed by every stretch of water, so we decided to flag down a two-seat boat. 
This time, we gave the NPC gondolier coordinates instead of a name, paid the fee by an automatic half-and-half calculator, then wearily sat down in the two seats. 
The fencer in the miniskirt was in a much better mood the instant she sat down at the prow, and she began taking in the sights of the town with sparkles in her eyes. This was the most plain of all the areas in Rovia, but even the practical, homey residential sector had its own charm. 
Children played with toy boats at the waterside of their entrance porch, while a mother and baby bird somewhere between a duck and a seagull swam past. Evening sounds and smells wafted through kitchen windows, and warm orange light shone off the water. 
“Ooh, that house is for sale!” 
I looked where Asuna was pointing and saw a small two-story house with a wooden F OR S ALE sign. 
“Hey, you’re right. So there are player houses here.” 
“I wonder how much it costs,” she wondered, her eyes sparkling even brighter. 
I snorted wryly. “I wouldn’t look at the price if I were you. You can only be disappointed.” 
“I know it’ll be expensive. But I’m free to keep it in mind as something I can get if I work hard enough!” 
“Su-sure, that’s true…but I wouldn’t recommend buying in this town. It’s a fun, pretty place for sightseeing, but actually living here would be tough when it comes to getting around,” I noted. Asuna took that advice to heart surprisingly fast. 
“Good point. I wonder what the people here do for their daily shopping and such.” 
“Maybe they just swim around when we’re not watching.” 
“Come on, don’t ruin the illusion. But…if I do decide to get a house, I’ll save up for a normal one with a view of a lake,” she announced, then faced forward again. 
I was more of the opinion that the money you could use to buy a player house was better spent on cheap inn lodgings and better gear, but given Asuna’s proactive nature, I could certainly see her landing a lakeside residence someday. Maybe she would even let me crash on her couch…No, definitely not. 
Meanwhile, the gondola wove its way through the narrow channels right and left and deposited us at our destination in under ten minutes. 
Beyond the tiny dock was a very large but very old building. Aside from the large double doors facing the water, it appeared to be just a plain old house without any notable features. 
I approached the building cautiously and peered into a dirty window. Inside was an equally messy room, and in the back was what looked like an old man sitting on the floor, facing the other direction. I thought I could see a faded golden ! mark over his head. This was our quest NPC. 
“…I’m surprised Argo was able to spot him,” Asuna commented. I agreed. 
“This is more than just good instincts…Anyway, let’s go inside.” 
I went to the front door and knocked twice. After a good five seconds, a brusque voice replied, “It’s not locked. Come in if you want something.” 
This one feels like a real pain in the ass, I thought to myself as I opened the ancient door. 
Inside, we were greeted by an old man in a rocking chair that seemed ready to fall apart at any moment, with a bottle of booze in one hand and a pipe in the other. Technically all he did was glare at us with one eye, so it wasn’t even a greeting. 
His wispy, balding hair and scraggly beard were bone white, but his skin was well burned by the sun, and the muscles of his arms and chest were taut. He looked like an old sailor who’d once boasted of his strength and was now retired and drowning in liquor. 
Asuna and I shared a look, in which I saw the message This one’s all on you in her eyes. I hesitantly tried to say the magic quest words. 
“Um…sir, can I help you with anything?” 
The old man took a slug from his bottle and grumbled, “Nope.” 
There was no change in the mark over his head or in my quest log. If he didn’t respond to the usual prompt, that meant this was the type of quest you were supposed to arrive at after hearing stories from all over town. Following the proper trail would give us the right keyword to engage him, but since we’d used Argo’s supernatural sense of smell to sniff out the quest, we’d bypassed the natural process, and I didn’t know what I should say to advance the story. 
Perhaps we ought to withdraw and go collect information. But since we’d spent our time and fifty col to get here, it would be a waste to leave empty-handed. 
I looked around the large room, hoping to find some kind of hint. 
In a properly cleaned place, anything out of line would be apparent quite soon, but this room was anything but. There were so many weird items, it was impossible to tell which one might be a hint to the story. Wall hangings of huge fish, stacks of animal pelts, rusty harpoons, lumber of all sizes, pots with unknown contents, oars snapped in the middle…I couldn’t make any kind of guesses, other than that he was a former sailor. 
Just as I was about to give up and do this thing the right way, Asuna spoke. 
“You really shouldn’t leave things like this on the floor, sir.” 
She picked up something off the ground right next to the leg of the rocking chair—a half-rusted nail about four inches long. It had probably fallen out of the decrepit old chair. 
The man took a look at the nail in her hand and snorted angrily for some reason, then tilted back more of his drink. Asuna looked back to me for help, but I could only grimace. 
“Just put it on the table or something.” 
“Okay…” 
She nodded and moved her arm to drop it. 
But I snatched the nail away without thinking. 
“Ack! Wh-what?!” 
“Hang on…This isn’t just a nail. It’s…not a throwing pick, either. It’s a square nail…Where have I seen something like this before?” I muttered to myself, pieces of information connecting within my brain. 
Large double doors facing the water. Leather and wood inside the room. A collection of items I’d seen in a real-life museum years ago. A quest that didn’t exist in the beta. 
This old man’s not a former sailor. 
I faced him head-on and took a deep breath. 
“Sir, can you build us a boat?”