Sword Art Online - Volume 23 - Chapter 6.2

“In that case, you should go for pure offense. That’s the most like your style, anyway,” Liz said. Leafa grinned for some reason, and Yui nodded with a big smile. I wanted to protest that I wasn’t a pure damage dealer in SAO or ALO, but all three of them seemed on the same page, and I doubted that Asuna, Silica, or Alice would argue with it, either.

“…All right, but you guys are in support roles, then.”

“Sure thing. We’ll watch your back,” Liz reassured me.

I touched the BRAWN icon again and then pressed the ACQUIRE button at the bottom of the pop-up window. Another dialog box appeared, asking if I wanted to expend an ability point. When I pressed the YES button, the window flashed with a jingling sound, and the black-and-white BRAWN icon turned red.

That made Bonebreaker and Stout available, but each of them cost two ability points this time. It seemed that each ability had ten ranks, so I had the option of taking Brawn all the way to rank-10 before I took Bonebreaker, if I wanted. I had eleven points left, but I didn’t think I wanted to spend all of them yet.

After a bit of thinking, I went ahead and took Bonebreaker. That caused two more abilities to appear past it.

One was Assault, which provided a bonus to additional strikes during consecutive attacks. The other was Expand, which increased the span of area attacks. As I suspected, each took three points to unlock. In other words, getting to rank-10 in Brawn, Bonebreaker, and Assault altogether would take a total of sixty ability points. And there were probably more abilities farther up the tree.

“Boy, this is gonna take a while…,” I muttered to myself, raising Brawn to rank-5. That meant I’d used seven points, leaving me with five more. I went back to my status screen, which showed the effect of Brawn now. The meters displaying my current usage of the total equipment weight and carry weight were a much lower percentage. There was a lot of water, food, and materials to carry around in this game, so it was a good bonus to have, even if it was boring.

“…Okay, I’ve got my abilities,” I announced, closing the window.

“How many points did you leave?” Liz asked casually.

“Five, I think?”

“Aha! At least five! I win the bet!”

“…Huh?” I gaped.

Liz thrust her hand out toward Leafa, palm up. Leafa then poured a pile of nuts into her open hand. They’d made a bet about how many points I was going to leave unspent?

“Thanks a lot, Big Brother! What’s the point of saving up your points? Be a man and make good use of them!” my little sister snapped, which seemed quite unfair to me.

Yui rubbed my head in consolation.

Done with our meal break, we hopped down to the ground from our impromptu safe zone atop the large boulder. Off to the southwest we continued, eschewing any man-made light to walk by the weak light of the stars.

We’d left the forest behind long ago; now there was nothing but dried grassland around. Because it was night, the monsters we encountered were nocturnal types, like hyenas and bats. They weren’t pushovers, but they weren’t too hard, either. That was thanks to Liz’s metal equipment, of course—I’d have felt nervous about even leaving the woods with just the stone knife and ubiquigrass clothing.

For drinking water, Asuna filled up some handmade pottery canteens from the river, and we brought a bit of bear jerky to eat, but for the most part, we’d need to rustle up some supplies along the way. The hyenas’ meat was inedible, even after being cooked, but now and then we found some short, rounded trees with walnut-like nuts. They were tough to crack but tasted good once you got them out. Two hours had passed since we left, but we were keeping TP and SP at around 80 percent so far.

“Liz, how far to the Bashin village?” I asked Lisbeth, who was walking with her map window open.

Over her shoulder, the blacksmith replied, “We’re still only a third of the way there. There are two huge trees up ahead, and that’s basically the halfway point, I’d say.”

“Like how big? As big as the World Tree in Alfheim?” Leafa asked.

Lisbeth just grimaced and shook her head. “No, not that big. I’m not totally sure, because the last time we saw them was also at night, but I’d guess they’re like three hundred feet?”

“That reminds me…When the Bashin passed a hill with a view of those big trees, they stopped to pray,” added Yui, who was walking hand in hand with me.

“Oh, right! They did!” Lisbeth agreed.

“…Praying to the huge trees…,” I repeated, thinking hard. Somehow, that imagery stimulated something deep in my memory, but I couldn’t tell what it was summoning. I considered asking Yui to run that idea through her VRMMO database but thought better of it. Yui was another player now, not a navigation pixie, and what’s more, she was excited about that. It wouldn’t be fair of me to continue treating her like a convenient AI tool.

Instead, I was going to ask them if they’d stopped and prayed with the Bashin, but I got distracted by a cold, damp breeze from the north.

“Brrr. The night here is chilly for being a savanna…Aren’t you cold, Yui?”

“No, I’m fine. Liz made armor for me, after all.”

Indeed, Yui was no longer clad only in that little white dress; now she had on a thin breastplate, plus gloves and boots in the same design. She still wore the dress underneath these items, so it didn’t look that warm. But Lisbeth’s Blacksmithing skill proficiency was at 100, so even reduced from before, that was very high. Maybe she had worked a bonus against cold in there.

As for Lisbeth, she was still using the leather armor and one-handed mace the Bashin gave her, and out of the ingots cast from Blárkveld, she’d only made a small round shield for herself. Leafa, in contrast, had four pieces of metal equipment, same as me, including a long katana that could be used in one or both hands. Compared to our original stone gear, we’d transformed into a heavily armed combat force. But despite all that, Leafa shivered and complained the moment the northern wind hit us.

She turned back, whipping her golden ponytail behind her, and nimbly walked backward to talk face-to-face. “Hey, Kirito, can you make a cloak or something out of those hyena pelts?”

“Don’t be silly. I don’t even have the Tailoring skill.”

“Then let’s run! It’ll make the trip go faster, too!”

“Uhhh…You might be able to run continuously because you get exercise in your school club, but I just go home after school…”

“You know that doesn’t matter in the virtual world!” Leafa snapped.

I realized my mistake and cleared my throat to hide my embarrassment. “A-anyway, running is just a waste of TP and SP. And we can’t see the ground very well, so it’s dangerous…”

“But, Papa, we have torches!” Yui cried and removed a sticklike object from her inventory. It looked like a tree branch with some dried grass wrapped around the tip. The lights we used at the cabin were just dead branches, so this was a step beyond that.

“Did you make that, Yui?”

“Yes, but it was Liz’s idea.”

“Ooh, that’s a professional crafter for you.”

“I’m not paying out for compliments,” Lisbeth remarked, glancing over her shoulder. “But…we should probably be ready to run soon. Last night the Bashin told us that the…Giyoru Savanna, was it? It sometimes has ice storms, and when that happens, you either need to wrap up with furs or find a cave. Otherwise, you’ll die.”

“What?! Why didn’t you tell me that earlier?!”

“Because they said it only happens once every few years.”

“Okay, you of all people should know that in a video game, that means once every few days…,” I snapped.

But Yui, in a tiny, dejected voice, said, “I’m sorry, Papa. I heard them say it, too, but I did not classify it as important information.”

“I—I’m not blaming you, Yui. I mean, who ever heard of ice storms on a savanna?”

“Hang on! What’s with the difference in treatment here?!” Lisbeth fumed, puffing out her cheeks.

Just then, there was a gust from the north again, and the four of us hunched over simultaneously. It felt much colder than the previous one—and slightly wetter. I looked at the sky and saw black clouds rushing from north to south with great speed.

“…I’m getting a bad feeling about this,” Leafa murmured. I offered a vote of agreement and looked down at Yui. “Let’s get that torch lit.”

“All right.”

Yui solemnly pointed the grass-wrapped end of the branch toward me. I took a pair of flintstones out of my bag and struck them together. In the real world, flint had to be struck against a piece of metal called a firesteel to create sparks, but here, you just needed two stones. I struck them together, telling myself that even if I didn’t take the Sagacity ability tree, I was going to learn the fire magic skill someday. On the seventh strike, the sparks landed true and began to burn the dried grass.

I put the flintstones back in my bag and took the torch from Yui, holding it high. The strong wind buffeted the flame, but it wasn’t going to go out that easily.

A quick survey around us did not reveal any likely places to find a cave; if there was one nearby, the light wasn’t strong enough to reach it. But it did show us a tall, narrow silhouette like a rock formation to the east and some gentle hill slopes to the west. Which way to go?

It wasn’t a sure thing yet that an ice storm was going to sweep over us, but if we waited until then to search for shelter, it would already be too late. If there was a cave nearby, it would have to be at the rock formation, but it was shaped like a spire, so any potential hollowed-out caves were unlikely to be deep enough for us.

To my right, Yui cried out, “Something’s coming from the north, Papa!”

“Huh…?”

I spun around, pointing the torch upwind, just as a huge, silent shadow slid into the range of the light.

Pausing just five yards away, the shadow stayed low to the ground and growled. This was not one of the hyenas we’d fought several times already. The black-furred body was slender but far bigger than a hyena’s, and its front legs were burly by comparison. It wasn’t a canine type but a feline…Based on the rounded ears, it was probably some kind of leopard.

“Graaar!!” the black panther roared, its light-blue eyes watching the four of us closely.

Why now?! I lamented. We couldn’t run fast enough to get away from it, and it was clearly feeling hostile toward the torch. I moved the torch to my left hand and grabbed the handle of my sword.

“We’re going to fight!” I shouted.

Leafa drew her weapon and stepped forward. Liz loosened her mace from its fasteners. I whispered “Take care of Yui” to her, and she replied, “Don’t worry. I’ve got her.”

Upon seeing my longsword and Leafa’s katana, the panther bared its vicious fangs. They weren’t as big as a saber-toothed tiger’s, but they were at least three times as long as any real leopard’s. Its pelt was dark as night, with a blue luster that ran from its neck down its spine.

The black panther crouched lower, entering a leaping stance. It was targeting me. I held my sword at my right shoulder, preparing to fight back with a sword skill.

Then there was an earsplitting roar—not from the panther but from the wind.

A gust that made all the previous bursts of wind seem cute by comparison blasted us. I had to tense my feet against the ground. Our valiant little torch couldn’t withstand this and finally went out, plunging us into darkness. Hard pellets lashed my exposed face and hands. It was ice…hail.

Oh, hail no! I thought, although I didn’t think anyone would have appreciated the wordplay because, just then, the panther leaped.

I started to activate the sword skill Vertical on instinct but stopped myself before I could plant my feet, and I spun around.

With incredible power, the panther jumped over all four of us, landing on the other side. It wasn’t targeting us. It just ran farther south.

“Um, do you think…it was just running away from the storm…?” Liz wondered, just as the same thought occurred to me. If we were right, then these icy gusts were merely the warning blast of a storm so dangerous that even monsters fled from its path. It also meant the black panther had an evacuation destination in mind.

“Let’s go after it!” I shouted, sheathing my sword and grabbing Yui’s hand. We took off running, Lisbeth and Leafa close behind. The panther’s silhouette blended into the darkness, and if it got more than a few yards away, we’d lose sight of it.

The torch was extinguished, so we couldn’t see the ground. If any of us tripped on a change in elevation or a stone, that was it for our chase. I could only pray for real, actual luck during the pursuit. I considered scooping up Yui to carry her, but as a player, her agility was bound to be close to my own, and she was keeping up well.

For two minutes, we pursued the fleeing black panther. A small hill appeared up ahead. The panther leaped toward the foot of the hill, then seemingly vanished into it. When we arrived a moment later, there was a cave mouth about three feet tall, dark against the hillside.

As soon as I stopped, hail struck my iron armor from behind, clanging off the metal. The pellets were only a fraction of an inch in size now, but they were bound to get worse. The temperature was dropping, too; my breath was turning white.

I could also see that my HP bar was dropping, bit by bit. A blinking Debuff icon shaped like an ice crystal at the right end of the bar told me all I needed to know.

“Papa, let’s go inside!” Yui urged. I nodded. The cave went much farther in, and we just had to pray that the panther had gone as far as it could.

I let go of Yui’s hand and drew my sword just in case as I approached the cave mouth. I couldn’t see anything inside. The wind was so strong that no torch would last more than a second at this point. I steeled my nerves and bent down to go inside.

The cave sloped gently downward, and the ceiling got higher as I proceeded. The cave was small at the ground level, but it seemed that the full dimensions expanded as it went down. I continued onward, feeling a bit relieved about that.

After about thirty feet, the slope leveled out, and I stopped moving forward and straightened up. The ceiling was high enough that I could reach upward with my sword and not touch anything. It was quite a large space, then. There was no sign of the black panther.

I checked on my HP bar, which had stopped decreasing and no longer had a freezing Debuff icon. I exhaled and turned back around. The cave was pitch-black, with almost no visibility.

“Are you all here?” I whispered.

“Yes, Papa.” “I’m here.” “Sure am!”

Relieved, I started to put my sword back so that we could light the torch again. But then I heard Leafa gasp “Wh-what’s that…?” and spun around.

I still couldn’t see a thing. But after squinting long enough, I got a message that said Night Vision skill gained. Proficiency has risen to 1. And just like that, it became a tiny bit easier to see in the dark.

And soon, I noticed it, too.

In the depths of the cave floated two blue lights. What is that? I wondered. They went out, then lit again. Almost like a blink…

No. It was a blink. The eyes of the panther that had come in before us.

We’d been noticed.

“Grrrr…”

The beast growled, and the blue eyes rose higher, suggesting that the panther went from lying on its side to a standing position. Obviously, its night vision was far better than ours, so if this turned into a fight, we didn’t stand a chance.

“Yui, light the torch,” I murmured, holding the torch in my left hand behind my back.

“Okay,” she replied and took it. I was going to hand her the flintstones, but before I could, there was a strange sound.

It was a high-pitched creaking, something that did not sound like it came from the panther. Wary of the enemy ahead of us, I quickly spun around and saw that tiny white particles were sweeping in from the mouth of the cave.

The moment the particles touched Lisbeth, who was the farthest back, she sneezed loudly. Leafa shrieked, “It’s cold!” and Yui moaned. Lastly, I shivered. It was worse than just cold. The freezing Debuff icon was there again, and I could see my HP dropping. We couldn’t avoid the chill from the mouth of the cave at this location. I could even hear the whistling of the wind, which sounded like faint screaming. I didn’t want to imagine what it was like out in the open.

“Big Brother, we have to go farther in!” Leafa urged nervously. I shouted back “I know, but what about the panther?!” The monster in the back of the cave wasn’t attacking, but it continued to growl. It wasn’t hard to imagine the beast pouncing on us if we got any closer.

My HP bar had dropped 10 percent. At this rate, it would hit zero in less than three minutes. I supposed that we’d just have to fight the panther, regardless of the disadvantages…but then I remembered something we could still try out.

I dropped my sword back into my sheath and stuck my hand into my tool bag, then removed a thin, flat object. It was the bear jerky Asuna had made for us. The emergency ration was important, but I’d never need to eat it if I died from the cold or the panther.

“C’mon, it’s yummy! It’s dinner!” I called out to the blue eyes in the darkness and tossed the dried meat. It fell to the ground, attracting the attention of the panther. It blinked. Then blinked again.

The blue eyes silently moved toward the meat. I sensed the panther sniffing at the air. After several tense seconds, I heard a creaking sound. The black panther had bitten the jerky. Instantly, there was a glowing ring in the darkness, looking like a car speedometer. Around one third of it was full from the lower left and colored red, while the end of it jittered up and down. That was the beast-taming meter Asuna said appeared when she was catching Aga.

I pulled out another piece of jerky, my last, and tossed it forward. The panther immediately grabbed it, and the meter rose another 10 percent.

“Give me your jerky.”

I reached behind my back, and Yui promptly dropped a piece of meat into my palm. Trying to sense when the panther was done eating, I hurled the third stick of jerky. The meter went up farther to the halfway point. The first piece of jerky put it at 30 percent, and the next two added 10 percent each. Yui should have one piece of jerky, plus two each from Liz and Leafa, which should give us just enough.

Trusting in my calculation, I continued tossing the dried meat to the panther. For each bit of the beast-taming meter we pushed upward, our HP dropped. At level-13, I had more overall HP than the others, who were only around level-4 or level-5. I could see on the party readout below my own HP bar that their health was already under the halfway point.

Hurry, hurry, I prayed. But I had a feeling that the timing of food lures was the key to beast-taming success in this game: Wait for the monster to finish eating so that the meter was rising when you gave it the next piece of food. Any faster or slower, and it wouldn’t work.

Once I had given the panther the second piece of Yui’s jerky, then both of Liz’s, the beast-taming meter was about 80 percent full. Asuna had given Aga three pieces of bear meat to tame it, so this panther was much harder. Either it was because we were giving it dried meat rather than fresh or because the panther was a much higher level.

“Leafa.”

“Okay.”

She placed the ninth piece of meat in my palm, and I tossed it. The panther gobbled it up, taking the meter to 90 percent.

“Leafa.”

“That’s all.”

“……Huh?”

I spun around to face my little sister, whose silhouette I could only just barely make out in the darkness. “What do you mean, that’s all? Asuna gave us three pieces each! And we each ate one when we stopped for a break, so we should all have two…”

“I ate two, actually.”

“Huh?!”

“I couldn’t help it! I was hungry!”

“Wha…?”

I was aghast, but what was gone was gone. It was too late to get back all the hyena meat we left behind, too. I had a feeling the panther wouldn’t eat that hideous-smelling stuff anyway.

The panther’s beast-taming meter was now wavering around 90 percent. If we did nothing and it started to drop, all of our effort and supplies would have amounted to nothing.

I heard Yui whimper, “Papa…my HP…”

“Yui,” I murmured, dropping the unlit torch and pulling my daughter closer so I could wrap my arms around her. Even through her armor, I could tell that her body was freezing cold and trembling. Her HP bar was down to barely over 10 percent at this point. I couldn’t just let her freeze to death.

My mind was made up. I inched forward, holding Yui. Getting farther away from the entrance eased the cold, but the black panther started to growl again. The beast-taming meter, still wavering, started to shift into a negative trend.

There was no food left to give. But food couldn’t be the only way to lift that meter.

“You don’t have to be afraid…I’m not your enemy,” I whispered to the beast as I approached. The panther’s growling got louder, but it was neither fleeing nor attacking for now.

I closed within six feet…three feet…two feet. At this distance, I could finally see the creature’s outline. Its head was low, ready to pounce at any moment. The beast-taming meter was down to 80 percent.

Ready for it to be bitten off, I extended my hand. When I touched the powerful neck of the panther, its body jolted.

“There you go. Good boy…”

I brushed its luxurious fur with my fingertips. The growling did not stop. The meter was still dropping, bit by bit. But if I showed any fear now, the panther was sure to attack right away. I continued to stroke it with my right hand, holding Yui in my left. The panther’s muscles tensed, relaxed, then tensed again.

“Grrr…rrrrr…”

As the growling got lower, the panther’s head followed. Was it a sign of impending attack or something else?

“Rrrr…grorrr…”

The constant rumbling in the giant cat’s throat had changed somewhat. It was more of a rolling sound now, like a giant version of a cat purring.

At last, its powerful neck muscles relaxed, and the beast-taming meter stopped descending and began to rise once again. The black panther rolled onto its side and allowed me to pet it. The meter hit 80 percent and then went past 90.

“There you go…Good boy…,” I whispered, reaching back with my other hand. Leafa had seen Aga get tamed and knew to hand me a rope of ubiquigrass.

Annoyingly slowly, the beast-taming meter finally reached its full length, and that was when I looped the end of the grass around the panther’s neck to form a circle. With tense fingers, I closed it tight, and the big cat’s body flashed, summoning a green circle over its head. Underneath the ring-shaped HP bar was the species name: Lapispine Dark Panther. There was also a message for me: Domestication skill gained. Proficiency has risen to 1.