Chapter 11[]
[August 29, 2023 – Floor 39]
“Hm? Did you say something?” I asked as we made our way through the forest.
Phage seemed extremely flustered.
“N-No! I didn’t say anything!”
I stopped and turned to look at her.
“Are you really alright? Your face is redder than that Ranken Udon bowl.”
It really was. I assumed she just said something really embarrassing while I wasn’t listening. I moved closer to her so I could get a better look, which produced unexpected results. Her face was glistening in the moonlight just like the night when I last used my mask. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. I felt the blood rush to my cheeks. We were having what some people called “a moment.”
“Nedeli-kun… are you… blushing?” Phage asked.
“I think I am…”
“But why?”
“It’s just that…”
“What?”
“You look so beautiful…”
Phage was taken aback by my comment, but only for a second.
“N-Nedeli-kun… you…”
My heart was pounding. Our faces drew closer and closer together. Our lips were about to touch when we were suddenly interrupted.
“Finally found you!” Nemesis shouted from the trees.
Phage and I both jumped back in surprise, with me falling on my bottom.
Nemesis jumped and landed on a tree directly behind us, and hung upside down from a branch.
“Huh? Were you two in the middle of something?”
“N-No!” Phage exclaimed.
I was too stunned to say anything.
Nemesis tilted her head.
“Are you sure it was nothing…?”
I finally got myself to speak.
“W-Well, it wasn’t anything that big…”
“(I see.) ”
I got up and said, “Should we get going?” They both nodded and I turned to face the direction we were originally going in. I heard Phage say, “Get down from there,” and then the sound of leaves and branches rustling, and then a thump. Nemesis consequently said, “Owww…”
---
[April 13, 2024 – Floor 59]
It had been several months since I rescued Phage and we almost kissed. Over half of the 10,000 players of SAO have died. The clearing group had been making stable progress on beating the floors, Phage, Nemesis, and I included. We had been getting even stronger and faster than before, with the only problem being that our equipment items were running out of enhancement slots.
“Hey, Nedeli-kun, did you hear about the murder in the safe area that happened yesterday?” Phage asked.
I looked up from my usual bowl of noodle soup. “Hm? Oh, that.”
“It’s scary, isn’t it?”
“Well, wasn’t it already resolved?”
“Eh?”
“Yeah, they said that his armor breaking was really the cause of the shards and he used a teleport crystal at the last moment.”
“Oh? So that’s it.”
I nodded and went back to eating my soup. Even though Floor 59 was considerably higher than Floor 39, the soup tasted exactly the same. Not that I was tired of the taste, though. It was good soup, but I was disappointed that it didn’t really taste any better than it did on previous floors. Just then, Phage received a message.
“Asuna wants my help again with the Knights of The Blood Oath, “ she said. “I guess we’ll have to do that thing later then, Nedeli-kun.”
“Oh, (sister), can I come too?” Nemesis said with her mouth full.
“Eh? Why?”
“I need to level up a bit more, so isn’t it fine if I come?”
“But this isn’t exactly a-“
“Please?”
Phage sighed. “Alright, but don’t complain to me.”
Nemesis finished her food and got up.
“Let’s go.”
“What?” Phage replied. “But I’m not done with my food yet.”
“(Too slow! Hurry up!)”
“(Y-Yes!)”
Phage started eating faster than any other time I’d seen her trying to eat fast. I said nothing and continued with my noodle soup.
“Okay, done! Let’s go!”
“(Yeah!)”
I felt like Nemesis’s “(Yeah!)” was done halfheartedly. I shrugged then went back to eating my soup, but then I realized that I had eaten all of it already. Leaving it there for the NPC waiter to clean it up, I left the inn and went out into the town of Danac. I checked the time, and saw that it was 13:02.
“A little grinding and a few quests couldn’t hurt, right?” I said to myself as I went into the open area outside of Danac. It wasn’t really anything special, just normal grassy plains and some trees. There were a few monsters too. This wasn’t the area with the best exp or loot drops, so I decided to clear every monster along the way. I pulled out my sword, got into a running stance, and said, “3… 2… 1… Go!”
---
I sheathed my sword and bent down, panting. The time was 17:46. I’d been grinding quests and monsters for over 4 hours. My equipment durability was getting low too.
Time to head back, then, I thought.
I took a look around.
Wait, where am I…?
I was in unfamiliar surroundings. When I checked my map, it seemed that I had wandered into a dungeon that wasn’t listed yet. Which meant that it hadn’t been discovered. Which meant that there was nothing to help me get out. I checked the dungeon’s name, and it said, “The Ever-Changing Cave”. That explained why I didn’t recognize the area I was currently in. But that also signified that the way out changed locations. The entrance I came through was now a wall of solid rock. After checking my potion and crystal stores, I decided to explore. The cave itself was the same in terrain and material, but the layout changed every so often. Navigating through it shouldn’t be too difficult. The ground was rock with a little sand; a few puddles of groundwater here and there, and there were a series of torches on the wall that never seemed to go out. I wandered around, keeping one hand against the wall. The vast corridors seemed to go on forever.
After a short while, I walked into a room with an unguarded treasure chest sitting on a stone pedestal. I opened it, expecting some kind of rare loot, but instead I got 50,000 Col.
Better than nothing, I guess, I thought to myself as I closed the chest and looked towards the exit, which had become a stone wall. I looked for the new exit, which was nowhere to be found. None of the walls had any doors, or anything that resembled a secret panel. There was no ceiling exit or trapdoor hidden underneath, either. I sighed. The only way out was to wait until the layout changed again. I sat down with the treasure chest against my back and explored the game settings.
==
“(Welcome, Master~!)” Phage said with a smile. “I see you already have a cup of our special Lavender Tea. Our special today is the Love Love Omelet Supreme. Would you like that, our Nekomimi Noodle Soup, or the Super Energy Steak?”
“Can I have…you?” the man sitting at the table asked.
“Ah, (sorry, Master), but I’m not on the menu…yet.” Phage replied with a wink.
“Haha, then I guess I’ll have the Love Love Omelet Supreme.”
“Okay! Coming right up, (Master!)”
“This is so embarrassing!” she thought.
Phage walked to the kitchen, and put on her apron, which was hanging from a wall hook. The smell of fresh food being “prepared with love” and several ingredients nonexistent in the real world filled her senses. The walls were covered in striped pink wallpaper, with recipe instructions covering one section. There were several outfitted girls cooking at stoves. Asuna was inside cooking a steak.
“Asuna, do we really have to do this?” Phage asked.
Asuna made a wry smile.
“There’s nothing we can really do about it. The KoB really needs the funds.”
“But couldn’t they have thought of something else?”
Phage emphasized the maid outfit she was wearing.
“This is too embarrassing!”
“I’m sorry,” Asuna replied with another wry smile.
Phage sighed and started up an open stove, heating a pan placed on top of it. She cracked open an egg and poured its contents into a bowl, where Phage mixed it together to make a yellow liquid. Phage poured the yellow liquid into the pan, and when it had hardened enough, she added various other ingredients into the omelet before folding it up and placing it on plate. She turned off the heat on the stove and grabbed a bottle of ketchup near her. With it, she wrote the words “Made with love, to Master” in English along with a drawing of a heart on the omelet.
“How’s your steak going, Asuna?” Phage asked, looking over to her friend.
Asuna wiped sweat from her forehead.
“It’s going slower than I thought. This meat is tough.”
“That’s weird. The meat’s supposed to be soft.”
“I could just get another steak, but then the customer might start to complain.”
Phage untied her apron and hung it on back on its wall hook.
“Hopefully mine won’t do anything weird.”
Phage took the omelet plate and walked out of the kitchen. She took the plate to the customer who ordered it, and served it with a smile.
“(Sorry for the wait!) Here’s the Love Love Omelet Supreme you ordered, made specially just~ for~ you~!”
“Aw yeah! (Let’s eat!)”
Phage stood there, trying as hard as she could to keep the generic smile on her face as she watched the man wolf down the omelet like a starved predator.
“How is it?” she asked.
“This is so freakin’ amazing I love this food,” he said, with his mouth completely full of said food.
“That’s good!” Phage replied.
“Although it’s not as nearly as amazing as how horrific your eating habits are…” she thought.
---
“Ah…(I’m so tired…)” Phage said as she entered the break room, where she found Asuna inside.
“(Good work),” Asuna said upon Phage’s entrance. “How many customers have you served today?”
“42. 14 of them hit on me.”
“You deserve this break then.”
“Yeah…”
A voice came from the changing rooms.
“U-Uhm…(Sister…?)”
Phage and Asuna got up to find the source of the voice, and saw Nemesis cowering behind the curtains to one of the stalls.
“What is it?” Phage asked.
“I can’t go out like this…” Nemesis replied.
“Like what?”
Nemesis let go of the curtains and opened them, revealing the maid outfit she had put on. She was also blushing profusely.
“Haaaa!!” Asuna squealed. “(So cute!)”
Nemesis once again used the curtains to hide herself, and this time her face was covered too.
“Discord Esper Shuvi does not approve of this outfit! It is unsuitable for interdimensional combat!” she exclaimed.
“But it really is cute on you,” Phage said.
“That’s the problem!”
Phage opened the curtains and dragged her sister out.
“Look, you’re the one who wanted to come with me, so you’re going to be a maid whether you like it or not.”
“Unhand me, foolish mortal!”
Phage swatted away the hand that Nemesis was using to cover her eye.
“You’re not going to get any customers like that.”
“(B-But!!)”
Phage dragged her all the way to the entrance, where a customer just entered the store.
“Go, do what you were instructed to do,” said Phage as she lightly shoved Nemesis towards the customer. Nemesis regained her balance and looked up towards the tall man that she was supposed to serve.
“(U-Um! W-Welcome, Master!)” she said with all the courage she could muster. “R-Right this way!”
The man nodded and headed to the table Nemesis pointed out. Nemesis herself hadn’t moved from her spot and looked back at her sister.
“(Sister, help me!)”
Phage smiled and said, “(Nope~)”
“Uwaaah…”
==
Eventually the dungeon changed again, and I was finally able to get out of that room. It was getting really late, so I decided to run through the dungeon to find the exit. For some odd reason, there were a lot fewer monsters than I thought there would be. While running through the corridors, I noticed a figure in the shadows. Seeing it had a player cursor, I was originally relieved to find someone else in there with me, but then I realized that it was an orange cursor.
I drew my blade, hoping to ambush this person who could be a player killer. I was about to land a hit on the player’s side when he pulled out his own sword and blocked mine. We locked swords, and I was able to get a better view of the player’s face. I saw that it was actually a girl, with split pink and sky blue hair, and grayish-teal eyes like that of a ghost. Despite that, her eyes seemed to be filled with energy and strength. She was wearing sleeveless black armor with a maroon scarf circling her neck. She also wore a black visor beret on her head. I recognized her immediately, and it seemed she knew me too.
“The Orange Blur…”
“The One-Cut Killer…”
Then we both smiled.
“Nedelin.”
“Seira.”
Chapter 12[]
[April 13, 2024 – Floor 59]
We both pulled away, but neither of us sheathed our weapons.
“My, my, what’s a powerful floor clearer like you doing in a place like this?” Seira asked.
“I was about to ask you the same thing,” I replied. “What is a powerful floor clearer like you doing in a place like this?”
“I was looking to rack up a few extra EXP, that’s all.”
“Same here.”
“Well, then our interests align. We can slay monsters together so it’s less dangerous.”
I nodded, then a question popped into my mind.
“Have you figured out the best way to get back to town?”
“What?”
“How to get out of here.”
“What do you mean? Are you lost? I can show you the place I entered from.”
“How long have you been in here?”
“About 20 minutes.”
After thinking it over, I decided to go for it.
“Could you take me to the entrance?”
“Sure.”
She sheathed her blade and started walking the opposite direction. I stood there for a few seconds, examining her from behind. She didn’t seem to be hostile or unfriendly.
This shouldn’t be much of a problem. After all, she is one of the, if not the best player in all of Aincrad.
“(Hey), Nedelin, are you coming?”
“Oh, yeah.”
I caught up to her and matched her walking speed.
“You weren’t staring at my butt, where you?” she asked.
“I wasn’t.”
“I bet you were.”
“I just said I wasn’t.”
“Pervert.”
“Which part do you not get?!”
Seira sighed. “You know, it’s pretty pathetic for someone as experienced and high-level as you to get stuck in a place like this.”
“Ow, that actually hurt.”
“How long have you been here?”
“About 2 and a half hours.”
“Shouldn’t you have mapped the area by now?”
“Yeah, but you’ll see my point soon.”
“What do you mean? Ah, here it i-Huh?”
Seira was looking at a wall of solid rock.
I sharpened my gaze. “I thought so.”
Seira went up to the wall and examined it. “Completely filled in. No signs of cracking or repair.”
I was somewhat surprised. She was doing the same thing I would’ve done.
“Nedelin.”
“What is it?”
She held out her sword, the legendary blade called «Shattered Mirage». “Do you think this would be able to bore through rock?” she asked.
“I guess it can.”
“Good.”
She pulled her arm back as if drawing an arrow with a bow, and the edges of her sword started glowing.
“Pulse Trigger.”
Seira drove her sword into the rock, boring a hole through and cracking most of the surrounding material. Then, as if using a human-sized power drill, waves of energy pulsed through the sword blade and into the rock, breaking it into several pieces and carving a large opening that looked like it was made with explosives.
“It’s not hollow. The crevice was filled in completely with no evidence that it was ever open.”
I was standing back while leaning against the wall, watching her at work. It was more interesting than staring at the rocks to hopefully find some sort of rare material. “Hey.”
“Hm?”
“Mind explaining to me what’s going on?”
“Simple, check your map.”
Seira opened up her menu, and checked her map. “The Ever-Changing Cave, huh?”
“Yup.”
“Interesting…”
I got off the wall and said, “So, we have three options. One, we find a way out of here. If we work together, getting out would be a lot easier. Two, we rack up some EXP, since the two of us could probably kill a lot more than if we’re alone. Three, we slay some monsters to clear a path while we find an exit. Which one do you choose?”
Seira didn’t hesitate to respond. “Why do all of them include you?”
I was confused. “Isn’t it natural that we work as a team?”
“I usually prefer to work alone,” she said.
“I know that feeling exactly.”
She ignored my statement and said, “I suppose I can let you tag along just this once.”
“That works too, I guess…”
“Hey, hurry up.”
Seira had already started walking away.
I quickened my steps to catch up to her. “Are you in that much of a hurry?”
---
We were surrounded on all sides by wave upon wave of stone golems. They all spawned around the same time when we entered the room. No way out.
“Do you have a plan?” I asked.
“Of course,” she responded. “I take them all out at once.”
“Huh?”
“Just stay out of the way.”
“…”
She closed her eyes to concentrate, and then four monochromatic figures that resembled her appeared around her. I was amazed. She had just created clones of herself. There had been no mention of player cloning before, and Seira had four of them. Seira and her four doppelgangers each ran to a different side. They all prepared their swords, and Seira shouted, “Execution Sequence!” The rest went by in a flash. Seira and her clones jumped from where they were standing and slashed through the enemies. Each slice made was an instant kill on the enemy it hit, and allowed the user to run through and slice the next. It was breathtaking to watch. After about 30 seconds, every single enemy in the room had been cleared out. No words could really describe what I felt back then. I stared in silence at Seira, whose clones disappeared into thin air. So that’s the level that the top player in Aincrad is on, I thought to myself.
“(Hey,) what are you looking at?”
I snapped out of my daze quickly. “N-Nothing.”
“Definitely a pervert,” she said as she sheathed her sword.
“Don’t call me that so quickly!”
“Right, right.”
I sighed as I sheathed my own sword.
“So now what?” Seira asked. “We’ve checked everywhere, and there doesn’t seem to be any place with an exit.”
“Hm…I don’t know…what about you, top player?”
“Huh?” she was a bit surprised.
“You’re the best player in Aincrad right now. Have you thought of any ways out of here?”
“Hm…”
I waited for her answer in silence.
“We could break through the ceiling.”
“Eh?”
“Yes,” she said, nodding to herself. “That would work.”
I burst. “No, no, no, it wouldn’t!”
“What do you mean? If we keep going up, we’ll be able to get out from the side of the mountain or something, right?”
“The rock would fall on us! Nevermind that, how are we even supposed to get up there?”
“We could jump.”
I was speechless. “Seira, is it possible…you’re actually an airhead?”
She seemed to take offense at that statement. “Huh?! Of course not! I’ll have you know that all my grades in school were at passing level.”
“Were any of them higher than that?”
“Of course not. That’s way too difficult.”
She really is an airhead…
It was strange, how the best player in the entire world of Sword Art Online was very analytical of situations, yet airheaded. Her combat power was a force to be reckoned with, however.
“Ah, that reminds me,” I said.
“What now?”
“How did you do that?”
“Do what?”
“The clone thing that helped you kill everything.”
“Ah, that. It’s simple really.”
“No, it’s really not…”
“My sword, «Shattered Mirage», has an ability that works in conjunction with my Unique Skill, «Endroll». My Mirage has the ability to create a “mirage” of myself, and my Unique Skill recognizes it as another me, and gives it the same abilities as me. Of course, I can control my mirage with my thoughts. Endroll multiplies the abilities and stats of my weapon by 4, so I can create up to 4 mirages at once.”
It actually was kind of simple. “Oh. When you put it that way, it actually makes sense.”
“Good. I wouldn’t want someone idiotic in my party.”
“You’re the one to speak!”
Then I shut myself up. A new monster had just spawned right behind Seira. It seemed to be a much larger, upgraded version of the stone golems we had fought earlier. Its right arm resembled a wrecking ball. It raised its wrecking ball hand over Seira, threatening to crush her. Judging from Seira’s armor, a direct hit from that would definitely deal some serious damage, if not eliminate her immediately. I purposely avoided the word “kill” because, well, the top player in Aincrad couldn’t just die.
“What are you talking about, pervert? I’m not the one who- Why are you charging at me?” I bolted forward without thinking, and even activated my Unique Skill «Swords Dance» so I could reach Seira in time.
“(Watch out!!)”
“Eh?”
I shoved her out of the way and stood in her place just as the giant mass of rock came down.
==
Seira was shocked. She couldn’t comprehend what just happened at first. She was standing over there just a moment ago, but then she felt Nedelin push her out of the way and stand in that spot. Now there was a huge sphere of stone where Nedelin had just been standing. “Did he just…save me?” She fell to her knees. “No…no, this wasn’t supposed to happen. I became stronger so I wouldn’t have to lose anyone, and yet…” She looked at the space where Nedelin got crushed. “That was also the reason why I didn’t really make friends with the others, wasn’t it? But this boy, he…he was the first to act normal around me.“ Her eyes fell to the hard floor. Nedelin was the first person in the entire game to treat her like a person rather some sort of god. Seira had dreamt that they could’ve become good friends and make memories that would’ve lasted forever. But that dream was crushed, quite literally. The boy in that dream just got killed by a lowly monster, right in front of her eyes. Tears started to flow down her face. “I shouldn’t have called him a pervert even when I knew he was telling the truth…” she thought. “Maybe if I was nicer to him then…-“
“Hey, are you crying?”
Seira looked up quickly to see Nedelin standing above her, completely uninjured.
“Y-You’re alive?!” Seira shouted, in a tone that she never knew she had.
“You didn’t know about my Unique Skill?”
“What?” Seira tried to speak while suppressing her tears and pretending like she wasn’t sad at all.
“Swords Dance lets me be intangible for an amount of time.”
“Ah-…”
“You know, you’re not the only one with fancy tricks.”
Seira wanted to get up and slap him, shouting: “You really worried me!” She decided against and acted like she wasn’t worried at all. She got up slowly and said, “I know. I figured you were going to do that.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Hm…you’re lying.”
“A-Am not!”
“It’s in your tone. I can feel it.”
“Yeah, right! Anyway, isn’t there a bigger problem right now?”
Nedelin turned around to look at the large wrecking ball armed-golem and said, “Oh yeah.”
Seira took her blade out of its sheath and pointed to the monster. “I’ll handle it.”
“No.”
“Huh?”
“You took out all the smaller golems. Let me take this one,” he said, looking back at her.
“But that one’s-“
“Hey. Don’t underestimate me just because you think I’m a pervert,” he said, looking straight into her eyes.
Seira stood there, speechless.
“Rely on me a bit, okay? I’m not completely useless,” he said with a slight smile.
Seira hesitated for a bit, but eventually gave in. “Alright,” she said. “B-But don’t blame me if you get hurt!”
“Don’t worry, this is nothing.”
Nedelin took his own blade out of its sheath and ran towards the roaring golem. Seira watched in awe. His friendliness, his physique, his determination, all of that appealed to her. Then it occurred to Seira that she wasn’t thinking of how good he is in battle, but rather how good he would be as a lover. She dismissed the thought quickly.
“No, no, relationships like that shouldn’t happen in this world. This is a battle for our lives after all. We don’t have time for things like boyfriends or girlfriends. They would just slow us down and distract us from our real objective of saving everyone that’s still alive in this god-forsaken death game,” she thought.
A million shattered polygons started rising towards the sky, and Nedelin landed on his feet. He turned to face Seira and smiled.
Seira smiled back.
“But I guess…maybe a little bit of love couldn’t hurt…”
Chapter 13[]
[April 13, 2024 – Floor 59]
Phage was pacing around the room. It was already this late, and Nedelin hasn’t come back or answered any of her messages. She was seriously worried. Then she remembered the tracker that Heathcliff mentioned, and opened up the menu. She manipulated it to go to her Friends list, tapped Nedelin’s name, and selected the locator function. However, instead of a cursor on a map, it displayed a large question mark.
“What is this?” she asked, not expecting much of an answer.
Nemesis was with her, and looked over at the screen.
“Oh, that means he’s in an anti-communications area.”
“Anti-communication? So we can’t reach him at all?”
“Not unless you’re with him, no.”
Phage eyes fell to the ground.
“We can check if he’s still alive or not, though.”
“No, we don’t have to. I know he’s alive.”
She knew that, but she still worried. There was nothing she could do, after all. The only option for her was to wait for his return.
==
“Now what?” Nedelin asked.
“Huh?” Seira snapped out of her useless thoughts of love and went back to the situation at hand. She shook her head vigorously. “What did you say?”
“I asked, ‘Now what?’”.
Seira nodded. “I see, I see.”
“What exactly do you see…?”
Nedelin’s question went unanswered, as Seira had lost herself in thought once again.
“This cave won’t have any food for us, much less a place to really rest comfortably. Judging from how many supplies I brought and how much I’ve used up, we should be able to survive for three days. If Nedelin brought more, that probably would go to at most five days. The best thing to do is to explore this area mo-“
“-ra. Oi, Seira.”
“What?”
Nedelin pointed to the wall.
“Exit’s gone.”
“…Y-You’ve got to be kidding…”
“Sadly, I’m not. We’re gonna be stuck in here for a while.”
---
Time seemed to pass maddeningly slowly as Nedelin and Seira waited until the dungeon layout changed. Seira sighed as she sat down on the rocky dungeon floor. Nedelin was sitting right behind her, facing the other direction. The room had a very awkward air around them, as both wanted to talk about something, but neither wanted to be the first to speak up. “What are you doing?” Seira thought to herself. “You’re alone with this guy, trapped in a dungeon, with nothing else to do except wait. He’s not a bad person, yet you aren’t talking to him, much less making him a friend. Why aren’t you doing that?” Seira shook her head and put her hands to her cheeks. “I might lose him too. I don’t want anyone else to get hurt. Besides, he’s just an idiot who probably has a bunch of other friends. Even if we do part on good terms, there’s a chance that he’ll never talk to me again because others are more fun.”
“Hey, Seira.”
Startled by the sudden expression, Seira replied instinctively, “What do you want, pervert?”
“I heard that you’ve never once accepted a single party or friend request from anyone in this entire game.”
Seira opened her mouth to protest that she could do it all by herself, but Nedelin cut in.
“Don’t say that you can do it all by yourself. It is mostly correct, but that’s not what I’m looking for.”
She understood what he had meant, but avoided the question. “What do you mean ‘mostly correct’? It’s 100% correct.”
“Well, monster slaying and dungeon clearing you can do, but aren’t there other things that you’re lacking?”
“Lacking?” Seira crossed her arms to cover the upper area of her torso. “You better not be talking about my chest, pervert.”
“No, that’s not it at all. I meant your lack of friends of any kind.”
Seira lowered her arms and responded, “That was rude.”
“But is it true?”
“Hmph.”
“That’s a yes then.” Nedelin sighed. “I’m not the best person to tell you this, but you really need to have someone you can talk to and rely on everywhere you go, especially in this death game.”
Seira turned her eyes to the ground and hugged her knees. She knew exactly where the topic was going.
“I want to ask you something.”
“…”
“Why do you always isolate yourself from everyone else?”
Seira’s mood darkened. It was the one question that she couldn’t give a straight answer to. She knew the reason, but she didn’t answer. She didn’t want to answer. She didn’t want the boy sitting by her to know the way she really was. Seira didn’t want to talk anymore and remained silent, while Nedelin listened intently to see if she would give any kind of response. The eerie sound of stillness that was all around them seemed to intensify with every passing moment. Seira preferred it to stay that way, and didn’t want Nedelin to say or do anything else. For the first time in a while, she wanted to go back to her inn, not because it was late or because she was tired, but because she felt that being alone in her room would bring her back to her old self.
“Okay, I understand,” Nedelin said. “If you don’t want to tell me about it, then it’s fine. I’ll respect your wishes. There are some things I wouldn’t want to tell people either.”
Seira, surprised by his lack of curiosity and his respect for others’ privacy, felt herself relax and cool down, letting her mind clear and her thoughts float around. “So this is the kind of person he is,” she thought as a small smile formed on her face. Just then, a doorway appeared in place of part of the wall. Feeling reenergized, Seira stood back up and said, “There, a way out. Come on, Nedelin.” She offered a hand to the swordsman. “Let’s get out of here together.”
Slightly thrown off by her tone of voice, Nedelin hesitated for a second before taking her hand and allowing himself to stand up. “Yeah.”
The two of them looked at each other, nodded, and then ran out the exit doorway. All of the monsters except for those that were in the room with Seira and Nedelin had respawned, and the rocky corridors were filled with the strange sounds of random growls and grunts. As expected, the dungeon layout had changed completely. Seira and Nedelin wasted no time in finding a way out. They sprinted through the damp hallways and cut down everything in their path, leaving only opened chests and the hallways themselves as the things left unbroken. Eventually, they reached another large room, with holes scattered across the walls and a ceiling that appeared as if it could collapse at any moment.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” said Nedelin as he examined the room’s design.
“What’s with that clichéd line from the movies?” Seira scoffed.
“Because I do actually have a bad feeling about this.”
Nedelin walked up to one of the holes and looked into it, trying to make out any sort of object in the darkness. With no warning whatsoever, a pile of rocks suddenly fell over the entrance to the room, “Just as I thought,” Nedelin said. Seira looked at the pile of rocks and said, “We’re going to have to fight our way through whatever’s in here, aren’t we?”
“Definitely.”
“Any idea what we’re going to be killing?”
Nedelin spun his sword in his hand and caught it in a backhand hold. “They’ll probably come out of the holes and either be worms or earth-like monsters.”
“Interesting.”
The two stood back-to-back, watching for any sort of movement in the walls. Their eyes scanned the perimeter for anything that could pose a threat. Soon enough, a shriek echoed throughout the cave, and out of almost every hole came a monocular red-eyed centipede creature with jaws like a shark. Seira steadied her stance as the creatures started to surround them on all sides. Nedelin did the same.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Always.”
“Then let’s start the bloodbath.”
“You sound like a terrorist.”
He sighed. “You know what I mean.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
They both ran straight into opposite sides of the sea of centipedes and unleashed their version of hell. Nedelin started off with his finishing skill, «Fallout Reave», and destroyed a huge chunk of them with one hit. Seira on the other hand, was using her clones to mimic AOE skills, easily destroying almost 4 times as much as Nedelin did in the same period of time. The dead centipedes they’d killed were quickly replaced by living ones, signaling the start of Wave 2. They did the same thing, wiping them out as quickly as possible. This happened repeatedly, and by Wave 14 the two were exhausted.
Wave 15 came. No monsters poured out of the holes. The same loud shriek from before echoed throughout the room. Seira and Nedelin readjusted themselves in wait. Cracks appeared in the wall simultaneously, and soon the wall itself had a huge hole, in which an equally huge golem covered in centipede mobs and had glowing orange eyes stepped through. The force of the wall breaking shook the room, and a few pebbles fell from the ceiling. Seira took a tentative step back, and examined the monster before her. The words “Obsineous, Guardian of the Cave” appeared over its head, but strangely, no indicator of health. It let out another shriek as it threw some of the centipedes on its body straight at Nedelin and Seira. Seira pointed her sword at the approaching centipede flying through the air and let the extremely sharp blade pierce through the centipede completely and slice it in half.
“Cover me,” she said. “I’ll take that thing out in one shot.”
Nedelin nodded. “Got it. (I’m counting on you, Seira.)”
“(Leave it to me.)”
Seira sprinted forward holding her sword straight ahead, eliminating all flying obstructions from her path. When she neared the golem’s foot, she put her free hand on the flat edge of her blade and charged up for a skill. The «Shattered Mirage» started glowing a bloody maroon, and Seira swung it vertically with all her might.
“ONE FLASH!”
A brilliant gleam of light accompanied her strike, and Seira jumped back to view the aftermath of her famous 1-hit-kill skill. But to her shock and amazement, no damage was done. Not even a scratch was visible on the monster’s body. Seira looked up at its head, and grit her teeth as the saw the following words hovering above the thing’s head: “Immortal Object”. She could tell that Nedelin had a similar reaction and ran back to him.
“Any bright ideas? Although I don’t think that you would be able to come up with very many,” Seira said to her temporary partner.
“How nice of you. And I think that there isn’t actually a way to kill this thing.”
“Probably not, because it’s an Immortal Object.”
Nedelin scanned the room to find anything that could possibly help them, and his eyes rested on the ceiling.
“There.”
“The ceiling?”
“Destroy it.”
“Hm…”
“What?”
“You’re smarter than I originally perceived.”
“What does that have to do with this? Just destroy the ceiling!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Seira’s blade started to glow a luminous cyan, and she unleashed the skill «Razor Wave» towards the ceiling. The skill sent a horizontal arc-shaped projectile skyward, and it made a direct hit with the ceiling. The impact created a shockwave that caused the entire ceiling to crack, and then break. Rock started to fall, and Seira and Nedelin sidestepped and jumped to avoid them. The intense stalactite fall shook the room, and several other stray centipedes were crushed by stray rock pieces. When it was finally over, light poured into the once-dark cavern and only the two players, the walls, and the golem remained standing.
“There’s our way out,” Nedelin said.
Analyzing the situation, Seira looked at the golem, and an idea formed in her head.
“Got it. Follow me,” she said.
“Huh?”
Seira turned back to the idiot behind her.
“Just do it!” she shouted as she ran to the golem.
“Okay…” Nedelin responded, and chased after her.
Seira sheathed her blade and jumped onto the golem’s foot, then started to slowly climb up the golem from there. Her ascent was closely followed by Nedelin, who appeared to have slightly less athleticism than her, but enough to keep up with Seira’s quick pace. The golem noticed that the two players were on him and tried to shake them off or slap them down. Seira and Nedelin worked together to avoid the attacks, and eventually the two made their way to the top of the golem’s head. Once they were directly under the hole to the surface, the two noticed that the distance of the head to the ceiling was bigger than they thought. They stopped there, and tried thinking of a way to get out.
“Any ideas?” Nedelin asked.
“No…”
“Hmm…I know.”
Seira turned to face her partner.
“What is it?” she said.
“My Unique Skill can get me up there.”
“It can?”
“Yeah, watch this.”
Nedelin crouched and then faded into a quick moving haze of smoke that easily flew upwards and landed outside on the grass. Seira was slightly surprised, then sighed and went back to figuring out her own way of getting out. Nothing could come to mind. Then she looked up and saw Nedelin extending his arm to her.
“Come on, let’s get out of here,” he said.
Seira thought that she wouldn’t see anything like an angel offering her a hand, but at that moment, she did. Seira looked down at the ground, not wanting her emotions to take hold of her.
“What’s wrong?”
Seira shook her head and said, “No, it’s nothing,” as she took hold of Nedelin’s hand and let herself be pulled to the surface world. Nedelin helped her up, and soon pulled her out enough so that she would be able to lie on the serene grass that surrounded them. Seira got on her feet, and was welcomed by the gentle breeze and the warm morning sun.
“We did it,” Nedelin said, turning to Seira.
“Yeah,” she responded, smiling.
Then all of a sudden, a hundred message notifications appeared on both of their menus, and made them jump.
“We have a lot to catch up on,” the boy said.
Seira laughed. “Seems that way.”
“You know, that’s the first time I heard you laugh.”
Seira blushed and suddenly grew self-conscious. “S-So? What about it?”
“Nothing, I just think it’s kind of cute.”
Seira’s face turned redder and she looked away from him. She wanted to thank him with that emotionless face she always had, but all she could manage was a small “T-Thank you…”