The Scuttle Crab dropped a material item called Great Crab Shell, a few gems for some reason, and two food ingredients: Great Crab Leg Meat and Great Crab Claw Meat.
Asuna sat down on the railing of the boat for a break and checked out her item listing with apparent dissatisfaction.
“…Please tell me that crab gratin we ate back at the restaurant in town wasn’t using this crabmeat…”
The immature boy in me wanted to say yes, but I decided to be kind and assuage my partner’s concerns.
“NPC restaurants don’t need to import ingredients, so I very highly doubt the chef goes out to gather Scuttle Crab meat. I’d be careful about any steamed crab buns you find at a player-owned shop, though.”
“I’m never buying them. I’m also not selling this crabmeat to any player merchants.”
“G-good luck with that. But it is a D-class ingredient, so I feel like it’s probably pretty good…That crab gratin was awful tasty, remember?” I noted. She turned her face away. She was probably still feeling weird about sharing our lunch.
About ten hours earlier, we ordered crab gratin and steamed clams at that little restaurant in Rovia, splitting the two dishes halfway. Once the excited Asuna had cleaned out exactly half of the gratin and slid the dish over to me, she seemed to realize the forward nature of her actions.
Her face went red and she told me to wait just a second after I’d boldly scooped a massive spoonful of crab into my mouth. The dish itself was quite good, and I didn’t notice the change in Asuna’s behavior until I’d cleaned the dish down to a quarter left, and by then it was too late.
If a boy and girl in middle school who weren’t romantically involved shared a cafeteria gratin meal from the same plate, they’d be engulfed in an inferno of teasing and catcalls in class.
But just a moment. This was a virtual world, where that barbaric, childish, boorish, and inefficient value system was rendered pointless. The employee would probably not bring us separate plates to share, even if we asked for them. We didn’t have a choice but to share the food in that manner, I told myself.
“Um, listen…Like I said at the restaurant, Aincrad is a virtual world. I think it’s pointless to get hung up on things like half-eaten food or reusing utensils. You can even drop a steamed bun on the ground, and as long as you pick it up before three seconds, it won’t lose durability points or pick up any dirt effects…”
“That’s not what shocked me,” she said quietly. I blinked.
“Huh? Then what was it?”
“It was the fact that I thought the same things you just said. That there wasn’t any problem because this is a virtual world. But the more I think about it, that is a problem…”
“Um, why would it be? This is a virtual world.”
“I’m saying I don’t want to mimic that same insensitive side that you have!”
“I…insensitive? What is that…a bonus effect or something?”
“Shush! In-sen-si-tive!! You can look it up in a dictionary once you’re done beating the game!”
She turned away with a powerful huff. I knew enough at this point to realize that the situation wouldn’t right itself for another thirty minutes, so I shook my head and picked up the oar again.
“S-so…setting the gratin aside for now, shall we keep going?”
I waited for the fencer to sit down in her front seat before I started up the Tilnel again. The wide waterway was dim, and the way forward was shrouded in darkness, so there was no way to guess how much of the dungeon still waited ahead of us.
Once we’d finished eating and resupplying yesterday afternoon, I sent off a number of instant messages to Argo with information as we circled around the market district of Rovia. Around four thirty, we finally spotted a boat that matched the description we wanted.
It was at least twice as long as the Tilnel—a good fifty feet in all. It was even larger than the ten-person sightseeing gondolas, yet there were only four NPCs on board. Two large men with wide daggers stood at the prow, while a burly oarsman rowed on either side of the craft. In the center was a stack of about ten large wooden boxes covered with a sheet.
The bluish-black ship proved itself to be fleet for its size, winding through the narrow channels quickly enough that following at a distance proved to be quite a task. I felt like my piloting skill as a player rose by at least a hundred points during the chase.
The large boat slipped out of the market area without using the main channel and left the town via the south gate, melting into the darkness. We had no choice but to follow it, and therefore, we weren’t able to celebrate the Tilnel’s first trip outside of town due to the task at hand. Through the winding natural waterways we went, eventually ending up passing through a large waterfall into this submerged dungeon.
The crew on the big gondola must have traveled regularly between Rovia and this dungeon, as they rowed along in the darkness with familiar ease. We steeled ourselves for trouble when we entered the dungeon, trying to follow the ship ahead, but were soon interrupted by our first encounter with a Scuttle Crab. We managed to win our first ship battle despite knowing nothing about what to do, but by the time it was over the bigger boat was long gone.
It had been around six o’clock in the evening that we entered the place, which meant we’d been wandering the watery halls for over six hours now. There had been a few breaks here and there, but it was getting to the point that our concentration was faltering.
I kept the speed at a crawl so I could switch my window to the map tab and check our location. The full dimensions of the dungeon were still unknown, but I felt as though we were nearly upon the core of the place.
“Oh, there’s a door to the right,” Asuna pointed out. I looked up and saw a small landing about ten feet ahead, plus a metal door set into the wall.
“Though it figures to be yet another dead end,” she added in frustration. We’d found countless other doors just like it and prepped ourselves for a possible boss fight each time, only to find more confusing paths unrelated to our quest.
“W-well, at least there’s usually a treasure chest at most dead ends,” I offered, the type of player who couldn’t stand not exploring every last branch in a dungeon to fill out the map. Asuna was not cheered by this advice.
“Probably just more rusty swords and armor…”
“Never discount rusted gear. Every once in a while, you can take it to a blacksmith for repair, and it turns out to be a legendary find! Like, once in a hundred times…”
“Yes, yes, I get it…No, wait, stop!”
She held out her left hand urgently, and I promptly stood the oar upright. The gondola ground to a steady halt.
“Wh-what is it?!” I murmured. Asuna leaned out over the front of the ship, then turned back with a deadly serious look on her face.
“I think there’s a big space up ahead. And…I hear a whole lot of voices coming from up there.”
“Um…of people, or crabs?” I asked. Asuna’s eyes briefly contained a hint of murder, so I shook my head rapidly. “People, of course. How silly of me. Let’s take it slow on the approach, then.”
She nodded without a word, and once she was crouched at the prow, I carefully pushed the oar forward.
We passed by the door and down the dark waterway, praying that no monsters would interrupt. There was indeed a large open surface visible ahead. It looked like a much larger hall in which a number of paths met.
I stopped the Tilnel just before the pathway dumped us into the open space and snuck up the length of the boat to peer over Asuna’s shoulder.
It was even larger than I expected. The half-circle hall had to be a good hundred yards across. The curved wall on this side of the space featured at least five or six tunnel mouths, including the one we were currently perched in. The wall opposite us was flat, however, with a wide staircase in the center that stretched upward from the steps. Below it was a pier with—
“…!”
Asuna sucked in a sharp breath below me.
Tied up at the pier was the very same gondola we had followed out of Rovia, moored with thick ropes. They were exactly in the middle of unloading those wooden boxes.
The same four sailors were unloading the boxes themselves, while imposing warriors with slender scimitars at their waists took the boxes and carried them up the stairs. They were thin but tall, clad in dark gray leather armor, and wearing eerie masks that covered their faces.
I couldn’t help but feel that I’d seen them somewhere before…and when I noticed the long ears, I was sure of it.
“…!!”
This time it was my turn to hold my breath. I lowered my head toward Asuna’s ear and whispered as quietly as I could, “They’re Fallen Elves.”
There was tension in her profile as she nodded.
Fallen Elves—a race that served as the foes at the climax of the “Elf War” campaign quest on the third floor. Asuna and I and the knight Kizmel had engaged in a number of fierce battles against the elven creatures.
According to the Dark Elf commander, the Fallen were the descendants of elves who plotted to gain immortality to blades with the Holy Tree’s magic, well before the Great Separation, and had been banished accordingly. They were experts in underhanded means such as poison, traps, and blindness, and even with the formidable presence of Kizmel, it was not easy to defeat the Fallen Elf Commander.
They were supposed to be after the Jade Key from the campaign quest, so why did they have a secret hideout set up here and why were the men from Rovia transporting supplies here? Asuna was clearly entertaining the same questions I was.
“What happened here in the beta test?” she whispered. I was expecting that question.
“I don’t remember ever running across the Fallen here. In fact, this dungeon didn’t even exist in the beta.”
“Meaning…this is all part of one self-contained quest? Or does it fall under the umbrella of the campaign?”
“…I don’t know. But I can say that I fought Fallen Elves on several occasions in the beta, and I never once saw them cooperating with human NPCs like this.”
“I don’t like it…If those sailors are with Rovia’s Water Carriers Guild…then the guild itself could be aligned with the Fallen Elves,” Asuna pointed out.
I squinted and frowned. My imagination was rusty from my long career as a beater, but I managed to get the wheels turning again.
We could extrapolate from Romolo’s statements that craftsmen like him were once free to build ships as they pleased in Rovia, until some point in time at which the guild monopolized that work, forcing him out of business. At the same time, civilian gondolas were forbidden from leaving the town.
Meanwhile, the Water Carriers Guild was sending this ship meant for hauling out of town to the Fallen Elves’ hideout, carrying a great many mysterious boxes.
It was natural to assume that the guild was embarking on these policies to hide their dirty business from the town. But we couldn’t assume anything further, because…
“…We need to find out what’s in those boxes,” I finished aloud. Asuna agreed.
As we sat and watched, the sailors hauled the last box off of the boat, and one of the Fallen warriors picked it up. In order to learn the contents of the box, we had to charge the scene with the Tilnel and defeat all of the foes present, but that was too foolhardy and extreme.
For one thing, the Fallen Elves had red enemy cursors, but the sailors were the yellow of NPCs. They might turn red if they spotted us, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to lead an unprovoked attack.
As I waffled about what to do, the Fallen Elf with the box reached the top of the stairs and disappeared through the large door there. The particularly large and imposing masked Fallen who appeared to be their leader handed a small bag to one of the sailors. The man looked inside to check the contents, then nodded satisfactorily and motioned to his fellows to leave.
“Well, I know what’s in that bag,” Asuna whispered.
“Cold, hard cash,” I agreed. “If they’re all thousand-col gold coins…that could be 200,000 in all…”
She shut me down at once. “Don’t you dare think about attacking and robbing them on the way back.”
“N-no way! They looked really tough, anyway.”
Meanwhile, the four sailors undid the mooring rope and piled onto the gondola. The two oarsmen pushed off, and the large craft lurched into motion.
I quickly leaped to the stern, hoping they weren’t actually coming back the same way. I had the oar in my hand, ready to throw the boat into reverse if necessary.
“They’re coming this way!” Asuna hissed in a panic.
Crap! I needed to think. We could wait here for the large ship and prepare for battle, if need be…but that wasn’t an option. The fact that we’d been shown the scene of the sailors accepting the bag of money was surely a warning that if we fought with them, the quest would end in failure.
That left the option of retreat, but the canal we were in now was just five yards wide, too narrow for the Tilnel to turn around. Going in reverse was too slow; the large gondola would catch up to us before we could retreat to the first side tunnel.
That left just one option.
“Hnng!”
I tilted the oar backward with the quietest possible grunt, putting the boat into a full-speed reverse. Once we were back at the door that Asuna had claimed was just another dead end, I hopped onto the narrow dock and held out my hand to the dumbfounded fencer.
“The rope!”
Once she caught on, she was blindingly fast. She picked up the coiled rope at the prow and hurled it to me. I tossed the end around the bitt, making sure it notified me of the ship’s location being locked, then turned around and threw the door open, leaping inside.
Unlike the countless side paths we’d explored earlier, this door opened into a large storeroom. Various goods were stacked up against the walls, but there were no chests. Wait, that wasn’t the point of this.
“Does it even matter if we hide in here? Won’t they just see the Tilnel outside?” Asuna whispered as she tried to shut the door without making any sound.
I nodded and added, “Good point, but there’s no other escape for us. If they float past without noticing, great, and even if they disembark, they can’t destroy the unmanned boat while it’s tied up.”
“But what if they come in here?!”
“Then we’ll just have to hide…”
I looked around the room and picked up a folded piece of cloth from the ground a short distance away. Upon unfolding it, I found it was surprisingly thin and light and large enough to hide two.
“Just get under here,” I suggested, but Asuna grabbed my wrist.
“Wait! This isn’t just a piece of loose cloth.”
Her slender fingers tapped the surface of the silvery-gray material, popping up a property window. I immediately noticed that the description was too long for a piece of junk.
ARGYRO’S SHEET: A CLOTH MADE OF SILK FROM A RARE AQUATIC SPIDER. THIS CLOTH WILL HIDE ANYTHING IT COVERS, BUT ONLY IN A PLACE SURROUNDED BY WATER.
The instant those words registered in my brain, I raced to the door of the storeroom and opened it just enough to see the exit of the hallway. The silhouette of the large ship was much closer, but it hadn’t entered the tunnel yet.
There was no time for hesitation. I ordered Asuna to stay here with a look, then slipped out of the door and dashed to the ship, hunched over. Within seconds, I had placed the silvery sheet over the Tilnel.
The instant the airy material covered the boat from prow to stern, it took on the exact same color as the surface of the water, and even when I tried, I could hardly make out the boat at all. The sailors wouldn’t notice it now—assuming they didn’t ram right into it.
That would all come down to luck, though. I rushed back into the storeroom and shut the door. Asuna and I pressed our heads together to peer out of the peephole in the door at the same time. Even at this close distance, there was no way to se
e the Tilnel moored just feet away.
“If we’d just searched this room first, we wouldn’t have had to panic like this,” Asuna murmured regretfully.
I couldn’t help but grin, despite the circumstances. “See? It pays off to explore the nooks and crannies. Let’s shoot for a hundred percent map completion in the next dungeon.”
“Shh! Here they come!”
She elbowed me in the side to shut me up. A few seconds later, the prow of the large ship appeared to the right, followed by the massive length of the craft, then its stern. The sailors did not notice the invisible Tilnel, nor did they crash into it. They just passed by, much faster now that their payload was lifted.
Only once the ship had traveled an appropriate distance away did the two of us let out long breaths.
“Ahh…I don’t like these…what do you call them? Stealth quests?”
I had no disagreement with her on that one. “The tension is so much higher in a VRMMO…If you hadn’t noticed the special properties of that cloth, they’d have found us.”
It was meant to be an idle observation, but the fencer blinked several times in surprise, looking conflicted.
“Wh-who cares about that? What’s our plan now? Will we follow the ship again?”
“No…I’m guessing it’ll just go right back to Rovia,” I noted, bringing up my window to check the quest log. The latest prompt was still the vague command to FIND THE SECRET OF THE TRANSPORT SHIP. “Looks like we still need to find out what’s inside those wooden boxes.”
“…I suppose so. And that means sneaking up those stairs crawling with Fallen Elves.”
“The stealth mission continues. If you’re tired, we can probably turn back to town and resume tomorrow. What do you think?” I asked, just in case, but Asuna refused at once.
“Thanks, but I’m fine. I’d rather not have to fight all those crabs and turtles and shellfish again.”
“Good point…Let’s put in some more good work, then.”
When I returned to the dock, I had to reach out and feel for the Argyro’s Sheet in order to take it off the boat. Even limited to the waterside, its all-encompassing hiding ability seemed too convenient to exist at such a low floor in the overall game. When I checked the properties tab again, sure enough, it had already lost close to 10 percent of its durability, just from five minutes of use.
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