Sword Art Online Progressive 5

by Reki Kawahara

  “S-since when did you start acting like that?”

  “I also did this when I reached level six and level twelve,” I insisted.

  At last, Asuna recognized the occasion. “Oh, so you got another skill slot…In that case, some congratulations are indeed in order.”

  “Yahoo!”

  “Sure, sure, sure. So what are you taking for your fifth skill?”

  “Mamma mia!” I cried, realizing I was getting a bit carried away just as my partner abruptly hit me with an ice-cold stare. I cleared my throat in embarrassment.

  “Currently, I’ve got one-handed longswords, martial arts, Search, and Hiding…so I think I’ll either go with Throwing Knives or Sprint…”

  “I recommend Sprint,” she said. “It cuts down on movement time, and it just feels good to run.”

  “Yeah, I like that skill, but…”

  I considered that it had been a month since we started working together, and that it was probably okay to ask by now, but even still, I felt hesitation.

  “Say, Asuna…you’ve got rapiers and Light Metal Armor and Tailoring and Sprint, and what’s the other one?”

  At level 19, Asuna only had four slots still, but thanks to the ultra-megaton rare item that was likely unique among the entire world, the Crystal Bottle of Kales’Oh, she could effectively use a fifth skill. From what I knew, she was using the bottle to switch between Tailoring and Sprint, so whatever she had in the final slot had been a mystery all this time.

  Asuna blinked three times at the question, and to my surprise, she looked up and away from me, pursing her lips. That only made me more curious, but I never would have predicted her reply.

  “Um…it’s a secret. I don’t want you to get mad at me.”

  “H-huh?! Get mad? …Me? Hang on, I’m not going to get mad…Though, I mean, whatever skills you choose are your own business…”

  “The teachers who say that are the ones who get the angriest.”

  “T-teachers…”

  Well, she might be right about that. But I’m still not a teacher.

  Asuna took advantage of my silence to jab her finger at me. She continued, “We’re not talking about me right now. I was asking you what skill you’re going to take.”

  “Uh, r-right…Well, I think it’ll either be Throwing Knives or Sprint, but I’ll hold off for now…”

  “I see. Well, let’s keep moving,” she commanded, turning her gaze to the north without chastising my lack of decisiveness. I guess she really didn’t want to talk about her fifth skill.

  For the last few minutes, we’d been walking in sandy canyons that reminded me of the American state of Utah—based on movies, not any personal experience, of course. The terrain was monotonous but complex here, and consulting the map didn’t tell you much except for which direction you were traveling, but the only way to reach our goal was to get through this natural maze.

  As long as we knew the proper route, we could run straight there and avoid all the monsters, but even a beater like me, who’d only run the maze once several months ago, didn’t have the layout memorized. We just had to keep pressing forward, slaughtering all the scorpions, centipedes, and Mongolian death worms that crawled out of cracks in the dusty canyon walls. The light trickling into the canyon was getting darker and thicker by the time we finally came across a sign of civilization.

  Suddenly, the canyon floor was wider, and many stone pillars lined the way, with stone blocks placed like a bridge over the fine sand. There was a large gate ahead of us, atop which streamed a multitude of banners with a familiar insignia of scimitars and horns.

  “…Wow, that is huge…”

  Asuna was tiring from all the constant battle, but even she couldn’t hide her reaction to the distant castle gate. Level-wise, she was still plenty strong for this area, but the combination of all these poisonous monsters and the wariness of fresh PK attempts had only amplified the mental toll.

  We couldn’t just stay on guard for these PKers all the time. We had to think of proactive ways to remove the threat they posed, I told myself as we headed over the stone bridge.

  “Castle Galey up there is the largest of the dark elf fortresses. The building itself isn’t as posh as Yofel Castle, but they’ve got a dining hall and a bath.”

  “Wait, you mentioned a bath?”

  Asuna didn’t jump into the air with a “Yahoo!” but the change in her expression suggested her energy meter had shot from 30 percent up to 70 or so. She picked up her pace, and I hurried to match her, eventually deciding I ought to elaborate.

  “The thing is…the dining hall is great, but there’s something about the bath that might be a problem…or might not…”

  “……What is it?”

  “Wellll, it’s, uh, actually…public…”

  Asuna didn’t understand what I meant at first. She repeated “Public…?” a few times, then scowled. “Is this like the antonym of instanced? So it’s not a space that’s just for us? Other players can come in?”

  “That’s right. Out of all the dark elf spots, only the queen’s castle on the ninth floor and Castle Galey up there are public…I’m guessing they found it difficult to have a whole bunch of these fortresses and castles all existing in the same space at the same time…”

  “Well, Yofel Castle was plenty big, too. But I guess I can’t complain…So your point is that other players might enter the dining hall and bath and stuff,” she said. I could practically hear the effervescence of her energy meter decreasing, so I hastened to clarify.

  “In theory, yes, but the only people who can pass through that gate are ones doing the ‘Elf War’ questline with the dark elf faction, who are at least as far along as we are. I don’t think there’s a single other player who qualifies at this point, so go ahead and bathe to your heart’s content…I could even stand guard outside, like I did on the third floor…”

  Asuna appeared to grapple with this idea but abruptly shifted into dead seriousness. “And the dark elf castle is definitely not a safe haven, right?”

  I was briefly taken aback, and I glanced up at the gate, which was much closer now. The anti-criminal code that promised absolute protection over a player’s HP and life was invisible, but there was something different about the air surrounding the castle when compared to human towns. I looked back at her and nodded.

  “Yeah…I believe so. It’s theoretically possible for Morte’s gang to get inside and attack us somehow. But like I said, they’ll need to be involved with the dark elf faction to do that. I don’t think they had that much time to work with…and at the very least, it would be impossible for J—for the dagger user infiltrating the ALS.”

  Asuna’s eyebrow twitched when I started to say the name, but her reaction didn’t go beyond that. Her suggestion involved an unexpected character. “Do you think…Viscount Yofilis would tell us if we asked? Could he say if Morte or his friends were working for the dark elves?”

  “Hmm…”

  I came to a stop without realizing it, crossing my arms. Eventually, I shook my head. “No…Yofel Castle is an instance, so Viscount Yofilis should exist in different states for each party working on his quests. According to our Viscount Yofilis, he’d probably say we’re the only humans assisting the dark elves in their struggle.”

  “Oh…Once again, I have to say, I don’t like that system,” Asuna opined with a shrug. She turned to the tall castle gate. “We’d better be on guard in the castle, then. C’mon, let’s go.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed, and my partner and I crossed the last bit of the stone bridge to approach the huge gate, which appeared to be carved out of one single, giant rock formation.

  In all previous camps and forts, there had always been guards at the entrance, but there was a special reason that Castle Galey’s elves almost never ventured outside. Instead, sharp voices issued forth from the bay windows atop the gate.

  “Begone!”

  “This gate does not open for the likes of humankind!”

  The
se warnings were even harsher than those at Yofel Castle. But by holding high the Sigil of Lyusula ring that Viscount Yofilis gave me, I caused the guards at the bay windows to turn around and signal behind them. A clear, crisp bell began clanging from somewhere within the castle, and the gate slowly opened.

  It would take nearly a full minute for the gate to open all the way, so once there was space enough for a person to get through, I prodded Asuna to go on, then followed after her. The instant we crossed the threshold, the gate reversed motion and began to rumble closed.

  Asuna took three steps before she stopped and exclaimed, “Ooooh…!”

  Castle Galey was built—more like sculpted—out of a circular basin over six hundred feet across. The three-story castle curved along the inside walls of the basin, but rather than being built of stone or wood, it was carved directly out of the natural rock formation like some ancient ruin.

  Surrounding the castle in a C shape from east to west along the north side was an open area covered in tile mosaics, with dark elf guards and servants quietly coming and going. I didn’t see any players at the moment.

  Standing in the center of this open space was one massive hardwood tree. The desert and canyons we’d walked through to get here featured no plants aside from brown cacti, but the branches of this tree burst with vivid green leaves. A natural spring welled up with crystal-clear water at its roots, sparkling golden where the sun dripped through the branches.

  Near the base of the tree was a large hollow knot, and if I squinted, I could see a faint, pulsing blue light inside it. When Asuna noticed it, she whispered, “Oh…is that…a spirit tree…?”

  “Yeah. There’s a spirit tree in the castle here.”

  The spirit trees were like teleporters that the dark elves and forest elves used to get from floor to floor, much like the gates we players had. But while our teleport gates could always be found in the biggest town on any floor, many of the spirit trees were placed far from any elven fort or castle, which I found curious at first.

  Apparently, the spirit trees had a life span and grew anew every hundred years or so, but even the elves didn’t know where they would sprout. The spirit tree on the sixth floor, however, was an outlier in its longevity and had been living for centuries even at the time they built Castle Galey around it.

  I was explaining all this background information to Asuna when the door on the west wing of the castle opened loudly. Suddenly, Asuna’s face burst into a brilliant smile.

  “Asuna! Kirito!”

  Greeting us and rushing over was a female knight wearing black-steel armor and a dark cloak, with a curved saber on her left hip. Her skin was a brilliant brown, and her short-cropped hair was grayish-purple.

  Asuna walked forward and threw her arms wide. The knight leaped into them and circled her hands around the fencer’s back. After more than five seconds of this embrace, she turned to me with open arms. I’d been going in for a handshake, so I had to stifle my shyness and accept her bear trap. Somewhere in my head was the mysterious statement that It’s through heavy metal armor, so it’s okay.

  The knight’s embrace lasted another five seconds before she let go, stepped back, and clapped my shoulder. It was only three days ago that we parted, but it felt like it had been so much longer. I greeted the member of the Pagoda Knights Brigade of Lyusula, the beautiful dark elf who was our good friend.

  “Kizmel, it’s good to see you.”

  “It is indeed, Asuna and Kirito. I’m glad you’ve come…It must have been difficult to cross this arid land on foot,” she said.

  Asuna beamed. “It was nothing, knowing we’d see you at the end.”

  “I’m happy to hear you say that. Please, come inside and clean off the dust of your journey…but only after you’ve paid your respects to the liege of the castle. I’m sorry to delay your rest…”

  “No, if we’re going to enjoy the hospitality here, we must show our appreciation,” I said. Kizmel looked apologetic but proceeded to escort us across the open square.

  Reflecting on it now, between the camp on the third floor, Yofel Castle on the fourth, and Shiyaya Village on the fifth, the dark elf NPCs had never been openly hostile to us, but they’d been standoffish in general. It seemed that the quests we’d been doing for them had begun to affect their attitude, because as with the camp when we visited yesterday, the various guards and servants we passed in the open area gave us polite salutes. It could’ve just been because we had the elite knight with us, but I returned the gestures all the same. We headed to the left of the spirit tree—to the front gate of the castle.

  The main body of the castle was a story taller than the wings and jutted about fifteen or twenty feet above the cliffs that surrounded the basin. I visited this place during the beta, but I merely accepted the main quest and reported back when I was done, so I didn’t have strong memories of it.

  But when I passed through the guarded doors into the main hall, I couldn’t help but join Asuna in her admiration.

  The exterior of Castle Galey was carved from the reddish rock, with detailed design but a uniform texture that didn’t convey the same beauty that Yofel Castle did. But on the inside, it had finely laid black-and-ivory tiles and no hint at all that it was some archaeological ruin. I felt as though the interior was decorated in a simpler fashion during the beta, so either Argus’s designers put hard work into spiffing up the place, or the dark elves had.

  We crossed the perfectly clean hall—not a speck of dust to be seen—and ascended the double-spiral staircase to the lord’s office on the third floor. The castle’s master, Count Melan Gus Galeyon, was the extremely rare elf who was large and hearty, with a splendid beard. But he did not possess the same humanity (elfanity?) as Viscount Yofilis, and his dialogue was rather generic as he welcomed us with a main quest and three sub-quests.

  When we left his chamber, Kizmel joined us in exhaling with relief. I stared at her profile without realizing what I was doing, and she gave me a guilty smile. “I am of common birth. Since receiving the duty of recovering the hidden keys, I have had more interactions with nobles, but it is not something one gets used to.”

  “Ha-ha, I’m a commoner, too. I get nervous around important people. I don’t know about Asuna, though.”

  I had suspicions that Asuna was quite a pampered rich girl—despite her propensity for instant violence—and the fencer gave me a jab to the side, sure enough. “Of course I’m an ordinary civilian, and yes, I get nervous!”

  “Ha-ha-ha. You two get along so well. Well, let me show you to your room.”

  Kizmel placed a hand on each of our backs and pushed us west, down a windowless hallway. We soon reached a guest chamber on the third floor of the west wing. On the opposite wall from the door was a lattice window, through which the sun setting over the horizon—make that the outer aperture of Aincrad—was bright red.

  “Ooh, it’s such a lovely room!” exclaimed Asuna, doing a full turn at the center of it.

  “It’s a bit smaller than the guest room at Yofel Castle, I know,” Kizmel began, “but it’s actually the second-best in all of Castle Galey.”

  “No, it’s not cramped at all! I bet you could fit five people on this sofa alone!”

  Asuna was showing signs of furniture obsession. She undid her equipment and plopped herself onto a long, wood-framed sofa with an elegant curved design. Kizmel grinned, removed her saber, and sat next to her. I got rid of my sword and armor and sank into an armchair across from them.

  The suite at the Pegasus Hoof, where we talked to Lind about the guild flag, had been quite deluxe, too, but the castle of a count was quite naturally a level or two above in terms of quality furnishing and plushness of cushions. It seemed like a waste that Asuna and I were the only players stopping at this castle…and then I realized I had something to confirm first.

  “Listen, Kizmel.”

  “What is it?” asked the knight, who was reaching for the plate of fruit on the coffee table between us. I chose my words ca
refully.

  “Well…are there any other humans aside from us at Castle Galey, do you know?”

  Suddenly, the smile vanished from Asuna’s face. But Kizmel simply said, “No, there aren’t.”

  “Oh, I see. Sorry for being weird,” I said, relaxing. I picked up a star-shaped fruit from the dish.

  “But I have heard of other human swordsmen assisting the people of Lyusula,” she continued. “Perhaps you will come across them someday.”

  I froze in an awkward position, fruit held just before my open mouth.

  Nearly two months had passed since the start of this game of death—and over two weeks since we opened up the third floor—so it wasn’t strange at all that there would be other players undertaking the “Elf War” quest on the dark elf side. But if that just happened to be Morte and his friends, there was no protection here at Castle Galey against their malice.

  Morte slaughtered Cylon, lord of Stachion, without a moment’s hesitation. So if they wanted to, they would try to do that to the dark elves in this castle…and to Kizmel, too. In pure fighting power, Kizmel was overwhelmingly stronger than them, but there was no overlooking the wicked creativity of a motivated PKer.

  We would need to fulfill our purpose for being at this castle as quickly as we could, I decided. I made eye contact with Asuna, then tossed the fruit in my mouth and opened up my game window.

  What I pulled from my item storage, which the elves called Mystic Scribing, were the double-sided dagger and the two throwing picks, which shared a certain kind of cruelty in their design. As soon as she saw them arranged on the table, Kizmel’s face tightened.

  “…Kirito…what are those…?”

  “Um…we were attacked by two fellow humans last night. They dropped these weapons in the attempt…”

  Kizmel was already on her feet. “You were attacked?!” she yelled. “Was it just attempted robbery, or…?”

  “Uh…I think they were trying to kill us…”