121 chapter 22

Kizmel the dark elf was now being surrounded by the angry group of players, intensively questioning her origin, and as to why she thought that it was a good idea in leading her enemy right into the middle of their group and using them to kill off her pursuer.

"Alright lady, I think it's best if you tell us what the hell is going on."

Kirito questioned her.

Kizmel remained silent for a few seconds under the intense gaze of the now pissed off players.

"I'm sorry I caused you people trouble...but now that you have killed my pursuer, I doubt the forest elves would leave you alone when you're on this floor…" she told the player in a low tone of voice.

"And whose fault was that I wonder." Kibaou glanced at the dark elf woman.

"But don't worry! As long as you human joined our side- we can help you! Also if you help escort me back to our army camp, I'm sure the commander will reward you generously!" Kizmel then told the players about the Dark Elves force within the forest of wavering mist and immediately a quest appeared right in front of all the players.

"Let's go then! What are we waiting for?" Asuna quickly accepted the quest while leaving Kirito and the other stunned for a second- before they too accepted the quest.

"I'm glad you see it my way, human girl," Kizmel told Asuna while having a bright smile on her face.

"It's Asuna." Asuna introduced herself to the dark elf.

"You can call me Kizmel, I'm one of the royal guards that served the queen." the dark elf woman introduced herself to the Asuna and the group.

With the introduction done, they then began to head deeper into the Mist Waver Forest lead by Kizmel herself, along the way they also dispatched monster that stood in their way toward their destination.

When they finally arrived, Kizmel stopped them in front of a dense mist covered area of wood.

"What happened Kizmel?" Asuna asked her.

"It's our camp protection, the mist ahead that was blocking everyone sight- that's one of our dark elf race magical charm, its job was to confuse anyone creature who wandered in too close and make sure that they will never reach the camp," Kizmel told Asuna.

"Magic? I thought the only one who had magic was Leonard." Asuna look confused and she couldn't help but look back to Kirito and Diavel for some answer.

But the two could hardly come up with anything as theoretically- magic does not exist in Sword Art Online.

"This can hardly count as magic, my dear, it's just only a few tricks that our Dark Elf race manage to bring with us before our people were separated from the Earth and brought upward into the sky along with our tribe, we do not possess real magic, but we know that it actually existed thank our elders," Kizmel answers the curious girl.

"Really? So magic does exist?" Asuna asked the dark elf woman excitedly as she thought that this might be a rare chance for her to get something magical.

"It exists- but our tribe does not hold any knowledge about it, unfortunately- making simple charms is all we had." Kizmel reply immediately caused Asuna to be quite downcasted.

"Hold on, let me open the path first," Kizmel told her before heading forward and spoke in an incoherent language that no one could understand, and immediately the mist started to part and created a path for them.

"Let go in, follow me closely everyone," she informed the players.

On the final half of the way to the Dark Elf camp.

"You were saying about a person in your group knowing magic previously, mind if I asked for more detail?" Kizmel asked Asuna.

Upon hearing this question, Asuna turned to Kirito who nodded lightly.

"Yeah...we had a friend who can somewhat use skills that's borderline resembling magic," Kirito told Kizmel instead of Asuna telling her, just in case.

What Kirito said was half of the truth.

"That's wonderful, our elders would indeed like to meet him if we had the chance," Kizmel commented before she came to a stop in a clear and bright opening at the end of the wood.

"Here we are...Lyusula, our home." Kizmel told the player.

******

Back at floor one outside in the open field near the town of the beginning.

"Sachi! Switch with me!" Tetsuo called out to the timid girl who was holding a sword and shield standing in the back of the group, shivering.

"R-right!" Sachi gritted her teeth and switched out with Tetsuo and used her shield to block the next incoming attack of the gray wolf before using her sword to slash at the canine, bringing the monster down to the red zone and staggering it back.

"Sasamaru finish it!" Keita shouted out to the short teen who was on the flank of the wolf.

"I'm on it!" the short teen quickly rushed to the gray wolf side before implanting the blade inside of the creature ribcage, draining the last remaining part of it health point.

"Howl~!" the wolf let out an agonizing howl before it freezes and exploded.

"Nice job Sasamaru, Sachi, the both of you did great." Keita complimented the both of them.

"Yeah, nice work." Tetsuo, the forward attacker also added in.

"I-it's nothing at all, both of you and Keita did most of the work, all I did was blocking the wolf attack with my shield…" Sachi replied timidly while her hand still shaking from the shock of combat.

Keita and Tetsuo witnessed that Sachi was frightened from the fighting and couldn't help but somewhat felt conflicted.

"Sachi...you know that you don't really have to fight on the front line right? You can leave the front line duty to Tetsuo and me, you can fill in a much safer position, such as being an archer or a spear user if you're afraid." Keita suggested.

"No, I want to fight on the front line." Sachi refused the offer that Keita had given her.

"But-" Tetsuo was about to say something but Sachi cut him off.

"I need to get over my fear, I don't want to be a coward hidden behind the back of my friend and just waiting to get kill sooner or later," Sachi told them.

"I want to do my part in as well...I don't want to be a burden to everyone." she then added.

The group of friends just looked at one another after hearing Sachi answer.

They couldn't help but showed a small smile on their face.

"Alright then, let help Sachi get a feel for her role everyone!" Keita encouraged them.

"Yeah!" all of them cheered as Sachi look at them in surprise.

*****

Somewhere further away, Leonard was laying on the soft grass enjoying the little breeze that the first floor had to offer while not so stalking the group of noobies that was more than half of his level.

"Sigh...why the hell am I doing this? …" Leonard started to question his own decision as to why he had to follow this group of players around.

Was it because of their death from the original anime series that ticked him off the most?

Or was it how ridiculously funny it is as shown in the abridged version of Sword Art Online that he had built an attachment to them.

That's the world may never know- unless Leonard decides on what it really was that got him to make this very decision.