Chapter 25 - Sakura Entrance

21 June 2023

Sakura Plains, 32nd Floor

I swore that gate wasn't around the last time I visited the Sakura Plains.

But Argo had told me that it would be there, waiting in the centre of the hunting field.

I stopped in front of the gate and looked up at its red arch, which was shaped like a wide 'U', sitting on top of a horizontal bar connected by two poles literally rooted to the ground with the width of the pathway separating them apart.

I'd seen this tall gate before, not in this world, but in the real world. Taking a look right in front of it was a first for me, though.

And if I'm not wrong about that.....

Argo crossed the gate, unamused at the sight of it. I followed, having a tugging feeling that the gate would disappear sooner or later.

Catching up beside Argo, I looked around at my surroundings, as I always would.

The sakura blossom trees lining up the pathway on either side appeared the same as what the hunting field would look like. But I wasn't in the Sakura Plains right now. At least, that was what Argo told me last night.

We were in an instance, which was an area created by the system separately from the main Floor area to accommodate a special quest, such as a campaign, that a player would be doing. Simply speaking, if instances didn't exist, I might run into other players while doing a campaign quest, which might contradict the story plotline in that particular quest.

That was how I understood the concept, as the campaign quests in SAO always had some dramatic story plotline that would only involve the player doing the campaign in question. Everything that the player did in that campaign was supposedly done either with his companion NPCs, or by himself.

It wasn't like I never encountered an instance before. The forest elf camp in the Elf War campaign way back in the 3rd Floor was the very first instance I visited, though I didn't know that I was in a separate area at that time.

We finally reached another gate that had exactly the same design as the first one, but had an abnormal difference. The space of the shape made from the borders of the gate was filled with flowing energy, twirling around its centre in an unstable manner.

I silently tried to guess what I was seeing to the best of my ability. That looked like...some teleport gate from another dimension. Is that some kind of entrance?

"It's magic, in case yer wondering." Argo said. "One of the remnants of magic that still exists in this world. Yer might still remember, if yer still been studyin' on the lore of Aincrad, especially the part when the Great Separation happened."

"Huh....." I said. Of course I still recalled the Great Separation, but reading up on the details obviously wasn't on my priority list now.

Argo went through the gate and disappeared, using her arm to wave at me from the other side a second later. I stepped in, albeit being a bit apprehensive, and was enveloped in the colours of the warp gate.

On the other side, was the inside of a tunnel that led to an exit. I could see the exit, but it was too blinded with light to see anything further on.

Argo was already at the exit and had just went into the blinding light, and so I jogged to reach the exit as well. What I saw now was breathtakingly magnificent.

I was literally on a path attached to the inner wall of a gigantic cylindrical structure. There was no "cover" on top of the structure, so to speak, so sunlight was pouring into the big circular area at the bottom.

And as I looked over the stone barrier lining the path, the bottom was occupied by what seemed like..... a settlement. A town.....no, a city, I had thought, judging by the design of those buildings, despite them being arranged in a rather irregular manner. While the city was positioned the middle, it was also surrounded by trees which covered until the inner walls. Still, the city took about 80% of the area, which by then had strongly reminded me of the Floors of Aincrad.

Assuming that the path was the only way to proceed anywhere, I followed it, gradually moving down the structure, as how the path was built. The end of the path brought me to the edge of the forest area, with Argo waiting for me there.

Having a closer look at the trees, I realized they weren't trees that grew in any of the Floors before.

"Are those bamboos?" I mumbled to myself.

The clearly segmented parts on the stems gave away that they were, indeed, bamboos, but they wouldn't be called stems anymore if they were as thick as normal tree trunks. Plus, they had branches and leaves on top of their trunks, which essentially made the forest.....look like a forest.

"Yer should be able to find the quest marker now." Argo informed me.

I opened up the quest navigation system with my menu and started my venture into the forest. It wasn't long before we got to the destination, which was an area scattered with a few wooden houses.

I spotted a campfire burning in the distance, and headed there, with Argo following me without a word. So far, all these places and locations were as what Argo had described to me last night, but I'd arrived at the point where I wouldn't know what would happen next.

At that point in time, a strong breeze of wind hit me squarely, pass my whole body. My eyes caught the sight of two figures appearing in a blur, several metres in front of me. The quest markers on top of their heads appeared as fast as they did.

I covered and blinked my eyes before getting a good look at the duo.

Both of them were wearing robes and cloth that covered every single part of their bodies except their heads, dressing as the kind of people I knew that came from the country of Japan.

Ninjas.

They were NPCs, no doubt about it. But their movements seemed too natural, even if they were too fast for me to analyze. Argo folded her arms and broke into.....a smile.

The male NPC spoke first with a tint of Japanese accent in his voice.

"Greetings. My name is Hakuro. What brings you, a visitor from the Floating Castle, to our humble village?"

Village? He called that giant circular settlement a village? Setting my thoughts aside, I responded appropriately.

"I have come to meet....the chief of your village."

Seeing as he didn't ask for my name, I didn't give mine.

Hakuro gave me a polite bow and answered, "Then you will have to go through an entrance trial in order for us to welcome you in."

"'Kay....and what would that be?" I asked.

The ninja moved his arms at flash speed, producing a pitch black dagger from whatever pocket he had on him.

"A trial in combat."

I turned to Argo, who was staring at me with a really wide grin. Those were such simple words, but they had no doubt in their meaning. So I was to face the NPC in a duel? That was sudden.

"It's just a duel to test the player doing the quest, and of course, it's in the 'Stop at Yellow' mode. Just so yer know, only half of the players who did this passed on their first try." Argo said in earnest.

I looked at the duel request window which had just popped up in front of me, and decided to let out all the thoughts I had been holding back since the tori gate entrance to Argo.

"A trial, huh? It's cool and all, but I really can't help but wanting to say that the setting of this quest, and the NPCs.....they all have that vibe of, you know, your country. I mean, for you, a Jap--"

KSHK.

My words were cut short by Argo's dagger blade, which was brandished right in front of my mouth. The shock froze me up, and my eyes rolled to see Argo with her face giving a message of 'I'm gonna cut you if you continue'. Well, maybe not exactly that message, but who would ever dare to do anything with a knife at their face?

Something had bugged at me while Argo sheathed back her dagger. The speed of her dagger, even if it was supposed to have a fast attack speed, moved way too fast to be true. In fact, Argo's dagger was in its sheath before she stunned me with it, so it was all the more impossible for her dagger to appear in her hand in an instant.

I could have pondered more about that strange move if I didn't have a duel request window still floating in front of me, waiting to be confirmed.

"....Um....just forget what I said ...let's continue....." I tapped on the accept button in the duel request window, and a floating window appeared on my right side diagonally.

The window displayed '60' as it materialized, and started to count down from that number. Hakuro moved back with a swift step and stayed there, poised with his dagger held at chest level. I took a few steps back as well, bringing out my spear, Crystal Poleshard+7.

Argo was already a few metres behind me, trying to get a good angle to watch the show. I held my spear with both hands in a stance like I always did, and prepared myself to clash blades 47 seconds from now.

I'd travelled so much just to trigger a quest marker hidden in the 32nd Floor, but I knew I couldn't just end the day with a well-deserved rest yet.

This Japanese style campaign quest...had only just begun.

=====================================================