Chapter 8 - Elven Encounter

14 December 2022, 3.15pm

Wandering Mists Forest, 3rd Floor

When I received Argo's message that the 2nd Floor was cleared, I immediately set off for the 3rd Floor entrance, which was as expected located at the far end of the 2nd Floor boss room.

"2nd Floor's cleared, Z. The team's done it with no player deaths, apparently. The third and final boss's called Asterios the Taurus King. By the way, you should visit the 3rd Floor through the 2nd Floor Labyrinth, and not the teleport gate that's about to be activated soon. I'll be waitin' for you there, with some juicy info you might like to buy. You're one of my favorite customers, after all."

That was what Argo's message had said.

Well, I did save her from being killed by an axe-wielding minotaur a week ago, so it looks like she's offering me info on the 3rd Floor, since she'd already recognized me as one of her 'privileged' customers to even know that there's information on sale. No other non-beta tester would know that.

To cut a very long story short, I got through the 2nd Floor Labyrinth without problems, though I was travelling very slowly, since I was the only one reaching the 2nd Floor boss room. Most of the player population were using the teleport gates.

When I stepped into the 3rd Floor, I felt the change of atmosphere flowing through me. Trees were surrounding me all around, providing a very dark environment, and the path in front of me was only visible due to the small amounts of light that seeped into the forest.

"Welcome to the Wandering Mists Forest, Z."

Argo suddenly appeared beside me, and I jumped a little from the shock of her presence.

"As you can see, the 3rd Floor's basically a giant forest. " Argo continued. "And it's the first floor that really defines what SAO really is about."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"The first 2 floors were kinda easy to clear, with only monsters to fight. In this floor, however..."

Argo paused, and stretched out her hand as if she wanted to receive something. " 1000 col if you want me to continue. This is related to the info I'm offering to sell you."

I brought down my menu with a slightly skeptical look, and transferred 1000 col to Argo using the trading system of SAO. Col transfers can be made between players, but they must be agreed between both parties for col to be transferred from a player to another.

Argo settled her received col and cleared her throat. " What you're gonna encounter on the 3rd Floor are AI enemies, more specifically, enemy NPCs."

"They can only be encountered in a specific kind of quest that's introduced on the 3rd Floor, and those kind of quests are called campaigns. These kind of quests are not the normal ones that you just receive and complete after hunting or collecting stuff. They can last throughout a few subsequent floors, as long as you don't abandon them halfway through."

"Interesting." I said. "So this is like being part of a story?"

"You could say that," Argo replied. "Anyway, if you want me to help you start this campaign quest, you gotta pay a fee of 9000 col. I decided that the total cost of this set of info would be 10000 col."

"Can't there be any discounts?"

"Not this time, cos business is business. Though if you become a regular customer of mine, I would consider discountin' one of your future purchases someday."

That sounded like a saleswoman putting up an advertisement to encourage customers to buy more of her products.

I sighed a little and paid the rest of the fee to her. 10000 col seemed relatively cheap anyway, due to the number of ox-type monsters I had hunted to earn as much col and EXP as I could for the past week.

Argo gestured me to follow her into the forest and took off in her usual sprint. I tried to keep up using my Sprint skill once again.

We entered a path that branched out from the main path we were taking before a minute ago. Argo hid behind a bush. I did the same beside her.

"See the battle going on there?" Argo asked as she peeked through the bush.

I peeked through as well and witnessed 2 NPCs fighting each other ( I knew they were NPCs because they didn't have green cursors on top of their heads). One of them had relatively fair skin, and the other had darker skin.

"You're about to start the Elf War campaign." Argo said. "Those 2 elves are from different elf tribes, namely the Forest Elves and the Dark Elves. Apparently these 2 sides don't like each other."

"And why is that?" I asked.

"Only one way to find out, isn't it?" Argo replied with a smirk. " You've got to choose to help either elf to fight and defeat their opponent."

"Huh..." I mumbled.

Argo brought down her menu to check the time."Anyway, I've got a tight schedule today. Need to meet a client for a business deal in 10 minutes. Good luck!"

After watching Argo run off, I looked back to see the fight still continuing. I'd already made the decision which elf I should help by then.

I readied my Sharp Javelin+3 and burst through the bush, charging towards the dark-skinned elf in a surprise attack.

-------------------------------**********************------------------------------

14 December 2022, probably about 4pm

Wandering Mists Forest, 3rd Floor

I couldn't remember how long it took to defeat the dark elf, with the help of the forest elf, but it sure felt a bit boring during that time.

The dark elf's attack patterns were predictable, but her HP bar decreased very slowly.

When the dark elf suddenly fled due to her HP bar being only 10% full, I stopped to catch a quick rest. "Finally..." I muttered.

The forest elf who fought with me sheathed her weapon, which was a gleaming one-handed longsword with a silver handle, and approached me. The words,' LEGOLIA, FOREST ELVEN ROYAL GUARD' formed above her.

"I thank you for aiding me in driving off the dark elf." The forest elf said.

"Umm... You're welcome." I replied, and turned around to see an exclamation mark on top of the forest elf.

It was the quest marker to start the Elf War campaign.

A window appeared stating the details of the campaign quest. I touched the button labelled 'Accept', and the window disappeared. The exclamation mark turned into a question mark after that.

This signalled that I'm currently doing the campaign quest.

The forest elf then started to continue speaking, as if the window I used just now didn't exist."My name is Legolia. What is your name, human?"

I was a little taken aback by her introduction. "My name's...Zenalyth."

Legolia started to repeat my name."Zena...Zenalyth... is this how I should call you?"

"Yeah, that should be it." I said. I'd imagined that quest NPCs have some way to pronounce a player's name, no matter how hard it would be to pronounce it.

Legolia then continued," I am one of the forest elves of this floating castle. It is rare to meet a human such as yourself."

"Same here." I replied.

She bent down and picked up something, which I then realized was a ring with a green gem attached onto it.

"Thank goodness the Jade Key is safe." Legolia held the ring carefully.

"There were items on the ground meh...?" I looked around on the ground, forgetting for a moment to play along with the story line of the campaign quest. I seemed to have difficulty noticing stuff lying on the ground for some reason. Take the time when Argo found the ball of yarn by the stairs of the giant labyrinth during my secret boss hunt with her as an example.

Legolia turned towards me and bowed in salute." I must properly thank you for your assistance in acquiring the Jade Key, the first secret key, for me."

"Umm.. you're welcome." I tried to find a better statement to compliment her thanks, but no such words came to my mind.

The forest elf then announced, " Come with me to our base. My commander will reward you for your help."

"Well, I'd be honored." I said.

The question mark above Legolia's head vanished, and a second and smaller HP gauge formed below mine. A message formed in front of me stated that I had formed a party with Legolia.

Suddenly, another question mark appeared on top of Legolia. She walked closer to me and asked, " Zenalyth, why did you not kill the dark elf back then? You should have done it."

I took a step back." Wait...what?"

Legolia, a NPC, asking about another NPC's welfare? And she even told me that I had a choice to kill that NPC. Is this a subquest that triggers in the scenario when a player decides to let an enemy NPC go?

"We forest elves and the dark elves are at war." Legolia explained. " I would have taken the opportunity to kill that dark elf for trying to steal the Jade Key, but you were always trying to attack her during the fight. I wish to know why you chose to spare her life."

I stood there deep in thought. So was I expected to kill the dark elf during the fight? But the dark elf fled instead of staying on to fight me and Legolia.

If the implication Legolia gave me was true, then that dark elf was originally supposed to be programmed to fight to the death. That might have happened during the beta test.

But in the current SAO, trying to kill the dark elf became an option. Choosing to spare her life at the verge of her death was another.

I looked at Legolia, and spoke," It's not worth it to fight the dark elf if she doesn't want to fight anymore. It can't be helped."

Besides, I didn't know that I could try to kill the dark elf while she was fleeing. The SAO game system might not have allowed that.

The question mark above Legolia's head vanished once more, and Legolia gestured me to follow her.

"This way. I believe that my fellow comrades will not mind a human visiting our base."

"Sure." I started to move off into the woods with Legolia, thinking about the relationship between the humans and the elves in Aincrad. If the forest elves at the base did mind me visiting there, this campaign quest that I was currently doing would not even exist.

I guess the elves had a relatively friendly history with the humans, from what I could tell so far.

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