The Grind Never Stops
With the quest completed me and Kirito headed back to the old woman to turn in the quest. She promptly handed us both a sword and began brewing a pot with the newly added ovule from the Nepenthes. Kirito slumped into a chair so i followed suit, sliding down the wall to sit on the floor just a few feet away. We both watched the old woman brew the contents of the pot until she poured some into a cup and began making her way to a door that was closed.
For some reason Kirito stood and followed her, so I joined them, peaking around Kirito's shoulder to see a small girl laying sickly on the bed. Eventually Kirito began to cry and approached the bed before falling to his knees and letting out wracking sobs. I could only imagine what he must be feeling right now. I didn't have anybody that I would miss in that last world, but he… He has a family that is desperate for his return, and he is most likely just as desperate to return. That's probably the reason for why he pushed himself so hard in this world.
I stepped back out of the doorway and quietly shut it, and slid down to next to the door still hearing his muffled sobs. I used this moment to get a few quick moments of sleep and it came quickly. It was something we learned how to do at Ascension as sleep came sparingly, so we had to be able to quickly enter it. Eventually I was doused from my sleep by the sounds of him standing, so I stood as well and readied myself.
"Sorry, Shinji. I don't know what came over me." He said still wearing a sorrowful expression and I placed a hand on his shoulder.
"No worries Kirito." I said with a shake of my head, and he smiled before we headed to the door to exit the building right as another player entered. When we exited the building and stepped out into the open we could see quite a few players already out and about in the village. Kirito looked to me and I could tell he was thinking hard.
"Shinji." He said finally and I nodded for him to continue.
"It's only midday and this many people are already here. I say we head back into the forest and make our way to the next safe zone right outside the forest. We're high enough levels it shouldn't be too difficult, unless you need to rest." I stared at him and eventually gave a dumbfounded expression.
"Kirito I already told you I wouldn't be dead weight. That means I'm willing to do what you think is best for us to continue to grow stronger and stay ahead of the curve. If that meant staying up all night slaying everything in that forest until nothing remained then so be it. The others will catch up eventually, but if we're are going to make sure we make it back to your family then we need to everything in our power to increase our strength as quickly as possible."
Kirito was taken aback by my sudden tirade, but the only thing he said caught even me off guard.
"We are you're family too now." Admittedly I was a bit speechless and just nodded. Kirito smiled at this and turned towards the forest.
"Everything is decided then. We'll kill everything in our path on the way to the next town. Every time new players show up we will move on." He said with a new confidence filling his voice and I smiled at him.
"Sounds good to me. Lets get moving then." Kirito nodded and he began running with me close behind as we ran back into the forest. He equipped and drew his newly acquired Anneal Blade and I drew my daggers.
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[A Month Later]
Me and Kirito were currently inside the Labyrinth that is supposed to house the boss monster but nobody has been able to find its location yet. Me and Kirito were currently maintaining a comfortable 7 level advantage over the other players with our near impossible pace. Rather than using a normal sleep schedule we operated on a different one. When we woke up at 5am we would head to the labyrinth and grind until 10am where we would sleep in a safe area inside the labyrinth until 11am. Then grind from 11am-5pm and sleep until 6pm, then we would level up without break until 12am where we would head back to town and sleep until 5am before doing it all over again.
This gives us 7 hours of sleep throughout the whole day, but for 2 of those hours we are inside the dungeon sleeping in a safe area. At first Kirito was struggling with it, but after a month he had pretty much adapted. This meant that we had 17 hours dedicated to leveling up, of course this would vary depending if we needed items from town, or when we were still moving from one area to the next to stay ahead of the rest of players.
However our momentum is halted as Kirito stares at a fencer in the labyrinth battling a level 6 Ruin Kobold Trooper. Something that me and him have become able to dispatch with ease with our levels being much higher than even the closest players. Something about this person seemed familiar though, I just couldn't put a finger on who it could be. That is until I saw them execute their sword skill with their rapier, and the memories of the boss fight against ill fang in the anime flashed through my head.
The cloak, the rapier and the speed at which the person moved, it all clicked at once and I realized who I was looking at. Asuna. I didn't realize that Kirito and Asuna had met so soon? I thought they only met at the boss meeting, has my being here changed things? Or is this something that was in the light novels? I can't be sure, but I'll just keep rolling with it as I have been.
Asuna's skill was certainly noteworthy for her level, but honestly I couldn't help but find her to be a bit slow personally. I guess she couldn't help it being quite a few levels lower, as even Kirito was a bit slower than me with him putting more to strength than agility. Eventually she slayed the kobold and fell back against the wall of the cavern and slid down. Kirito stepped forward and began walking toward her and I just followed after.
"A little overkill if you ask me." They traded looks for a moment before Kirito sighed and spilled into a monologue on gaming terms so I just tuned him out. I only clued back into the conversation when she spoke these next few words.
"We're all going to die anyway." I turned back to see her trying to stand up by supporting herself with the wall.
"2,000 people died in a single month. And we haven't even finished the first floor. There's no way to beat this game. The only difference is when and where you die, sooner… or later.." I huffed in amusement and she looked at me as if having finally realized my presence.
"Something funny?" She asked as she glared at me and I just smirked.
"If you really didn't care about dying, then why do you fight in such a way that you don't take any hits? Have there not been times we're taking a hit would have led to you getting in another 1 or 2 strikes? I don't think you want to die as much as you try to make it seem with your words. Even if you have given up all hope on making it out of here, instead of throwing your life away why not at least put it to good use. Such as finding the boss room, or even helping defeat the boss, you're doing nobody any good fighting yourself to exhaustion against monsters that will just respawn."
I finally finished and Kirito just looked at me with wide eyes, most likely not expecting me to have gone on a monologue of my own. Frankly I probably didn't need too as she obviously doesn't die in her or kill herself based on what I know, but I just find people who think they've accepted death to be annoying. Especially when they don't even truly know the gravity of it, though do I even know the gravity of it anymore? I mean I was laid dying and then was transported to this world..
Mine and Kirito's attention snapped to Asuna when she fell over on to the floor and I face palmed. He looked to me and I sighed before nodding. The unspoken question was should we do something about this? And of course I knew Kirito's conscience wouldn't let him leave her here, so we carried her out of the labyrinth and into the surrounding forest.
We camped out in the forest with Asuna sleeping on the ground next to the small fire we had lit. Kirito was grinding skill levels in some of the other skills he had picked up, while I was working away at my throwing weapons skill with several bundles of throwing picks and knives. Like when using normal weapons the thrown weapons were assisted but he system to a certain extent, and if you held them with a pause similar to starting a sword skill the assistance increased. However you could free throw them with barely any assistance and that's why I was currently practicing.
The rustling of Asuna shifting, had me turn to look at her and I could hear her groan before speaking.
"You shouldn't… have bothered." She grits out and I scoffed again before turning back to my practice.
"And let all that map data you probably collected be lost?" Kirito questioned, his eyes never leaving his project. Asuna grunted in annoyance before sitting up.
"Fine, take it." She growled out and sent the map data to Kirito. She clumsily stood with shaky legs and began to head towards the labyrinth again when Kirito stopped her.
"Hang on, if any part of you wants to beat this game then come to the meeting?" She paused in her stumbling walk and turned to face Kirito, but not before sending me a quick glance.
"Meeting?" She asked quietly.
"There's going to be a meeting tonight at the town of Tolbana near the tower. They're going to plan out how to beat the boss of the first floor labyrinth." Her gaze stayed on Kirito's still moving form, working on leveling up his First aid skill. She stood there for several long minutes before sighing and slumping back to the ground.
"Fine. I'll go to this meeting." Kirito's head nodded to her words as his finger continued moving and she finally asked.
"What are you 2 doing? You haven't stopped icing since I woke up." Finally we both paused to look at her and we stored our items and began putting out the campfire.
"We we're working on leveling up some of our skills, there's more to this game than just blindly swinging your sword at monsters." Kirito said as the last embers of the fire was snuffed out under his boot and we were lit only by the light of the full moon. Asuna didn't answer at first but just nodded, and hesitantly accepted Kirito's offered hand to help her up from the ground.
"Alright fencer, we travel a little differently than most people do. We travel in a serpentine pattern trying to kill as many monsters as we can when traveling. We've seen you fight, so try not to slow us down too much." I said cheekily and she whipped her rapier out of her sheath and went to point it at me. Only to find herself flying through the air and onto her back with my dagger to her neck.
"Careful fencer. There's no safe area out here and people not as nice as me would but you for pointing a blade at them. Word of advice, if you draw your sword on someone make sure you have the strength to follow through if it turns ugly." She glared at me hatefully but eventually nodded her head. I pulled my dagger away and sheathed it before holding out a hand to help her up, but she knocked it away and stood on her own.
"Good, let's get going then." Kirito said as he watched the scene unfold, she wasn't the first person he had seen me throw and it most likely wouldn't be the last.
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Author's Note
Another chapter down the drain, and we met Asuna. No, there will be no Asuna pairing.
See ya next chap