CHAPTER 18 - EPIPHANY
APRIL 8th 2023
11th floor Taft
The chilling winds blew through the serene fields of the wild, the sun already set and darkness already encroached the surroundings leading to the current eerie calm in the forest.
This calm was interrupted by the sounds of running steps in the woods.
A group of 3 players were chasing a shadow cat through the woods and two of them were just trailing behind the last player, only there to observe rather than fight.
One of about 175cm tall, mocha coloured skin dressed in casual attire of just a hoodie and baggy trousers with a single katana held in it's sheath by his side.
the female player of the group was of average height tan skin tone and short blonde hair dressed in form fitting modern military camo pants and bikini top covered with a poncho with an unusually long katana strapped to her back.
The last member was a young player with long blue tied to the top with hair clips and androgynous looks dressed in plain black clothes that lets him blend into the surrounding darkness.
Armed with two black daggers that look like poisoned fangs, the player burst forward in a flash arriving by the cat's side silently and stabs into it's side earning it's aggro and prompting it to stop.
These players are Michael, Miku and Yuki respectively.
They were on this floor to take a break from the constant fighting and levelling at the front lines.
Miku and michael caught up to yuki quickly and watched the slow decimation of his opponent with satisfaction.
Yuki jumped back avoiding it's lunge and stabbed the cat mid air following up with a triple precise stabs to it's eyes, throat, and heart almost simultaneously while it was still in midair.
It paused mid jump and broke down into particles.
Yuki attained this level of skill and precision through months of gruelling training from michael and his talent shone through.
Looking at yuki relaxing his stance and running towards them in slow steps, michael recalled the moment he met yuki couldn't help but remember that aura he felt.
He knew that he was special, as he felt two intents from him, his open and nice personality and also his hidden and cold intent just like a viper waiting for the moment to attack it's prey.
He could perfectly hide this intent from others and if not for michael's op skills, he wouldn't have noticed it. He was the perfect assassin if trained properly.
Miku patted yuki's head congratulating him on his successful hunt while also trying to convince him to dress more girly leading to their usual routine of running around.
Yuki at this point has taken to wearing more gender neutral clothes to avoid miku's constant pestering.
Michael smiled openly seeing their action's.
He's come a long way since the floor 1 boss battle.
He has been training yuki and miku vigorously after that incident as he was not okay with what happened on his watch due to his arrogance.
He began taking yuki to the labyrinths to fight monsters with higher levels two weeks in to the second floor, and miku was left to rest for a while.
He focused on training but saw no growth in his training and he became fed up.
On the third week, He decided to confront his emotions, so he began meditating and going through the motions of his life like a movie trying to understand the source of these distressing changes in him.
Going from the time of his earliest memories to now, he could only see one constant of indifference and rare cases of care when with his brother until he logged in to SAO.
He watched his gradual transformation from indifference to excitement at the prospect of fighting stronger foes and winning against impossible odds to the pure satisfaction of saving someone in need and being thanked.
From the feeling of pride of raising an outstanding student to the feeling of pity for seeing innocent players lose their friends, from happiness of discovering a hidden gem to the anger of seeing miku hurt.
At that point he realised that he could understand those feelings at least on the surface level and knew that miku was important to him and he does intend to lose her and now yuki is added to that list.
He decided to be more open to these feelings and let them guide him but also within reason so as not to make lousy mistakes and bad decisions by being too passionate.
As he accepted these thoughts, he perceived a change that he couldn't describe as he felt refreshed and rejuvenated like a man walking through the desert for a long time without water then suddenly finding a lake.
After that session, he began to be more open to miku's advances and respond positively from time to time.
He also limited his use of his observation skills by refining it to a point of control where he could turn them off but the passive effect of detecting bloodlust and lies still remains forming a spherical domain of 10m around himself. (he basically has a rudimentary form of medium level observation haki and he could feel intents and aura).
His relationship with miku became closer and more akin to friends and he took yuki as his little brother.
They usually go to high level zones to hunt without yuki as he is not skilled enough yet but these outings became sort of like dates to them and miku really enjoyed them.
Michael could see her smiling more often and she began to improve at a tremendous rate because she enjoyed this new real side of michael.
Michael stopped faking his words and putting a facade in front of strangers and embraced this new him, but he still felt some thing missing.
He began to improve at an impressive rate. His
On floor 4, Michael, miku and yuki joined the front liners once more to fight the floor boss.
This time michael didn't hold back and took the lead with miku and yuki.
He was part of the vanguard squad, always interrupting the boss whenever a critical strike was about to land on a player.
For this fight michael equipped a fully upgraded great sword and matched the bosses strikes blow for blow, with miku assisting him as the bosses level was above his and yuki at the side stealthily chipping away at it's health.
The other guilds present joined in the fight not long after, leading to the boss, a giant lizard entering an enraged state catching everyone of guard except for michael.
It released a screech that was a paralysis skill, blasting everyone but michael away and stunning them as he jumped over this skill's effective range and descended with a skill activated
Moving to attack the stunned players instead of michael, it got blocked mid strike by michael again and again till the paralysis wore of and the other players joined him taking the boss down without any casualties this time.
After that fight, he realised that he needed to have the heart to protect to proceed forward and to strive for continuous improvement and not perfection as it leads to stagnation.
The final piece was set and the door to the next level became open to michael and he became a journeyman.
On getting there he realised that the name was fitting as he had to adapt various forms and weapons before he could complete said level.
So began his journey of cosplaying as different character classes to get in the role more efficiently but he does this mostly because it amuses miku and it was also fun but he wouldn't tell her that.
There's a long way to go to floor 100 but he has his companions by his side and he's never felt more alive.
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