Chapter 6

"You know what this reminds me of…? Shirodatsu," said Lisbeth.

Silica paused and blinked, wooden spoon raised in her hand.

"Sh…shirodatsu? What is that?"

"Your family doesn't call it that, Silica? Um, you know, it's that stuff that's all

squinchy and cruspy…"

"Squinchy. Cruspy."

Silica repeated the weird and definitely made-up adjectives, but they brought

her no closer to understanding what Lisbeth was trying to reference.

In Silica's left hand was a bowl filled nearly to the top with a spicy-smelling

soup. Its ingredients were just a tiny bit of shredded meat and a twisted,

ropelike object that resembled pasta. It was no mystery ingredient, however—it

was the crude whithergrass rope they'd worked so hard to weave.

Once she saw Lisbeth finish chewing, Silica scooped up some of the rope in

her spoon, too. The rope had been chopped into pieces less than three inches

long, but the way the woven material worked itself loose at the ends was

anything but appealing. She hesitated a couple times before finally sticking it

into her mouth.

The first sensation she experienced after biting down was a squishy resilience

against her teeth, followed by a soggy crunch of fibrous texture. Now she knew

what "squinchy and cruspy" meant. There wasn't much flavor to it—if anything,

it was just the flavor of the broth it had absorbed—but the texture wasn't that

strange, actually. In fact, she felt like she'd eaten something like this many

times in the real world.

She tried to recall what it was as she chewed, and she found her sense of

taste bringing up a distant memory. "Oh…! It's niimoji! I've eaten this at my

grandpa's house way out in Saga!" she said.

Now it was Lisbeth's turn to look suspicious. "Niimoji? No, this is shirodatsu,

obviously."

"I've never heard of that in my life. It's obviously niimoji."

The two glared and gnashed their teeth at each other, until the matter was

settled by Yui, who was politely and cleanly chewing across the table from

them.

"Liz, Silica, you're talking about the same food. Shirodatsu and niimoji are

both regional names for taro stalk."

"Taro stalk…"

"Yes, the stalk of the tuber grown in eastern Asia. It is boiled and dried before

it's cooked. I've never eaten it before, of course, so I wouldn't know how similar

this whithergrass is to the real vegetable."

"Ohhh, taro stalk," said Lisbeth, staring closely at the boiled whithergrass on

her spoon. "It's true that food in The Seed games all have their flavors and

textures sampled from real-life things. I suppose, to create the taste of

whithergrass, they must have gone with shirodatsu."

"You mean niimoji," Silica added, stuffing more whithergrass into her mouth.

She bit through the fiber, then pulled the loose part out of her mouth with her

fingers and lowered it toward Pina, who was sitting on her lap. The little dragon

sniffed at it, then opened its mouth and ate the offering. Apparently, it wasn't

opposed to the taste.

The group was sitting at the side of a circular tent about thirty feet across.

They were far from the entrance and seated on a rug that had deep and

luxurious fur, considered a seat of honor.

In the center of the tent—which was very similar to the gers built by

Mongolian nomads—was a huge sunken hearth, in the middle of which was an

equally massive iron pot on a fire. Seated in a circle around it were many Bashin

tribe members, both adults and children, sharing a lively meal. The pot

contained the very soup that Silica and Lisbeth were eating. When they'd

presented the Bashin with the sixty whithergrass ropes as payment for shelter,

the people were overjoyed and welcomed them for a meal. This was apparently

quite an extravagant feast by their standards.

Silica finished her bowl, thinking that it wasn't that bad, once you got used to

it. Just then, the spearman they met in the wasteland—who was not carrying

his spear now—approached and said something in friendly tones.

" ."

As usual, she couldn't make out the words, but Yui was there to interpret.

"He asks if you would like more."

"Uh…"

She looked over at her partner. Lisbeth whispered "Maybe it's considered

rude to refuse," so she went ahead and held out her bowl.

The spearman took it, smiled happily, said " , ," and walked back to

the hearth.

"What did he say, Yui?"

"Um…," the AI girl murmured, a rare bit of hesitation on her part. Eventually,

she said quietly, "He said that for a Fel girl, you eat quite a lot."

"I eat a lot…? When it was his suggestion…"

Meanwhile, Lisbeth was giggling gleefully, so Silica jabbed her with an elbow,

then asked about an unfamiliar term. "Um…what's a Fel girl?"

"I don't know…It is not a word in my internal memory. I suspect that, like the

Bashin tribe, it refers to an ethnic group within the setting of this world…"

Lisbeth downed the rest of the soup in her bowl and chewed the fibrous plant

until it was gone. "So there are a bunch of other tribes of people in the world of

Unital Ring aside from the Bashin, then. Maybe there's a more developed,

larger city somewhere…something like the Town of Beginnings from Aincrad?"

"Oh, that makes sense," Silica agreed, looking up at the tent ceiling. It was

made of thick fabric dyed with a simple pattern, and there was a hole over the

hearth for the smoke to escape through that was star-shaped, for some reason.

The pitch-black night sky was visible through the hole.

In the home of the Bashin tribe, there was this large tent and seven or eight

smaller ones. It wasn't even enough of a settlement to call a village. At the edge

of their encampment was a fenced-in area filled with goatlike animals, so

perhaps they were more nomadic than simple settlers. In any case, it didn't

seem likely that Silica and Lisbeth were going to find the equipment and

information they needed here.

Of course, they could use the gear they'd brought from ALO, but according to

Yui's estimates, the grace period where they could ignore the weight limits was

ticking down with the changing of the menu icon color, with less than thirty

minutes to go. After that, she'd have to put her familiar light armor and daggers

into storage and change into something more lightweight, but at this rate, she'd

have no choice but to wear her underwear. The Bashin women wore very cool

and open clothes, however, so at least she wouldn't stand out.

"On the other hand…if there's a bigger town somewhere, I'm sure there will

be monsters along the roadside," Silica mumbled.

Lisbeth mulled this over. "Well, of course. Man, four hours is way too short to

have a grace period…We're going to spend all this time just building a shelter so

we can safely log out. We won't be able to get new gear at all."

"It's a waste of the Blacksmithing skill you brought with you, Liz."

"Sorry that I put more effort into that than the Mace skill," Lisbeth said,

sulking. Silica pinched the fleshy outer side of her upper arm.

"Not at all; I'll need you to make use of it!"

"Hey! No molesting me!"

As they bickered, the Bashin spearman came back with another steaming

bowl heaping with niimoji—er, boiled whithergrass. She stuck her spoon into it.

The spearman then appeared to ask Lisbeth and Yui if they wanted more, too,

now that they were done eating, but the girls politely declined. He nodded and

was about to walk away when Yui asked him something.

" , , ?"

" , ."

As usual, the conversation just sounded like warbled noise. After trading

comments a few times, the spearman spread his arms, then returned to the

hearth area.

"What were you saying to him, Yui?" Lisbeth asked. The little girl looked down

at her white dress.

"I asked if they had any extra armor—and if they could give us some."

"Wh-whoa…nice negotiation…"

"Actually, he said everything here at this camp is essential. Nothing is extra…

but they will trade with us."

"The problem with trading is…," Silica mumbled, looking at herself.

Her inventory was emptied out the moment she teleported into this world.

Silica's earthly possessions were merely a set of armor and her weapon,

Issreidr. Even if they would soon be impossible to equip, she couldn't just hand

those things over. And Pina, who was chomping away at a boiled whithergrass

on her lap, was out of the question. Surely Lisbeth felt the same way about her

own possessions.

But Yui shook her head and, to their surprise, said, "No, what they want is not

your equipment, but your labor…or combat ability, actually."

"C-combat ability…?"

"Yes. The spearman—whose name is Tajil, I believe—says that, in addition to

New Aincrad, which fell to the south, there was another small star they saw

crash to earth to the northeast. They need to go investigate to make sure there

are no demons riding on that star. If we offer to help them with that mission,

they will give us weapons and armor."

"A small star…?"

Silica looked up through the hole in the tent. You could hardly see any stars

through it. It probably wasn't a shooting star that the Bashin saw, but a piece of

one of the floors of New Aincrad that split off when it fell.

She brought that idea up, but Lisbeth seemed skeptical. "We walked a long

way to get here, right? Would a piece of New Aincrad really fall that far away?"

"Depending on the shape of the piece, I think it is possible," said Yui, hands

clasped over the bit of her knees that stuck out from under the dress. "For one

thing, Seed-based VRMMOs have a physics engine that sets air resistance to be

higher than in reality. I suspect this is in order to ease the mental shock of

falling from a great height, and thus keeping the AmuSphere's user-safety

features from kicking in. But because of that, if it catches the wind right, even

very large objects should be able to glide longer distances. It's just very rare for

it to happen and might require player manipulation for a lasting effect…"

"Hmm…"

It was a difficult explanation to understand, but Silica mulled it over anyway

and looked from Yui to Lisbeth. "Liz, if that piece of New Aincrad had even a

small town on it, we might be able to get some gear and consumable items."

"Well, I'm not going to completely rule out that possibility…but I think it's

more likely to be part of a mountain or forest or something."

"Even so, we might be able to find some rare materials there that aren't

found around here. And if we strike out, we're still getting gear for helping

them investigate. There's no reason not to do it!"

"You can never pass on a good deal, can you?" Lisbeth said with exasperation,

but she did seem to be coming around to the idea. "Well, I guess there's no

better option available to us. Yui, can you tell…um, Tajil, was it? Tell him we're

willing to help."

"I will!"

Yui got up and walked to the hearth to talk to the spearman. They traded

words, and he looked at Silica and Lisbeth, grinned, and held up the cup in his

hand. Silica felt relieved; the deal was done.

" !"

Just then, there was a shout, and the hanging curtain at the entrance to the

tent was violently thrown aside. Through the doorway came what was clearly

the largest and most physically powerful of the Bashin they'd yet seen—and a

woman.

She had leather armor around her chest and waist, but that was it. In addition

to her considerable height, she exposed much more skin than the other

women. Fierce, detailed war paint adorned her flesh. She strode forward to the

hearth and spoke to the spearman in a husky but crisp and loud voice. Through

their conversation, it was clear that she was of a higher status than him. The

looks she threw toward the visitors from time to time were inflected with

obvious hostility and disdain.

Eventually, the spearman shrugged and nodded. Yui came rushing back to tell

the girls what had happened.

"That woman's name is Yzelma, and she is the leader of this camp,

apparently. Yzelma says that if you want to be in the scouting party, you should

show your ability."

"A-ability…?"

Silica stood up, but she wasn't quite sure what to do now. Lisbeth whispered,

"Maybe it's an event battle. If it is, this one's on you, Silica."

"Wh-what?! Me?!"

"I didn't even get to bring my weapon skill over. I only have Blacksmithing."

"Yeah, but I'm still only level-1!" Silica hissed back, but Lisbeth just grinned

and patted her friend's shoulder.

If I'd known it would come to this, I would have done some leveling-up against

the scorpions and camel spiders, Silica thought, but it was too late for that now.

Anyway, the hours they spent between New Aincrad's fall and encountering the

tribesmen were too focused on survival to leave any time for level grinding.

If I lose 30—no, 20 percent of my HP, I'll resign from the fight, she decided,

handing Pina over to Yui. The little dragon flapped its wings to maintain balance

as it settled on the girl's head and squeaked, "Kyurrr!" Yui balled her fists and

added "Good luck!" while Lisbeth gave her a silent thumbs-up.

With her companions watching intently, Silica headed for the center of the

tent.

The Bashin eating their meals backed away to the walls, leaving only Yzelma

the warrior next to the hearth. Approaching made her size feel all the more

real. In height alone, she was taller than Agil's giant gnome ax warrior.

Very belatedly, Silica wished that they could settle this with dialogue, but not

only could they not understand each other, the grace period was going to end

in less than ten minutes. She had to be dreaming to think she could beat Yzelma

while immobilized from being weighed down.

Silica came to a stop across the hearth from the woman, who gave her a

piercing examination. She did her best to stare back and noticed that Yzelma

was not holding a weapon. Was she going to fight bare-handed? But just then,

the woman bent down and picked up an extra log that hadn't yet been fed to

the fire.

So she's going to fight with a piece of wood? Perhaps I should do the same,

Silica thought, somewhat confused.

Yzelma stared keenly at her, then opened her mouth to speak.

" , ."

Yui promptly translated the statement. "Silica, she says she's going to throw

the wood, and you have to cut it in two before it hits the ground!"

"Oh…th-that's all?" Silica replied without thinking. Yzelma couldn't have

understood the meaning, but she seemed to have sensed something in Silica's

expression. Her features sharpened. She shouted " !" and tossed the log high

into the air.

Silica didn't need an interpreter to understand the challenge: Do it if you can.

Her right hand moved on its own, pulling Issreidr from her left hip. The piece

of wood reached its peak and began to descend, spinning.

If she aimed accurately and sliced up from below, that would be enough to

split it. But instead, Silica drew her familiar blade to her right side and flipped

over her wrist. The blade began to glow red, whirring. Yzelma gasped and took

a step back.

With the help of the game system, Silica's hand shot out over and over again,

like a machine gun. It was the four-part dagger sword skill, Fad Edge.

The Fad in the name was a bit of creative license, intended to mean capricious

or on a whim. Accordingly, its aim was slightly less than accurate, but through

lots of experience, Silica had acquired the technique to correct it a bit. The

attack's speed and power were excellent, and the dagger was an Ancient

weapon from Jotunheim. Zzka-ka-ka-ka! The impacts rustled the walls of the

tent, and the descending piece of wood momentarily stopped in midair.

Issreidr returned to its sheath in a blaze of light, making a little metal click as

it slid in—right as the wood split silently into five pieces that fell into the ash of

the hearth.

Before Yzelma could recover and say something, there was a raucous cheer

from the walls of the tent, and the children rushed over to her. When they cried

out " ! !" with dazzling smiles, Silica suddenly felt a keen desire to learn how

to speak Bashin very soon.