Chapter 9

The three ratpeople fighting alongside Sinon were a minority people in the

world of Unital Ring called the Patter. There were only a hundred or so of them

living within the caves of this natural border wall.

Sinon encountered them within the cave and learned about the history of the

Patter from an elder who could speak human language (i.e., Japanese).

According to him, the Patter once lived in a great city on the northern side of

the Giyoru Savanna, but a terrible natural disaster laid it to waste overnight,

and the survivors were chased by the enormous carnivorous dinosaurs that

prowled the plains and had to live in the caves within the wall instead.

The Patter had a legend that, far to the east beyond the wall, there was a rich,

deep forest. Some of the younger members wished to travel there and live in

the forest, but to get to the eastern side of the wall, they needed to pass

through the dome where the ferocious giant frog lurked. A number of valiant

warriors had tested the frog, and all had been killed, so the elder Patter had

given up on the dream of crossing the wall. But Sinon needed to get through to

the eastern side to meet up with us anyway, so three of the braver—by their

standards, at least—young Patter joined her in an attempt to beat the frog.

The Goliath Rana, it turned out, was much tougher than she'd expected,

based on the story, and her musket was less useful than she'd hoped. So

despite her courage, Sinon considered retreat. That was when our group

jumped in to help beat the frog, with great effort.

Regardless of the trouble, we had completed the biggest goal of the night,

meeting up with Sinon, and had the added bonus of finding Klein and Agil, too.

The only thing left to do should have been going back the way we'd come, but

there was one more, rather unexpected, part of the story. We had extra

members of our retinue—not just the three Patter who fought the Goliath Rana

with us but an entire twenty of them.

"…Do you think this is some kind of quest, Kirito?" Lisbeth whispered to me.

We were walking at the head of what was less a party and more a full-blown

procession.

I thought it over and shook my head. "No…I don't think so…For one thing, I

checked the quest tab of my menu earlier, and there was nothing written

there…"

"When we reach the forest, do you think they're just going to peace out?"

"…Yerm."

"And do you think we're all going to reach the forest safely in the first place?"

"…Yerm."

"Is 'yerm' supposed to be a yes or a no?"

"Both."

She loudly and transparently exhaled, then looked over her other shoulder.

"Leafa, is there something wrong with your brother?"

"Ha-ha-ha…Big Brother has a tendency to regress to his childhood now and

then…"

That was a mean thing to say, but I didn't want to spend any time arguing.

Ever since the twenty Patter expressed a desire to come with us, I'd been

desperately thinking of a way to make everything work out.

I hadn't given Liz a positive or negative answer to her question about the

Patter, but in truth, I couldn't imagine them surviving once we reached the log

cabin's forest—which they called the Great Zelletelio Forest. There was plenty

of water and food, yes, but also many monsters, and if they came across one of

those thornspike cave bears, which were even stronger than the Goliath Rana,

it would wipe out all twenty of them.

I didn't yet know what happened when the NPCs of this world died. Perhaps

they would come back to life after a certain amount of time passed. But that

didn't mean we could just abandon them to a cruel fate. We couldn't have

beaten the frog or been reunited with Sinon without the three brave ratmen

and their pitchforks.

On the other hand, it was going to be difficult to take in twenty Patter at the

log cabin. They might all fit inside, but there were more of us now, too, which

meant it was going to be nearly impossible to find enough floor space for

everyone to lie down at night. I glanced over my shoulder, wondering what to

do, and caught sight of Yui walking with Sinon.

She must have been overjoyed at the reunion, because she was holding

Sinon's hand and talking excitedly. Although it couldn't have been true, it also

seemed like she was just a bit taller than before. That had to be a trick of the

mind after witnessing her growth as a warrior today. She claimed she wanted to

be a mage, but I felt like she'd have been better off with Brawn or Swiftness,

rather than Sagacity. For one thing, a day and a half had passed, and we still

didn't even know how to learn the magic skills.

Just then, I had a sudden thought and hurriedly brought up my ring menu.

Over on the inventory tab, I sorted my items, newest first, and saw an

unfamiliar name at the top of the list.

Fire magicrystal.

Now that was an enticing name. I tapped it to bring up the item properties.

Beneath the name and durability level was a short description: A crystal made

of the condensed essence of fire magic. Grants the fire magic skill. If already

acquired, adds a small proficiency bonus.

Let's gooo! I wanted to scream, but I held it in, lest I startle the nervous

Patter. They were already afraid of Kuro, who was walking ahead of me.

It was clear to me now when I'd picked up the fire magicrystal. It was the red

light that rose from the Goliath Rana's body. The moment I'd grabbed it, the

item had gone directly into my inventory.

So why did the light appear from the Goliath Rana's body and not the

thornspike cave bear's? Because the frog used fire magic. In other words,

learning magic skills in this world required defeating a monster that used that

kind of magic. It just wasn't clear if that could be any random monster or if it

had to be a tougher, boss-type enemy.

I tapped the open properties window, and it created a smaller window

labeled TIPS.

To use this item, you must materialize it, then crush it between your teeth.

"..."

That was an intense method, I had to say, but seeing that it had come from a

monster's body, I supposed it made sense. I closed that notice, then hit the

button on the properties window to make it appear in physical space.

The magicrystal was not a bodiless light, the way it appeared when I caught it.

Now it was a translucent crystal less than an inch in size. It was a brilliant

crimson color, with a tiny flame trapped in its center. All I had to do was crunch

it between my teeth like a hard candy to earn the fire magic skill, but of course I

wasn't going to do that. Instead, I turned and offered it to Yui.

"Here you go, Yui."

"…? What is it?" she asked, tilting her head. She got a good look at the

magicrystal and beamed. "Ooh, it's beautiful, Papa! I'll take very good care of

it!"

"No, don't do that…Try eating it."

"...…What?"

It wasn't just Yui. Sinon, Lisbeth, and Leafa all looked skeptical. I probably

should have explained it from the start, but I was possessed by a desire to make

the magic skill a fun surprise for her.

"You'll understand if you eat it. Give it a crunch?"

"..."

She gave me the exact same look Asuna did when she was feeling suspicious

of me, but she popped the magicrystal into her mouth anyway. She rolled it

around in her cheeks, then mumbled, "Papa, it doesm't tase like anyhing."

"Kirito, do you know what you're doing?" Sinon demanded. I reassured her

that it was fine and that I had it under control.

"Don't suck on it, Yui. You have to bite through it."

"Oh…okay."

Yui took on a determined look, trapped the magicrystal between the molars

on her right side, then closed her eyes and chomped down hard. It didn't make

the crunching sound I expected but a high-pitched, ringing craaaack.

Flames burst out of Yui's mouth.

"Hwaaaaah!" Yui shrieked. I was about half as startled as she was, but there

had been no HP loss. Lisbeth screamed "Fire, fire, fire!" and reached for her

water to feed to the little girl, but the flames had already gone out.

"Hey, Big Brother! That was a really mean prank!" Leafa rounded on me, fists

raised. I shook my head.

"N-no, no, it wasn't a prank! Did you get the message, Yui?!"

"Hwaaah…Oh, I did…It says, fire magic skill gain— What?!"

Yui's eyes flashed, and she instantly popped open the ring menu to check her

skills tab. She tapped the top of the list of acquired skills and read the window

that appeared.

"Wow, it says I can cast a magic spell called Flame Arrow!" she exclaimed to

the shock of the others.

I beamed at my daughter and egged her on. "Well? Give it a go."

"Okay! It seems that magic in this world is executed with gestures, unlike in

ALO. Let's see…" She looked up from the window and arranged her hands in

front of her body. "This is the basic gesture for fire magic, it says."

She clenched her left hand into a fist, then extended the fingers of her right

hand in a row and struck them against the fist from a diagonal angle. A red aura

bloomed around both hands.

"The next gesture will indicate the magic spell to use."

She opened her left hand and thrust it forward, then raised her right hand

above her shoulder, like pulling back a bow. A glowing red line appeared in the

air, connecting the two hands. She looked around quickly, then pointed her left

hand at a rock about sixty feet ahead of us.

"This will be the activation gesture. Apparently, the more accurate the

physical gesture and rhythm, the more powerful and precise the magic will be."

She clenched both hands tightly. A small magic circle appeared before her left

hand, and the red line turned into a flaming arrow that shot forward with a

fwoosh! It arced very slightly and struck the rock true, causing a small explosion.

We all murmured with appreciation and applauded. I expected the Patter to be

alarmed, but they were not that timid. Instead, they began to squeak among

themselves.

The spell couldn't compare to the high-level magic used by master mages in

ALO, but it was the first magic I'd seen here, aside from the Goliath Rana's

fireballs, and I felt greatly emboldened by it. And you could increase magic skills

not just by using them but also by consuming more magicrystals, so there were

more avenues to improving them than there were with the weapon skills.

Hopefully, I'd get a chance to learn magic eventually, but for now it was better

to support Yui's growth.

"How much of your MP did that cost, Yui?"

"Um, my maximum MP is 157, and that cost 15, so it was a little less than ten

percent."

"Mm-hmm…And what's the speed of your natural regeneration?"

"With my Concentration ability at a rank of 1, it takes six-point-two seconds

to recover a single magic point. That means it takes ninety-three seconds to

recover the cost of a single Flame Arrow. It's not suited to rapid, consecutive

use, I'd say," she admitted, looking downcast.

I rubbed her head. "Don't worry about it, kiddo. That's what the natural

regeneration is in most games. I'm sure we'll get some MP potions soon or

learn how to make them from ingredients."

"I hope so…"

"I'll make sure to handle all of that—you don't need to worry about it, Yui. For

now, I'd say you should use that spell whenever your MP fully recovers. That

way you'll gain proficiency gradually over time."

"Okay! I'll do my best!" she said, smiling at last.

Leafa exclaimed, "In that case, I wanna learn the wind magic skill soon! If you

find a wind magic stone, Kirito, give it to me!"

"Sure thing. I wonder what'll come out of your mouth if you eat the wind

stone," I said purely out of curiosity. But for some reason, Leafa pounded me

under the left arm where I had no armor. I made a big show of grunting in pain.

In the back of the party with Agil, Klein complained loudly enough that

everyone could hear him,

"Awww, man. Is it gonna be like this in UR, too?"

The travel back east over the Giyoru Savanna was stunningly easy compared

to what we went through to get to Sinon. Knowing where to go and having the

anticipation of home sweet home waiting at the end made it possible to

actually enjoy the scenery on the way.

As usual, hyenas and bats interrupted our travel, but we were massively more

powerful now, and there were no more terrifying hailstorms along the way.

Even water and food, the most troublesome aspects of all, turned out fine,

thanks to the huge stockpile of frog meat from the Goliath Rana's body, plus

the natural spring water from the cave. The girls did not seem to enjoy seared

frog meat, however.

What was very lucky was that in addition to the water and food, the cave

contained a bunch of iron and copper ore. This went to the women, who

resisted packing frog meat into their inventories and the little packs the Patter

wore. Once we were able to smelt the ores at our base, we'd have our ingot

needs met for quite a while.

We finally finished crossing the Giyoru Savanna again after ten thirty and

entered the Zelletelio Forest. We just had to walk through the woods for a bit,

cross the river, and we'd be back at our log cabin.

The moment the huge trees came into view ahead, the twenty Patter leaped

about and hugged one another with excitement. Some even burst into tears. To

them, the Zelletelio Forest was a promised land spoken of for generations, so it

made sense that they'd be ecstatic, but the forest was not safe, and certainly no

paradise.

Since Sinon was the one person who could speak any Patter, I asked her to tell

them not to let their guards down before we went inside. We continued east,

defeating the new types of monsters inside, until eventually the light began to

flicker in the distance.

"Oh! That's the river! We're almost home!" Leafa cheered and began to rush

ahead.

"Don't run in there! There are monsters in the river," I shouted, starting to

give chase along with Kuro—until Leafa came to an abrupt stop. "Hey, what's

the…?"

"Big Brother, look!!" she exclaimed, pointing. When I followed her finger, my

heart nearly stopped beating.

Beyond the trees lining the far bank of the river, the night sky was burning

red. I pulled up my map to check our location. In the direction we were facing

was…the log cabin. I listened closely, and behind the roar of flames, there was

the faint sound of metal clashing. When it caught the burning odor on the night

breeze, Kuro growled softly.

"Asuna…Silica…Alice!"

I began to run toward the cabin, thinking of the three we'd left watching over

it. The others hurried quickly behind me. I crossed the rocky riverside, looking

for a spot where the water was shallow, and made it over the river there.

Among the trees on the eastern side of the river was a huge divot where a piece

of New Aincrad fell. The cabin would be shortly past that.

At this point, I could clearly see the flames through the trees. The clashing of

metal on metal was no longer muffled. It seemed undeniable that the cabin was

under attack, probably by a group of PKers like Mocri and his gang last night.

I wanted to rush to aid those I'd left behind, but the first order of business

was deciding what to do about the twenty Patter. Their armor was of simple

cloth make, and their weapons—pitchforks and scythes—were basically

converted tools. Based on the fight with the Goliath Rana, I estimated they

were only level-2 or level-3. If they rushed into a battle full of sword skills, some

of them were going to die.

"Sinon, tell the Patter to hide and wait here!"

She passed my message on, but after just two seconds of discussion, they all

shook their heads. It was difficult to register finer emotions in their big black

eyes, but I could sense the outrage in their voices as they squeaked " !"

"She says they want to fight, too."

I almost replied with "She?" but decided the details could wait until later. It

didn't solve my worry, but we didn't have time to talk this over.

"Fine, just tell them to stick together. Don't split up."

While Sinon translated that for the ratpeople, I turned to Leafa, Lisbeth, Klein,

Agil, and Yui.

"We don't know who's attacking or how many of them are there, but if we

take too long observing, it'll leave the three of them in danger. We'll have to

charge in, take the enemy by surprise, and then adjust on the fly."

"If you want to fight with improvisation, I'm your man!" Klein boasted,

thumping his leather armor. I was kind enough not to remind him that his best

skill right now was merely Pursuit.

With our strategy set, we started running.

The furrow in the earth heading to the northeast from the river was our path

to the cabin. It didn't take long for red flames to come into view. Fortunately, it

wasn't the cabin itself that was burning but the ancient spiral pines growing

around the clearing. The ten-foot stone wall and wooden gate were still

standing strong.

Atop the wall, there were irregular flashes of silver light. That was combat in

progress. Our friends and the invaders were battling atop that foot-wide wall.

By the light of the burning trees, I could see what looked like ten—no, more

than twenty—figures launching themselves at the wall and attempting to climb

it. Perhaps they'd lit the spiral pines for more light.

A particularly loud clang! sounded, and one of the attackers atop the wall

tumbled to the ground. Asuna, her long brown hair flying, quickly turned the

other way and thrust her rapier at another invader climbing the wall. Not far

away, Alice and Silica were fighting just as hard. It seemed the three of them

were focusing primarily on knocking the attackers back off the wall.

Their intentions were clear. They were buying time, trusting that we'd return

with Sinon to help, and doing whatever they possibly could to protect our home

until then.

Based on how burnt the spiral pines were, the battle must have started over

thirty minutes ago. The invaders could wait and rest on the ground, but Asuna,

Alice, and Silica had to keep fighting on that narrow catwalk. Their HP and

willpower had to be close to the breaking point, I assumed. Another enemy

approached Asuna from behind. Silica and Alice were too busy fighting to

notice. The flames in the trees were roaring all around, so I knew they wouldn't

hear if I yelled from a distance.

Even still, I sucked air into my virtual lungs, desperate to warn Asuna.

But before I could let it out, there was a gunshot behind me.

The enemy who was sneaking up behind Asuna reeled backward, took a few

toppling steps, then fell on the inside of the wall. Sinon had picked him off with

the musket. Her aim was as precise as ever, but if he was on the inside, he'd be

able to open the bolt on the gate.

But my concerns were wiped away by a ferocious "Quaaack!" from what

could only be Aga. Asuna's pet long-billed giant agamid was taking care of

anyone who fell on the inside of the stone wall.

The sound of the musket firing was thankfully not too loud for the burning

spiral pines to cover up. I gestured to Sinon to reload, then picked up my

running speed.

Just ten yards separated me from the enemy group.

"Kuro, protect Yui!"

"Gaurr!" the panther snarled. I held my sword above shoulder level.

In yesterday's battle, I'd had to fight PKers in my underwear with a stone

knife, which had been quite a struggle—it wouldn't go like that today. My

sword vibrated subtly, taking on a light-green hue. The instant I sensed the

skill's activation, I hurtled myself off the ground: Sonic Leap.

At last, one of the attackers noticed me.

"Hey, behin—"

But a tenth of a second later, my sword sank deep into his left shoulder. Red

HP bars appeared over all their heads at once, a sign they had formed a raid

party together.

The armor of the man was leather, and he carried an iron ax. I couldn't tell if

that was what he'd brought from ALO or if he'd acquired both here, but like I

had with Mocri's group last night, I didn't think it was low-level gear.

Still, thanks to rank-5 Brawn and rank-1 Bonebreaker, my single skill took over

80 percent of his HP. It slammed him to the ground and bounced him back

upward, where an orange line split his left pec from behind. That was not a

snipe shot from Sinon but Yui's Flame Arrow. It eliminated the little HP he had

remaining, and he fell to the ground again. The ring-shaped cursor spun and

grew, showing numbers where the HP bar had previously been: 0001:01:41:26.

One day, one hour, forty-one minutes, and twenty-six seconds. That was how

long this man had survived in Unital Ring.

The rotating numbers then disappeared, and the spindle-shaped axle of the

cursor shot downward, piercing the man's body. The soulless avatar, equipment

and all, morphed into a plethora of rings that quickly unfolded into tiny ribbons

that rose into the sky.

Right on cue, cries arose.

"Enemy attack! Enemy attaaack!"

"They came up from behind! Trap them and crush them!"

These came from a nearby player with a shield and a spearman who seemed

to be the leader of the group.

I found it highly offensive that they were calling this an "enemy attack," but

now wasn't the time to quibble with terminology. Invaders with swords and

spears immediately charged toward me from either side along the curved stone

wall. About half of them had iron weapons, and the remainder had stone. If

they were able to produce iron, they would have outfitted all of them with iron

weapons before invading, so I assumed that, like with Mocri's group, either

their inherited gear didn't hit the Equip Weight limit or they'd bought, found, or

stolen their weapons somewhere along the way.

In that case, where had they found out about the log cabin? It didn't look to

me like they'd been exploring along the riverside and randomly spotted the

crash marks. I couldn't be sure yet, but I got the impression that these people

knew about the base here and prepared as much as they could before

attacking. Had Mocri or his friends leaked our info in revenge? They didn't seem

so vindictive that they'd do something that wouldn't earn them anything in

return…

But within the compressed time-space of my mind, I heard Mocri's mocking

voice in my ears again.

Well, that's just what Sensei teaches. Don't only look at one part of the

opponent; grasp the whole. Then you'll know what they're aiming for—and

what they don't like, you see.

It was what Mocri said when he had me on the ropes in our one-on-one fight.

His Sensei—someone who taught them the ropes of PvP combat—was still alive

in the world of Unital Ring. If this Sensei was pulling the strings behind this

attack, too, then I had to assume these twenty-something combatants were all

similarly well-versed in PvP tactics.

The only question now was whether this Sensei had taught them more than

just one-on-one combat, like also how to fight as a group. Either way, I should

assume they knew.

In less than a second, I'd arrived at the answer. I called out to my companions,

"Into the woods! Don't let them team up on you!"

Agil immediately replied, "We can't! The fire's in the trees!"

"…!"

I sucked in a sharp breath, looked around, and saw that the flames burning

the spiral pines had already spread to the undergrowth. If you jumped among

those flames, you'd burn to a crisp in moments.

That was when I realized the attackers weren't burning the forest around the

cabin for light but as a means of preventing guerrilla tactics against themselves.

To back that conjecture up, the groups coming at us from the sides were led by

shield-bearing tanks flanked by attackers with swords and axes, then debuffers

with long weapons in the rear—an orthodox battle formation. The silver lining

was that they had no mages, but that wasn't going to make things any easier for

us.

Atop the stone wall, the girls were still fighting bravely. Asuna glanced back

toward me for the briefest moment, and sparks flew when our eyes met.

She didn't seem to have any secret comeback plans up her sleeve, but it was

clear she was bristling with the intent to protect our house, no matter the cost.

The trio we'd left behind trusted in our return and had focused on knocking the

invaders off the wall. We had to make their efforts count.

Our advantages were Lisbeth's excellent iron weapons, Yui's fire magic, the

twenty Patter, and Sinon's Hecate II. The only one of those things that had the

potential to overturn the massive numerical disadvantage we were suffering

was the Hecate, but Sinon said she had only six of its bullets left. It could defeat

a dragon if the shot hit a vital point—she said she'd killed a giant dinosaur with

it—but six shots wasn't going to be enough to defeat a group of over twenty

players. This wasn't the right time to use up all of the greatest firepower in the

entire world of Unital Ring.

"Hey, what are we gonna do, Kiri?!" exclaimed Klein nervously, holding his

thin scimitar. "If we're just gonna go for it, I'm with ya!"

"It's too early to resort to desperation. There's got to be a way to turn this

around."

"Yeah, but when they've got such a tight formation, there's no proper way to

break them down."

Klein was right; the enemy was not rushing but carefully closing the distance,

keeping their shield users front and center. If we panicked and used sword

skills, the tanks would just guard, and they'd be able to pick us off with

counterattacks. It was almost like they knew we were built for attacking, not so

much for defense.

Should we retreat to the river? But then the attackers would just continue

their siege of the log cabin. Feeling the pressure from the enemy, Kuro growled

from the rear, where it was guarding Yui. Behind them, the Patter were huddled

together, speaking nervously.

If I were an utterly ruthless leader, I'd order them to charge into the enemy's

midst and cause chaos so we could pick off the tanks. But I couldn't do that, of

course. They had defeated their nemesis, the Goliath Rana, and made their way

to the promised land of the Great Zelletelio Forest at last. Yes, there were

dangerous monsters in the area anyway, but the very last thing I wanted was

for them to die because of a squabble between players…

"…Oh!" I gasped.

I wasn't sure if it was an advantage or not, but there was one major uncertain

variable in this forest. And if we could bring that into the battle, the attackers

would no longer be so confident.

"Klein, Agil," I murmured to the two at my sides. "Throw all the frog meat you

have into the flames."

I opened the ring menu and got busy without waiting for an answer,

materializing all of the Goliath Rana meat I had filling up my inventory capacity.

Bright-red chunks of flesh appeared atop the window, and I grabbed them and

tossed them into the blaze to the left.

Within a few moments, Klein and Agil began doing the same thing. It was only

the fact that we'd known one another for so long that kept them from

wondering why we were busying ourselves with such a ridiculous task, given the

present danger. Although if this didn't work, they were bound to lose a lot of

confidence in me anyway.

"…What are they doing? Clearing out their junk?" asked one of the enemy

fighters.

Another player replied, "They're cooking meat. What, are they gonna lure us

out with food?"

"They don't think we're NPCs, do they?"

As they bantered, the frog meat cooked in the flames, creating a fragrant

smell. The pink was a little too bright, but the meat was quite a fine ingredient,

and it somehow smelled like we'd added black pepper and rosemary, just from

being seared in the fire.

That alone, of course, was not going to make the attackers give up. Their

spearman leader called out from the back, "Let's finish them off before they try

something funny. Go to plan B!"

The rest of the group called out, "Yes, sir!"

But there was no way to know what kind of strategy plan B was. There was a

deep rumbling from the forest, like a gigantic mortar and pestle grinding.

"Grrrrr…"

There it was.

The ground began to tremble. A new kind of horror chilled my spine. The frog

meat had brought that uncertain variable into play—and it was a double-edged

sword.

The left of the two groups of enemies visibly began to panic.

"Hey, there's something behind us…"

"Gurrraaaa!"

The roar was like thunder, and one of the nearby burning spiral pines snapped

at the base. A tremendous four-legged beast, over six feet tall even with all of

its feet on the ground, emerged from the flames. That was the tyrant of the

forest, the creature that had terrified us last night—the thornspike cave bear.

The smell of the frying frog meat had stimulated its hunger; drool hung from its

thick teeth, and its red eyes looked greedily upon the scene.

"Aaaah!"

An enemy fighter charged, thrusting out his sword. The bear was unimpressed

and jumped with surprising speed, easily swiping the attacker out of the way.

"Gaaah!"

He slammed against the stone wall around the cabin with a nasty crunch, as

light as if he were a scrap of cloth, and bounced back about ten feet before

hitting the ground. The core of his cursor shot down and disintegrated his

avatar, which turned into a tangle of ribbons that flew into the sky.

It wasn't the heaviest armor, but that player had fairly decent equipment, and

he lasted all of a single swipe. The thornspike cave bear had even higher stats

than I'd realized. It couldn't use magic, so its physical attack power was

definitely higher than the Goliath Rana's.

This told me that it was indeed a true miracle that we'd beaten the bear last

night by rolling those logs off the roof. Klein, Agil, and I slowly backed away

from the creature.

I'd expected the players to panic and flee in various directions after they saw

their companion slaughtered in a single second, but I was disappointed. The

spearman recovered from the shock immediately, raised his weapon—a

fancifully designed fauchard, a kind of hooked polearm that was clearly

inherited from his previous game—and bellowed, "Don't panic! A and B teams,

regroup and take boss formation!"

His hair was a dark-red color, and his skin was bronzed. In ALO, he would be a

salamander. I didn't recognize him, but I could imagine he'd been one of the

lancers serving under General Eugene in the territorial wars.

In that case, I couldn't help but wonder, who was this Sensei capable of

enlisting such talented, hardcore players…?

The two groups of attackers quickly assembled, forming one massive raid

party. The formation of tanks, attackers, and debuffers was the same as before.

Even the three fighting with Asuna, Alice, and Silica jumped down to join the

group.

"Grrraaaah!!"

The thornspike cave bear roared and scratched at the ground, then launched

into a tremendous charge. It was the same thing it did when it nearly destroyed

the wall of the cabin.

Claaank! A resounding crash filled the air. The four tanks formed a line and

just barely managed to absorb the bear's momentum. I couldn't help but

exclaim "Whoa," under my breath.

But now wasn't the time to sit around and be impressed. We had to make full

use of this time while things were at their most chaotic.

"Kirito! What are we doing?!" Lisbeth demanded, yanking on my arm.

I thought hard. The enemy had their sides exposed to us, so I wanted to

attack, but if we drew the bear's attention, that would be making a bad

situation worse.

Though I didn't like it, perhaps it would be best to sit back and watch them

fight for now. If the bear was winning, great, and if it lost, it was sure to inflict

plenty of damage on the players, making it easier for us to finish them off…

It was a cruel but rational tactic. But I didn't get a chance to explain.

"Kirito," said a voice from the right. Somehow Silica was there, not on top of

the stone wall anymore. I was going to applaud her long, tiring struggle to

defend the cabin, but she held out her hand to stop me. "Kirito, that huge bear

is the thornspike cave bear you wanted me to tame, right?"

"Er…yeah, that's right. But I was thinking more in the long term…"

"But even still, if I'm going to turn it into a pet one day, I can't just abandon it

to a horrible fate now," she said, very determined. Pina, the little dragon

perched atop her head, cried "Kyuu…"

Whether that bear wins or loses, the one you're going to try taming in the

future is a different individual, I could have said, but I didn't. Silica had been a

beast-tamer ever since SAO, and it wasn't that kind of logical decision on her

part. If we used this thornspike cave bear as a sacrificial pawn now, then when

she eventually tamed some other bear, she wasn't going to feel truly connected

to it. I understood that mindset, and I respected it.

I stared back into those determined eyes, then looked at Asuna and Alice atop

the distant wall. They stood there, rapier and longsword in hand, hair swaying

in the wind, and nodded as though reassuring me that they'd accept my

decision, whatever it was.

"…All right. We'll let the bear handle the front line and attack from the rear," I

announced. Silica exclaimed "Okay!" and Klein smacked me on the back with a

"That's the spirit!"

Up ahead, the thornspike cave bear and the invaders were locked in fierce

combat. The bear's main attacks were swiping with its front paws and charging,

and the four tanks were desperately defending against them so that the

swordsmen could damage it from the sides, and the spearmen from the back

row. Their teamwork was too practiced to be an impromptu raid party, but I

hadn't made contact with the bear yet, so I couldn't see if they were doing any

real damage to its HP bar. Depending on our timing, we might wind up battling

against a furious thornspike cave bear at peak health, but if that happened,

then so be it.

I made eye contact with the others to get us on the same page, then lifted my

sword, waited for the bear to charge once again—and swung it down.

Agil, Klein, and I sprinted forward in a row. We were heading for the

spearman leader, who was taking charge from the middle of the back row. Agil

took the first attack by using the wide-range Two-Handed Ax skill Whirlwind,

knocking away the two players guarding the leader.

"Whoa…"

"They're here!" shouted the two as they fell, drawing the attention of the

entire back row of the enemy. Another two players rounded on Agil with

admirable reflexes, taking advantage of his post-skill delay.

"I don't think so!"

Klein used the basic Reaver skill for one-handed curved swords, and I used

Vertical. The perfectly synchronized attacks took down the two foes.

We'd sent four enemies into a tumbled state, but now all three of us were

stuck in a delay. The enemy leader reared back with his fauchard and bellowed,

"It was poor form to attack us now, Kirito!"

How do all of these people know who I am? I grumbled to myself as I watched

the sharp tip of the fauchard glow aquamarine. That was the color of Whirlpool,

an area skill for two-handed spears. It was less powerful than the Two-Handed

Ax skill Whirlwind, but it caused a dazed Debuff effect.

At that point, I finally saw the name Schulz above the enemy leader's HP bar. I

didn't recognize the name, but I had a feeling that, like Mocri, I wasn't going to

forget it now.

Just before his Whirlpool could knock all three of us off our feet, there were

two different bursting sounds behind it, and two different kinds of fire struck

Schulz's chest and shoulder. That was Yui's magic and Sinon's gun. He lost his

skill opportunity and faltered backward. Lisbeth and Silica jumped in, adding on

with normal mace and dagger attacks and knocking him to the ground.

Released from my delay at last, I leaned forward as far as I could go and raised

my sword.

If I hit him with all three blows of Sharp Nail, I could probably take Schulz's HP

down to zero. But if I executed it the way it normally worked, the slashes

wouldn't hit a target collapsed on the ground. At times like that, you had to sink

down close to the ground—but take a stance that was too irregular, and the

sword skill wouldn't work.

So I dug my toes into the ground in an effort to get more support, and I

entered the proper motion as low as I possibly could. My iron sword glowed

red, vibrating at a high pitch.

The instant I launched myself off the ground, I met Schulz's gaze.

His eyes contained surprise, frustration, and something else. Doubt…? About

what?

Very belatedly, I realized I wanted to hear what he had to say. How did he

learn where the log cabin was? How did he put together such a large force?

Why did they attack like this? But it was too late. I couldn't stop the sword skill

once it was in motion.

With the help of the game system, I leaped five yards in a single step. Schulz

didn't bother to get up. He did hold up his fauchard in an attempt to guard, but

he estimated my slash being too high. The first swing of Sharp Nail, coming in a

ground-hugging dash, snuck past the handle of the polearm and hit Schulz in

the neck.

My sword bounced back and struck again a second and third time, ignoring

the laws of inertia. The motions carved red claw marks in the air that mingled

with the bloodred damage effects.

His HP bar promptly emptied.

"Kirito…you're…really…"

Before he could finish, the spindle from his HP bar pierced his body and

dissolved it into rings.

I'm really what?!

I didn't scream the question on my mind because it didn't seem like

appropriate parting words for a man who was leaving this world forever after

fair combat. Plus, the fighting wasn't done yet.

I straightened and looked at the enemy players around me. "Your leader is

dead! We won't pursue if you run for your lives now!"

When fighting the pack of goblins in the cave near Rulid in the Underworld,

that was enough to make the goblins split immediately, but the players in my

vicinity only gave me suspicious looks.

"Shut up! We can't turn tail and run now!" shouted one of them. He charged

with a short spear, which I hastily blocked. That attitude made sense, so I

switched to battle mode, pushed back, and blew him off his feet with Vertical.

From that point on, it was an all-out melee, with no tactics or teamwork or

planning, just chaos.

Half the enemy fighters were dealing with the thornspike cave bear, so I made

sure not to get too close to them, and I focused on cutting down the other half

of their group. Sinon's musket and Yui's fire magic were a huge help, and they

identified each player who tried to unleash a major sword skill to counter me,

and took them out. That let me focus on only the opponent I was facing at each

moment. Of course, the enemy wasn't stupid, either, so some of them tried to

neutralize Sinon and Yui, but Kuro and the group of Patter helped prevent that.

What really decided the course of battle was Asuna and Alice, who

determined that no one was going after the cabin anymore and jumped down

from the wall to join the fight. They took out their frustration over the long

defensive battle against the enemy and, in less than five minutes, eliminated

the eight members of the rear guard.

When we finally got a moment to breathe, I turned to the two of them and

said, "Good job keeping things under control. Sorry we're so…"

"Groaaagh!!"

A roar at a higher volume and ferocity than before cut me off. I looked to my

left and saw the eight remaining attackers and, beyond them, the thornspike

cave bear with its front legs open wide. We'd seen that movement last night.

And it meant the bear's next attack was…

"Uh-oh…Everyone, hit the deck!!" I shouted, throwing myself to the ground.

Half a second later, my friends did the same.

The next moment, the lightning pattern in the bear's chest flashed.

A blizzard of needles sprayed outward, blasting the eight enemy combatants.

Even wearing her plate mail from the old game last night, Alice was brought

half to death by the attack. But I wasn't able to see its effects on the players. I

had to keep my face pressed to the ground because a stray quill grazed the top

of my head.

I could hear the metallic needles striking the dirt, trees, and rocks all around

us. Thankfully, I could still see the party's HP bars with my face in the dirt, so I

prayed that no one would die before the attack was over.

Someone off to the side behind me shrieked "Yeow!" and Klein's HP bar took

a big hit. Agil suffered some damage next, and then one quill pierced my left

shoulder. If you couldn't even avoid the quills while flat on the ground, then the

only ways to avoid them were to burrow underground or fly in the air. It

seemed like a game-breaking design…but then again, a lot of this was our fault

for being in a place over fifteen miles away from the starting point. I prayed to

myself, Okay, okay, we shouldn't be here. Just give us the chance to gain levels

like we should!

With one last jab in the dirt just inches from my nose, the storm of needles

finally ceased.

I looked up carefully to see the thornspike cave bear lower its front legs to the

ground and the eight players closer to us standing in a huddle. The four tanks

were in a row, shields raised, with the four damage dealers hiding behind them.

They had seemingly blocked the hail of spikes up close, an admirable bit of bold

strategy and defensive power…

But then the sharp spindles in the middle of the ring cursors over their heads

shot downward together. Eight avatars unraveled as one, sending millions of

ribbons flying up into the night sky.

When the ribbons were gone, a group of black bags containing their

belongings fell to the ground with a thud, but now was not the time to be

distracted. From my stomach, I groaned, "No way…"

The thornspike cave bear grunted. Its shining red eyes glared at us. The bear

was clearly targeting us, but I couldn't decide on a moment's notice if we

should run or fight yet.

I'd taken one of the needles to my shoulder, so I could see the bear's cursor.

It was at a bit above 60 percent health. The attackers had put up a good fight

against the bear, but as I feared, it was still in quite good condition. With our

group, I knew we had a better than zero chance of winning, but I couldn't be

sure we'd triumph without fatalities.

No, wait a second. We weren't talking about fighting the bear…

That was when, emerging from the back and leaping past me, Klein, and Agil,

a small figure made its appearance. It was Silica, Pina on her right shoulder and

her hands empty. She approached the cave bear.

"H-hey, Silica!" I called out, getting up off my stomach.

She didn't turn back. "Let me handle this!" she hissed.

I understood, of course, that she wasn't talking about killing the bear but

taming it. But that honestly seemed even harder than beating it. It was

practically a miracle that I'd tamed Kuro the lapispine dark panther, but that

happened when the both of us were taking shelter from the hailstorm, and it

might have been a factor in my success.

On the other hand, the thornspike cave bear was in an enraged state after

suffering many attacks over a long period, and even after slaughtering its eight

attackers in an instant, it showed no signs of being satisfied. This was the

reverse of the situation with Kuro, and it just didn't seem like a beast that Silica

could conquer without inheriting her Beast-Taming skill.

But she approached the bear without fear, despite its bared fangs and

menacing growl. In its paw, it was clutching a large blob of something. It was a

piece of frog meat, well-done from the flames.

Instantly, I realized what I should be doing.

"Klein, Agil, go find the meat from the woods."

"G-got it."

"Sure thing."

We moved carefully, staying low and keeping Silica in our sights so as not to

aggravate the bear. The fire had finished burning through all the spiral pines

around the log cabin and was mostly out by now. We looked around the

blackened ground, picking up hunks of sizzling frog meat and placing them back

in our virtual item storage.

Silica, meanwhile, was within six feet of the growling thornspike cave bear,

and she carefully tossed a chunk of meat. "Dinnertime, Mr. Bear," she said.

"Grrgroaaah!" it roared in response.

The thornspike cave bear stood up on its rear legs and brandished a menacing

paw with knifelike claws. Upright, it was easily ten feet tall, and Silica was the

smallest of our group after Yui. The difference in size couldn't have been

starker, but physical size did not correspond to avatar strength in a VRMMO.

Even still, I could practically see one vicious swipe of its paws disintegrating

Silica the way it just did to those other players.

But that didn't happen.

Instead, the bear lowered its paws and returned to all fours. It snuffled at the

frog meat in front of it, then took the chunk into its mouth, chewed a few times,

and swallowed it.

"…"

I stopped collecting meat for a moment to watch the face-off between Silica

and the bear. She was probably already seeing a circular beast-taming meter for

her target. She waited for the right timing, then offered it more meat from her

other hand. The bear took it right away.

When she opened her inventory, hands empty, I quickly hissed to Agil and

Klein, "Trade me all the meat you've picked up."

It wasn't just Agil and Klein; I received trade windows from Leafa, Asuna, and

Alice as well. I smacked the YES buttons in quick succession, then snuck within

eight feet of Silica, the maximum distance for a trade request. She accepted my

trade as soon as it went through, meaning Silica had all of the cooked frog meat

in her inventory now.

The only thing left for us to do was pray.

Silica took cues from a meter that only she could see, tossing the pieces of

frog meat one after the other. The bear bit and swallowed them in succession,

with no sign of growing tired. There were over thirty pieces of meat I'd traded

to Silica, but at the current rate, they were going to be gone within three

minutes. If that wasn't enough to successfully tame the beast, we were back to

the question of whether to fight or run.

Over her shoulder, I could see the inventory display of Seared Goliath Rana

Meat dwindling. Ten pieces went down to five, then three, two, one…zero.

After tossing the final piece of meat, Silica whispered tensely, "The meter's

been stuck at ninety-nine percent for a little while."

"…Okay, I'm sure there's one more piece of meat we missed. We'll go find it,"

I said, turning back to the forest.

But Silica shook her head. "No, another piece of the same meat isn't going to

make up that one percent. I'm going to try taming it in this state."

There was already a long rope in her left hand. If she looped it around the

thornspike cave bear's neck and tied it tight, the beast-taming attempt was

successful, but I couldn't help but feel that the missing 1 percent was going to

be the deciding factor.

"Wait, maybe there's some other food…"

I opened my inventory, scrolling through it in a hurry. I had a ton of random

materials in there, considering that we'd only been in this virtual world for a

day and a half, but almost no food ingredients. Hyena meat, salamander tail,

bat wings…None of them seemed like foods a bear would like. What did a bear

like to eat anyway? Salmon? Apples? Bamboo shoots? I hadn't seen any of

them yet.

I was about to give up on the idea of getting the meter past 99 percent when

a voice said, "Silica, here."

Sinon had snuck up behind me and offered a blue pot the size of a fist. I

couldn't begin to guess what was inside. But Sinon had started in a different

location and crossed the vast Giyoru Savanna on her own. I could only put my

faith in her.

Silica accepted the jar, stuck her hand directly inside, and scooped out the

contents. It was a whitish semisolid blob. She couldn't throw it because it was

soft, so she carefully approached the bear instead.

"Here, it's yummy," she whispered, extending her hand. The thornspike cave

bear eyed it warily.

"Gruh…," it grunted, sniffing. But it didn't seem to have any further reaction.

Sinon muttered "I guess it's not good enough in a raw state…"

That made sense to me. The thornspike cave bear might not have been a boss

monster, but it was definitely a rare type, and it might require all of its food

lures to be properly cooked or treated in some way. But how would you

prepare that white blob?

A small shadow darted between me and Sinon. Out of the corner of my eye, it

looked to be Yui's size, but it wasn't her. The figure had brown fur and a long,

narrow tail—one of the Patter. The leader of the group, if I recalled.

The Patter rushed with true rodent speed toward Silica and tilted the yellow

jar she held over Silica's hand. A viscous golden liquid dolloped over the white

object. Once that was done, the Patter raced back to the rear just as fast.

"...?"

Sinon and I stared, mouths agape. And then—the thornspike cave bear sniffed

the object again and licked up the bizarre glob resting on Silica's hand in one

slobbery go.

Her other hand moved immediately, draping the long rope around the bear's

thick neck and forming a loop that she tugged shut. The thornspike cave bear's

body flashed—and the crimson ring cursor turned green.

In the silence that followed, Silica slumped to the ground.

"Hrar!" the bear barked and licked her cheek with a massive tongue.

Behind me, I heard a voice ask, "Was it…a success?"

It was Alice. Even at night, the sapphire blue of her eyes lost none of its

brilliance, though her eyes looked skeptical now. I couldn't necessarily believe it

myself, but the cursor had undeniably gone from red to green.

"I think…it was."

"I did not believe this would work. Perhaps Silica has the skill to tame a wild

dragon from the western empire."

"We'll have to take her to the Underworld one day to test that idea out," I

replied before looking to Sinon. "So, uh…what was that white thing?"

"Butter."

"B-butter?! Where did you get that?!"

"An Ornith child gave it to me."

"...Oh…"

I shook away the confusion and glanced over my shoulder at the Patter.

"…And what did that mouse kid put on the butter?"

"Dunno." Sinon shrugged.

It was Yui who answered, approaching with her hand in Asuna's. "I think

that's honey, Papa."

"H-honey?! Where did they…?"

"Long, long ago, the Patter collected honey from the Giyoru Savanna.

Apparently, that honey is a treasure that was handed down in their clan for

hundreds of years."

"Really? That was honey with a vintage of centuries? Why did they give us

something so valuable…?" I asked, glancing back at the Patter again.

Yui said, "I didn't ask them. Should I?"

"It's probably best not to do that," Asuna said with a smile before I could

answer. "You wouldn't want people asking you why you saved someone, would

you?"

"Well…I suppose that's a good point…"

Though usually I'm the one getting saved, I thought. Kuro rubbed its head

against my hip and yowled in a way that sounded suspiciously like a knowing

chuckle.

"Well, if that was the case, I can see how it helped us tame that bear!" Leafa

said.

Lisbeth gave her a funny look. "Why do you say that?"

"I mean, it's honey and butter! It's an irresistible combination!"

"Maybe for you," I murmured, except my stomach chose that very moment to

gurgle loudly. Agil and Klein burst out laughing, and the girls all joined in.

In the end, we never got the chance to find out why Schulz's group was

attacking the log cabin.

But if it happened twice, it was bound to happen three times. And we all

agreed that the third time was likely to be much bigger than the first two.

So we only briefly celebrated reuniting with Sinon, Agil, and Klein and sat

around a campfire in the front yard of the cabin to discuss the topic of defense.

At the southwestern end of the walled yard, the thornspike cave bear, Misha

(named by Silica), was slumbering on its side with Kuro and Aga fast asleep on

its luxurious-looking stomach fur. It was such a peaceful sight that it was hard to

believe there'd just been a devastating battle on the other side of the wall. If we

somehow lost our tamed status on Misha due to lack of food, that hellish scene

would repeat itself, so once our meeting was over, we needed to leave at once

to look for some food a bear would like.

The twenty Patter were resting in the living room of the log cabin. But we

needed to be in a safe location to log out safely, too, so we'd have to build a

new structure for them at some point. As usual, there were tons of things to do.

But for now…

"Gotta beef up this wall, right?" Klein said, spreading his arms. "And make it

twice as tall."

Alice nodded. "That last group scaled the wall without fear. We'll need one

tall enough to cause serious damage if they fall off. And we'll also want to

flatten out all the divots and lumps on the outside surface."

I had to fight to resist grinning, realizing that she was thinking of the ideal

defensive structure: the chalk-white walls of Central Cathedral. Even then, I

couldn't hide from the knight's sharp senses, and she fixed me with a piercing

stare.

"You haven't said anything yet, Kirito. Don't you have an opinion?"

"Sorry, sorry. Just thinking," I murmured, bobbing my head and clearing my

throat. "Well…I have no objection to strengthening our defenses, but I think

there's going to be an eventual limit to what we can do in that regard. We can

make the wall taller, but then they'll use ladders. And as players get to a higher

level, they'll gain more kinds of ranged offense…"

"So how do you expect to defend this place, then?" Lisbeth snapped

impatiently. I decided to offer the idea I'd been mulling over since the Patter

asked to join our traveling party.

"Does it seem to you like the reason we keep getting attacked is because

we're just one little player house isolated in the wilderness?"

"Huh? You want to build more houses?"

"Yeah. But not one or two. We'll build a town here."

"..."

Nine pairs of eyes stared at me in stunned silence.

Asuna was the first to speak. "Just constructing a lot of buildings doesn't

make a town, Kirito. You need people to live in them."

"Well, the Patter are going to need homes, aren't they? If we build five or six

for them, that should make it more town-like, right?"

"So you want to use them as a shield?" Sinon asked sharply.

I shook my head. "No, no, we'll keep them safe, too. It just means we might

be using them to help puff ourselves up and make this location harder for other

players to attack…"

I could see that my argument wasn't convincing my friends, whose

expressions grew harder as I went on.

"After crossing half the Giyoru Savanna, I realized that we're blessed by lots of

natural resources in this location. There's a nearly unlimited amount of stone

and lumber for building houses here. Iron ore was our biggest problem, but

now that Silica's tamed the thornspike cave bear, that solves the major

difficulty there."

Leafa jumped in to ask, "Wait…the bear's not going to respawn?"

"It will if we defeat it, but not if we tame it, I bet. Because then it would mean

we could harvest an unlimited army of unstoppable monsters. We could have

ten giant bears fighting for us."

"I don't want to try that one again," protested Silica, shivering. Atop her head,

Pina opened one eye and squeaked as though to say "Agreed." We chuckled at

that one.

"We can visit the cave again later to see if it's true about the respawning…but

for now, I don't think it'll be too difficult for us to make more buildings. But the

Patter alone won't be enough to fill out a whole town, so we'll need to scout

out some more NPCs."

"The Bashin would be very reassuring to have on our side!" chirped Yui.

Lisbeth nodded firmly. Convincing NPCs to move homes was unthinkable in any

other VRMMO, but here, it felt like it was just a successful negotiation away.

The Bashin would be great to recruit, but I was hoping for the Ornith birdpeople

Sinon met on the western side of the Giyoru Savanna. Having a group of people

skilled with muskets would make our defenses so much more formidable…

"But, Kirito," Agil said, causing me to spin around, "you're playing this game

to beat it, right? If we're heading for the 'land revealed by the heavenly light,'

we're going to have to leave this forest eventually."

To my embarrassment, I'd completely forgotten about that announcement

until he pointed it out. I blinked a few times, then nodded quickly.

"Er…yeah…good point. But there's a big difference between leaving from a

secure base of operations and just striking out from nothing. For one thing,

we're all lugging around incredibly heavy inherited gear. If it has to stay in our

inventory all the time, it's just cramping our carrying space. And if we're going

to keep it in our home storage, we'll want to make sure that it's as secure as

possible…"

The others considered this suggestion gravely. Sinon's Hecate II was the most

significant of these, of course, but everyone's inherited weapons and armor

were important to them. Sadly, I'd had to sacrifice my beloved Blárkveld to

create our metal weapons, but I still had Excalibur, which had to be protected at

all costs. I knew the others felt the same way about theirs.

"Well, I'm in agreement with Kirito's idea to build a town. What do the rest of

you think?" Alice announced. The others all murmured their assent. With that

established, she looked to me. "But if we're starting from the planning stage,

it's going to be a major project. It could take a week, or even an entire month.

What if there is a third attack before we're finished?"

"No!" I bounced to my feet and clenched my fist, causing my iron gauntlet to

clank loudly. "It won't even take a week! It's eleven o'clock right now, so I'll

have the basic plan for the town built by three o'clock! That's four hours!"

Alice squawked, "Huh?! Four hours?!"

Asuna smirked. "We're going to be short on sleep again."

Yui cheered, "Let's give it our all!"