"By the way, what are you planning to do now? Going to grind some more?"
Argo walked beside Yuuji, resting her head on her hands.
She glanced up, her gaze still naturally trying to see through the mask and hood he was wearing.
He was more than a head taller than her. She was barely reaching his shoulder height.
From this angle, she caught a glimpse of his eyes. And the moment she saw it, she couldn't help but question herself.
'Eh…? Wait… I-Is he really an idol…? I-I was only joking!'
It was a mere fraction of a second, but his clear, deep, dark eyes immediately attracted her attention.
They were eyes that exuded a captivating depth, mystery, and awe that would naturally steal and attract all attention.
That alone made her wonder if her joke was the truth after all.
"I'll be taking the [Revenge of The Cow] quest again. The bread and butter I got as a reward from it was delicious. It'll be something I can look forward to for a few days."
"Revenge of the cow?"
She never heard of a quest with that name before.
But judging by the reward he mentioned and the quest being in Horunka Village, another quest she knew from the Beta popped in her mind.
"Is it… [The Lost Calf] quest back in the beta?"
"The lost calf?"
"Eh?! You don't know it?"
"No. I'm not a beta tester."
"..."
Silence fell… Then, Argo let out a loud shout.
"W-What?! You're not a beta tester?!"
Yuuji looked down at her weirdly.
"I never said I was."
"B-But… H-How do you know about the [Secret Medicine of The Forest] quest here?!"
"I stumbled into the village when I'm trying to return to my grinding in the forest after the announcement…"
Yuuji explained to Argo his cover story, just like he did with Kirito. After all, it was impossible to tell her that Ai gave him the information about the quest.
"T-That's… Crazy… Even though you went to the forest before knowing that it became a death game, going to an area filled with monsters several times your level is super reckless!"
"I was pushing my limits. And hey, I'm fine, right?"
"Hah… You're even more reckless than some beta testers I know…"
Argo shook her head. A heavy sigh escaping her lips.
"Anyway… That revenge of the cow thing… Is it the quest where you help a farmer to find his lost calf?"
Yuuji nodded.
"Yes. I escorted the mother cow into the forest to find the farmer's lost calf."
"Yeah, that's [The Lost Calf] quest alright."
Argo began writing in her notes.
"Then, after finding the calf, I had to defeat several kobolds before I can escort the mother cow and calf back to the farmer."
"What? Kobolds?!"
"Yes. There was a Kobold Trapper and two Kobold Rat Hunters."
Argo's mouth hung open, her eyes wide in disbelief.
"T-That's brutal…! You have to fight those things this early on?!"
A surprise encounter with monsters several levels higher than the players… It wouldn't need much imagination to know how dangerous it would be. Especially now that Sword Art Online has become a death game.
And Yuuji encountered it alone.
Escaping with his life intact would already be a miracle.
'Wait… But didn't he say he got the reward?'
Argo looked at Yuuji.
"Hey… Didn't you say you got the reward?"
"Yes."
"...Did you complete it?"
"Of course."
Yuuji tilted his head towards her, confused. Why would she ask something so obvious?
"...How did you manage to escort the calf and the mother cow back to safety with those Kobolds hunting you?!"
"I killed them."
"..."
Argo short circuited.
Killed them? He defeated them? A Kobold Trapper and two Kobold Rat Hunters? Alone?"
Such a notion didn't even compute in her mind.
"Do you want to clear it together? Then, you'll have a better understanding of the quest. It's better than just second hand information.
"...Sure."
The two began making their way to the outskirts of the village to find the farmer, the quest giver for the [Revenge of the Cow] quest.
"Hm? Ah, good morning, Kirito."
"Eh? Ah! Good morning, Yuuji-san!"
Kirito halted on his way out of the village and turned to see Yuuji and a hooded girl walking alongside him.
"Yuuji-san, this is…"
"Her name is Argo. We just met each other this morning."
"Hey~! Nice to meet you!"
"Ah, nice to meet you. I'm Kirito."
Kirito lowered his head slightly as Argo waved her hand.
"What are you doing, Kirito?"
"Ah, I'm planning to take on the quest from the farmer while waiting for the [Secret Medicine of The Forest] quest's cooldown."
"Oh? That's perfect. We're planning on taking that too. Let's do it together. Is that fine, Argo?"
"Of course!"
"Alright. Then, I'll be in your care."
"Mm. Let's party up."
Kirito accepted the party invitation from Yuuji, and two HP bars and names of his new party members showed up right below his on the upper left corner of his HUD.
"By the way, where's Coper?"
"Ah, he left last night. It seems like he returned to the Towns of Beginning."
"I see."
Kirito wondered why Yuuji would suddenly ask about Coper.
But before he, nor Argo who wondered who this "Coper" was, could ask him, Yuuji began moving forward once more.
"Let's go get the quest."
They then made his way towards the farmer on the outskirts of the village, grazing his herd of cows. .
--------------------------------X--------------------------------
"Uhm… This is not normal, right?"
"Of course not…"
Argo and Kirito stood frozen beside the mother cow, dazed and awed.
In their hands was a leather bag of salt cubes, which they would feed the mother cow once in a while to prevent her from going berserk.
A few distance away, clearing the path from giant plant monsters and wasps, was Yuuji.
With each slash, a devastating damage from a critical hit was inflicted upon his enemies. And he chained his regular attacks with his perfectly executed Sword Skills, timing it in a way that the enemies would be staggered at the moment of vulnerability during the pre-motion and post-motion duration of the Sword Skill.
To Argo and Kirito, if not for the glow of his sword during the activation of the Sword Skill, they wouldn't be able to recognize when he was using a Sword Skill and when he was using his regular attacks.
And he did all this while dodging multiple enemy attacks perfectly.
His HP bar never moved, not even a sliver of a line.
Though for Yuuji, it was only obvious.
Despite his low level limiting his physical prowess and movements, their attacks seemed slow.
Even though his senses were also limited by the speed of the Nerve Gear capability to translate commands from his brain into action in this virtual world, with his Swordsmanship Proficiency, Instinct Proficiency, and experience, it was still more than enough to easily dodge preprogrammed attacks from digital monsters.
'I should also be able to parry them…'
Yuuji thought, evading a vine whip from a Fruit Nepenthes before thrusting his sword against the bright red fruit dangling off its head.
"Ah! Yuuji, if you do that, it'll attract other Nepenthes here!"
Argo exclaimed, brandishing her claw weapon in case of a large wave of monsters.
"I know. We can farm for a bit while we're on the way. Isn't that a better use of our time?"
"That's…"
The two "tag-alongs" were left speechless at Yuuji's words.
The Fruit Nepenthes Yuuji just killed was a level 5 monster… And the Little Nepenthes he just attracted would also be around that level.
Kirito was only level 4, and Argo was lower than that.
Yuuji had reached level 8 by the end of last night. But wasn't it still too reckless to fight against numerous monsters around his level at once while being, essentially, alone?!
Since they were in a party, they would naturally receive a share of the experience points and Cols from the monsters Yuuji defeated even without doing anything.
But this game is no longer just a game where you can respawn after dying! It's a death game!
"Just stay alert and stay slightly far away from me. Also, keep the mother cow safe and keep feeding her the salt cubes."
Yuuji said calmly as the ground beneath them began to rumble.
Then, a number of Little Nepentheses began appearing from behind the trees one after another, all charging towards Yuuji.
But just like before, Yuuji effortlessly evaded all of their attacks while dealing damage to them with a mix of critical hits of regular attacks and Sword Skills.
Then, after seemingly getting "tired" of evading, he began parrying their attacks instead.
"Uwah… he's a monster, alright."
"That's amazing…"
This time, he began parrying every attack flawlessly, staggering the monsters while he, himself, seemed to not be affected by the weight of the attacks and smoothly transitioned to attacking.
He did it to each and every single attacks that came his way until he defeated all the Nepenthesses in the area.
'It's a shame that I can't level up the Parry skill right now, but it's better than dodging since I can stagger them more consistently.'
He had filled all his available three skill slots with [One-Handed Swordsmanship], [Sprint], and [Search]. So until he gained the fourth skill slot by leveling up to level 12, as informed by Ai, he wouldn't be able to level up the Parry skill.
Even without having the skill equipped, he was still able to parry the attacks of enemies of this level on his own. However, the effectiveness of his parry and his ability to stagger the enemies would perhaps lessen as he fought stronger monsters in the future without leveling up the skill.
So even if he could parry with his own abilities, he'd still need to equip the skill and raise its proficiency for it to be effective even against higher-leveled enemies.
It was one of the many constraints of the game he'd just have to deal with during this mission.
"Alright. I'm done with this wave. Let's continue."
Unfortunately for Yuuji, who was aiming to level up his proficiency with his equipped skills, no more monsters appeared except for the three "scripted" Kobolds.
But just as he was about to dispatch them, Kirito and Argo asked him to leave the two Kobold Rat Hunters to them while he take on the Kobold Trapper lest they'd feel too much like baggage.
It was then that the mother cow suddenly charged at the Kobold Trapper, trampling it under her hoofs.
"Eh?"
"What just happened?"
"Eh? Why did the mother cow suddenly charge in like that?"
The three looked at the mother cow confused.
The moment they arrived a certain distance away from the three Kobolds, the mother cow suddenly went berserk and charged on her own even though Kirito and Argo had been feeding her the salt cubes.
*Roar!* *Roar!*
"Ah! Think about that later! We need to kill these Kobolds!"
"R-Right!"
Argo and Kirito dashed off, brandishing their blades, towards the two remaining Kobold Rat Hunters.
Yuuji watched the two fight off the Kobolds while he stayed near the mother cow.
With their levels now, thanks to the farm Yuuji gave them on the way here, they were able to defeat the Kobold Rat Hunters after a while.
"Whew… Alright! That went better than expected."
Argo stretched, her iron claws shimmering under the sunlight that seeped through the canopy.
"Anyway. What happened back then? The mother cow just suddenly charged at the Kobold Trapper?"
"I don't know. It didn't happen when I took the quest before."
Yuuji shook his head.
He defeated all three Kobolds easily before. The mother cow didn't even do anything back end except for mooing to call her calf.
Kirito held his chin, looking at the mother cow beside Yuuji.
"Could it be… a scripted combat?"
"A scripted combat?"
Kirito nodded towards Yuuji.
"Yes. There are times when an NPC would help you in combat during quests, especially when the encounter seemed more difficult than normal. This might be one of those instances."
"That's right! The Kobold encounter at this level is super tough for regular players! Two Kobold Rat Hunters are already difficult enough. With the Kobold Trapper being there too, it'd be almost impossible for newbies to clear it! It must be a scripted combat where the mother cow defeats the Kobold Trapper to make the quest easier."
Argo quickly pulled out her notes and began scribbling her discovery in them before her quill suddenly stopped.
"Wait… But that means."
Kirito nodded and slowly turned towards Yuuji.
"Yes… That means Yuuji-san must've defeated the Kobold Trapper before the "scripted" combat could even activate."
Yuuji stood there silent, still processing his words. Was that really a "scripted" combat?
'Well… the mother cow did charge in this time.'
He had defeated the Kobold Trapper first when he did the quest on his own. After all, although it was the highest level with more HP, he didn't want to deal with the traps it lay that might inflict negative status on him.
That might be why the mother cow didn't charge at it at the time. He had defeated it before it could activate the "scripted" combat.
"Well, that's good to know."
He shrugged.
The outcome didn't change for him. In fact, he got extra experience points and Cols from the Kobold Trapper, so he gained more than what he should during the quest.
"Let's find the calf and head back."
Yuuji followed after the mother cow, who had begun mooing and calling for its calf. And the two could only nod, still in disbelief, and followed after him.
--------------------------------X--------------------------------
"Alright! We did it quicker than expected!"
Argo checked out the quest reward she received after completing the quest with the farmer outside Horunka Village.
Yuuji and Kirito also accepted the quest rewards from the farmer.
"This is nice. Now I won't have to live off stale hard rye bread for a while."
"Agreed."
Argo cleared the notifications from the HUD and turned towards Yuuji with a wide smile.
"Alright! Then, I'll be off hunting for more info somewhere else! There's still a lot to explore around the Towns of Beginnings!"
She grinned, placing her arms on her hips.
"Message me if you want to buy any information, okay? I'll give you a friend's discount!"
She winked.
"Of course. I'll also tell you if I find something interesting. Of course, not for free."
"Hehe, naturally!"
Argo then turned towards Kirito.
"Let's be friends too! You're a beta tester, right? Let's exchange information!"
"Sure. That'll be great."
Argo then sent Kirito a friend request, and his friend list now grew from two, to three.
"Great! Then, I'll be off! Don't die, you two! Let's meet again!"
"Mm. Let's meet again."
"See you."
Argo left, waving her hand at the two, and made her way back to the direction of the Towns of Beginning.
"Then, I'll also get going. I'll need to search for a new area to get quests and grind."
"Ah, alright. I'll be staying to get the Anneal Blade from the quest here."
Yuuji nodded and extended his hand for a handshake.
"Let's do our best to survive. And if there's a chance, let's party up again."
Kirito stared at the extended hand for a moment. Emotions beginning to well up in his chest.
Then, he took it.
"Yes. Let's survive, and meet again."
Yuuji nodded, and began heading off from the village.
But after just a few steps, he stopped and turned towards Kirito once again.
"Kirito."
"Yes?"
Kirito noticed the shift in Yuuji's tone.
"Be careful with your knowledge. Don't trust it too much. You've seen what happened to the quests. They're different from what you know in the beta. There's no telling what else "he" would change in this world. Remember. Be careful."
Yuuji's words reverberated within him deeply.
His head nodded.
But as he watched Yuuji walk away, Kirito stood there in silence, taking in the words of the person he came to admire greatly to heart.
----------------------------------------------------------------
AN: I hope you guys enjoy this chapter~! Please comment your thoughts~! I would love to hear what you think about it~!!!!
Also, if you'd like to read additional chapters ahead and get a pdf version (Light & Dark), please feel free to check out my at patr_eon.com/verglasx ~!
Thank you~!