Sword Art Online

The Black Swordsman (Aincrad 35th Floor, February 2024)

"Please......Don't leave me alone......Pina......"

Two lines of tears streamed down Silica's cheeks, as scattered grains of light burst from the big feather on the ground.

That pale blue feather was the remains of her sole friend and partner for a long time, the familiar «Pina». Just a few minutes ago, Pina died protecting Silica. Given a mortal wound by the monster's weapon, it gave out a cry in a sad voice before shattering like ice. Leaving only its long tail feather which had always waved happily whenever its name was called——

Part 1

Silica was one of the rare «Beast Tamers» in SAO, or perhaps it was more accurate to say 'was once'. Her familiar, the symbol of a beast tamer, was no longer here.

A beast tamer wasn't a class or skill given by the system, but a term used by the players.

On rare occasions, aggressive monsters would show interest in players. If you didn't miss the chance, you could successfully tame the monster by giving it something to eat. The monster would then become the player's «Familiar» and serve as a valuable ally who supports the player in various ways. Players referred to those who had succeeded in doing so as beast tamers with a mix of praise and envy.

Of course, not all monsters can become familiars; only a very limited variety of small monsters could. The conditions to trigger the event weren't all that clear, but the only one that everyone was sure about was that the event wouldn't occur if the player killed too many of the monster type.

This was a rather hard condition when you think about it. Even if one tried to get a familiar by repeatedly meeting them, the monsters were aggressive and the player can't avoid entering a fight with them. In other words, if one wished to become a beast tamer, they would have to keep meeting with the monster, and if the event didn't occur they would have to keep running away. It wasn't hard to imagine just how annoying all that would be.

You could say that Silica was very lucky on this matter.

With no knowledge of this, she had entered some forest without any reason on a floor she visited just because she felt like it. The first monster she had met didn't attack her, but merely approached her. She then gave it a peanut that she had bought the day before without much thought, and it just happened to be a food that the monster liked.

The monster was a «Feathery Dragon». Its whole body was covered in soft, pale blue feathers, and it had two long feathers instead of a tail. The small dragon was a very rare monster to come across. Perhaps Silica had been the first to succeed in taming it, as it immediately became the subject of much interest when she went back to her hometown «Friben» on the eighth floor with it sitting on her shoulder. The next day, countless players had attempted to tame a Feathery Dragon after listening to Silica's information, but none of them managed to succeed.

Silica had named the small dragon «Pina». It was the same name that she gave to a cat she had in the real world.

Familiar monsters were known to have low stats when it comes to actual combat and Pina was no different. But they had a number of special skills instead: a scanning ability that warned the player of approaching monsters, a skill that healed the player a little, and so on. They were all pretty useful and made day-to-day hunting much easier. But what Silica was most happy about was the warmth and comfort that Pina's very existence brought.

The AI of a familiar wasn't that great. Of course, it couldn't talk, and it could only understand a couple dozen commands. But to Silica, who had entered the game when she was only twelve and was being crushed by fear and nervousness, Pina was a savior that was hard to explain with words. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that Silica's «Adventure» — which meant actually «Living» here — had started with Pina.

After a year, Silica and Pina had leveled up smoothly and her skill as a dagger user had become quite good. It made her rather famous amongst the middle level players as one of their best.

Of course, she was still a far cry from the top class warriors who fought on the front lines; but in some ways, those few hundred players who were set on clearing the game amongst the seven thousand total players were harder to see than beast tamers. Therefore, becoming famous among the average players was pretty much the same as becoming one of the idols in the game.

Because female players were rather rare, especially given her age, it didn't take long for «Dragon Master Silica» to become a famous player with numerous fans. She received endless invitations from parties and guilds who wanted an idol player and it was unavoidable for the thirteen year old Silica to become overproud of herself. But in the end, that pride caused her to commit a grave mistake, and she couldn't turn back no matter how much she regretted it.

A fight over a minor detail started everything.

Silica was in a vast forest on the north of the thirty-fifth floor, known as «The Forest of Wandering», with a party that she had met two weeks back. At that point, the front line was already far away on the fifty-fifth floor, so the thirty-fifth floor had already been cleared. But the top class warriors didn't care about anything except clearing the labyrinth area, so sub-dungeons like «The Forest of Wandering» was a popular target for the average player.

Since the six-player party that Silica had joined was made of skilled warriors, they had fought since morning and found quite a lot of items, including a number of treasure chests. But when the sun began to set and everyone was running out of healing potions, they started to make their way back to the living area. A slim female player who wielded a spear then said something, perhaps in order to keep Silica in check.

"We'll be handing around the items after we get back. But since your lizard heals you, you won't be needing the healing crystals right?"

Silica felt offended and struck back.

"You don't even come out to the front and only hang around the back of the group, so you don't use crystals anyway."

After that, the bickering had intensified, and the attempts of the team leader, a sword-and-shield wielder, to stop it had been totally ignored. In the end, Silica said in anger:

"I don't need the items. I'll never party with you again. There're plenty of people who want to party with me anyway!"

Ignoring the leader's suggestion to at least stay with the party until they were out of the forest and back in the living area, she left the group and walked aimlessly down a small track.

Even if she were solo, she had already mastered seventy percent of her dagger skill and also had Pina to back her up, so the monsters on the thirty-fifth floor weren't a problem for her. She would have been able to get through the forest and back to the living area without any problems. That is, if she hadn't gotten lost.

The forest wasn't called «The Forest of Wandering» for nothing.

The huge forest was full of large, towering trees and was divided into areas like a chess board; one minute after you set foot into an area, it would be randomly linked via warp to a whole new set of areas. If you wanted to get out of the forest, you had to either get through each area within a minute each, or buy an expensive map from a shop in the living area, which checked the areas your location is currently linked to as you made your way through the forest.

But the only person with a map was the leader. Since using a teleport crystal within The Forest of Wandering only teleported you to another area in the forest instead of back to the city, Silica had to attempt getting through each area. But running around the enormous tree roots and following the ever-meandering forest trail proved harder than she had thought.

Silica had decided to keep going north, but the minute mark kept passing just before she could reach the end of the area, and she ended up being warped to some random area again and again. Soon she was nearing the point of collapsing from the fatigue. The red light of the setting sun deepened and she felt increasingly anxious as the skies darkened and her chances of leaving the dungeon grew more unlikely.

Eventually, Silica gave up on running and began to walk, hoping that she would end up at an area at the edge of the forest by chance. But luck wasn't on her side, and numerous monsters attacked her as she stumbled on. Even with her huge level advantage, as the day grew darker she couldn't even see what was on the ground very well. Although she had Pina to help her, she wasn't able to get out of every fight unscathed and eventually used up not only her remaining potions but also her emergency healing crystals.

As if it sensed Silica's nervousness, Pina stroked her cheek with its head as it purred on her shoulder. Silica regretted her rashness and pride that had gotten her into this situation while she stroked her partner's long neck in a comforting manner.

She muttered in her mind as she walked:

"I'm sorry. I won't think that I'm special again. So please let me get out of this forest the next time I warp."

She stepped into another distorted warp zone as she prayed. After a brief wave of dizziness, what appeared in front of her was the same deep forest she had seen every other time. There wasn't even a hint of the plains in the darkness past all the tall trees.

As the disappointed Silica began to walk again, Pina quickly raised its head and gave a sharp cry. It was a warning. Silica immediately drew her dagger and raised it towards the direction that Pina had been looking at.

A few seconds later, a low growl could be heard behind a huge, moss-covered tree. As Silica focused her gaze, a yellow cursor appeared. There were a few of them. Two, no... three. The monsters' name was «Drunk Ape». They were one of the strongest monsters in The Forest of Wandering. Silica bit her lip.

Even if that were the case—

They weren't all that dangerous if one looked at only the level.

When middle class players, such as Silica, went out onto the field, it was common sense to be several levels higher than the monsters that appear. Normally, they needed to be on a high enough level to defeat five monsters without any healing items on your own.

The reason was that, unlike the top class warriors on the frontlines, the middle class players went on adventures to earn enough col to get by, to gain just enough experience to stay with the average level range, and lastly to simply relieve boredom. Among these reasons, not one was worth risking your life for. In fact, there were still about a thousand players in the «Starting City» who refused to raise the chances of dying by even a little.

But one needed a regular source of income to eat and sleep. Furthermore, all MMORPG players had this disease-like quirk which made them feel insecure if they weren't at least on an average level. Because of this, after about a year and a half since the game started, the main body of players now journeyed onto the field with a huge level advantage to enjoy adventuring in this world.

Therefore, the Drunk Apes, which boasted of being one of the strongest monsters on the thirty-fifth floor, weren't really a challenge for Silica; at least that was how it should have been.

Silica raised her dagger as she forced her mind to concentrate. Pina also floated upwards as it prepared for battle.

The monsters that appeared from behind the tree were anthropoids covered with dark red fur. They held a crude club in the right hand and some sort of gourd with a string tied around it in their left hand.

As the apes raised their clubs and bared their teeth to roar, Silica rushed towards the one in front to make the first strike. She got a clean hit in and took off quite a chunk of its HP with «Rapid Bite», a middle class charge-type dagger skill, and then went into one of the high speed combos that was one of the greatest advantages of wielding a dagger.

The Drunk Apes used low-level mace skills, and although each hit had formidable power, they lacked in speed and multi-hitting combos. Silica rained blows down on the Drunk Ape and then backed away quickly only to charge in again to start a new assault. After doing this several times, the HP of the Drunk Ape had greatly decreased within a short moment. Once in a while, Pina also used its bubble-like breath attack to confuse the opponent.

But just before she was about to launch her fourth skill «Fad Edge» and kill the first ape...

A new opponent came from behind it, switching with the first ape during the brief respite. Silica didn't have any choice but to switch her target and start attacking the second Ape. The first then backed away and tilted the gourd with its left hand—

Silica was shocked as she glanced at the HP bar of the first Drunk Ape. The HP bar was being filled back up at an amazing speed. It seemed as if the gourd held some sort of healing liquid.

She had faced Drunk Apes in the past on the thirty-fifth floor, but there were only two of them that time, and she eliminated both before they had a chance to switch, so she wasn't aware of this special skill. Silica gritted her teeth and concentrated on taking care of the second one properly.

But just as she knocked its HP bar into the red zone and widened the distance between them to start her last attack, the other ape switched with it. It was the third Drunk Ape. At that point the first one had almost completely filled its HP bar.

There would be no end to this if it continued on. Her mouth became dry with anxiety.

Silica had barely any experience fighting solo in the first place. Even if she had an overwhelming advantage in level, it was only a number; the player's actual skill was entirely another matter. The anxiety that had appeared in Silica's mind began to change into confusion. She started to miss more, which opened the room for her enemy to counterattack.

When she managed to lower the third Drunk Ape's HP to about half, her attempt to keep performing combos caused her to overreach. The ape didn't miss that opportunity and counterattacked, which landed a critical blow.

The wooden club was crudely made, but the basic damage from its weight combined with the Drunken Ape's strength stat caused Silica's HP to go down by almost thirty percent. A chill ran down her spine.

The fact that she had run out of healing potions added to her nervousness. Pina's breath restored about ten percent of her HP, but it wasn't something Pina could use very often. Even with that, if she were hit three more times by such an attack — she would die.

Death. Silica froze as soon as that possibility flashed through her mind. Her arm wouldn't go up. Her legs wouldn't move.

Up till now, fighting had been thrilling, but it had been far from actual danger. She had never thought that it was linked to actual «Death» before—

As she stood frozen in front of the Drunk Ape who roared and raised its club again, Silica realized for the first time what fighting with monsters in SAO actually meant. It was a contradiction; SAO was a game, but at the same time it wasn't something to be played.

With the dull sound of a club rushing through the air, it struck her as she continued to stand rigidly. She couldn't take the impact and collapsed onto the ground. Her HP greatly decreased and entered the orange area.

She could no longer think of anything. She could run away. She could use a teleport crystal. There were still other choices she could make, but she simply looked at the club as the ape raised it a third time.

The crude weapon gave off a red glow, and just when she was about to close her eyes reflexively—

A small figure jumped into the space between her and the club. A heavy and chilling sound of impact sounded. The sky-blue feathers scattered in an instant as the small HP bar dropped down to zero.

Pina gazed at Silica with its round, blue eyes after it fell to the floor. It gave a weak growl and then scattered into countless polygons. A long tail feather floated down as if it were dancing.

Something inside Silica snapped. The thread that held her together had disappeared. Before the sadness could come, she felt anger: anger at herself for being unable to move after being hit just once; and before that, anger at herself for being conceited enough to attempt going through the forest alone just because she felt annoyed about a minor quarrel.

Silica stepped back with a lithe movement, avoiding the blow that the monster had swung at her. She then rushed in with a shout. The dagger in her right hand flashed as it rained blows down on the Ape.

She didn't even try to dodge the club of the Ape that had switched in after it saw the HP of its companion decrease, but instead blocked it with her left hand. Her HP decreased, although not by as much as a direct hit. But she ignored it and went after the third ape, the one that had killed Pina.

She used her small stature to her advantage, charged straight at the Ape, and dug her dagger into its chest with all her strength. With a flashy critical hit effect, the enemy's HP was reduced to nothing. A scream came first, and then the sound of shattering.

Within the scattering debris, Silica turned her body and charged at a new target. Her HP bar had already gone into the red danger area, but she didn't even care anymore. She saw only the enemy she had to kill, as if it were enlarged to fill her vision.

She forgot even her fear of death and was just about to attempt a doomed charge below the swinging club.

A pure white light slashed across the two Drunk Apes from behind them as they stood side by side.

The bodies of the two Apes were each split into two in an instant; then they shattered and disappeared.

As Silica stood numbly, she saw a male player just past the haze of scattering fragments. He had black hair and wore a black coat. He wasn't all that tall, but an overwhelming presence radiated from him. Silica stepped back as she felt an instinctive fear. Their eyes met.

But his eyes were silent and as deep as the darkness. The boy sheathed his one-handed sword back into the scabbard on his back with a clank and then opened his mouth.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't save your friend"

Strength left her body as soon as she heard this. She couldn't stop the tears running down her cheeks. She didn't even register her dagger slipping out of her hand and falling onto the ground. As soon as she saw the sky-blue feather on the ground, she fell to her knees in front of it.

As her anger disappeared, an uncontrollable sadness and loss rushed out. They formed in the shape of tears and rolled down her cheeks relentlessly.

Familiars weren't programmed to stop an attack as part of its normal behavior. Pina had rushed in front of the attack of its own free will — it could be called the result of its love towards Silica, whom it had spent a year with.

As Silica clutched herself, she muttered while crying.

"Please... don't leave me alone... Pina..."

But the sky-blue feather didn't give any sort of reply.