The Survival Logs || Sword Art Online Fanfic

Elf War Arc: Chapter 10 - Quest Progress

15 December 2022, 6.45am

Forest Elf Base, Wandering Mists Forest, 3rd Floor

I woke up no different from how I usually wake up every morning in real life, though I didn't know what really was the time in the real world. Sword Art Online was a globally launched game anyway. I also didn't know what time zone the game followed to tell time either.

When I got up from bed, Legolia's bed was already empty. Are elves seriously early birds?, I thought. If I didn't set the alarm program in my menu to wake myself up 15 minutes before meeting time, I wondered what would happen to the Elf War Campaign quest then. Maybe Legolia would be programmed to scold me for being late, but that would be going off topic here.

I equipped all my gear and left my tent. The environment around me really gave that vibe you would always get when you walk out of your house : quiet, cool and the urge to look at the rising sun coming from the east, wherever east was in Aincrad.

Legolia appeared before me a few seconds later, apparently running in a hurry.

"Zenalyth!" Legolia panted a little after she reached me. "Our guards have just spotted dark elf intruders near our base!"

An exclamation mark appeared above her. So the Elf War Campaign progresses, I thought. I accepted the quest through the quest window that just popped up in front of me. The exclamation mark turned into a question mark, and Legolia told me, "Come, to the front gate!"

I followed her to the front gate, and briefly exited the front gate with her after the guards outside opened it. The Wandering Mists Forest was as dim-litted as ever as I half-sprinted behind Legolia.

"How... do you know the intruders are still there?" I tried to ask as I ran.

"Our scouts detected the intruders when they were on patrol duty...!" Legolia shouted over our running footsteps.

I struggled a little to bring down my menu, and clicked on the quests section, which already indicated a circular icon numbered '1' on the top right corner of its rectangular box. I had already, and unknowingly triggered the beginning of a quest, which was titled 'Intercepting Dark Elf Intruders', which was the very first quest of the Elf War quest campaign of the 3rd Floor.

I know, the title of the quest was very self-explanatory, but that was how the quest was titled in SAO. The next few quests of the Elf War campaign may also be titled the same way, but I didn't mind at all. Quests in games which hold hidden meanings in their titles were very annoying to figure out anyway.

I should spare you the details in the next few quests that I did with Legolia for the next few days, after 'Intercepting Dark Elf Intruders', as they were mostly the kind of quests which are the 'kill number of monsters type' or 'escorting forest elves' types, which became increasingly boring once you were in the middle of completing each quest. Aside from'Intercepting Dark Elf Intruders', the other campaign quests didn't start automatically, which led me to wonder if 'Intercepting Dark Elf Intruders' was supposed to trigger on its own once I woke up.

Some mysteries would always stay as mysteries..., I concluded in thought. But I could always link this strange occurrence to the fact that the official SAO would never be the same as the SAO during the beta test. I would never know how different the current SAO would be from the beta test, anyway.

The sixth and last quest of the Elf War campaign in the 3rd Floor, as the quest system had indicated to me, was vaguely titled 'Night Patrol'. Just after I had opened the quest description for this quest, as if on cue, Legolia announced that she would be heading back to the Forest Elf Base.