The Red Player (A Sword Art Online story)

Chapter 5: Not for Sale

Chapter 5: Not for Sale

Piifalo

I step lightly into the brightly lit weapons store. As the door swings open it hits a bell hung from the ceiling. I roll my eyes, but I can practically hear Ashas grinning behind me.

I make my way to the counter. A man with scorched clothing and gloves stands up from underneath the table, smiling broadly. “How can I help-”

“Nothing you have here is good enough,” I say without hesitation.

The man is slightly taken aback, shocked by my response, but he is able to continue. “Well perhaps if you need a stronger weapon you should learn to craft your own. Although if you find that you are incompetent and cannot smith your own weapons, I could craft one specifically for you, for a price, of course.” His mouth spreads to a smirk.

“I apologize,” I say nonchalantly, “but I’m looking for a functional two-handed sword. Just by looking at what you have I can tell that these scraps hardly weigh enough for a child. I must say I doubt you could provide me with anything useful.” We glare at each other, barely keeping from killing each other in the middle of the store.

“How heavy do you want it?” he growls.

“Let’s see if you can manage a 20kg, if you’re strong enough, that is.”

She shakes his head slowly with a low laugh. “And what material will it be, my liege?”

“The finest you’ve got, impress me.” I say with a sneer. Without another word he steps into his back room coming back out with a pile of gleaming red metals in his arms. He dumps them on the shop counter.

People outside pass by, looking through the window to see why their blacksmith was having a verbal war with a customer.

“Delzarite. The strongest material you’ll find on floor 10. There aren’t any other metals that could meet your ridiculous weight requirements anyway.” My eyes stick to the fiery luminescent red metal that lay spread across the table. “Is there anything else you’d like to add to it? Ornamentation, maybe?”

“As long as it hits hard for me to win the fight, my opponent won’t be alive to care how it looks.” The smith scoffs as he pulls a hammer out from a drawer in his table.

He slides his left hand down in front of his chest, opening the menu. He searches through the options until he finds his blacksmithing skill. Quickly and precisely he selects all the details of the weapon. Finally he types in my name as the customer and prepares to begin.

With all the metal he needs piled at the center of the table, he swings downward with the hammer. With each impact the metals become shrouded in a blinding white light. A few moments later he drops his hammer and steps back. The light grows larger and larger, filling the room until suddenly, it stops.

My eyes open again, adjusting once again. I see the sword in the blacksmiths arms. His jaw is hanging loosely in surprise and his eyes are as wide as my curiosity. He lays the sword down carefully on the counter and steps back once again. “You had better have enough money to pay for this,” he says whistling.

I walk over to the counter and grasp the handle with my right hand. The grip is a hard leather wrapped with cloth that runs up to the garnet colored hilt that stretches as long as my forearm. The blade itself is magnificent to look at. The metal glows like a fire on a dark night, illuminating the shadows. Its double edges are so sharp I can feel it cutting into me just by looking at it. The blade near the hilt is almost a foot wide, and still half that near the tip. A double edged claymore…

Lifting it up is somewhat difficult with one hand, but with my other it feels perfectly balanced. Even with the massive amount of weight at the blade it’s still comfortable to swing, just as much as Passion, or more. I place it back down on the table.

“So, how much?” I ask willing to pay anything for it.

The blacksmith, still marveling at his accomplishment looks up and me with a devious smile. “100,000 Coll,” he says.

I look through my inventory until I find my money. 250,000 Coll. Wow, with that look he was giving me I was expecting so much more! I pull out the 100,000 worth of coins and hand him the bag. He looks inside with a smile wider than when we first walked in his store.

“I thank you for your business,” he says brightly. “Did I provide a ‘functional’ weapon for you?”

“Yeah whatever,” I say picking it up the sword to leave.

“Hey wait!” he calls grabbing my arm. “Can’t I at least see the name of the weapon I’ve created?” I can feel the blood begin to rush to my cheeks. I reluctantly turn to show him, making sure to hide it from Ashas. The smith begins to snicker, turning away to keep from laughing. “Have fun with that you two,” he says barely keeping from exploding with laughter. “You kids be safe, ok? This is only a game, but keep those emotions in check, alright?” That’s when I realize my face is completely red. I grab Devotion and run outside. The smith breaks out laughing hysterically.

Ashas grabs my shoulder and asks “What? What’s your sword called?” I keep my mouth shut, shake my head and start walking back to the forest. “Come on, tell me!”

I stop quickly where I stand and give up hiding it. I open up my menu and move to Devotion’s name and show it to her. Red floods her cheeks.

End of chapter 5. Can you guess the anagram for the name

Of the metal delza(rite)?