Part 4: The Water-Filled Fourth Floor, The Girl Who Wields A Scythe, And Playing Castle Defense
Kirito, December 20th
"So how long are you going to just stand there? You've spent enough time examining the carved relief on the door. Or are you afraid because it's the fourth floor?"
Realizing he's been staring at the carved relief on the doors to the fourth floor, Kirito turns to his right, looking at the annoyed face of Asuna. It had only been a few seconds, maybe a full minute since his party's heartwarming show of unity, and it's already lifted. "...What do you mean, because it's the fourth floor?"
He can tell she's irritated with him, but there are hints of mischief in her eyes too. "You know how some people are. They don't want a room on the thirteenth floor of the hotel or the fourth because it's associated with death. Are you one of them?"
"N-no way. Look at this all-black outfit. Would I really wear this color if I believed in omens and stuff like that?"
"Well, why are you just standing there, then?"
"Um, because..." He looks back to the door, which, on its own, doesn't stand out too much. Like the previous two floors, the designs give a hint to the overall theme of the floor. The second floor had a bull's head relief, the third pictured two elves in combat underneath a massive tree. The entrance in front of Kirito and his three companions depicts a carving of a traveler rowing what appears to be a gondola.
"Is there something about that picture? Didn't you see this in the beta test?" Asuna asks with rising irritation.
Kirito shakes his head in response. "No...not this. I saw the door, all right...but not this relief." He turns to Jaymes, the shielder staring at the relief now with a curious eye. "Jaymes, you never saw this door, correct?"
"Correct. But I think I get where you're going. Koharu...there's no point asking you how high you made it, huh?"
Koharu glares at her partner accusingly. "No, but what's that supposed to mean? Just because I didn't make it beyond the first floor in the beta doesn't mean anything!"
"Chill. I'm just saying, you don't seem to be as...alarmed as Kirito or myself, else you'll realize why we haven't opened that door yet." Giving Koharu a reassuring pat on the head, he looks back at Kirito. "What did the original design look like?"
"In the beta, it was a traveler wandering through a desert canyon. But in this one, he's on a boat."
"In the beta, the fourth floor was a desert canyon, and we could only travel on the floor of the canyon. Sand everywhere." Jaymes sighs and shivers at the memory of the floor. "Hate desert levels. Damn sand is rough, coarse, and gets everywhere jsut like in real life. And there was the sense module that was annoying accurate to projecting the sense of sinking into sand..."
Asuna bites her lip and faces the door. "Hmm...Sounds appropriate for the picture of the man in the desert canyon. So if the picture's been changed, then..." She takes the final step up to the door and places her hand on the gondola. With a slight push from the fencer, the doors give way. The four shield their eyes from the light that breaches the door, and Kirito's sense of hearing heightens momentarily. Because of it, he hears a low, deep roll combined with a high-pitched leap that reminds him of moving water.
Water. They're not at the desert canyon of the beta, but before them, a rapid stream of water cutting through the side of a mountain.
"Well, that's that," Asuna says as she claps Kirito's shoulder. The girl taking the lead, the four take their first steps into the hilly region filled with greenery. As Kirito inspects the area more, it's not totally different from the old canyon. As far as he can tell, it is still a canyon of sorts, just the complete opposite biome of his expectations. By far, this is the most dramatic change in Sword Art Online's retail release. After all, as Jaymes stated, the sandy floor was the only means of traversing the fourth floor, but if they're filled with water...
"So how long are you going to stand there?" Asuna questions the boy in black with an elbow.
"Er...my bad. I was spacing out."
"I wasn't asking for an apology, but there are plenty of people waiting for us to reach the main city and activate the teleporter."
"Oh, right. Well...first, we should inform Argo that we defeated the boss."
"Koharu already did it," Jaymes calls out a few steps ahead, heading down the southern face of the hill towards the stream. "We might as well head into town and open the gate...if there's a way" Kirito sees no reason to argue that point but notes the unconfident way Jaymes finishes the sentence. Catching up to him and Koharu at the river's edge, he looks down into it. He can clearly visualize the sandy bottom and judges the depth to be at least six feet. Jaymes is the tallest member of thr party, just half a head over Kirito, but not even he could wade across the rapid. If SAO wasn't the type of game it was, maybe Kirito would attempt to cross the stream.
"Wait...why is it so deep? We can't cross to the other side like this."
"That's right...In fact, I don't think there is another side."
"...What do you mean?"
"Exactly what I said. In the beta, these canyons were the only way to get to the towns and dungeons on the floor. I bet they're all deep rivers at this point-the entire floor."
Koharu makes a worrying gasp. "So...there's no path for us to go? No, there has to be one..."
Asuna looks around for such a path. "What's it like on top of those cliffs?"
"I don't know. Nobody was able to climb it in the beta."
"So it's basically a system-designated barrier?"
"Not explicitly, but the rock was too fragile-everyone fell down partway, including me. And once you fell from above the halfway point, pretty much every landing was fatal."
"I didn't climb them... Point aside, I don't think we should try it, given what fatal means for us." Everyone agrees with Jaymes' assessment.
"Then I suppose our only option is to swim the river."
Kirito glances over at Asuna, giving her equipment a look over. "Um...have you ever swum here in SAO, Asuna?"
"...N-no."
"Koharu?"
"No."
"Jaymes?"
"It's an experience I rather not...talk about, but yes."
"I see. Then let me just explain that the way you use your body to swim in SAO is completely different from real life. It takes a lot of practice to be able to swim properly, and even practice doesn't prevent the danger of drowning."
"What happens...if you drown?"
"When your body is submerged in water above the head, your HP begins dropping. So if you don't emerge from the surface of the water, you die."
Koharu shudders from the thought, while Asuna calmly (or projects calmness) bites her lips. "How much practice are we talking about?"
"Well...it depends on the person, but it took me over an hour. And that was in the shallows, just three feet deep. It's too dangerous to practice in a deep, rushing river like this."
"I see...In that case, we should go back to an earlier floor and find a safe place to practice, I suppose. Let's do this, then. You boys swim from here to the main town. Ko and I will take the stairs back down to the third floor. I recall the perfect lake on the north side of the floor that we can use to practice. Once we're ready, we'll use the teleport gate to the fourth floor. That means the party breaks up for a bit."
"No." Kirito thought that stern tone came from himself, but instead, it originates from Jaymes' tongue. Looking at him stare down at Asuna, Kirito senses the two are about to verbally duke it out, but instead he sighs and turns away. "As Kirito said, swimming is dangerous on its own. And asking one of us to go with you is an argument I know I won't win. I doubt you'll accept the idea of the teleport gate not opening before the automatic two hours or the guilds doing it. But I cannot accept either of you doing something like that."
"...Jaymes is right," Koharu comments, placing her hand on Asuna's shoulder. "I mean, I would like to learn how to swim one day, but perhaps not when it could still cost us our lives."
"Then what should we do?"
"...Hmm?" Kirito takes a certain interest in a large deciduous tree right by the fourth-floor pavilion. As soon as he knew he was looking at what he thought he spotted, he runs off for the tree, ignoring the confused shouts tracking behind him until he stands at the roots and points up. "See that?"
"Oh, it's growing fruit. And they look so cute!"
"'Cute' is in your vocabulary? You are a girl!"
"Shut it!"
"They're shaped like donuts. Cute and weird. Kirito, why did you lead us here? Shouldn't we be trying to find a route to town?"
"Let's try knocking down some of the fruit first, Koharu." Kirito leaps up and grasps the nearest branch, but the tree doesn't bulge at all. "Crap."
"Wait. I got this." All eyes on Jaymes, he takes a couple of steps back and, with a confident smirk, charges the tree. He dives to the ground and rolls himself into the tree when he's about a meter away. The tree shakes slightly, but the groaning warrior's confidence is shattered as he spirals out on the ground. "Ouch...did it work?"
Asuna places her hands on her hips, failing to hold her laughter. "No, it did not. What was that?"
"You see, in this game I played, you could knock stuff out of trees if you rolled into them..."
Kirito helps his comrade up to his feet. "If only I had three...no, five more skill slots! Especially Acrobatics, then I could climb the tree. Oh, wait, maybe you had the right idea. What if I-"
"Here." Mid-sentence, Kirito turns around to Koharu, the girl coming down from the tree with four of the donut fruits in her arms. He suddenly remembers the girl possesses the Acrobatic skill... At least she remembered.
Asuna herself is pleased with the results. "Good work, Koharu, unlike these brutes disrespecting the flora. We're still technically part of the Dark Elf team, so we have to respect nature."
"It's ironic you say that when there's a Forest Elf faction."
Asuna shrugs at Jaymes' comment and faces Kirito, now holding a blue donut and a yellow one. "So what's the plan with the donut fruit? If we're eating them, I'd prefer the yellow one."
"I don't think these are meant to be shaped like donuts."
"...What are they shaped like, then?"
Rather show than tell, he brings the blue fruit to his mouth, noticing Asuna's dirty look, and bites the stem. Taking a deep breath, he blows into the tubelike stem. For a second, nothing happened, then immediately the donut expanded astronomically from three inches to three feet.
"Oh."
"Y-you mean...it's an...inner tube?"
Kirito nods and tosses Asuna the yellow donut. She repeats his action, causing her fruit to blow up as well. Intrigued, she plays around with the tube, bouncing it up in the air like a child playing with a ball.
"Good grief...I do not know what's going on here.".
"I bet you donut."
Asuna glares at Jaymes, who can't help himself to hold in his laugh. Kirito fails as well, but he manages to not earn the fencer's ire. "If you want to stand around cracking jokes, feel free to go do some stand-up at the teleport gate plaza."
"So you mean you'll be my comedy partner?"
"Of course not! Why not team up with Kibaou?!"
"Hmm... Nah. Koharu, you already my-"
"Pass."
While the three discuss Jaymes' comedy routine, Kirito produces a scroll and begins writing a message for Lind and Kibaou about how to procure the fruit and inflate them. It's been thirty-five minutes since the quartet and company beat the third floor, fifteen since they stepped foot on the fourth floor, so the two big guilds must be on their approach very soon. With a tap, he rolls up the scroll and discards it on the pavilion. Its durability should make it last until one or both guilds make it up the staircase.
"Well, now that we've got our floaty tubes, that changes our plan of action, doesn't it?" Kirito notes.
Asuna looks at her tube in doubt. "...You mean that even a beginner can swim with one of these?"
"I'll try it first, of course, but I'm pretty sure we'll be fine. As long as your head doesn't go underwater, you won't lose HP while swimming. We'll make it to the main town by going through the canyon just to the south and then east. The only thing is..."
"...Is what?"
"We should probably remove our heavy equipment, just in case."
"How heavy are we talking?"
Kirito gives Asuna several look-overs and does several mental calculations before answering. "Let's see...You should probably take off the hooded cape. The rapier and the breastplate as well, obviously, and the boots and gloves, too. Probably the vest, too...And that leather skirt's a lot heavier than you'd think. As for the tunic, well..."
"...If I take all of them off, I won't be wearing any equipment at all!" Asuna throws her tube at Kirito, smacking him in the face and it landing around his neck like a game of horseshoe. "I assume you're going to follow your own advice and take off your black thing, the other black thing, and the black thing aside from that!"
"Um...I'm only thinking of what will make it safest for you to swim...Jaymes, help me out here."
Jaymes does the same as Kirito with his eyes, but with both girls. "Hmm... I have to agree, it'd be better if we used the tubes with as less weight as possible. But since I doubt anyone here has proper swimwear, I think the girls' tunics are fine enough."
"You sure?" Koharu asks warily.
He nods, and Kirito sees no hint of playfulness on the other boy's face. Despite how he treats Asuna, even she knows that if he confirms something to or about Koharu, he means it. That gets the chestnut-haired girl to retrieve her inner tube from Kirito, shooting him a glare. "Then let's get going."
Once they returned to the river, Asuna and Koharu got undressed, turning away from the boys as they stripped down to just their tunics. Kirito was...somewhat lost in thought watching that he didn't notice Jaymes had also begun putting his gear away. It wasn't until he sensed impending doom as Asuna finished that he began to put all his gear into his inventory, leaving him in dark red boxers.
Glancing at Jaymes, he sees his companion looking disappointed. "What's wrong?"
"This is karma for what happened in the farmhouse on the first floor."
What Jaymes refers to is the moment Kirito and Jaymes saw Asuna and Koharu in less than their underwear because of Argo's curiosity. Kirito, however, thinks of a more recent incident. "Not the time we went through Asuna's underwear looking for her rapier? And you haven't seen Koharu in...that way?"
"It could be both incidents, and no, I haven't. I usually look away if she's in that manner. I am not that perverted, I have some class."
"I believe you...but I bet you were somewhat expecting more... Or less, in this instance."
"It's too early for the swimsuit chapter if there ever is one."
"Pft..." Hearing a weird sound behind them, the boys turn around and see Asuna with her hand covering her mouth, eyes wandering at Kirito. Koharu looks too embarrassed to look at either male, but her hair doesn't hide her emerald eyes from looking in their direction, and a barely held-together half-smile.
Kirito hides his front side with his tube, feeling self-conscious. "Y-you don't have to laugh that hard! Besides, you already said you expected I would be taking everything off!"
"Yeah, what were you two expecting?"
Asuna bends down, holding her sides while Koharu drops all the way down to her knees, finally laughing. "Ah-ha-ha-ha...I-I mean...seriously, that's just not fair, ha-ha-ha-ha!"
"N-not fair? Look...I know it's a bright color, but..."
"N-no, I'm not talking about the color...pff-hff-hff...Do you really not know what I mean? You should really take a look at your butt!"
"Wh-what...?"
"Dudeeeeeee! Ha-ha-ha!" Jaymes erupts into laughter after looking at Kirito's butt. Kirito tries looking over his shoulder, but to no avail, he rushes to the river. In the reflection, he catches the cause of his friend's humor. On the rear end of the crimson boxers is a previously unknown gold-printed bull design. The LA bonus from General Baran, one of the three bosses of Floor 2, which provides a buff to strength and resistance is now making him the subject of laughter.
Floor 4 is going well.
xxxxxxxxxxx
With everyone floating in the water, holding on to each other's tubes to prevent the second worst-case scenario of drifting apart from each other, Kirito, Asuna, Koharu, and Jaymes ride the current of the river downstream through the canyon. Now that they were in a wider part of the river, their speed slowed down, but they still kept together.
"The landscape really is exactly as it was in the beta. I even remember that rock there," Kirito murmurs as he scans the area. Asuna, who holds on to the back of his tube, and he, the front of hers, looks around as well, unconsciously sending a pleasurable sensation on Kirito's left arm that he consciously blocks. If she knew that her tunic was skin-tight and see-through, she might drown him.
"Hmm...I wonder why the dusty old canyons are full of water now?"
"That makes sense, but it's a boring answer. Yo, Smartass, you got any ideas?"
"Smartass," who makes up the end of the line and holds onto his partner's tube, scoffs. "I agree with Kirito's assessment. As he said earlier, the water feels different than the beta. However, it could be that they just decided to change the environment. Who knows."
"...Oh," Koharu squeaks out.
"Oh?"
"Um... Let's say the developers changed the floor for some unknown reason. Does that mean everything you two know is practically useless?"
Kirito shrugs. "To a degree, so far yeah."
"So could that mean quests and materials are different than the beta...and including the monsters." Koharu goes silent, not saying what all four are thinking. The way they are now, they're defenseless.
Kirito quickly dispels the girl's fear with a headshake. "No, we're fine. In the beta, there were hardly any monsters along the route from the staircases to the main city on the next floor... B-besides, the pop rate on monsters in the thirty minutes after the boss is defeated is drastically reduced..."
"That's right," Jaymes says with a harsh tone. "Before we found Kizmel, we barely ran into any monsters. Assuming we were in that thirty-minute decreased spawn rate period by the time we found her."
"Well, it's certainly been at least thirty minutes."
"Oh, g-good point. But so far we haven't even seen a single fish, much less any monsters. I guess that might mean a real big one gobbled them all up." As soon as Kirito says that, a soft but audible kerplunk is heard, and everyone heard it too. Four sets of eyes hone in on a triangular shape rising from the water's surface.
"...Dammit Ko."
"S-Sorry!"
"Um, is it just me, or is that...?"
"Let's hurry." On the count of three, Kirito pulls Asuna's tube and kicks as hard as possible. Splitting off is Jaymes and Koharu, the boy mimicking Kirito's movements as they all make a hurried swim away from danger. Kirito kept his eyes ahead, looking for a familiar pathway in his memory. though now it'd be a tributary rather than a trail off the main path. He sees it after a few twists and turns of the canyon, in an opening to the right. "Jaymes! To the right!"
"Okay!"
"G-G-Go faster!" Koharu's yelp causes Kirito to look back and sees the source of her fears. He thought they lost it, but the fin continues to follow them, and it's less than twelve feet away...the fin, that is. Not knowing how big the body underneath is, the monster could be very close to Jaymes and Koharu. Her partner remained steadfast as the four raced into the tributary and continued for two dozen more yards, reaching a shoreline. As his feet touch the sand, Kirito pulls Asuna's tube and keeps running. He hears Koharu shout out again and turns to see Jaymes throwing her further up the shore, weapons ready as the possessor of the fin leaps out of the water...
Just for something not even worth the scare (well, ignoring what SAO truly is) to land on the shore just in front of Jaymes. It looks like a pop-eyed tadpole, maybe a foot and a half long, and unable to stand on the sand. The warrior doesn't even attack it as it is swallowed by the tide, and its fin is seen wading back towards the main current.
"...The hell was that...?"
Kirito says nothing as he, Asuna, and Koharu drop back on the sand. Well, he and Koharu dropped down to the sand, but Asuna was pulled down face first by Kirito. But her anger was quelled by exhaustion, so he was spared. And if he must admit, the two girls, one with sand on her face, both wearing soaked tunics, made them look like models for an oceanic photoshoot. And there's Jaymes, walking back towards them, sloshing his wet, spiky hair back, like he's the heroic, hot character of a romance comedy that's the complete opposite of the plain-looking protagonist.
Would that be Kirito in this case? He doesn't know.
"...I've just decided. The next time we see that monster, I'm going to kill it, cook it, and make you two eat it," she said, her manifesto delivered in a flat voice.
"Why don't...you eat it?" Jaymes asked.
"It looked gross."
"...I'm not eating that."
"Yeah, it looks disgusting, Asuna. it's probably poisonous, too."
"You might poison me and Kirito." Jaymes helps Koharu to her feet and looks at her for a moment. He leans in and whispers in her ear, and leads her away from Kirito and Asuna, her cheeks burning. A familiar chime from behind reminds Kirito that he and Asuna are still lacking in their equipment.
He stands up and extends his hand to Asuna. "Let's put our gear back on and go into town. I don't think you'll catch a cold sitting like that, but it's doing us no good."
Asuna's knee to his stomach made him regret saying anything.