After reporting to Count Galeyon and completing the quest for the Agate Key, Jaymes and his companions were treated to various quest rewards for their choosing. Kizmel's reward was a day of downtime for the next day, January 4th. She would head to the next floor on the fifth, a day Jaymes did not want to be reminded of.
Putting his personal feelings aside, there's still much to be done before the front line reaches the labyrinth tower. If all goes well, the sixth floor's tower will be conquered on January 6th, so if they want to catch up to Lind and Kibaou, the party needs to complete the latter parts of the "Curse of Stachion" quest they left behind.
No one spoke about it during the bathing time in the basement (for some reason, Asuna was very persistent that the boys stay on one side of the bath) or during dinner in the grand hall. After dinner, everyone went their separate ways; Mito retired for the night, Kirito and Asuna were going to explore the east wing. Koharu did not decide what she wanted to do except spend private time with her partner, so they remained in the great hall.
That is what she said, but Jaymes noticed her eyes were on the flutist and lutist once again entertaining the great hall. If he recalls correctly, Koharu was a pianist in the real world when she was younger before spending her time in gymnastics. She seems to have some interest in instruments, or at least she hasn't completely removed herself from the musical world.
Music is nothing but a way to filter out the noise of other people in a library to study or to create noise in a silent room for Jaymes. It can help set the mood in a video game, like a sad song for a heart-wrenching moment or a Latin choir for facing a fantasy final boss.
But to his partner... If he tunes out the white noise of the hall, he hears her softly humming the song lutist is playing in solo. Her delicate fingers make minute movements as if she's playing the piano with them. It is a world he can't understand as intricate as she does, much like their understanding of video games.
Setting down his cup of tea, Jaymes joins his partner in her entrancement. "What song is this? It sounds familiar."
"Beethoven's 'Fur Elise.' I once played this piece in a concert. I'm not surprised it is being played. Given what you told us about books, it makes sense that the music of our world would be incorporated here. But to hear it on a string instrument is outstanding."
"I see... Have you chosen your next skill?"
Koharu pauses, suddenly being sucked out of her inner world by the subject change. "Huh? Ah, uh, no, I haven't. What about you?"
"Still saving it for a bit... You know, there is a musical skill. I think you should take it if you like music so much."
Koharu frowns in contemplation. "But... No, I shouldn't. I should only use skills that help me fight better. That's what you're doing. I don't want to lag further behind any more than I am."
"No, you should. What I choose to do with my skills is because I'm familiar with them. I choose what will help me succeed in the challenges to come as a gamer. I choose what I need to survive, what I need to make sure you survive. But... I still want to have fun as a gamer too."
"Fun?" Koharu tries to hold it back, but a sliver of a smile forms. Whether it's a jovial, teasing smile or a mask for her somberness is unreadable. "You? Fun? Hehe. You always look sour when such an idea is presented or do whatever I want to do because I ask. Or trying to make me happy. I know your priority is keeping us safe, but I've never seen you look like you're having fun."
"I...guess you're right. I don't look like I'm having fun. Who, in their right mind, would admit that in our circumstances?" Morte and his gang might be having fun in this death game and are probably the only ones who could admit it. Jaymes would never say it himself, but it is far from the truth that he hasn't had fun.
Minus the death of Diavel, the trials of the labyrinth boss fights have been adrenaline-pumping. Teaming up with Asuna against Asterius the Taurus King takes the cake. The Elf War Campaign has been fun in its own right, and while his reception of Kizmel as an AI is still mixed, he has warmed up to her presence. Upstanding ALS and DKB is a self-satisfying grand time. Even the most serene moments -- like the night of Christmas Eve on the lake between him and Koharu -- were fun to him. Being with Koharu Asuna, Mito, and Kirito has been nothing but the definition of fun.
"...But I wouldn't trade now for the last three years of my life," he murmurs, though Koharu can hear him across the table. Shifting his position to face the stage, he continues, "And I'd like to hear you play one day."
If he didn't turn away from Koharu, he would have seen her cheeks adopt a rose color, then a slight, proud smile before she turned her attention back to the stage. "...Okay. One day."
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Minutes later, Kirito and Asuna returned to the dining hall. Mito and Kizmel did not accompany them; instead, it was a group of four. There's a woman with a scimitar and buckler, a small man with a double-hand sword, a tall, thin man with a glaive, and a stubble-bearded man who carries a tower shield and a short spear. They introduced themselves in order as Lazuli, Temuo, Highston, and Gindo, and they had formed a guild called Qusack.
After the introductions were complete, Lazuli was impressed to see "another beauty on the front lines" in Koharu, which means she had a similar statement for Asuna. Her male companions didn't share that excitement, either not used to being around girls as good-looking as Koharu and Asuna (which, in Jaymes' opinion, would make any self-respecting guy nervous), or maybe they're slightly older men, which...complicates their ability to speak to Asuna and Koharu too freely. By appearance, only Gindo fits the bill of an "older male," like someone between Klein and Agil's age.
When the steward returns to their table, Kirito and Asuna order tea while Qusack partakes in the meal course. Only Highston didn't order seconds and offered an apology for his guildmates. "You'll have to excuse them. We're broke as a general rule, so now that we're here at the dark elf base, and the food is free, they can't help themselves."
"Don't act all smooth and in control in front of the pretty girls! In the fifth-floor elf village, you were double-fisting those skewers," Temuo calls out.
"And you had three in each hand!"
While the joyful bunch chomps down on the excellent food, Jaymes notes a message received a notification to the right side of his HUD. It's from Kirito, who sits on the other side of Asuna. "Have you noticed?"
"Their gear looks expensive, yeah? How did you come across these guys?"
"When we left the hall, bells were ringing in the courtyard. Remember Kizmel said they only ring when the south gates open, so we checked it out in case you know who and friends decided to show up."
"I see... Expensive armor, but no money. You don't think this is another case of the Legend Braves?"
"Similar. Besides the gear, they also left the first floor a month ago, so to get this far without money saved... But I don't want to be wrong and offend them. It's not weird that others are taking on the campaign quests."
"True..."
"So, how do you all know each other?" Hearing Asuna say that, both Kirito and Jaymes snort into their teacups. Leave it to Asuna to start a conversation, as if she knows what her male teammates think. Leave it to Asuna, the person who held Kirito and Jaymes at bay when they first met her, to be so friendly right now. Also, leave it to Asuna to step on the feet of the boys, daring them to say something out of line.
"We met in the Town of Beginnings," Gindo answers. "But we never planned to actually leave the town at first...We were more like an information-exchange fraternity."
"Information exchange?"
"I know this will sound pathetic to you, given your place in the game, but the 'waiters' back in the Town of Beginnings who choose to stay safe until the game is beaten still get hungry and sleepy every day. You won't die without food here, of course, and you can sleep on the street, but everyone wants a hot meal and soft bed. That means you need money for food and lodging each day. But we didn't earn our money by going out into the wilderness and beating mobs. As a matter of fact, there are lots of quests in the Town of Beginnings if you look for them."
"Quests?" Kirito repeats.
"Yes. Of course, we couldn't mess with the ones like 'Go out of town and get this thingy' or 'Beat X number of monsters,' but within the city, you can do stuff like errands, finding lost objects, and even some rare ones like housecleaning and pet walking..."
"Oh, right, right!" intercepts Lazuli. "The one where you had to clean up the hoarder house? That was a tough one...There were piles and piles of items all throughout the house, and you had to separate them into these huge wooden boxes out in the yard. You had to sort every last item perfectly to beat the quest, and lots of them you couldn't really tell if they were toys, or practical items, or..."
"Did you know that if you pilfer the coins and jewels and stuff that pop up in those piles, you get locked in the basement of that mansion for like half a day?" Temuo points out.
Highston sighs. "Only you would attempt something like that."
Koharu and Asuna giggle at the other's bickering, but Jaymes feels dread at the various stories they share. He and Koharu didn't venture far from the Town of Beginnings for the first two weeks, a couple of days before they ran into Mito in the swamp area of the first floor. That would have been before Asuna and Mito split up. In those two weeks, the partners would take on quests from within the Town of Beginnings to gain money and experience without the dangers of the outside world. It was how Koharu, who remained on the first floor, spent her time in the beta to avoid combat.
He hated every second of those "errands," but it was free of danger.
Gindo wryly smiles and says, "The point is, there are lots of quests that give you safe earnings. But since they don't endanger your life, they're all tedious instead. We started running into each other so much at the various quest spots that we naturally got to trading information."
"That's right. At first, I tried to keep my distance from this fishy old guy," adds Lazuli, fork aimed at Gindo.
"I'm not that old..."
"Still, as a general rule, there's no downside to the rewards when doing quests as a group. If you work together, you get it done quicker, and you can use the extra time to search for Japanese books to read. Pretty soon, our little info-trading group became a cooperative strategy group."
"Oh, I see..." Asuna removes her boots from the boys' feet, satisfied with the answer to the unspoken question. Still, the similarities to the Legend Braves are present. It makes sense that people working toward the same goal would join up -- look no further than Jaymes' team -- but there's a difference in that Asuna, Kirito, Jaymes, and Koharu had been out fighting in the dangerous wilds for the past two months. Qusack avoided danger, then suddenly changed tune and sought it out. The guild quest on the third floor is dangerous, after all.
Highston takes notice of the suspicion rising and states, "Now that we've gotten to this part of the story, we might as well see it through to the end. When we started the group, we were making pretty solid income for a while...However, the Town of Beginnings might be big, but it doesn't have an endless supply of quests. Some are daily quests that can only be done once a day, but when the word got around about them, so many people tried them that you had to wait half a day just to be able to undertake them..."
"Oh...that makes sense," Kirito replies.
Gindo continues, "The city quests got picked clean before the first floor was cleared out, so we were in trouble. Uh, not that I'm criticizing you folks in the front-line group—just the opposite. We're very grateful for your hard work, and we feel bad that you're doing all of this for our benefit. We couldn't even imagine trying what you do, clearing out labyrinths and beating floor bosses..."
"Huh? That's not true, though. You appear to have some high-grade gear, and if you can get to this place, then I would imagine you can fight in the labyrinth towers without too much trouble..." Kirito cut straight to the issue without being suspicious for once, and Qusack looks troubled by that.
"No, no, no way -- we can't. We're not like that," Lazula starts but is interrupted by Gindo.
"Let's explain it in order. So, um...I told you how the quests in the Town of Beginnings ran dry. Well, at that point, we had some decent savings, so we weren't going to go hungry anytime soon...but even staying at the cheapest inn, that wallet was eventually going to empty out. So the four of us talked it over and weighed two options: Ration our money for as long as it can go in the safety of town? Or blow it all out to buy gear and potions—and leave the town?"
"Huh?"
"Because you were leveled enough to leave town?" Koharu asks, in which Temuo agrees while slurping a fish tail into his mouth.
"Zackly. By the time we beat all the interior quests in the Town of Beginnings, we were all at level five."
"Fi..." To put things in perspective to understand the shock of the four front liners, all three were level one after Kayaba's speech despite the productive hunting going on prior. When Jaymes and Koharu left the Town of Beginnings at the end of the second week for Horunka, they were level four and three, respectively. Asuna would have been around the same level, and Kirito would have hit it weeks prior on the second day since he ventured out for Horunka immediately after Kayaba's tutorial.
Level five is more than a safety net for the Town of Beginning's exterior, in which fate would have to be after them for Qusack to fall at that level against the worms and boars and maybe even the wolves just a slightly beyond. Even then, Jaymes, Koharu, Kirito, and Asuna encountered trouble. To believe in one's strength in level is expected in MMOs, but consider the danger of SAO, not even good gear guarantees survival.
That invokes Jaymes to ask a question of his own. "That can't be why you guys left the town's safety, right?"
Highston holds his teacup shyly and responds, "We did feel reassured that our levels were higher...but the reason I argued we should go out into the world was a simpler one than that. I just wanted to do more quests...SAO's quests tend to be detailed, but many also feel like they were written by a child. You just can't tell what's going to happen in them. It feels like the moments when we're thinking hard about the clue that will solve the riddle, or running around town looking for that one missing item, are the only moments when we can actually forget we're playing a game that's trying to kill us..."
"Huh?! Is that seriously what you were thinking?!" Lazuli yelps, punching Highston on the shoulder. Her scowl morphs into a grin right after. "You should have just said that instead! Then we wouldn't have had to argue and argue over it for all those hours."
"Yeah. We all knew you were the biggest quest lover of the bunch already,"
"I-I'm not obsessed with quest!"
"Anyway," Gindo interrupts, guiding the conversation back where it was. "we decided to use just about all of our col to buy gear and went out of town. First, we went through all the extermination and harvesting quests that we couldn't do before, then we all got to level 6 and earned a new skill slot. At that point, I even started to think that at the rate we were going, we'd catch up to the top group before too long... We finished all the quests in Horunka and Medai with ease, then tried to take a shortcut through the swamp to Tolbana. In the week since leaving town, we thought we'd gotten good at fighting, and the kobolds around there were easy enough, so we got cocky. We came across a group of three kobolds in the swamp and didn't realize that one was new to us..."
"Was it a Swamp Kobold Trapper?" Kirito asks. Gindo nods.
"Yes, I believe that was the name. At the time, I used a one-handed sword, but the snare the kobold threw tangled up my blade, and it fell into the swamp...I tried to pick it up, but while I was reaching in the muck for it, another kobold attacked me..."
"You didn't read the strategy guide?" asks a near-scolding Asuna. "I'm pretty sure it was being distributed for free in Medai by that point."
"Oh...uh... We made use of it when leaving the Town of Beginnings, of course. It's just, those guides are mainly about monsters and items, and their quest info is limited to the big ones and the combat ones...We were proud—arrogant, even—about having completed all the quests in the Town of Beginnings. We began thinking that we knew more than the book did, so we only flipped briefly through the updated version in Medai. And when we read it closely afterward, we saw that it had a full breakdown of the Swamp Kobold Trapper and warnings about the danger it posed... "...At the time, I was close to dying, and Temuo and Lazuli were in the yellow, too. I was in a full-blown panic. I just wanted to run away, but it was a swamp, so running was hard...All I knew was that I was going to die. We ran and ran like people possessed and finally threw them off, but at that point, our spirit was broken..."
"...I understand how you feel," Jaymes says, though he didn't mean for those words to come out. He couldn't help it, though. Qusack may have never seen anyone die in front of them in those days, but the slight chill down the spine, as one gets a taste of nearly dying is demoralizing. Jaymes saw two people die to Dire Wolves in the first week, then days later, a train trap unleashed waves of those wolves on him and Koharu. He had witnessed death and felt the reaper's cold hands on his heart; the only reason he didn't falter was because he had to protect his partner.
"I understand wanting to help someone out, but leaping into a fight you have no chance of surviving only makes things worse."
"...Even so, there's no way I would abandon anyone in that situation. There's always a chance of winning."
"Maybe you did have a chance of winning that fight, but it didn't go well in the end, did it?"
"No... But it's better than not acting."
"...Is that why..." The rest of the conversation with Qusack bypasses Jaymes as a single thought occupies his mind until the guild bids farewell. That thought remains when Kizmel returns a moment later and when the four join her in Kirito and Asuna's quarters for another chat. He couldn't shake off the feeling he's had for the last couple of days, heightened only by the previous night's private conversation with Mito.
And it's not until he's forced into sharing a bed with Kirito that he puts those thoughts to rest for another time.