41 Chapter 41: Aincrad

"Mn..."

The moment Shiro woke up, the first thing that he felt is hunger. Lazily reaching out to a small box in his storage, he popped it to his mouth.

Crunch-!

He didn't seem satisfied as he took out another thing in his storage, a palm-sized golden orb that looks like a jewel.

It didn't have any pleasant taste, though it is enough to satiate him for now. Sounds of prompts resounded in his mind, but he paid it no heed as he tried sleeping once more.

After a dozen minutes had passed, he decided to get up since his sleepiness didn't return to him. He sat down cross-legged in the bed as he scoured for food. The prompts also became visible in his eyes.

[Devouring Complete! Gained the permanent buff "Clockwork Master (SS)"!]

[The Ability "Bullet Time (A)" evolves into "Time Control (SS)"!]

[Devouring Complete! Gained the permanent buff "The Wealthy Dragon (S)"!]

Pulling out a bag of cookies on his [Dimensional Storage], he poured all of it down to him mouth before chewing them. It became easier to do so after his teeth became stronger while his canines became more sharper.

Shiro only stopped eating once he had his 5th bag of cookies.

"I don't feel that hungry anymore. Nn..."

As he stretched his arms, a fluffy tail swayed behind his back. He also noticed how it seem to pass through his clothing which made his life easier.

"Mn..?"

Suddenly, he caught off a scent in this house. His bloodline awakening gave him heightened senses, allowing him to 'see' his surroundings even without the use of his mental power.

"It's not a strong scent. Still, it's a pleasant one. It should be Kal'tsit's..?" He knew that she tries to take a bath daily even though she eats such unpalatable food. "...I'm not turning into a sexual offender."

He didn't pursue her natural scent as he got off from the bed. Recalling that he stabbed through his chest before, he checked his black t-shirt, only to find out that there's no cuts nor holes in it.

Heaving a sigh of relief, he left the room and saw Kal'tsit readying her stuff in the living room. She had been going back to her van every other day to retrieve more supplies. To a person with boundless wealth, these are nothing.

That's also one of the main reasons why she can help so many people with small charges. If it's not a developed place, she can even offer treatment for free.

"Shi...ro?"

Kal'tsit was visibly shocked at the new appearance of his. She hadn't witnessed him changing under his Reality Marble, and its her first time seeing someone change his race. Given that she witnessed some attempts to do it, but he changed greatly in just a night.

"Right, I forgot to change it back." With a flash of black light, he returned back to his previous appearance. The hunger that he felt before disappeared along with his heightened senses and "Devouring" power.

"...You've awakened something again?"

"Pretty much. So, what more preparations do we need to do? The food stored in my storage is enough for a few months."

"Nothing else except for the van itself."

"Alrighty. I'll go get it for a sec. By the way, is she awake?"

"No, not yet. It'll take her a few more days before she regains consciousness."

After eating some breakfast that he made, Shiro headed to the place where the van is parked. Thankfully, Kal'tsit always brought a camouflage cloth that she uses to hide it.

Just as he placed the entire van in his [Dimensional Storage], he sensed someone following him. Not wanting to be in some trouble, he decided to avoid it.

With his quick feet, he disappeared on spot, leaving a confused Liberi girl carrying a pair of boxing gloves on the distance.

*****

"This is <<Aincrad>>, I see."

Spawning on the plaza at the 1st floor, Shiro surveyed his surroundings. His max level charm made him stand out in front of the crowd, but he didn't mind it at first.

"This is... another world."

"Yup, looks interesting, right?"

Kal'tsit took her time to observe the world where originum didn't exist. Only if Terra is just like this...

"It should be like this..."

Shiro brought his index and middle finger together before he swiped them downwards in a straight line. After that, the main menu presented itself in his eyes.

Tapping the "Items" tab, he saw his robes and mask in it. Blue fragments flashed out as he equipped them. Switching to the "Weapons" tab, he equipped the black sword in his waist.

As for the "Skills", he saw his five chosen skills in it. He currently has two empty skill slots, allowing him to choose from the available options, such as <<One-Handed Sword>> and other Combat/Support skills.

What's more surprising is that the sword techniques that he learnt from the [A Swordsman's Notes (UC)]. This saved him the trouble from learning those skills from scratch.

Even though the "Cardinal System" in this game can guide the players into doing that attack, there'll be a short delay if you don't do it manually, thus learning how to do it in that way is very helpful in this game.

The light novel's protagonist, Kirigaya Kazuto, had done it this way, allowing him to have an edge against other players.

"Let's go, we're getting more and more attention here."

Shiro tapped her in the shoulder, waking her up from her daze. With the knowledge from the light novel, he set some goals for themselves in this world: Leveling up.

Shiro walked through the crowds of low level players that chose to stay in the 1st floor and found their way outside of the Town of Beginnings. What greeted their sight is a land of prairie, with some boars and wolves spawning here and there.

There's not much players killing these mobs due to their low level, making it perfect for them to grind in this place.

"We should raise our level first. There should be a hidden dungeon underneath it that we'll have to clear later."

"<<Monst3r>>."

As she spoke, her trusty ally appeared from her spine; to be more precise, in the green crystal embedded in it. When she summoned Monst3r, she saw that it became weakened, just like her.

"Should be the game balance. you might need to buy a sword later."

"A sword, huh. It brings back memories..."

With a nostalgic expression, she ordered Monst3r to slaughter the mobs present in the prairie. Meanwhile, Shiro dashed to one of them and tried to execute the sword skill that he knew before, <<Vertical Arc>>.

"Roar!"

The moment the Dire Wolf rushed up to him, he positioned his black sword to be above his head. Blue light started enveloping the blade of his sword as he felt power converging into it.

Slash-!

Slash-!

Shiro swung his sword downwards and swung it upwards once again, twisting the momentum from before and directing it to the stomach of the Dire Wolf as he shifted slightly to the right.

He dodged its mouth slightly, narrowly avoiding the wolf. It didn't take long before it turned into blue crystal fragments while his Skill level and current level went up.

"I see, I see. Time to grind, then."

Smiling under his mask, Shiro felt how it was to personally take action on a good game that he tried playing on his [Gaming Laptop]. In the future, the surviving SAO players would still wonder about the strange occurrence of floor 1 mobs being slaughtered for a few days...

******

A/N: I saw that there are some readers that doesn't know much about Arknights, so I decided to put a "Fact" section after every chapter. It'll be mostly Arknights related and between 100~300 words, but some games/anime/manga will also be put there.

PS: The facts will be canon.

Here's the first fact!

Fact #1: Kal'tsit is the head (in-charge) of the Medical Section of Rhodes Island (The base in-game). However, she's mostly the one responsible for Rhodes Island's politics. She handles the macro side of it, basically dealing with other nations/organizations using her big IQ plays and stored power all these years. Her influence to Terra can only be said to be massive (but also subtle and hidden) due to her living for 1,000+ years. The game described/quoted her as: "She comes from the past, she belongs to the present."