Chapter 37 - Changes

It was about 8 PM, and Drifter was ready to go to sleep after an entire day exploring Zumfut. He had repaired his equipment, checked out the stalls to change some outdated pieces of armor, and even accepted a quest or two.

When he thought back to the battle against Asterius earlier that day, he still shuddered. It had been intense, and way too close for comfort. Especially his charge at the start. When had he become so bold?

Of course, he knew the answer. It was not boldness, but desperation that led him to take such rash actions. He had gambled on the fact that his combo would be able to halt Asterius' momentum, and he won - this time. That the boss fell down came as much of a surprise to him as it did to everyone else.

Still absorbed in his thoughts, Drifter saw his HUD flashing. When he opened it, he discovered it was a message from Kirito, forwarded to all party members.

[ Kirito: Can you come to my room? I want to talk about the 3rd floor. ]

Instead of replying, Drifter simply got out of his room and went to Kirito's. Almost at the same time, Sinon, Nautilus, Yuna, and Asuna also opened their doors.

Kirito was sitting on his bed when they entered the room. Drifter and Yuna, the wannabe matchmakers, very quickly pushed Nautilus and Sinon to sit down on the chairs, leaving the spot on the bed next to Kirito for Asuna.

Their not-very-subtle actions didn't go unnoticed, though Kirito did his best not to look at them and blush. Asuna, on the other hand, was gaining a certain immunity to their antics, and directly rolled her eyes at Yuna. The songstress didn't care. Both she and Drifter were having too much fun trying to match the shy teenagers.

"Ehem. I asked everyone to come because we need to talk about this floor."

Kirito cleared his throat to bring their focus back to the reason why he called the party to his room. Seeing that he was serious, Drifter and Yuna stopped their teasing and started paying attention.

"What's so special about this floor?"

Asuna tilted her head and asked what everyone was thinking. Kirito raised three fingers.

"Three things. The first isn't that big of a change. There're two field-bosses on this floor. One of them, << The Indolent Treant >>, isn't that important, but the other is related to the second thing I want to talk about."

The others waited for the swordsman to continue. Kirito looked at each of them in turn, taking in their reactions.

"The second field-boss is called << Nephila Regina >>, a giant spider."

That provoked varied reactions amongst the party. Drifter and Sinon frowned, Asuna squeaked and showed an expression of disgust, and Nautilus kept a straight face. It was Yuna who had the biggest reaction.

"Nope. Nope, nope, nope. Not fighting a spider. I won't. I refuse. No!"

The songstress started babbling and shaking. It was only when Nautilus and Drifter each rested a hand on one of her arms that she stopped mumbling. The blade-user sighed.

"Yun'... Doesn't like spiders."

It was obviously a lot worse than simply 'doesn't get along'. If just the idea of facing a giant spider monster left her in shambles like that, it was a very clear case of arachnophobia.

"Err... I'm sorry, Yuna."

"N-No, never mind, Kirito. Just... Why is that field-boss more important than the other?"

"Because it drops an item needed to create a guild. Meaning, from this floor onwards, guilds will start to appear."

"Guilds?"

It was Asuna who asked, clearly unfamiliar with the term. Kirito nodded.

"Guilds are larger groups of players, above parties in the scale. While a party has a limit of 6 players, that's only the minimum amount required to create a guild. There are a lot of advantages to being part of a guild too, such as a shared inventory apart from your personal one, larger scale communication channels, and, most importantly, a buff when guild members are in the same party. Ah, not to mention that guilds can have their own headquarters, which only guild members can access. An impenetrable stronghold."

Kirito's tone was very even as he explained, as if guilds had nothing to do with them, even though they had enough members to form one. Drifter guessed this was a remnant of his solo habits, but decided not to comment for now.

"Kibaou and Lind probably already know that. Dammit! This floor is gonna be a nightmare! They are going to be at each other's throats, and we are gonna be caught in the middle of it, I just know it!"

"Unfortunately, I think you are right, Yuna. They are going to fight for the honor of being the first guild. I just hope they know when to stop."

Kirito said that in a surly tone, and the mood took a sudden downturn. Drifter frowned, thinking back to all his interactions with the two aforementioned players. If their enmity continued, it was just a matter of time before something tragic happened.

'It might be time to sit down with the two idiots and beat some sense into them. I'll have to get Agil.'

He didn't say that out loud, and only thought it. Honestly, Drifter shouldn't be thinking of going behind his party leader's back to talk to Kibaou and Lind, but Kirito was just a fourteen-year-old kid. It wasn't right for him to participate in a conversation where insults and curses were sure to fly. Drifter would take this burden gladly.

"Actually, there's one more thing. It's also what I think matters the most to us."

Noticing all the serious expressions caused by what he said, Kirito quickly raised the third topic he had.

"Don't keep us in suspense, Kirito."

"Yeah, what is it?"

"A quest. A multi-staged quest, spamming several floors, to be exact. It's called the << Elf War >> campaign."

Kirito looked like he was expecting a big reaction, but everyone just looked at him curiously. To them, this was indeed less explosive news than being able to create a guild. The boy heaved a sigh.

"I forgot you guys weren't in the beta. The << Elf War >> campaign is important because it goes from the 3rd to the 9th floor, and it's loaded with clues to the floor bosses."

This time, everyone's eyes widened. They already knew how vital information on floor bosses was. Truth be told, the reason they struggled so much on the two boss raids until now was exactly because they went in relying only on the knowledge of the beta-testers. Because of that, Diavel died on the 1st floor, and they almost suffered casualties on the 2nd.

"Sounds like we have to complete the questline on each floor before challenging the floor boss, then."

Nautilus pointed that out, and Drifter nodded.

"The two airheads aren't reliable, so we can't count on them to share. We should talk to Argo - even though she probably already knows."

"Hm, she knows."

By the way Kirito furrowed his eyebrows when he said that, Drifter felt a 'but' incoming. And he wasn't the only one. Asuna poked the swordsman on the shoulder.

"There's more, isn't there?"

"Yeah... The introduction to the << Elf War >> campaign is that you find a forest elf and a dark elf fighting, and you choose to help one of them. In the end the one you chose to support sacrifices themselves to kill the other elf, and you have to deliver the item they were fighting for to the camp of whoever you chose."

Basically a multiple-choice quest, then. You had to choose a camp right at the start, and help it defeat the side you didn't go with. Since it had 'war' in the quest's title, Drifter imagined there would be lots of battles against the enemy NOCs and whoever chose to...

'Shit!'

When he reached the end of this line of thought, Drifter slapped his tight, startling his party. He didn't even apologize, as he was too unsettled right now. He had a bad premonition, and stared at Kirito.

"It's a branching questline, isn't it? Multiple parties can choose different options. Bastard! Kayaba is making us fight other players!"

Understanding dawned upon the others, and their expressions also turned gloomy. Obviously, whatever camp the players chose, they would want that side to win. But what should they do if they encountered other people in direct opposition?

"They... They wouldn't fight each other, right?"

Asuna's voice trembled when she spoke. Even Yuna was behaving meekly.

"I don't know, Asuna. I really don't. I want to think they won't, but..."

"What Kirito fears is probably the same as I, Asuna. To smaller parties like us, that won't be a problem. We can just compete without fighting other players or give way if necessary. But the DKB and ALS... Each of them has about twenty people. And they are sure to be on opposite camps. If it's those two... I really don't know."

...

Field-bosses, guilds, quests, those weren't all the changes happening on the 3rd floor. The next morning, Drifter and his party went down to the lobby to have breakfast, only to find the Legend Braves waiting for them. They also had a skinny player Drifter had never seen before with them, and Argo was in a corner watching.

"Orlando?"

"Heya, Kirito. Hello to everyone else too."

Confused, the party nodded. The Braves seemed to be feeling uncomfortable, because they kept shuffling their feet and didn't talk for a long time.

"What is it, Orlando? Dilly-dallying is not like you. You are making all of us anxious."

"About this... We are leaving the frontlines for a while. This is Nezha, he is also part of our party. We are going to help him."

Once he started talking, Orlando didn't stop, as if a restriction had been lifted. He told them about Nezha's FNC, about how they made him use the << Quick Change Mod >> to cheat other players - Nehza interrupted at that point, insisting that he hadn't been forced, but chose to do it himself - and even talked about how Argo threatened to out them if they didn't stop by themselves.

"In fact, we knew what we were doing was wrong, but we just didn't know how else we could help Nehza. It's all thanks to you that he can fight by our side now, Asuna!"

"Huh?"

"The chakrams ya sold to them, Aa-chan. Nehza has a depth perception issue. It won't be perfect, but at least with the chakrams he can fight."

Argo, who had simply been watching until now, joined the conversation. Suddenly enlightened, Asuna realized why the info broker was so insistent she sold the << Moonlight Chakrams >> to the Legend Braves.

"Then, are you leaving the frontlines for good or..."

"We will be back one day, my friends, fret not! We just... Want all of us to come back together, so we will train a little more."

After the Legend Braves left, the party finally set down to have breakfast. It was an eventful start to the day, but, in the end, they still had to have a good meal. There was a lot to be done.

While taking a bite of a triangular-shaped fruit, Drifter glanced at Argo. The info broker was sitting next to him, stuffing her mouth with food with no regard for her image.

"Hey, little freeloader, what's on your mind?"

"Hum? What'chu mean?"

"You haven't teased anyone yet, so obviously there's something worrying you."

Deftly avoiding Argo's vengeful fingers trying to pinch him, Drifter smirked. At least he had managed to lift up her mood, but he knew there was still something weighing on her mind. He raised an eyebrow and stared at her until the info broker gave up.

"Nehza and the Braves didn't come up with the idea of usin' the << Quick Change Mod >> on their own. Somebody told 'em how to do it."

"This kind of thing... I suppose only a beta-tester would know it, right?"

"Yep."

"But why would they do something so needless? Can you think of any advantage they could get?"

"I dunno. Chaos, maybe?"

Drifter frowned. As Argo said, the only thing that could result from the trick the Legend Braves were pulling was chaos when they were found out.

"Uff..."

Hearing Argo sigh, Drifter grimaced. Mature as she was, the info broker always tried to carry all the burdens alone. It was only with Drifter and Kirito that she opened up, and even then it was rare. Stretching his hand, he ruffled her curly hair.

"Cheer up, little rat. You got a whole new floor to uncover. And lots of new toys to pass the time, from what Kirito told us."

Argo pouted, but didn't shake his hand off. Instead, she punched him on the shoulder.

"Ya know, it's unfair how easy ya can read me, Dri-bou."

"Nobody told you to come find me that day."

"Nah, but I like how it turned out. Besides, I've got a bet ridin' on ya."

"What?"

No matter how hard he tried to make her talk afterwards, Argo refused to budge. Breakfast ended on a joyful note. That is, until drill sergeant Drifter - as Yuna called him on certain occasions, like now - clapped his hands with a meaningful smile.

"Let's get to grinding, shall we?"