100Sword XIII: The Rat -Part One-
"Thanks fer lettin' me stay in yer tent last night, and fer making breakfast this mornin'," Argo said as she cut into the poached eggs that Ragna had made, accompanied by orange slices, slightly seasoned potato wedges, and a thick slice slice of honey glazed ham. "And you were givin' yourself such a hard time about cooking last night."
"Only reason it tastes halfway decent is because I followed the damn cookbook," he muttered as he took his coffee kettle off the fire and poured himself a large cup for the morning. "If I'd tried one of my old recipes you'd probably be puking up last night's stew."
"Come on, yer putting in the effort even though it's killing you! Once you get the system basics mastered you can start making whatever crazy recipes you want!" the Info Broker told him. "And I'll be there try 'em if ya want."
"What are you? A rat or a guinea pig?" the Reaper insulted as he took a long swig from his mug. "I guess if you're crazy enough to eat my cooking, I'm willing to make you whatever you're in the mood for."
"I'm holding ya to that!" Argo demanded, leaving her guild leader to roll his eyes before smirking. "So how was it sleeping outside your tent?"
"Fine I guess; far from the first time I've had to sleep out in the open and some of those times it was pouring," the Reaper said, thinking back to his time back home when he had to camp out with his master or Tao. "Surprised you slept in so late, I thought Info Brokers had to be up early to sniff out the best info."
"Eh, that's what some people say. Great info can come out any time of the day, the trick is always being ready to cash in when it does," she told him as she took another bite out of her breakfast. "And that said… I'm a little low on money at the moment…"
"...And you didn't tell me until after I let you sleep in my tent and fed you twice?" Ragna asked with a slight scowl. "Forget what I said earlier; you're a damned rat for sure.
"Okay, first off you offered those, so don't pin it on me," Argo defended herself, bringing her breakfast place close almost out of fear that Ragna would take it back. "Second, you'd have probably forced me back into town after giving me the Col, so don't act like you're some Patron Saint of Poverty!"
'Sure as hell never claimed I was one of those,' the Reaper thought to himself irately, now thinking back to when he'd been called that back in his home world. '...Damn it, that was back with Platinum and that little punk was wearing a damn hood and getting a meal out of me just like Argo is now.' "Fine, after we finish eating we can get moving."
"Get moving?" Argo asked, as Ragna took a long swig of his coffee. "What are you talking about, don't ya have a small fortune on ya after all of that fighting?"
"Not anymore, sad to say. I ended up blowing almost all of it last week on ingredients, utensils, and a whole lotta other crap going towards improving my cooking skills," he admitted. '...Not like I have a lot to show for it, barely gained any experience towards the skill with all of those failures.' "Since both of us are low on money, let's just head out into the fields and earn some money that way. Taking a full day to take out all of my stress on some field monsters already sounds good and if you tag along we can both get some cash for-"
"YOU GOT IT!" Argo screamed before Ragna could finish. The Grim Reaper could've been completely blind and would still be able to see the money induced sparkles his info broker had in her eyes. 'This is better than any blank check he'd could've given me! Knowin' how crazy Ragna gets in the fields I'll be rich by lunch!'
'...I sure as hell hope she knows how nice I'm being right now,' Ragna thought with a sigh. "You're still going to have to pull your weight today, I'm not just heading out and sending you the Col later."
"Pft, like I'd give ya the chance! If I let you go off on your own that means I can't earn up that exp and get my level back up to speed," Argo reminded him. "Also, I've got info on a place that's perfect for us. In fact, this little find was the main reason I came ta find ya last night."
'Then why didn't she just send the info in a message?' Ragna internally contemplated. 'Sure there's some info that she needs to explain in person, but all she'd need for this is one screenshot of the floor map. She's up to something here…' "Fine, but I got questions that I want answered while I'm helping you."
"So our agreement from Floor Two is still in effect; the only reason I need ya to work now is 'cause you wasted so much of my time with that little info hunt you had. So feel free to ask me whatever while I'm here with ya! Anything you had in mind right away or ya want me to just spill what I've heard?"
"...Well I did have kind of an odd question about combat," Ragna admitted as he sipped his coffee.
"Combat? From you? The guy who can't seem to get enough of it?" Argo asked him with a shit-eating smirk that could nearly rival Hazama's.
"Don't make me punch your lights out," he growled in threat, though the Info Broker knew he was clearly bluffing. "Though that's actually related to the question I had; is there a system in place for unarmed combat?"
"You mean like that time you somehow downed that Orc leader with those Black Flames in a single punch?" Argo asked, leaving Ragna to realize that Leafa had probably explained that story… and he hoped his info broker hadn't been spreading it just to make a quick buck.
"That's a part of it, but it's not exactly what I'm going for. What I'm using is actually a skill, but what I'm talking about is just a form of combat that doesn't need to rely on activating anything like that." He paused, deciding the way he wanted to form his question. "Okay, let's say that we headed out of this safe zone and I punched you in the jaw. What would I get from that?"
"Blackmail."
'...Walked right into that one genius,' the Reaper admitted with a sigh. "You get what I'm asking though."
"Yeah, and there's a skill that's completely focused on using unarmed attacks. All you gotta do to unlock it is perform 100 successful strikes on monsters or in duels, so it's surprising that you haven't unlocked it yet with that technique, even if you don't bring it out around us."
"Yeah, you're sure it's just a hundred?" Ragna questioned. Sure he'd been relying on his sword almost exclusively to blend in, but he'd been using Hell's Fang whenever he had the chance and he'd recently broken two hundred uses. "Well whatever, you think if we got into a duel after breakfast we could-?"
"Save it for the monsters; not letting ya mess up this pretty face!" Argo told him, somehow both looking proud and letting her guild leader know that he should choose his next words carefully.
"...Your whiskers are a nice touch, I can give you that much," the Reaper admitted.
"Charmer," Argo said in response with the proudest smile Ragna had seen on her.
"Don't get used to it. What else do I need to know about the skill?"
"Nothing you couldn't learn just by unlocking it when we head into the fields," Argo promised as she bit into her last orange slice. "Though I should warn ya that it's a big investment. Masterin' that particular skill takes a full million uses."
'A million? And I thought ten thousand on every weapon skill was asking a lot.'
"That, and now matter how much you work that skill up using a weapon's always going to be easier and starting off is hell for anyone that tries," she warned him. "You barely get a speed boost fighting weaponless, you lose most of your defensive options out of outright dodging, and it's not going to be easy to make it outclass weapons especially when we get to the higher floors. It's a big investment, difficult to work up, and it might not even be worth your while in the end. There's a reason people haven't been trying it, even those that have taken martial arts IRL. You'd likely be better off taking any other option and saving it for when you're really desperate."
"Let me be the judge of that, I won't know before I've given it a proper try," Ragna told her. "Anything else you want to let me in on?"
"Yeah actually, a little something that you might be interested in. Remember what the day after tomorrow is?"
"December 24th; Christmas Eve. Is there something going on that day? Some big party?"
"I think the game's going to be offering plenty of festivities on the floors that are opened on both the Eve an' Christmas day itself, but I can't imagine too many people will be in any mood to celebrate. This will be their first Christmas trapped in the game, and this floor's been particularly hard. Not even anyone in our guild's said anything about celebrating, and we're probably the cheeriest bunch here."
"I'm guessing I'm excluded from that?" Argo didn't even try to answer Ragna's question, nor did she make eye contact. "That figures, so why bring up Christmas Eve in the first place?"
"I'm telling ya because there's an Event Tournament being held on the first floor. It's goin' on all day, matches are all one-on-one, and there's no entry limits. Just participating in the tournament alone would get you a thousand Col as a participation bonus and the rewards just keep getting higher from there. There could be well over a thousand people at this thing! You'd be crazy not to join in!"
'Damn, I know I haven't exactly been trying to keep a low profile but getting involved here is almost certain to get me exposed for some kind of shit. And if it's one-on-one I can't get the spotlight on someone else like I did with Silica when we first met. Aw shit, but how am I supposed to explain that to everyone else?'
"You look like you're trying to get out of this after just hearing about it." Argo's word and the sly tone they were spoken with was enough to bring Ragna out of his thoughts. Try as he might, the Reaper knew how futile it was to argue with his Infobroker when she talked like that. "Here's the deal I'll give ya; I'll come up with some sort of excuse for you not joining. Something about you not doing well around the holidays, missing family from home, something like that. You'll have a much better chance of getting out if I'm the one that tells 'em."
"...And in exchange?" Ragna asked. Thankfully he'd already finished his breakfast because the pit forming in his stomach likely wouldn't have left him take another bite.
"In exchange while we're out today and there's no one else to see us… I want to see you fighting all out." As expected, Ragna didn't care for that request. "You don't have to glare at me like that; cross my heart whatever talents you're trying to keep a secret will be safe with me. I'm not trying to have you do this just so that I can get a quick mint selling the info."
"Even though you know this would deepen your pockets from drops," the Reaper growled in accusation. "Why the hell do you want me to do this?"
"Just call it a personal curiosity on how far you can go. I dunno why you want to keep all of those talents you got hidden from everyone, but I know you've gotta be doin' it for a good reason… or do you think I was lyin' when I vouched for you back on floor one?" Her smile turned a bit calmer. "Besides, if I'm the one looking at everything maybe I can help you find something you're not seeing. And if that's still not enough, remember my deal from earlier; either you give front row seats to someone that'll promise not to spread rumors or you're on display for everyone tomorrow."
"Tch… and I thought Rachel knew how to get under my skin," Ragna sighed under his breath, though Argo caught on to that… and couldn't help but wonder who this Rachel was. "Fine, anything ELSE?"
"...More of a suggestion, but you might as well let everyone in the guild know about this too. They've trusted you from the start… you oughta do the same."
"That's pretty high on the none of your damn business charts," he snapped back, dusting himself off as he rose and sent all of his cooking gear to his storage. "Well? Are we heading out or what?"
"Sure, sure," she said as she rose from the rock she'd been sitting on before giving a mischievous giggle. "And I thought I had bad mornings."
"You're pushing it," her leader warned. 'From Rabbit to Rat… I guess some things can never change.'
Heading out of the camp, the two hadn't gotten far before they came across their first prey for the day; a cluster of seven Rock Spiders. Given the floor's deadly history, a group like this wasn't exactly uncommon but it did serve as a large problem. For average players, a dense grouping like this would have meant a death sentence and most of the higher players would make sure to have their health topped off and hit some of their best parameter boosting skills before engaging. But for Ragna, he knew it was letting these things go that would cause the real risk.
"So how are you doin' this?" Argo asked, glancing behind Ragna to the still chipped Aramasa that rested on his back. "We cut their numbers down first and then you'll start playing around with your unarmed combat? That seems like the safest choice here."
"You said I'd have a million attacks to make before my unarmed combat is completely mastered; might as well get a running start now and obtain the ability," Ragna told her as he cracked his knuckles. "For now just sit back and watch. This is my time to cut loose."
(Cue The King of Fighters XIII -Wild Street-)
"Cut loose?" she repeated with a smirk. "You're saying it like this is fun for you."
"I mean… maybe it is," he admitted coyly.
"There ya go, now someone's in a good mood!" Argo commented. "See, sometimes even the idea busting loose is just what you need!"
"Shut up," Ragna ordered, though the well meant smirk on his face indicated that he was actually being a bit playful here.
Heading forward, he got just close enough for the spiders to notice him and start scurrying forward. To anyone with arachnophobia the sight would be enough to send them into shock and those without might at least start to develop a case, especially when the spiders leaped into the air to come down on him with its venomous fangs. While Argo was expecting him to dodge and counter, Ragna's return answer was a brutal uppercut that sent the monster flying straight up into the air. Spinning his body, Ragna let loose a rough roundhouse kick followed with a left hook, blasting back two more spiders before the first had even hit the ground. Raising his leg, he slammed that first enemy to the ground before reeling back and driving his fist down onto its head. Drop kicking the arachnid and sending it to the side away from the gathering monsters, Ragna transitioned into his classic Hell's Fang to connect while it was still falling and finally finished it off.
'All that for one measly spider? Argo wasn't kidding when she said this started off weak,' Ragna thought as he performed a crouching punch, low kick, and (eight) leg sweep combination. Raising to gain some height, he let loose a powerful straight punch and sent the monster sliding back. Leaping into the air, he avoided the rest of the spiders before bringing his leg down and damaging the second of the spiders before performing another Hell's Fang and finishing it off. 'Might as well keep cutting loose and getting in as many hits as I can.'
Stepping back as one of the spiders tried whacking him with a stony leg, Ragna punished the move with a lunging punch before using an alternating six hook barrage and sending the monster airborn with an uppercut. Leaping up after his target, Ragna spun into midair backhand before a closeup knee and finished by sending the monster to the ground with a vicious downward spike. Flipping forward, he then brought both of his fists down and caused the monster to finally shatter.
'How is he able to do that!? I know that you'd be able to get away with some really crazy movement options using this game's engine, but I never thought you could do something like this!' Argo thought as she watched Ragna overwhelm the spiders and destroy his fourth in another barrage of attacks. 'Still, he ain't using any real fighting form that I can see. Is… is he just fighting on instinct and ability?'
Rushing forward to the grouped up final three spiders, now Ragna let loose a flurry of kicks that managed to knock two of them back. Drop kicking the final one and sending into the air, he launched a backhand before going in with an uppercut and juggling the beast in his combo. With the monster above him in the air Ragna's Hell's Fang wouldn't be able to hit the monster and using his sword for an Inferno Divider would defeat the point of working up his unarmed attacks… luckily now he had a third attack he could break out.
"Gauntlet Hades!"
The Reaper had only recently recovered this move through performing his Hell's Fang technique a set number of times, so he'd been waiting for a chance to break it out. The move still lacked its Soul Eater follow up attack much like the rest of his moves, but it was still useful for a combo. After connecting with the dark kick, Ragna threw his entire body forward in a powerful body check before coating his right arm in the same black flames.
"Hell's Fang!" he shouted, lunging forward and finishing off yet another of the spiders. 'Dammit, let myself get carried away for a second there… Let's hope Argo didn't notice.'
...Are you kidding? She's an Info Broker; it's her job to notice.
'Why is he shouting out the names for his moves now; he never had to do that when he used 'em before, so why start now?' she thought to herself as she watched Ragna continue to fight. Admitting she sort of liked this dorkier side to the person calling themselves the Grim Reaper, she decided to cheer him on. "HIT 'EM WITH ANOTHER OF THOSE FANGS!"
Taking his eyes off of the final two spiders, he glanced at Argo and saw that she was serious. In fact it almost looked like she was into it. Smirking as one of the spiders leapt for him, he decided he'd just have to go for it.
"Hell's Fang!" he yelled as he caught the spider in the air with his empowered lunge. "Gauntlet Hades!" Flipping around in the air, he managed to catch the monster in the air before clotheslining it with his arm and finishing it off, leaving one monster remaining.
Leading with a front kick before whipping his leg around in a roundhouse, Ragna spun again and did another sweep to knock the monster off the ground before lunging and blasting it back. Rushing forward one final time before sliding to a stop in front of the monster and reeling back, the Reaper roared as he let loose a deadly haymaker swing with his arm and finished the final Rock Spider, finally turning it into glass shards.
(End theme)
"Might've taken longer than I'd liked it to, but I guess I can't complain too much," Ragna admitted as the results screen from his last session of combat came up. He'd gain decent experience from that fight, but he knew he was still quite a ways off from reaching his next level. Decent cut of Col as well and he'd found some of the floors usual item drop. Alone, that was all he could've usually hoped for from this normal encounter, but he also saw that he'd learned a new skill; Martial Arts. "Alright, looks like I got it."
"You got something alright," Argo told him as she approached, closing her own results screen without so much as glancing at the half of spoils she'd obtained. "When you were asking me about this earlier I thought you were some kind of badass Black Belt or something. Even if it was enhanced by the game, what you just showed off was Street Brawlin' at best, like I don't want my opponent to ever get back up Street Brawlin'."
"Oi oi, what does it matter how I'm fighting? I beat them, didn't I? Not to mention I managed to unlock the Martial Arts ability that you told me about," he told her as he was about to close his own screen.
"Hold up, can't I at least look at what the ability is all about?" she asked him. "What I gave you was just the brief synopsis, but I still need to know about the specifics. This is fresh info for the market after all."
"So you were just looking to make a profit," Ragna groaned with a sigh as he opened the information.
"Maybe there is a profit in here for me, but think about this for a second. You're probably the first person in the game that's actually gone and bothered risking their neck for this skill… and I'm kind of doubting that most people could ever use it like you do. If I get the real details here, maybe we'll find something in the information that'll speed us on our way to clearing this game."
"...Fine, knock yourself out," the Reaper eventually conceded as he clicked on the skill he obtained so that it would show Argo what it was all about. Since he had his Info Broker here to summarize the information for him, Ragna didn't start reading just yet and gave Argo her reading room.
"So it looks like I was right about the million uses to master, but there's a lot more to it than just that. For this skill it also matters how you're attacking as well. There's also a set of passives each tied to certain types of attacks, like Jabs, Straights, Uppercuts, and especially lucky for you Roundhouse Kicks. Each of those takes ten thousand uses to master, but each time you use those it also goes back to the overarching ability. With me so far?"
"Think so. So that means I need to mix up the kinds of attacks I'm using so I can max all of my options out?"
"That'd be my suggestion, 'cause each move also has different properties. Like between Jabs and a Straight Punch. The Jabs come out much quicker, but if you can land a Straight before your opponent gets their attack off you'll do additional damage and leave them stunned from your attack fer longer. A Knifehand Strike has a higher chance of dealing critical hits while using Clawing Attacks can sometimes inflict a bleeding status for extra damage. Stuff like that might seem small at first, but it can cover a lot if you don't have the right weapon for the job. I'd look at all of the skills they've got for you to choose from and figure out just how you'll want to mix up your usual approach to combat… if you're still interested in fightin' like this of course."
"I don't give up that easily; you can count on me sticking with this for at least a while," Ragna told her.
"Figured… but there's one thing that's still bothering me. It's about this weird red text. Says that Techniques using the Azure Grimoire won't be counted towards the total, even if the attacks lack a weapon. You've got any idea what that means?"
'Shit, what?' Ragna thought as he looked over the ability. Much like Argo said, there was a footnote in red text; indicating that it was the kind of information that would only be applied to him inside Sword Art Online. 'Dammit! I didn't think it would be tied to something that was already in the game! I thought the only entries I got would be my equipment and exclusive skills! I guess this explains why I haven't unlocked the ability until now, but I've got a huge problem here!'
"Is that some kind of book? Ya don't look like the reading type, those cookbooks yer bein' forced ta read excluded," Argo noted, snapping Ragna out of his thoughts and letting him realize that he now had an explanation he needed to give. Waiting any further would eventually lead to issues of trust and it was about to come out sooner or later, even if Argo kept her word. Better to have his story straight now while he had the chance.
"It's…" 'Can't tell her the real truth, not without looking like some kind of maniac… but I need to keep it simple.' "It was something I found back on floor one… Inside some sort of ruined church." 'If I can keep it close to what actually happened, it'll be even easier to keep the story straight… Come on, think back to the first floor.' "This… this was back before I'd met any of you… and it wasn't long after they'd revealed what this death game really was. I was wandering around on my own; somehow…"
Ragna had been about to claim that he'd been running around trying not to think that he could die at any moment, but reconsidered. Doing that didn't make much sense… and he had a feeling Argo could see through that sort of lie, she'd known him long enough to see through that much.
"I can't say I knew what the hell I was doing, most of my time out was an honest blur to me… even now I have a hard time remembering anything back then."
"Yeah, most of us were like in some way," Argo said with a nod, thinking back to some of players that hadn't taken it as well as Ragna had. "So where did you get that Grimoire thing?"
"I don't know where, I didn't even know how to use my map at the time." That wasn't a lie, he had needed Yuuki and Agil to teach him where to find it. "Eventually I found the hollowed ruins of a church out in the plains. I thought I was getting into some sort of trap for a monster, but there wasn't anyone else in sight. No players, monsters, not even a breeze; everything felt dead still. I took a look around this place and found a door leading to a basement where I found the book. I took it… and the next thing I knew I was on my back just outside the Town of Beginnings the next morning." Letting out a deep sigh, he grabbed his right sleeve and pulled it back to reveal his BlazBlue in all dark wrapped glory. "With this."
"So it changed shape to some sorta gauntlet?" Argo asked as she looked around the arm to get a better look.
"Maybe, either that or it took up my entire damn arm. Either way I haven't been able to take it off so it's here to stay," he explained. He noticed that Argo was scratching her chin as she looked him over, clearly never seeing anything of the sort before with all of her information gathering skills. Moving to Ragna's other arm, she pulled the sleeve back in wonder of what she could find. Luckily for Ragna his left artificial arm had been made by none other Kokonoe, and the materials used was bio-material straight out of Lambda's test tube. It was a near perfect replica of his old arm in every way and those few ways it could possibly differ couldn't be seen by the naked eye, especially if you had no idea what to look for. "Mind letting that go?"
"Sure sure, but I never thought your arms were so ripped under that coat, were you some sort of muscle freak before you got trapped here? That might explain a thing or two actually." Ragna had a hard time seeing that as a compliment. "But it's weird that the glove on your left matches the one on your right, unless you somehow got all of this equipment when you grabbed the book."
"...Yep, that's basically what happened. Nothing original about me, it was all just that damn book," he tried to tell her off and explain all of his uniqueness since he'd been given the chance. The irony of the situation wasn't lost on him; back home he was always warned to never treat the Azure Grimoire as a part of him, now he was claiming that the cursed artifact was every bit of his strength to save his cover.
"Damn. From what Lisbeth's been telling me that special equipment of yours starts out as your everyday basic equipment, but if ya spend the time upgrading it you'll still be able to use it on the top floors no sweat. ...Still seems weird that you'd be able to find abilities and equipment that's exclusive only to you, especially on Floor One."
"Don't blame it on me; I ain't the guy that wrote the damn rules," Ragna informed as he finally closed his menu. "Let's get going; I want to grab lunch after this and if we end up eating in a city you're paying for it."
"...Ya know I don't believe that?"
"You can't even pick me up lunch? Just how stingy are you?" the Reaper asked with an eye roll.
"Not that, about what ya said earlier about yer book." Ragna's eyes narrowed as she took a deep breath. "I don't believe it's all some damn item that's doing all of this."
"And I'm telling you that's what it is," he tried asserting again to protect his own lie.
"Nah, in fact I don't think it's doin' much at all. Some special abilities? Maybe. Some rare armor and an awesome sword? Sure, why not? But you…" Argo poked him in the chest as she stared up into the Reaper's heterochromia eyes. "No Grimoire could cause the kind of stuff that you do. Running inta battle without a care in the world, fightin' tooth and nail ta save someone ya just met, fixin' someone's phobia. What you do could nev'r be created by something from the game itself, even if you're trying to tell yourself it is."
"...Tch." Ragna broke eye contact with Argo as he proceeded onward. "It's easy to pull off that shit when you're packing something overpowered like I've got."
"See? Not giving yourself an ounce worth of credit," she said to him with a smile as she followed closely behind. "Also, I want yer cooking for lunch; gotta help ya build that skill up, right?"
'Amaterasu almighty, this girl…'
Later -Dungeon Entrance-
"This is your big plan for today? Just tackle some dungeon?" Ragna asked as he stood with Argo at the entrance of what appeared to be a ruined temple. It had taken them quite a while to get here and it felt like this place was in the middle of nowhere. "If you wanted levels and Col, there were plenty of closer spots."
"True, but here there won't be any eyes keeping you from cutting loose and you might actually need to do it here; 'place is nasty from what I've gathered. Only a few player groups have ever gone into this place… and not without a few fatalities."
"Something tells me your game here isn't high risk high reward," Ragna guessed as he started leading them inside. "So you think this is the Floor Dungeon?"
"I really hope it ain't, the way it was talked about by my sources it sounded a lot more like one of those areas that's way too tough when you first find it, but you can come back later for some decent finds and really good grinding if you remember. I'm thinkin' if you can find a few pieces of really strong gear this early on, it'll go a long way to clearing the game."
"You know that I'm going to hold onto this gear till the day I die, right?" he reminded.
"Well then you can give it to someone in our guild that can put it to use or have Liz sell it, or hope that you can find the right materials in there to upgrade your stuff now. For all you know this place could end up bein' a goldmine of rare finds. We won't know until we scope this place out."
"I guess you've got a point, but doesn't this seem kind of familiar?" Ragna asked as he glanced around the ruins. "Back when you and I first met it was in a dungeon that also had monsters you weren't supposed to fighting." He shot her a cocky smirk. "You're not going to need me to save you again, are you?"
"Nope! 'Cause at the moment I'm saving your hide!" Argo told him as she grabbed the Reaper's arm and kept him from walking forward. "You were just about to set off a trap; a poisoned needle one by the looks of it."
"You sound pretty confident about that, but I don't see anything," Ragna said as he looked at the dungeon floor in front of him.
"'Course you can't; unlike me you haven't been training yer Detect Traps skill," she explained as she passed him by and knelt at the floor. "That or yer Disarm Traps skill." Ragna wasn't sure what she'd done, but the group suddenly gave off a shattered glass effect indicating something had been destroyed. "Lucky for you, I'm here with both."
"Huh, thanks I guess," Ragma said, showing Argo a rare display of genuine gratification. "Are these things common in dungeons?"
"It depends on the dungeon, but the fact that we found one this early on could mean trouble. I don't think that traps on this floor would outright kill you, but if you got caught by a monster fight afterwards or while you were fleeing you'd be in trouble. If yer gonna insist on doing these dungeons alone, I suggest you either start learning how to detect the traps yourself or start bringing me alone for explorations. Whoop, almost forgot." Opening her menu, she started creating a map of the dungeon. "With this I should be able to make some pretty decent Col."
"So you're grabbing info that no one else will have access to, giving you a leg up in the market. Smart move." Now it was Ragna's turn to put his arm out to stop Argo as he pushed the shorter lady behind him. "Something's up ahead."
"Spiders?" Argo asked as she went for her dagger.
"Nope, something new," he explained as the new enemies approached them. "What the hell?"
These new monsters were humanoid in appearance and dressed in torn, musty robes. Their skin was an unhealthy gray and looked like it was barely hanging onto their boney bodies. Their eyes were sunken deep and their hair was greasy and matted over their heads. The most telling part about them was the spider fangs extending awkwardly from their mouths and their clawed hands gripping their rusted ceremonial daggers. The names above each of them read Arachnid Cultist. There were three creatures now, but Ragna could hear more of them and could hear more of them coming from further down the hallway.
"These things are still new so we got next to no data on 'em, but I think they can poison you with their fangs if you let them get close enough. Other than that, watch out for their daggers until we know what weapon skills they have access to," Argo warned. "You take this batch on, I'll stay back focus on learnin' what I can."
(Cue Ragna's Theme Rebellion II)
"All right, just make sure you take good notes," Ragna reminded as he walked forward towards the new threat. 'Now that I know what I'm doing with my unarmed attacks, let's see how close I can get to fighting with my old style.'
Starting by letting loose a straight to the cultist on his right, Ragna managed interrupt their attack and sent them reeling back from the well placed attack to the face. Taking his sword off his belt with his left hand, he easily deflected a knife attack from the other cultist before smashing it in the chest with a roundhouse kick, carving into it with his Aramasa, and delivering a Hell's Fang to its face to finish it off. Much like Argo has suspected, one of the monsters went for a fang attack to poison Ragna, but the Reaper wasn't having any of the as he roughly impaled them straight through their chest before tearing the blade upwards and causing intense damage. Placing both hands on the sword's handle, Ragna unleashed his Blast two-handed sword, before flipping his body around and giving it a good Gauntlet Hades to finish the job. Landing to his feet, the final cultist came at him from behind him with a sword skill charged knife. Figuring he'd test how strong these things were, Ragna let the attack hit him full force. Even if visually his body reacted the same way to attacks as any other player in SAO, he didn't have their pain dampeners and felt the full force of the blow like he would in real life… not that getting viciously carved into was anything new to him. That one single strike was enough to take a solid third of his health, just proving Argo's point on how dangerous these things were.
"My turn, Inferno Divider!" Ragna's upward slash was forceful enough to carry both of them off of their feet. With how well this move had served him in the past, as soon as it had unlocked Ragna had trained with it constantly, using it more than any other move at his disposal and then some. Thanks to this, Ragna had unlocked two of the move's three follow up attacks. Uppercutting the airborne monster with a follow up punch before using another to send it into the wall, the monster bounced off the said and allowed Ragna time to land before catching the monster midair with a claw attack (think his Guard Crush, but without the transforming arm yet) and bringing it to the ground before roundhousing it followed by another sword impalement to finish it off.
"More on the way!" Argo called out before tossing running up beside Ragna and holding out a healing potion for him to take. "Top off yer health while you got a chance to, I'm not up fer taking risks here."
Though Ragna knew he'd be fine, he still took the item and down the potion in one gulp. Being reckless was a large part of who he was even now, but if it kept Argo mind at ease during the fight he was willing to suck in his pride. Approaching quickly with a beast like ferocity was four more cultists, but these were equipped with odd spears topped with a spider insignia.
"Info never said they could use spears!" Argo said as she readied her dagger. "That extra range could mean trouble!"
"Then stay close," Ragna ordered making a quick series of slashes to deflect three of the spears before holding back the last with the wide end of his sword.
"Not Stay back and let me handle this? Yer goin' soft!" Argo shouted as she struck one of the creatures across with a dagger skill before chaining into another.
"No, I'm getting smart; I know that you'd never listen if I told you that," Ragna grunted before blocking two additional spear attacks and pulling Argo out of the way as a third knocked the hood from her head. "Now stay behind me."
"Funny," Argo commented, though seeing one of the spearman trying to flank Ragna while he fought off the other three she realized that Ragna needed her there. "You could've just asked me to watch your back."
"You'd have charged me double," the Reaper answered with a smirk. "Hell's Fang!" Connecting with a fist of darkness on the middle cultist, Ragna then went for a one-handed Horizontal Slash to the second one. Though he seldom used the form, Ranga rushed the last one with a knife hand attack on the monster that Argo had already damaged before clawing it and finishing it off.
Ignoring her guild leader's comments at the moment, Argo sidestepped to avoid her opponent's thrust before rushing in for three quick stabs. Ducking under the lancer's swing, she brought her dagger up in a skill charge upcut dealing solid damage. Forced to block the lance's next swing with her knife, the force of blow was still enough to carry Argo sliding on the floor. Planting her feet down, she managed to hold her footing in the blade struggle before throwing the attack off and leaving the monster open. Using one last knife skill she cut the creature across its side and managed to finish it off.
'I'll be damned, for an info exchanging rat she actually knows how to fight,' Ragna thought to himself with a smirk as he blasted one of the cultists into the air with an uppercut. 'Guess I don't have much of an excuse yet.' "Gauntlet Hades!" Hitting the airborne target with attack, he kept them from landing long enough to activate his Blast Two-Handed Sword Skill. Dodging the lunge from the final cultist Ragna managed to counter with another straight as they went for a follow up attack. Transforming the Aramasa into its true scythe form, Ragna used the massive weapon to knock the monster airborne before bringing down with a heavily charged Smash axe skill. Argo felt the dungeon around her shake at the impact before the monster exploded into glass shards.
(End theme)
"And that's a wrap," Ragna said as he reverted the Aramasa before twirling it around a few times and set it back in on his belt. "So what did we learn today?"
"That you've got one of the weirdest way of fightin' that I've ever seen in this game," Argo answered. "Seriously, mixing yer Street Brawlin' and sword work like that, who would ever try something that crazy?"
"Uh, I would?"
"...Point made, now let's keep going. We still have a ton of this place to explore and I need to make sure info's on the market by the end of today."
"Fine, just warn me if I'm about to step into any of those damn traps," the Reaper said as he started walking down, only for Argo to follow closely beside him.
"So, can I ask ya something personal?" she asked, looking up at her guild leader.
"If you do I'm charging you."
"That's low."
"I'm just taking a page out of your book, rat."
"Ouch, but how's about you tell me who Rachel is?" Argo smirked as she saw Ragna's flinch. "Strike a nerve, did I? You said something about her back at camp."
"...Just how the two of you really seem to know how to get under my skin," he said thinking back. "I guess now that you mention it you do also have the whole animal nickname thing going."
"Seriously?" Argo asked, stopping Ragna before he walked into another trap. "Dang there are a lot of these. So what was Rachel's nickname and how'd she get it?"
"I mean I call it a nickname, but in reality all I did was come up with an insult for her," Ragna admitted, before considering that after that it was really just what he called her by most of the time. "If you gotta know I called her Rabbit."
"Rabbit, eh? Where'd you come up with the nickname?"
"Appearance, so it was really basic. She had pigtails that she always tied up with the black ribbons. They shot up in a weird way that kind of reminded me of Rabbit ears, so the nickname just stuck. Never said it was an inspired choice, just what came to me."
"No, actually I like it," Argo admitted as she finished working on the traps and caused the shattering effect. "So, just cause I was curious. I-"
"You were wondering if she was my girlfriend so you could sell it as gossip for a mint, weren't you?" Now it was Argo turn to freeze as Ragna looked down at her with a scowl. "I think I'm starting to come up with some new nicknames for you, and they ain't flattering."
"S-Says the guy that goes by Grim Reaper and Bloodedge!" the Info Broker shot back.
"So? I like those names, what's your point?" the Reaper retorted. "She… We weren't close in that way. But she did always mean a lot to me, even if I wasn't the best at showing it. Though to be fair she wasn't that much better; always looking down at me with some quip or insult." He couldn't help but give a soft smile. "And damn it all if I don't miss her."
"Eh, miss her all you want. You'll just have to come up with some insults to get back at her once you clear the game, right?" Ragna didn't answer her, only keeping his gaze forward as he proceeded deeper into the ruins. "She's waiting for you outside… isn't she?"
"She's…" Ragna had been about to say that she was dead, but realized how disrespectful that would be to her memory. The two had been through more hell than they'd ever like to admit. Rachel was too damn stubborn to die, just like he'd been. He settled for a hollow truth. "Gone."
"O-Oh, sorry..." Argo tried to apologize. She then felt Ragna's glowed hand ruffling her hair which was still uncovered by her hood.
"Don't worry about it," he told her, smirking with a forlorn sigh. "I just think back to her and the others every now again. It's not much, but I guess it'll do right by her in the best way I know how."
'I knew that Ragna was hiding a softa side under all his crass, but I guess he's better at hiding his baggage than I thought,' Argo considered as she put her hood back on. "So you said that Rachel wasn't yers, but didya have a girlfriend IRL?"
"Nah, never really had the time or interest of finding one if you can believe that," the Reaper admitted. "Might've been hard to do with the way I am anyways; always swearing and scowling probably wasn't helping my case."
"Probably not, but if they couldn't stand that they probably weren't right for ya in the first place. 'Course some of us here just happen to think it's part of yer charm."
"My… charm?" the Reaper repeated, never expecting his attitude to be found charming. "Is that what you think about it?"
"Ya want to know that, ya gotta pay up," Argo informed him with a playful wink.
"...Think I'll save the cash, and I meant what I said about charging you for personal questions."
Even if he'd been given pain dampeners in the game like the rest of the player base, Ragna was fairly certain Argo's swift kick to his shin would hurt regardless.
Later
"Might not be a floor boss room, but I still knew I had a good feeling about this place," Argo said to Ragna proudly.
The two of them had explored this dangerous place in full, dismantling several annoying traps and fighting through hordes of deadly enemies across the multitude of branching paths. Argo had completed her mapping, leaving the two with a full layout of the dungeon save for the chamber before then.
"A golden glowing door at the end of a long corridor is pretty telling of that," Ragna agreed, acting casual but surprisingly curious on what this meant for the two. "Never seen a something like this before."
"Then leave it ta Argo to fill ya in! That right there is what's known as a Treasure Chamber. These things are rare finds, especially this early into the game's 100 floors. Big rewards and no big nastys inside to keep you from claiming it."
"So it's your basic dungeon boss room, but without a boss on the other side," Ragna summarizes.
"In a lot of ways yeah, but it's a bit more complicated than that. Down the line there might be dungeons filled with both Treasure Chambers and a Boss Chamber inside, meaning it well worth your time to explore everywhere you can… so long as you don't get killed."
"Don't have to remind me of that," Ragna told her, far from disappointed he'd have to face off against another boss.
"Fact that the door is gold is even better; means we're the first ones to find this place. Treasure rooms are like dungeon boss rooms since you can only clear them once per day. The rewards you get out of 'em come from a predetermined list with items of differin' value. When you find a gold door like this though, it means the item you'll obtain will always be the best this place can offer."
"So it's a race to find these, but what happens after the first person grabs its treasure?"
"Then it reset at midnight and anyone can grab it. The door also changes from gold to silver. Silver doors aren't nearly as good, but at least with them you're still guaranteed something high tier or better. After the tenth group hits a silver door though, it turns to bronze. You can get any of the room's drops at that point and some of them can be depressing, like a slightly better healing potion. It's still a find, but it'll be a slog having to check back once per day."
"And even then you've gotta be the first one to open it that day," Ragna finished as Argo gave him a nod in confirmation. "Well, might as well see if the big drop is something we can use. Think people will buy info for a silver door?"
"'Course they will, but this dungeon's still pretty dangerous for most people to get through. But the two of us mapped it out, got info on the monsters inside, and recorded where the traps spawn. I think anyone with this would be able to make a semi-safe plan at least. Just to be safe I won't sell the info to anyone too low a level. If I did their treasure hunt would just become a suicide march."
'Huh, didn't know that she was this careful with who she sold her info to. Up until this point, I figured that she'd just been selling whatever she could to whoever she could just so she could end up with an easy profit. Maybe she's putting more effort into this Info Broker work more than I thought.'
Leaving thoughts of Argo's underlying considerate nature there (and far too stubborn to inform her of such thoughts), Ragna roughly shoved open the massive golden door. The Treasure Chamber didn't look any different than the rest of the dungeon, just a small room with a large golden treasure chest awaiting the two against the far wall. The Reaper let Argo proceed in front of him, just to make sure that there were no traps as a final F You from the dungeon. Luckily, there weren't and Argo quickly undid the top of the chest to reveal…
"Nice, a Smithing Mallet," she said as she took out the heavily polished bronze hammer. "Thing will probably give some mighty fine upgrades, might even offer a couple of unique bonuses when it's used to craft something."
"Great, you can go ahead and give it to Lisbeth then; I'm sure she'll be grateful for her new smithing toy," Ragna said as he turned and started heading for the exit.
"Come on, we can both give it ta her. You could probably use a couple of upgrades on yer gear anyways, exclusive stuff or not." Her guild leader only gave her a modest shrug, not stopping in his walk out or turning to face her. Rolling her eyes at his usual standoffish behavior, Argo followed beside him once again. "That and… I was thinkin' we should stick together for a while, long as it was alright with you."
"Really?" Ragna asked with an eyebrow raised. Usually he didn't work with anyone for an extended period of time, even those from his guild. Sinon had been an exception, but that had been more of Leafa's request than her own. He didn't have anything seriously against it, but he didn't find the need to become a completely social person just because he'd given in and founded his own guild. "What brought this on?"
"Just the fact that this floor's really deadly and the sooner it's cleared the better," she informed. "Look, you might be good when it comes ta fightin'. Hell, I doubt there's anyone in this game that holds a candle to what you can do, but yer still clueless when it comes to the SAO system itself."
"Normally when you ask someone for a favor it's a bad idea to insult them to their face when you do," Ragna muttered. "All the same, it's hard to say that you're wrong after all of the info you gave me today. So you're thinking of doing a brain and brawn sort of thing? You find the clues we need to clear this floor and I'll be what gets you there in the first place?"
"'Xactly, knew you'd see it my way!" Argo told him eagerly.
"I haven't said I'd agreed to it yet, and I'm not going to be able to watch your back ever fight we get into."
"Maybe not, but at least with me around you'll be able to go all out without any fear of someone finding out yer secrets before it's time," Argo told him. "I'm already in the know, so you might as well stick with me over anyone else."
"...Alright, but only for a bit. You still need to be my excuse for getting out of that tournament on Christmas Eve."
"That's a deal, I'll give ya that day to solo play and around that we can work on getting off of this stupid floor," the info broker said before giving Ragna a light punch to his ribs. "Fer now at least, the two of us are partners!"
"That's great and all, but if you're staying with me then it looks like I'm going to be sleeping outside for a while," he realized, scratching the back of his head as he realized what he'd signed up for.
"Don't forget cookin' fer me! That's part of the deal too!" Argo reminded excitedly. "Speaking of which, I'm starving! What's on the menu for lunch?"
'...It's weird; I know I should be annoyed by that kind of attitude, normally I'd be swearing my head off at this point, and it's surprising I haven't threatened to kick her out yet.' Ragna looked down at Argo, catching sight of her mischievous smiling face as she awaited his answer for lunch plans. He gave a deep sigh. 'But for some damned reason, I'm actually starting to enjoy this.'
Author's Note
For the love of- HOW LATE IS THIS CHAPTER!? …Well there's kind of a reason for it.
Besides some growing chaos in my day to day life, I've actually been working on this chapter for a full month (my last update was on Valentine's Day). The reason this one took so long to get out was actually due to a rewrite when I was nearly done two weeks in. I had an idea for how I was going to handle this chapter, but by the end I realized that I was basically having Ragna break the game… on floor 4 of 100.
Maybe I will have a chapter down the line where Ragna actually does manage to do something that breaks the game completely and Kayaba has to do his best to either cope with it or fix the issue, but it seems a little earlier to be trying something like that, fun as it might be. Big thanks to Paladin9800 for the follow up idea that turned into this chapter's premise. Let's get to the reviews.
Kerrowe: I've always loved writing small little happenings between characters. Not everything has to be a world changing event.
Lightkirinhuruname: Easy there Vergil…
The Unplanner & MIDKNIGHT The Fallen One: Thanks for another summary, can always count on you two for those.
Reclusive Dork: I think Argo and the others are giving him enough of one already… according to him.
TheEmeraldMage: Ragna in Food Wars would be interesting, but that'd be a big project to tackle since I'd I've to do plenty of research into food to accommodate.
ENDDRAGON369: Huh, for me the pepper shakers were the second easiest. My easiest was the flambe one.
Guest: She's… there.
Wlyman2009: Yeah, most of the time it's 'Ragna can cook? That's nice. Let's have him kill something.'
Hellifrit: Well it can't be all sunshine and rainbows for our dear Reaper (god knows he'd have earned some though).
Dxhologram: Don't worry about it, I like to take my time when it comes to building up the romance payoffs (to some chagrin admittedly)
Shiroyasha Rises: Don't worry, I plan to give Yuuki some proper time in the sun coming up.
Guest (2): Just did
Son Leo Vermillion: This will likely turn into a harem story unless everyone either thinks that Ragna should stay single (which seems unlikely), should be paired with an OC I make (nearly as unlikely), or simply enjoys the dynamic of two characters enough to keep it at that.
Until next time! Ciao!
