[SP-F1] Guidance

[Alkor 0]

He pushed through the braided bead curtains and blinked rapidly as heavy frankincense hit his senses. Alkor saw the incense still burning at his feet and tread warily along the ornate rugs and up to where the gypsy sat. He'd heard tales about other Players coming to this woman for guidance and strength, and perhaps, he would find some for himself.

"Ah," she spoke with her eyes still closed. "Like all the others. You come to get strong, no?" She asked, but before he could speak, she continued. "Of course you do, all seek strength. Strength is freedom."

How true those words are.

"But strength not easy to find," she opened her eyes, one blue, the other brown. Alkor tilted his head. What a strange thing. "Strength not found alone. Strength mean trusting others as much as self. You must find spirit guide."

Spirit Guides...?

"You take this," the Gypsy held out an item, which revealed itself as <<Familiar Food.>> Alkor immediately understood. A familiar- something many of the strongest Players in Aincrad had. A means by which to gain power as much as a trusted friend.

He should have come here sooner.

Alkor 

Level 25

510/510 HP 50/50 E

6 Base Damage | 3 Evasion |  | 48 Mitigation

T1 Ornate Scimitar (vanity) | T2 Nightmare Bomber 2 MIT 1 EVA | T1 Vagabond's Mark 3 EVA

[Alkor 0]

So, I need to search for a creature, give it some food, and convince it to befriend me. Sounds pretty easy, I guess; but what's the catch? Does it try to kill me if I suck on my animal friendship roll?

Alkor stared out at the first floor that offered boars and Nepent, but precious little else. He didn't want to have an unsightly pig follow him around, and the idea of a Nepent as a pet just made him think about those Japanese shows with the tentacles.

Seriously, what the eff Japan.

There didn't seem to be much going for him in that way. He considered that he might head for another floor, but he was uncertain if the quest would be voided by the action. "I need..."

What do I need...?

Alkor signed and stared skyward, listening as the breeze wafted past. The cool air relaxed him just a bit, and he smiled at the distant caw of a lone crow.

Edited December 22, 2019 by Alkor

[Alkor 0]

He made his way through the forested area near Honruka village and looked toward the canopy. In the trees, wind whispered, and it washed over him gently. He reached out to touch some of the bark, inspecting carefully to see whether anything had left markings or any clue as to where he should look. The Familiar Food did nothing to attract the beasts, it only kept them close once he had stumbled upon them and helped in the process of domesticating them. At least, that's what the broker had told him. It wasn't exactly information he could just discount. Everyone other than Alkor seemed to have a "pet" nearby.

Alkor wasn't interested in having a creature to fight for him. He wanted something that would give him an edge in combat, perhaps, but not something that took damage for him or jumped in the way. Perhaps a creature that improved his ability to do damage, or gave him the ability to exploit the enemy's weakness. A spy, maybe? Some sort of creature able to get a better perspective of Aincrad than the swordsman could manage on his own?

He let out a sigh. With no idea what he was looking for, a search would prove fruitless and walking in circles for hours would yield scant results.

"I wonder," he muttered to himself. "What kind of things can I find?"

[Alkor 0]

The creatures he could see never came close. Sparrows flitted through the treetops and paid him no heed. Snakes slithered through grass, though he had seen other Players with them, but never interacted with him. He heard a faint growl somewhere nearby, but no beast appeared to accompany it.

He stopped low and ran his fingers through the dirt, using his untrained tracking skill to look for clues. Nothing. "Is there anything out here that I can actually befriend?" he asked. "Maybe the system knows I'm a loner and it's responding to that."

Somehow, he doubted that.

The Swordsman stood upright and took stock of his surroundings. There was something, somewhere that would react. He just had to be patient and keep looking. The game didn't give quests that couldn't be completed.

Alkor folded his arms and bowed his head in thought. He needed to find a familiar to train, but his skills were yielding no fruit. "Now what...?"

Edited December 25, 2019 by Alkor

[Alkor 0]

The Swordsman glanced skyward and shielded his eyes from sunlight that peeked through the leaves. It always felt surreal to him how the warmth and cold in Aincrad actually felt so real. He reached out as though he meant to take the sphere of fire in hand, spilling the shadow of his hand over his face.

"Okay, I've come pretty far from the Town, so north is this way..." he mused as he used the position of the sun relative to the time shown on his HUD to determine direction. He hated toggling the mini map when he could just use his surroundings to navigate. He had learned that from his Grandfather. "Guess I'll keep heading deeper into the trees and see what I can find."

The sound of a bird calling grew louder as he went, and he heard more of them join in like a chorus. Was there a settlement of some sort of avian nearby? How had he never heard about that? The info brokers should have been aware if there was a secret hidden on the first floor.

Edited December 25, 2019 by Alkor

[Alkor 0]

He stepped into the Grove with an expression of awe plastered across his face. The murder of crows only stared down at him from every direction, almost certainly disinterested in the single Player that had stumbled upon their secret lair. If they were afraid, it was not apparent; and if they intended to chase him off, they had not given any sign of such.

"Are you all familiars?" he asked quietly. "Or... I guess, are you the type of creatures I'm able to tame?"

He reached up as if to touch one, and the message flickered across his HUD. Immortal Object. The bird cawed lazily and flapped its wings twice to signify it had been disturbed, but otherwise made no attempt to move. It seemed that they had no interest in him whatsoever.

But they were there, they were everywhere.

He watched several of the avian creatures take flight, as if perturbed by the sudden intrusion while others seemed not to take any notice whatsoever. As Alkor moved through the dimly lit copse of trees, he stared with mouth agape.

 

Edited December 25, 2019 by Alkor

[Alkor 0]

Caw.

Their call was uniform, mocking him. Not one showed a health meter like an enemy, not one seemed to have any intention of interacting with him. They stirred occasionally, moving purposefully to some unheard rhythm. It felt like the Cardinal system had led him to this place only to play with his mind.

Illusory flapping of their wings at intervals played tricks on his mind. He turned at high speed on his heel, desperate to see anything that might try to blindside him. Nothing came.

"Okay," he changed tactics. Alkor was paranoid as a rule because he was a loner, so the very thought that something might sneak up on him caused his anxiety to spike. In a version of Sword Art Online where the distress limiters had been removed, it was a recipe for disaster, and yet, it also meant the most real experience possible.

The sadism of Akihiko Kayaba knew no bounds.

Alkor drew his blade as he circled backward through the Grove, seeking any sign of the sole creature his quest had indicated. There had to be one, somewhere. There was nothing in this place to fight. Nothing to find. There had to be something.

[Alkor 0]

They scattered, panicked voices echoing through his mind. Had he startled them by coming so close? Alkor tried to even touch one of them, but it was outside his reach. Crows swirled around him like a maelstrom, inky darkness threatening to consume his thoughts.

What is it you seek?

The voice crowded his mind suddenly, though it was not his own. Alkor blinked and thought to speak, but no sound came. His voice caught in his throat and remained there like a lump.

Is it power? Power that you lack, or that you would use? For what do you seek power?

He tried once more in vain to speak, but only succeeded in letting out a mangled cough. His voice was like razor blades cutting at the insides of his esophagus, failing to do anything but cause him intense pain.

Was this the world around him, or something else?

You will find nothing of power. Turn back. Leave this place, or find only despair.

[Alkor 0]

The toxic haze of red and black robbed him of vision. Pain wracked his body- 

Pain? No. Pain isn't real in this world. The limiters are in place and prevent any type of neural receptors from sending that kind of response to the brain. This isn't actually pain.

But it feels just like the real thing.

I haven't felt anything like this in years.

It felt like fire in his veins, flowing like red hot rivers. He understood that it was impossible, and yet here this sensation was flooding his body and washing everything else out of his mind. Alkor folded and writhed in the grass of the First Floor, crying out in helpless agony.

If you submit and leave now, there will be no cause for you to endure this. I will spare you ever having to feel anything like this again. What say you, man? Will you trade comfort for strength? Or will you live quietly and in obscurity with tolerable peace?

This is for you to decide.

[Alkor 0]

He grabbed at the grass with both hands in an effort to focus. His breathing came ragged and harsh, and he fought to his knees with throbbing in his head. The system had shifted to allow for this kind of experience in his mind. It may have been illusory, but sometimes Cardinal did things based on the thoughts and fears of the Players. It could see Alkor's resolve, and in his effort to seek strength, it decided to test him.

Rather, perhaps the creature that he sought had made such a decision.

What manner of beast had chosen him? What sort of calamitous creature would inflict this, rather than a simple contest of strength? These thoughts tore at Alkor as he weighed his options. Leave? Turn away now, so close, so very close to his goal?

"N...o..." His words flowed from his lips like poison, boiling on his tongue. Tears flowed from his eyes. The swordsman had never faced an enemy so readily willing to torment him not with the threat of death, but with the knowledge of his own frailty.

Sword Art Online constantly punished its prisoners with the knowledge of their inadequacy. That was life in this world. A simple mistake could bring them to their knees and beyond, to certain death both in the game and outside.

But this, the question he had asked himself all along: are you strong enough? Are you willing to do what it takes to become strong? Wouldn't you rather live easily, without suffering?

"No," he repeated. "That's not what life really is."

[Alkor 0]

The sky shifted to twilight, and the pressure in his throat relaxed just a bit. Alkor saw the moon shining through the clouds, which confused him because daylight had burned through the trees only moments before. What kind of dream was he trapped inside of?

You claim to understand what life isn't, but do you know what it is? 

The voice questioned him, and he almost felt mockery in the words that resounded all around him. Alkor looked around, but saw nothing. Mist billowed through the trees and masked the forest floor, leaving him alone with the voices inside his mind.

Did you not claim, once, that you had lost sight of everything? That you perjured to be something you were not? How could you possibly know what life is, when for so long you played pretend?

Alkor tensed as the words revived his doubt. His golden eyes burned with uncertainty as his shoulders began to sag.

"No," he repeated the word defiantly. "I won't lose to this. You don't even know me."

You don't even know yourself.

Edited December 27, 2019 by Alkor

[Alkor 0]

The hardest thing to accept when faced with the Cardinal system was knowing that it knew your mind. It could scan memories and thoughts, and in a single instant conjure your greatest fears or inadequacies. Alkor knew that this was just that- a phenomenon brought on by the Cardinal system, in response to his accepting the quest for a familiar.

But, was this the normal familiar quest? Wasn't he just supposed to find a creature, throw it some food, and make nice? It seemed like a low-grade form of psychological torture, from what he could feel, see, and hear.

Are you going to cry?

Alkor stopped, cold. It was like the bullies that plagued him during his years of school, or the people who never understood why he kept his distance from others. They always asked questions or taunted him. There was never peace. 

He felt tugging at his hair, like someone was pulling him off the ground. 

You are. You're crying again. How pathetic is that?