NIGHT

the player was first to make a move, as they had always been meant to; a direct charge towards the backline, and her sword grazed the front target, barely making a scratch against its shallow form. her body’s memory began flooding back into her, trying to recall the best method to combat these opponents – the lack of feedback upon their form often meant poor clarity on her accuracy, with the rumble of her blade in her hands the reminder of how much work cardinal was attempting to put forward to bridge the gap between her strike and her marks. the whirl was over before she’d registered the hit

night blinked slow, trying to decipher hirru's reactions. the staring, the blank look on his face, almost as though her friend was trying to capture something past her rather than at her. her own eyes had darted around his form, trying to figure out if there was any more subconscious body movements that she hadn't realized, only to watch hirru swing his head away, his eyes to the ground. at the very least, she was glad that there hadn't been anything painful or distressing to look at, from the sounds of it. though night had wanted to follow up with something else to say, sh

that made sense. she thought twice about if they should've investigated the main trees, anyway, though her hunch for choosing to do so laid in the fact that cardinal would usually give her a hard time and reel her into combat anyway. if they were here to observe and learn, then so be it – whatever hell would come their way. in fact, just as she mindlessly thought so about her decision, her attention was stolen from watching hirru to the looming forms of the elementals, clubs in hand. if she hesitated, it was because the flash of the tiny seedlings from earlier had reminded her of what her

"like someone..." her voice trailed off. night had seen the tree, its vines and its flowers, yes, but not once did she register any of the sights as a body from a hanging. her body stilled, as her figure grew tense. she'd seen the tree, and even if she knew it was devoid of a corpse, it was difficult to bring herself to look back at it again. unless the game had set it there, things like those were impossible, right? but maybe there was a special condition that only some players could see the corpse... or something. to trigger the summoning of the ghost... or other. night t

it did seem, then, that there were a gathering of players in the distance. and the part that annoyed her more was spotting an npc emerging to greet them from the environment nearby. no way. she wasn't aware of any other quests in the area, and if this was new content then it was within her scope to have to investigate. to leave her post in pursuit of another one. yeah, something new to do. but at what cost? she snorted, pushing herself up from the bench she had been laying on. sure, she would go along with it. after so many losses with the apparition, it was just as likely

what was she doing, letting her guard down? she cursed under her breath as she drew her sword. though she hadn’t been certain about the numbers, night did imagine that these sentinels were a lot stronger than the spirits on the surface she had encountered in the forest dungeon. it made sense for the challenge in the labyrinth, after all, but that meant that she should’ve been more aware. the sword in her hand, she remembered with a shifted grip on its handle, wasn’t even her oathkeeper. that was alright in the long run. eying the weapons of her enemy, the player figured she simply n

‘for worse’ was the more likely option. because within the next room were a couple of sentinels, though night hadn’t noticed their presence when she walked in. with the walls covered in leaves and vines, contrasting the floor made of some man-made material (night believed it was metal or concrete, though her footsteps on its surface never made her so certain), it reminded the player of home, the green-washed, brutalist architecture made real once again. any other person might have noticed the trees in the room’s center, ordered in a grid, too artificial to believe they weren’t a threat. yet ni

so they paced over to the entrance of the room no longer with a guardian, peering down the hall in which it started to leave through. it did not happen to look back at them as it inspected its new surroundings, to which night hastily queried aloud, hushed, “what’s the range on that thing…?” “do you really want to find out…?” the player shook her head. if not having the answer meant that she got to live another day, then perhaps it was worth being clueless in that moment. day’s eyes darted to a position a distance away from them, as night began to tread off in the opposite direction o

then, as quickly as it decided to scan the room, sniffing about the ceiling and the walls, it shifted, squishing its body into the crevice of the room beside it, not whence it came but to the next location after it. night could finally breathe, tallying up her inventory, changing her tactics for the dungeon venture in lieu of the foe they had just narrowly escaped from. nyanko rounded his owner before climbing up night’s pants. day simply let go of her hold on her original’s mouth, sighing in tandem with the woman. the echoed rings seemed ominous, as the player shuffled with her items –

a massive dog – its coat crafted out of jade, coupled with the lace of gold etchings in the cracks under its surface, complemented with a ring of marble, an accent as its mane. its gaze turned night’s way had initially sent shocks into her form, and she held her breath despite not needing to breathe, knowing fully that the laws of activity in aincrad were much different than back in reality. she knew, studying the room, that if they had to fight such a beast, they would not be able to afford the space to do so, and neither was she so certain what allowed such a creature to venture the halls of

what was the hurry? night, turning away, was about to reach out to nyanko to caress and calm him – but day was faster and stronger. the system scooped the kitten up by her hands and started to drag its player away just as hastily. so pressed against the walls of the room, they were, the thickness of her top’s fabric barely aiding her in fending off the cold of the ice surface. night had sputtered, objected, even when her other’s hand was on her mouth (and nyanko’s paw atop of that, too), but she’d only hushed when the temperature of the air had fallen even further, further than the frost she w

night made sure that opening, the thrust that repelled their opponent backwards, wasn’t to waste. in her drop, she angled herself towards the front of the sentinel, stopping short of being bullseye accurate with a flick of her wrist, body pulled along with a swing. from that rain of stardust, her drop to the ground was only celebrated with a few shimmers more, just as the rest of the guardian fizzled away, leaving the ice room, once pristine, now full of wear and tear. and the player would’ve felt sorry, trying to pick herself up from the dust, too, if it hadn’t been for nyanko’s return

the demon blade wasn’t going to let up, so neither would night, even as the structure gave signals of its impending collapse. a heavy swing under her, the way she knew the use of sword arts upon falling would keep her afloat, and the forward strike was a feint the way she knew cardinal would usher her forward, so as to connect her final chain of strikes in succession with the split. targets were much easier to hit when they were still, and less a chore, so perhaps the player took that away from their merge, too – at least the opponents were a much easier defeat than the others. three thru

not enough to bring it down, but enough to weaken it, just in time for one howl and a crash, overlapped sequentially, to resound from the distance of a meter. guarding the room’s walls was a tiny black dot, but tracing back the origins of the sparkles’ scatter was a bravehearted gemini, repelling the last bit of health from her original’s antagonist. a distraction – but a welcome one, because her blade leaned into the rush of being used over and over, in tandem with the different arts its user had become familiar with; there were some actions re-recognized as part of legacy and night abused ea

her teeth made contact with a pocket item, just as a second attack from her focus chased her and she darted, rounding their corner of the room, circling around the guardian. with it in hand, her blade thrummed with an energy of eagerness, almost, though the light of it was lost once the sentinel’s torque caught up with the chase, and sent her shuttled towards the coalesced figures, now built tall almost like a totem. her back hit their figures, and a split second decision from the player to pull herself away from the threat and unleash her own paid off. no sooner had she fled, the metal pole h

[ lv. 146 -> l. 32 / p. 114 ] NIGHT | HP: 1356/1356 | EN: 146/146 | DMG: 28 | ACC: 3 | EVA: 6 | LD: 3 | FS [DoTs.]: BLD: 48 | BLI: 32, -20MIT | FRB: 40, -1ACC | STC: 40 [Heals.]: HB+BH: 133 | VD: 149 [Misc.]: HELLSTORM: 80 PHASE/attack

for her sound of mind, however, it didn’t seem as though their opponents were gunning after the feline. while another rounded the first clashing against the brightness of an entity’s spear, the two in back were seeming to coalesce into a different amalgamation – not in form, but in structure, in size. night hadn’t the time to look, though she winced at the thought of having more opportunities for enemies to get beefier, as such, by taking a companion with her; adjudicator in hand, night willed the blade to cut edge-first against the side of her intercept’s barrel, hoping it was enough to slow

two metal sentinels, each made up of cylindrical forms, seemingly made out of modern carbide. strange then, how they had gone unnoticed, blending into their reflective, seemingly innocuous environment through the sheen and light, filtered through and from their smooth surfaces. without faces, they acted as though they had such – a nub for a head out of tungsten bodies, their material bent with it, never seeming to lose break completeness in their form. one darted faster than the other towards the party, the ends of their arms a flat surface, guiding them forward through frictionless, automatic

the card itself seemed harmless enough. yet, two steps into the labyrinth, and she had already spotted her first threats. usually, there would be a long corridor before the branch out into rooms. not this one. the walls, though rocky, was lined with frost, its material seemingly reflective. it almost reminded her of the cave she’d been to earlier, though night steeled herself to forget that incident. she hadn’t expected the interiors to be so different from the previous breaches down under – so the snow underfoot had caught her off-guard. the player drew her sword, ready to fight, an

so it was business as usual, as night caught a glimpse of a trade window being opened on bistro’s interface. the player gave the attendees a nod, rising from her seat. “then i’ll be off first.” “safe travels!” “stay safe!” “good luck out there.” she paced up the steps to the main street, slow. there was effort in keeping the cards, and keeping an eye on the dealers as they continued to converse about some other arrangement. when night decided she wouldn’t gain much from eavesdropping, her pace quickened, and only upon the entrance of the scarlet line did she pull

‘so that’s what bistro’s doing with those items’, was a thought that barely registered with night, just as the broker accepted their agreement. “no, there won’t be any changes to procedures after all.” bistro gestured to night for a moment, puzzling the latter. “if you’re ever so worried about that, here’s your opportunity to ask one of the sole collectors as part of that deal.” “-- ah…” for a moment, night believed to have noticed jean deflating a little. “... no, no it’s okay.” “really, jean? i thought you knew this the whole time.” “no,” je

“300k…” “... is that the standard fare for items like these?” jean nodded stoically, her expression almost annoyed. “we used to offer them at about 200k per piece, but this trade is clearly outside of regulated scope. known players, often collectors, would come seek the guild out for other offers, and the costs in comparison could be seen as good will to them to encourage further trade, i suppose.” “... still, 300k is a little…” bistro was quiet for a moment, as all eyes fell on her. then, the broker finally nodded. “okay, sure. that’s the price of doing

“well? what’s it going to be?” night looked up towards bistro, still uncertain about the trade. usually, if bistro figured that an item like this was something that would help her out, then the deal would’ve gone through without needing night’s intervention with it. so the discrepancy in procedure worried her a little. the player examined the cards once more, wondering greatly about the implications of saying yes, before turning to their dealers as their bickering started to simmer. iris was the first to meet her gaze before jean. “so? have you made up your mind yet?”

“you can escape it with a teleport crystal. we still got to keep the loot.” jean simply continued staring back at iris, starting to tilt her head. “someone else in our guild used it out of regulation…?” while the two got into a growing debate, bistro simply turned to night, slightly sheepish. “well, if anyone asks, i wasn’t present to witness a couple’s feud.” “they’re a couple?” night’s question went ignored. “i figured it would be best to let you make the call,” bistro clarified, with her intentions, gesturing towards the box of car

“instructions: when within a generated dungeon, a new card must be drawn after clearing each room, and the deck to be reshuffled upon entering a new floor. the dungeon ends and the item is consumed when the world arcana is drawn…” “a moderate size…? wait, it says here that it applies only to dungeons, though.” jean pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “that’s technically an incorrect reading of the item’s description. it doesn’t apply only to dungeons, it simply states that it generates them. it could work for labyrinths too, since you’re headed into one soon.” “