Sword Art Online: X

Blades of Crystal - Lisbeth

When I woke up in the morning, I found X digging in the snow.

"Blacksmith, you want the good news first or the bad news first?" He asked, noticing my consciousness.

I was scared, how can this situation get worse?

"Uh, the good news, I guess?" I didn't want to hear the bad news until the very last moment.

"Okay, good news, I found your material. Bad news, it's literal shit." He handed the Crystallite Ingot to me as he said it.

As soon as my mind processed his words, I dropped the Crystallite Ingot in disgust, "What?!"

"Oh, calm down. It's a virtual object, and you're holding it with virtual gloves over virtual hands. Jeez, you women and your drama." X sighed, catching the crystallite ingot.

"How can you be so calm about that?!" I screamed, keeping my hands to myself this time.

"Because we're in a game. This isn't real life. The only thing that resembles real life in this game is the fact that once you die, there's no going back." He said, putting the ingot away into his inventory.

"That's not the only bad news I have. I'm sure you can figure it out, right? The ingot is the dragon's defecation, meaning that we are in its nest." X said as a roar reverberated around the pit, "Right on time, here's our ride."

"What?"

He quickly scooped me up and slung me over his shoulder.

"H-Hey, X! Give me a warning before doing that!" I shrieked indignantly.

X just scoffed, "Trust me, Blacksmith, this isn't the most surprising thing that happened to us today!"

With that, he ran up the wall, and dug his scythe into the dragon's back as it came down to rest.

"Going up!" Was all he said, carrying my screaming self up out of the pit on the surprised dragon.

When we shot out of the pit, X pulled his scythe out of the dragon, and we fell downwards, towards the snow.

"You can stop screaming now, Blacksmith!" X yelled into my ear.

I hadn't even realized I was still screaming.

I slowly opened my eyes, and looked at the scenery around us, "Wow! This is so beautiful!"

X raised an eyebrow, "I'm glad you're having this emotional revelation and all, but you might wanna teleport us outta this situation with your teleport crystal, Blacksmith! In case you forgot, we can still die to fall damage!"

I didn't care, I hugged X around the neck, "Thank you for showing me this scene, X! It's been fun hanging around you!"

X patted my back with his free hand, "That's great and all, but you should probably grab the teleport crystal now! If we die here, it's going to be hugely inconvenient!"

I produced a teleport crystal from my inventory, "Teleport: Lindas!"

And we vanished in a burst of blue light.

...

"So, leather vambraces with hidden blades, correct?" I asked.

He nodded, "You sure you know how to make those? Your eyes seem panicked."

I laughed it off, "I'm a little nervous, but it should be fine! I'll see what I can manage."

And so I got started with the project.

I forged the blades first, and whilst they were incredibly powerful, I still needed to work on the vambraces for them.

I'm a blacksmith, not a tailor, so my leatherworking level wasn't as high as my blacksmithing level, but I managed to get incredibly lucky and make a pair of very durable vambraces.

Now comes the tricky part: embedding the blades into the vambraces.

I created a slight opening in the vambraces for the blades, and inserted the blades into them.

It worked, but the blades can't be retracted, and this is the part I don't know how to do.

Then, X raised his hand and motioned for me to stop, "Blacksmith, that's enough. You clearly don't know how to do this. Why don't I show you how to do it so you know for future reference?"

I was surprised, "The Reaper knows how to make hidden blades?"

"Not the blades themselves, but I know how to make the mechanism. Give me some materials." He grabbed my hammer.

I gave him some simple materials.

"Alright, you watching? Because I'm only doing this once." He said.

I nodded, "I'm watching."

X turned his full attention to the ingots, "Alright, so first, you craft chains out of these ingots. You know how to do that, right?"

"Yeah."

He proceeded to tinker the ingots into chains and show me the next step.

"Now, you craft a spring. You know how that works, don't you?"

I nodded.

He crafted the spring, and showed me the next step.

"Then you attach the spring and chains to the blades. One spring and one chain on each blade."

He proceeded to meld the spring into the blades and attach the chains over them.

"Now you craft a wire, and attach that to the chains. Oh yeah, and craft an anchor for the chains too. Preferably one that can move. Like so."

He crafted the wire and anchor, attaching them to the contraption.

This was getting a little bit confusing for me, but I still understood the instructions.

"Now craft a ring and attach it to the other end of the wire, this should be easy for you."

It is easy for me.

He then attached the amalgamation of a contraption to the vambraces, making another hole for the wire to go through.

"Here we go, and with a flick of the wrist..." X attached the ring to his middle finger and flicked his wrist.

The crystallite blades shot out of the vambraces.

"Make sure the chains are sturdy, or the blades'll pop out after you activate them." X said.

"You should be a blacksmith with skills like these." I commented, amazed at his skills.

X just chuckled drily, "And leave everyone to die? No thanks, I'll stick to being an assassin and dispatching Laughing Coffin members."

X then stood up and turned to the door, "Thanks for the blades, Lisbeth."

I was shocked. He actually used my name?

I was about to call out to him, but he already left.

A/N: So I realise I changed my account name halfway through writing this story.

That means no more alter ego.

He's still there, but I have him under control.

Anyways, if you enjoyed this story, consider voting and following for more.

Peace out, everybody. Goodbye.

Timeless_95, signing out