Progressive Factor

The Woods of the Third Floor

Part 3: The Elf Who Acts Human, The Grand Quest Begins

"When we got on the forest-filled third floor, I sent the message Lind asked me to Argo. I planned on initiating a quest instead of opening the floor to the lower levels, leaving that to Lind and Kibaou. After a small debate, Asuna, Jaymes, Koharu, and I decided to stick together as we headed into the Forest of Wandering Mists, which like the 35th, as Silica is notably aware of--"

"Hey!"

'"--you can get lost in, and the monsters will do their best to make that happen."

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Jaymes

"Whew." Jaymes slings his sword back into its sheath and glances at his party. Asuna and Kirito first-bump in celebration of their victory against a Treant Sapling, a monstrous tree of relatively small size. Relative, because the tree was bigger than them, but Jaymes knows just how big the Treants can get on this floor. The Elder Treants, which that Sapling would have grown into, are enormous.

They made short work of the Treant Sapling, but Kirito and Asuna had been lured a few yards into the woods. It's no a problem currently, but the woods are hard to read on a map (Kirito demonstrated that right before they battled the Treant, which Asuna noticed first) that leaving the stone path they walk on is dangerous, especially if drawn out alone. Once the mist comes, that will become a problem.

As Kirito and Asuna discuss the ecological ramifications of killing Treants, Jaymes turns to Koharu, his partner holding her hand out as she approaches. "Good work as always, Jaymes."

Jaymes closes the high-five and starts walking along the path once Kirito and Asuna return to it. "Yeah."

"Say, do you know of the quest Kirito so hurriedly wants to initiate?"

"Not personally, but I heard it's a multi-floor quest."

"It's that big? Wow. Then it could be very important for clearing the floors, right?"

On the previous floor, just half an hour ago, Jaymes made two notes about the boss battles from the two the front lines fought. One, the beta information is not completely useful on bosses, and two, the quest themselves can provide vital information on the bosses. Argo found this out while Asuna was doing a quest for the Martial Arts skill, revealing the information of the second-floor boss and the weakness of one of those monsters. She found similar information on the first, which could have saved them some trouble (and Kirito's burden of Beater).

The worst part about that is that Argo, Asuna, Koharu, and Jaymes were once outside the very cave Illfang's information was present, and Kirito took the same quest the taurus trio information was located many days prior. It's...maddening, but now they're wiser.

So far, no one has died in the previous boss battles, so there's that, but not for the lack of trying.

"You're right, but how much information we get is key... Kirito, how much further?"

Kirito looks up at the treeline. "So, it should be right around here..."

"What is? Oh, that task you said you wanted to take care of."

"Yes. We're just initiating a quest, but the starting location of the NPC is a bit random. How are your ears?"

Asuna places her hands over her ears and steps away from her 'partner'. "Is that was you're into, Kirito? You have an ear thing?"