An Englishman in Castle Aincrad

Floor 7 - Chapter 1 - British Weather...

January 5th, 2023 - Floor 7, Teleport Gate

The Seventh Floor, as Argo had told them yesterday, was a series of woodlands, that connected up with each other, with a number of small villages in them. Unlike the Third Floor, which was misty, but relatively dry, the Seventh Floor was, as Argo had described it - ''somewhere Jet should recognise, he's British after all!''. Jet had corrected her, saying that Britain wasn't just a rain soaked land, but had then realised, it wasn't all that far off, but he'd be damned if he gave Argo any credit for that little joke of hers!

''Home, sweet home'' - Jet smirked as he spoke. Okay, he didn't live in a forest anymore, not since his grandparents had moved from Ruarden anyway, but the rain? That was something very familiar to him. Too familiar, in fact. He didn't like it.

''Do you still have those umbrellas from Floor 1?'' - Koharu asked, evidently liking it even less than her boyfriend, as her long hair began to drop in front of her eyes, and she thanked whatever deity that was up there that SAO hadn't modelled their clothes accurately, else she'd have been soaked to her core...

''Err, yeah. Can't really fight mobs with a brolly though, 'less you plan to poke their eyes out with 'em.'' - Jet pictured that idea, and then remembered that quite a few mobs didn't even have eyes...

''True. Maybe a poncho instead?'' - Two very contrasting thoughts popped into Jet's head at that moment. The first, as he pictured himself in a big purple sombrero and poncho, really living up to the stereotypes there. The second, more morbid thought turned to that black poncho'd creep that Jet saw in his nightmares. He shuddered briefly, before returning back to his normal attitude. ''Are you cold Jet, you're kind of shivering?''

''Just a little, that's all.'' - He deflected.

''I wonder if we can catch a cold in SAO? I mean, I can feel how cold the rain is, but...'' - A familiar giant towered over Koharu, and made incremental increases on Jet. - ''I've never heard of anyone getting a status ailment from wind chill. So I don't think we have anything to worry about.''

''Agil!''

''Koharu, Jethro.'' - Jet glared at the axe wielder, arms crossed like an annoyed child. ''I heard you had a big role on the sixth floor boss fight. Good job.''

''We didn't have that big of a role... not everything went well either.'' - Koharu looked to the muddy ground below her. They'd still only arrived too late to really do much, other than keep the mobs off of the attack force, and nearly been ostracised for that.

''Oh, well that's just what I heard. Sounds like a lot has happened, but you two fought well. So be proud of that.'' - A small clinking sound came from behind Agil, followed by a familiar voice. ''What he said! Everybody knows we didn't have a single casualty in that boss, because of you four. Even if they don't want to admit it.'' - Despite the voice, neither of them could see Liten, except for a glint of... oh.

''I'm right here! I know Agil's big and all, but I'm not so small to be able to hide in his shadow!'' - Liten looked slightly indignant at going unnoticed by the couple, and Agil was smirking... never a good sign, really.

''Liten! You've joined Agil's guild?''

''No, I'm still with ALS, but I'm working with Agil to achieve a certain goal.''

''Oh, what goal?''

''You two know of the Soul Copper that drops after the Elf War quest last floor, right?'' - Liten asked.

''Yup, used to make a friend's sword. Apparently came out really well.'' - Jet remembered his brief duel with Yuuki, and just how quick she actually was with that new sword of hers.