Fatal Bullet Aftermath

The Swordsman, the Spectre, and the Castle

No one has finished Unital Ring as of now. I had to move back to Kyoto after I finally finished my first year of college. I kept logging into Unital Ring every day to help with Kirito and Asuna if my schedule allowed it.

There was one day where I checked my skills. Compared to Kirito and his friends, mine was more orientated to stealth. <<Strength>>, <<Intellect>>, <<Dexterity>>, and <<Sneak>> to be precise. it was a surprise to find my Pistol/SMG skills were still accessible.

"I thought all of my skills were reset?" I asked Kirito.

"You got to keep your most prominent skill so I suppose that would be your Pistol and SMG," he stated.

I was using my FN57C in extreme cases along with the CBJ-MS. Since no one in the group including Lisbeth could craft bullets, Sinon and I were forced to use our firearms sparingly.

"It feels weird not using our guns," I told Sinon.

"Yeah, it kind of does. Hecate is like my alter ego...the second part of me," she agreed.

It was on June 20th when Kirito offered me to go on a quest he found on MMO Today. I agreed as my whole schedule that day was free. In order to get to the quest, it was at the bottom of a large cliff. Kirito suggested walking around but I noticed a large tree near the edge. I reached into my backpack and pulled out a bundle of rope. I tossed one end of the rope and adjusted it so it could reach the foot of the cliff.

"What do you plan to do with that rope?" Kirito asked.

"Taking the long route is so boring," I mentioned while looping the rope around the tree.

I tossed the second half of the rope off the edge of the cliff and the end reached the bottom of the cliff.

"Do you know how to rappel?" I asked Kirito.

Kirito shook his head.

"Well, since I don't have proper rappelling equipment, this will work just as well," I commented.

I showed Kirito how to rappel with only a rope. He protested with the bluff that his climbing skill wasn't high enough to rappel like that.

"No, you'll be fine," I reassured him, "Just take it nice and slow and you'll be fine."

He cradled the rope and looped it around his right thigh and over his left shoulder. He gingerly stepped back off of the ledge and downwards. If I timed him, he took around 120 seconds to descend the 60-foot cliff. I followed him but I took 10 seconds as I knew how to rock-climb from my cousin in the US.

"What about the rope?" Kirito asked once I reached the ground.

I pulled on one side of the rope until the whole rope came back to me. I rolled up the rope and placed it back into my bag. Kirito thanked me for teaching him a new skill. We had to reset our Hunger and Thirst Points with my canteen and some sandwiches Asuna made for us.

We finally reached the quest giver at sunset as the quest did not activate until sundown. Kirito activated the quest while I was standing guard. The quest was a simple delivery quest or escort quest as Kirito called it. However, it required us to infiltrate a castle because the said item was in the treasury. We reached the castle and I had to assassinate 2 guards using my throwing knife.

"Two guards up ahead," I mouthed to Kirito.

We stalked the two guards and managed to kill them without causing alarm.

"Split up here," I told Kirito.

We parted ways and I reached their armory which was packed with gunpowder. I took as much as I could before setting a C4 charge that would blow up the remainder of the powder. We regrouped at the treasury room and checked all of the chests. We figured we would split up in order to find the item faster. I was checking the chest and I found the item before Kirito whispered over the radio: