Sword Art Online: Side Stories

Masaru was about to leave the Teleportation Gate until he received a notification and opened the Menu, sliding down to <<Mail>> and opened the message as he read it, it was quick and simple to say the least, it seemed Star found the potential ingredients for a sword as she decided to become a Blacksmith for Players to acquire very decent armour but she reserved weaponary for people she knew personally.

"I remember now, I asked for the best sword she could craft..." He thought to himself, he did need more powerful swords when old ones were progressively getting weaker against stronger monsters while they could be reinforced up to +40 but she didn't seem to be a Personal Blacksmith either and he gave a sigh, closing it.

"I got nothing better to do." he muttered and turned on his hell to return to the Gate and gated to Third Floor.

"Now where was it again?" He asked himself, as he walked in a direction, to recall where she lived again, not many players came down to the Lower Floors as most prefered to join Guilds or focus on Clearing the game, granted being on the Front-Lines came with risks, even more so as a Soloer but even more so, the Players who weren't adept at the game saw them as a sign of hope while PKers did run amok, there was many ways, but the most silent one was when a Player slept and the killer moved that person hand to accept a duel to die, but the most known one was Laughing Coffin until his thoughts were interupted when he came upon Star's home, since it was her home, only she allowed people indoors to her personal house, specfic ones more to the point as the Towns and homes you owned were Safe Zones from PKing, but stores were open to the public.

He opened the door to Star's shop as it rung, indicating a customer if Star was busy in the forge and he looked upon the rows of suited armour behind glass boxes, if anyone wanted one of them, they'd of course have to pay Col, and since the armor was at it's peak best condition, that was a lot of Col to throw in, but survival outweighed money, food was also needed, even though they were in a Virtual Reality, they can get hungry but by eating something, it forces the body to register it as eaten, sleep was also a important factor.

 

"Place the items on the counter then so I can appraise them." She said, turning to the side where she opened her menu. A rather useful item she discovered was a notebook, which she now called upon. In it were notes of various things and colored pieces of paper sticking out of it to mark which each note was about.

Let's see...purple was events. There's a few of those throughout the book, but only the ones in the back would be any good. So while she was looking through them she would answer his first question.

"I'm not too sure how the front lines are to be honest. Rumors say they're doing fairly well for them and at this rate they'll have a floor cleared per month. Causalities have been at a minimum"

Stopping at the second to last page filled Meerna glanced over what had been written there. "There's a user held tournament being held on Floor 29. Later today actually. And a treasure hunt coming up. It's still too far away to have any viable details on it though."

 

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Star was in her craftsman room working away at the sword. She was singing, unaware of Masaru's entry. She was singing one of her songs that she had wrote while in SAO. She would present it back in the real world once everyone was finally free. She banged on the ore that was smelted and after a few blows it had transformed into a work of beauty. She swept the sweat off of her fore head and switched into some more normal clothing. She was in a brown shirt with white shorts.
Star walked out to the main room where she had done her business. When seeing Masaru, she began to blush. How long was he there for? Why didn't he announce himself better? "H-Hey, Masaru. That sword you wanted is done. I hope it is right. Come into the back with me to retrieve it." he openned the slide door for him to enter. She still had red on her face. She never really shows herself in normal clothing. "Hey, when we are done, lets head to the 48th floor."

 

Mya bumped into a person. She was going to apologize to the man until she noticed his cursor. It was orange. It made her tense as she looked up to see him. Seeing his face, it gave her a strange feeling. Sadness? No...not sadness, but some sort of lurking feeling. She crossed we arms as he asked her if he met her before."It depends. Who's asking?"

 

Masaru turned to note the owner of the store, taking note of what the young woman wore, a brown shirt with white shorts, she did look cute in them but he chose not to voice it, besides, she had the right to wear whatever she gotten in the game since stores sold clothing as many people didn't want to stay dressed with one set of clothes and she was at home, a Safe Zone so she could freely walk around unprotected

"Ah thank you Star and sure, I got free time on my hands" he said to her and walked past teh counter and down the steps leading into the forge or rather the palce where she crafted her arsenal, it was mildly impressive but he never bothered training up his Blacksmith skills when Star could fill that role and repair the weapons, he decided to take off his Golden Armour however a she opened the menu, no point in wearign soemthing so bulky in soemone's house as his armour vanishe dian flash of light, revealing a black shirt with white trousers.

"So, what have we got?" he asked her about her newly forged weapon, noting her face was a bit red, perhaps from the heat of the room, especially crafting and smelting

 

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Star presented the black crated sword. It had rings around the hilt the sword broke into two as it swirled passed each other to meet in the middle again to create the point. She opened the menu to look at its stats and its name. "It is called the Dream Eater. It has stats that are better than my own personal stash." She handed the sword to Masaru. 'It is a bit heavy even though it looks light. Somehow the Agility and Weight of the blade are high together which is very odd."

Star went away for a little while. She went to go change into her armor as well as take a lot from her shop. "I have decided, I am going to make a shop in the 48th floor. I think it is time I branch out to others. I have been saving up all this time after all." She walked back into the room with Masaru in it. "What do you think of the blade?" She was a tad jealous. It was a really fine sword. Very few at this current level had something this grand. One with high Agility would love this sword.

 

Masamune chuckled, his hair falling into his eyes. He knew she'd run the second he told her who he was. Oddly the thought saddened him. "Masamune... If you join my party for a little something, I'll tell you something interesting." Skimming through his menu, he selected the option to add party members, giving Mya the option to join or refuse. Brushing the hair out of his eyes, his features softened, emitting a much more gentle aura than he did at the guild. Noticing he was much taller than the girl, he started to lean down to her when a hand slapped his shoulder, "Masamune, you little cheat! Ya think you can just skip out of the tornament and hang out with your..." he gave Mya a once over and snorted, "Little girlfriend? What...did you think the rest of the Guild wouldn't notice your significant lack of actual movement? Ima said you were giving some kids a break out in the forest the other day." Irritation swelled in his chest. "If you haven't noticed...Ima is a worthless liar. I've just been busy. Now if you'll excuse me...I'm in the middle of a conversation." Shrugging off the rude interruption, he turned back to Mya. "You have my name...may I have yours?"

Shiina dragged her heels as she walked to the gate. "Um...F-Floor 3." Shiina and her wolves teleported, despite her shy command. Emerging out at the third floor, she wandered around, pausing at a smithy, she cracked open the door, peering inside. "U-um..." Pulling the door open further the bell clanged and she jumped and stepped backwards, stepping onto a delicate wolf paw. Hearing the yelp, she jumped again, falling over onto her backside inside the shop. "I...I'm sorry Mina...a-are you alright?"

 

As Kaito walked through Floor 54, he thought back on all the time he'd spent trapped within this game. Sure he was a level 66 and he'd gotten through the halfway mark, but he still couldn't missed being in the real world. He never worried about it much since he knew that all he had to do was beat the 100th floor boss. Still, he was starting to reminisce the old days. As he made his way through the town square, he wondered if he should attempt to form a party or not. After all he's gotten this far alone for the most part.

 

Masaru examined the blade and given it a experimental swing, she was right in what she said so it was most likely centered around quick kills but the drawback to having such High Weight and Agility would be blocking in time, granted he could block quite well with his Mastered One-Handed Sword Skill with Parry being Maxed too, so the drawback wasn't so much of a worry but the sword itself was a grand design and if one favoured speedy assasults, they'd consider this a work of art and he appericated it, it would give him more blows to deal.

"It's absolutely incredible, you outdone yourself on this one Star." He said to her with a smile and he opened up the Menu, shifting his usual sword with Dream Eater being his equipped weapon until he heard the bell ring, indicating a customer. "Looks like your branching trip will have to be delayed for a little bit." He said and re-equipped his armor took the steps up to the store, Star following and what he saw surprised him.

"Isn't that...?" He thought as he took in the appearance of the customer, the Wolves were a familar indication that the girl was a Beast Tamer, he personally didn't know that many apart from Silca who managed to tame a Dragon but the girl was a familar one, it was the partner of the kid who died that day by Masamune and he stepped forward, allowing Star room to move behind the counter as his eyes were shadowed by his hair.

 

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Star groaned about it. She was just about to have some alone time with Masaru. She walked up the stairs and around the corner to the counter. "Hello, may I help y-" Her words stopped as she got sight of the girl in front of her. It was her. The girl she betrayed that day so long ago. The one whose partner was killed because she was arrogant and wanted to progress. "I'its you. Come to take vengeance on me. I deserve it after all..." She lowered her head waiting for a pvp page to pop up. Pain went through her. She knew she would need to atone for her crime. She didn't know it would be today of all day.

 

Mya hesitated at his offer. It was him alright. Though she didn't know if she could trust him. Before she could answer, one of his guildmates started quarreling with Masamune. She decided that she would give it a shot before accepting his invitation. It was funny though. He didn't have that evil and cold aura on him like back then. It was a more relaxed, if she could call it, feeling, though she still wouldn't let her guard down. "A pleasure to meet you. My name is...Mya." She then gave a polite bow to his guild member. "I apologize for the trouble I'm causing, but I'm assuring you I have no connections with him."

 

Chuuya dropped all the items he wanted to sell on the counter, their were so many that they almost started to fall off the counter. Hmmm, user held tournament, doesn't suit my interest, but that treasure hunt quest, that sounds interesting. What other information do have on it? While he was talking, Chuuya made sure that everything was out of his inventory that he wanted to sell. So do I have anything worth to buy? Or is it just the common junk like normal?

 

Wow...this was going to cost her. Even if each item itself had little worth, all together they could end up at quite the sum. "Hm..." she began going through them, going to a new page in her notebook to write down their names and prices. Some were quite interesting, even if they were common drops. It was just simply amazing what one could find in this world. In fact, items were always more amazing than people to her. That much hasn't change from the real world.

"I can give you 2,000 for this batch and then...hm... Overall, maybe 4,000." She paused, lifting her head from her inspection.

This event. What else she knew about it? "Well...not only will it have finding things, but there will probably be hunting involved. That's really all I know."

 

Chuuya studied Meerna looking at all the items he had put in front of her looking at how much it was going to cost all of her. Hmmm, can I make a deal with you? I will take 2000 for the whole lot and you become my exclusive information broker? And if you would be willing too, give false information to any that come by asking about that treasure hunting quest? I will understand if you won't do it. And I will bring all the items that I don't want to keep for myself to and instead of selling them too you make you spend your money, you can sell it in your shop and we split the profits 60/40, you 60 me 40. Do we have a deal?Chuuya said with a confident look on his face and a small smile.

 

Meerna smiled as he made his offer. Devious fellow, wasn't he? It was rather interesting, so it hardly mattered if it was good or not. It was, good that is. Rather good. That just hardly mattered. Even with her love of money.

"Alright, you've got yourself a deal." She opened a trade list and finally made note of his name. Chuuya then? Nice. Anyway, she put the Col on it and waited for him to accept. With all of the items already on her counter there was no need for them to be traded, so long as he left them there, so it was a simple trade. "I never done it before, but I'll give out the false information. That should at least make you the first one on the scene, especially if I continue to know most about it."

 

Chuuya's smile got a little bit bigger and opened up his menu and accepted the trade. I don't normally do this, but here...... Chuuya opened up his friends list and sent her a friend request, and then extended his hand to shake hers. Here's to making a very good profit very soon.... Chuuya said with a smug look on his face.

 

After accepting the request she took his hand and shook it. Human contact. Contact. It was disturbing and bothered her. But she could at least tolerate it long enough for this. With an unchanging expression too, smile to boot.

"Now that's something to give thanks to."

 

Chuuya let her hand go and turned to head to the door and started walking to leave. Be sure to keep me informed on the treasure hunting quest when you get new information, and I will be sure to return with all the premium items you could ever dream to set your eyes on. Chuuya left her shop and proceeded to wander the town for more information on the treasure hunting quest before leaving town to grind for more xp and items to sell to his new ally.

 

Waving his hand, a party invitation popped up in front of Mya. Waiting for her to accept, he turned a cold glare on his guild mate. "I'm not skipping out on the tornament. I figured since I'm going to be green in either a couple days or a few hours...I might as well go with someone else who was green. You guys...would just attract unwanted attention. You needen't worry Mack..." He pouted like a spoiled child. "You said we were going to enter together...and now you're going to enter with this...girl? Even with no connection to you....it's still an insult to our Masamune." Gritting his teeth, he knocked Mack's leg out from under him, twisting his arm behind his back and onto a nearby table. "Thanks for your input...it was very valuable..." Leaning down to whisper into his underlings ear, he snarled, "Piss me off and you'll be the next one I kill. I suggest you stop while you're ahead." Releasing him, he scurried away. Refocusing on Mya, he took in her expression, "I'm going to take it as we do know each other. I'm no good with names, but your face is definately familiar to me."

Shiina shuffled around, her wolves immediately sitting down at her sides. Her eyes widened as she saw Masaru and Star. These were the two that left and came back the day her friend had been killed. "You're.... Wh-what? N-no...I..." Picking herself up from the ground, she bowed low at the waist, "My fight...is with Masamune, the Kin-Slayer....leader of the Guild Laughing Coffin." Her nervousness disappeared and her hands curled into tight fists. "He has to pay for what he's done...for my friend and for the others he's killed." Jerking upright, she patted the grey and white wolf's head, "Um...this is Mina and that's Koru. We're hunting Masamune...b-but...I've heard he's level 70...I...I wouldn't be able to touch him even if I found him."

 

While Mya hit the accept button, she examined the two and frowned. Is this what they do in PK guilds? Argue? Man, I won'e be joining one... She then looked up back at him and shrugged. "With all the people you meet nowdays, it's no surprise you would find a person that would look similar to me..." Just for precaution, she wouldn't mention their previous meeting over a year ago. She was afraid he might react in a way she wouldn't want to see. "Anyways, what was that you wanted to tell me?"