Spiritual Ascension Online (SAO AU - SI Quartet) - Chapter 9

Launch Day Part 9

The old royal hunting grounds turned park turned something of a magical nature reserve within the heart of the city that was  Bois de Boulogne laid, annoyingly enough, to the west of everything else Mirana needed. Quite the distance to boot, especially with the enlarged Paris' extra distance, past the absolutely towering megastructure of Eiffel on the south bank of Seine or the majesty of Arc de Triomphe north of the river.

It was a massive forest, with a small lake on the eastern edge and a few clearings around, originally meticulously kept as decent picnic spots. According to SAO's lore, ever since the Arcano War, it kept growing wilder and more resistant to the attempts by the city council to keep it trimmed down. Now it was crawling with various low level insect monsters and lesser nature spirits, great many of them agitated by the heavy civilization surrounding them.

None of the monsters were particularly dangerous, either to organised force or even a moderately cautious and aware newbie player going solo. The very heart of the woods was another matter, with a fair few quests involving the area there. The source for the first item on Mira’s self imposed checklist, Luna Moths themselves  weren’t an especially aggressive mob, but it’s preferred nesting area was surrounded by a few tricky spider-type mobs, in addition to bloodlusted dryads and a few youkai acting as introductory lesser bosses.

Of course, such foes were no match for Mirana. Long practice left her certain of such. Even so, there was no reason to act without caution. She held her stave warily in her right hand as she entered the forest, striding cautiously but quickly into the unknown, mumbling under her breath, “And so, the traveler is always returning.”

Her pre-existing experience with the area and the caution of her approach meant she spotted the first enemy mobs ahead of time. Not spiders or other insects, though. 

Just at the edge of the path deeper to the lair of Luna Moth there were a pair of dryads flanking the path. Their bark-covered, green tinted skin flexed easily as the nature spirits moved, only the slightest, quietest creaking coming from them confirming that the bark was more than just aesthetic. They were empty-handed, but like most spirits, dryads used a variety of spells to fight, Nevermind how their bark was a surprisingly good natural armour and weapon if one was caught in melee.

[Dryad]

[Lvl. 3]

[HP: 70]

The moment she saw her foe, Mirana was already moving. Her stave flowed, carving sharp runes in the air without wasting an inch. “Kenaz.” A scarlet firebolt, the colour of her magic, hurtled towards one of the dryads. She did not wait to see the result, for she was already moving, launching bolt after bolt as she went. Every single one with perfect accuracy even as she refused to be caught still.

The first firebolt struck true and ignited the dryad on the left. It let out a shriek, even as both monsters focused fully on Mira. The behaviour of hostile NPCs in SAO was guided by many, many factors and for dryads, aside from the expected weakness to fire damage, being struck by it had all but guaranteed the chance of causing Burn. It would, in turn, typically cause dryads to then either panic or be terrified of the source.

Normally.

These two, it seemed, went for the least likely option and instead fell into a murderous frenzy. Even as the burning one snarled through the pain and rushed at Mira, the green glow of Regeneration suffused it, letting her push through the barrage of firebolts. The other raised one of its hands in sharp motion, a snarling thrill escaping her lips as the forest floor under Mira's legs started glowing green.

“Raidho!” The rune of journeys glowed bright pinkish red in the air for a moment, as the girl’s footsteps hit the fallen leaves faster and faster. She did not stop running once she was clear, though— rather, began a wide circular pattern with more shots of flame. Against foes like these, her well-practised style was all she needed, even weakened from being landbound as she was.

Behind Mira, roots shot out of the ground to grasp futilely at the empty air. A fan of razor sharp leaves, too, passed her safely by, even while flames devoured a pair of tree spirits. With elemental advantage and magically enhanced speed, soon enough she was victorious, standing over a pair of immobile forms slowly burning to ashes.

[Obtained: 2x Barkskin (F-)]

With their defeat, Mira proceeded deeper in largely undisturbed, until she entered the nest of Luna Moth. Its silvery gossamer hung around the branches, glittering softly in the dim light of the dense forest, with strands even flowing to touch upon the moss covered fallen logs and stones. The nest was quiet, almost serene.

The centre was a small cleaning through which the light shone and was dotted with shallow holes in the ground, spread enough any pattern would've been lost on a fresh player. Forewarned with experiences from the Beta Test as she was, however, Mira paused at the edge, chanting one rune at a time until her whole body was fortified with the warmth of magic. 

“Dagaz. Dagaz.” Twin orbs shot to the edges of the nest as she stepped in, bathing it all in elusive sunlight. Only with the field prepared did she approach the gossamer, caring more about luring out her foe than actually obtaining her prize at this moment.

Luna Moths had something of a symbiotic relationship with one of the more surprising early bosses of the Paris area, who tended to use its gossamer as an accessory for its webs. And while it was an ambusher, the light from Mira’s spells illuminated enough of the nest to reveal a cave entrance, with wisps of gossamer parted like twin curtains. A woman set behind them, clad in a plain, black kimono with silver stripes embroidered on it. She raised her pale face, twin golden eyes shining even from underneath a partial curtain of long, black hair smooth and shining like a fine silk.

[Lunar Jorogumo]

[Lvl. 10]

[HP:750]

The youkai's mouth split from an idle smile into a fang-filled grin as she shot into the air on a razor thin string of web. 

Mirana didn’t care for the horrifying visage, beyond the fact she finally knew where to aim her firebolts. Her offensive choices were woefully limited, mere initiate that she was, so the tactics available were equally limited. All she could do was stay on her feet and kite it.

This was no baseline mob, however magical, meant to ease the players into the multitude of SAO's systems. With a diverse move set, more involved combat algorithms and a solid HP pool likely outstripping both DPS and healing of an average rookie player, the Lunar Jorogumo was one of the three proper bosses hidden around Paris as early game teasers.

Normally, the yokai boss was supposed to also have some rudimentary dialogue and social interactions tree since it was intended to be an ambusher. Getting shot with firebolts nearly as soon as Mirana had a bead on it meant that the boss didn’t bother with talking for a single moment.

In the forest cleaning, small as it was, with plenty of gossamer and webbing weaved together, Lunar Jorogumo maintained high mobility even as firebolts burned her silken bridges. The monster returned fire with bolts of sticky thread, a game of tag to see who ran out of mobility options first.

Mana burned through her veins as she danced with her foe. The whirl of the fight was one of her few pleasures, a contest of mind and body with her enemy. However, her progress was slow. She was winning the game of attrition, her staff’s extra [Burn] chance meant she was stacking the deck the longer the fight went on, but it was still slow. Her own skills were not yet enough to fill larger areas with flame, but she did have one trick left within her. A deadly dance where her in-depth knowledge of Lunar Jorogumo’s moveset and quirks combined with going through this particular fight a fair few times in the past was pitted against the monster’s far higher level and statistics.

“Sowilo!” Once again, a firebolt shot out, but rather than burning out, the patch of webbing stayed ablaze. The cleansing fire removed a great patch of the sticky webbing filling the area and threatening Mira’s movement with some form of [Bind] or [Restrain].

Despite the flames consuming Lunar Jorogumo's webbing, the youkai laughed with glee. A chirping, echoing sound as the spider monster twisted midair to free itself of the webbing Mira set ablaze.

Instead, it landed on the forest floor with a graceful, quiet thud and stood up, straightening up. Fire reflected in the burning, intense golden eyes as Lunar Jorogumo, at over eight feet, towered over Mira. A savage, hungry smile full of needle teeth remained fixated on the youkai's face, as it grabbed twin strands of the webbing and tugged them loose until they hung like a pair of whips.

Then, with a peal of laughter, Lunar Jorogumo launched itself at Mira, weaving its improvised weapons in a complex net in front of it.

Mirana just grinned, drawing up another Kenaz rune. But rather than carve it in the air with her stave, she traced it with her left hand. Instead of shooting out, the flames leapt up her arm, until she herself was burning. She didn’t even blink, just continued moving and casting, until inevitably she was but a beat too slow and made contact with the net. Were it real life, they would definitely leave angry, red lines against skin before burning up, possibly bleeding. As it was, and with the buffs Mira preemptively cast on herself, they hurt and took a worrying chunk of her HP, but nothing else. Thankfully, Lunar Jorogumo was more focused around CC than raw damage.

The Jorogumo sported burns on herself in return, with flames licking her long hair and ruining her dress to reveal the pale flesh and dark chitin underneath. The golden eyes, gleefully excited, widened as the youkai heaved herself into a jump, jaw opening inhumanly wide. 

The stage was  set, the song at its climax. Rather than turning, or dodging, or anything else, Mirana grasped her weapon tightly with both hands, carving the familiar pattern one last time for now. 

“And now, the curtain shall close upon the demise of the old. Kenaaaaaaaaz!” She held the note far longer, as the rune at the tip of her stave built up more and more power while her wounds shone with angry crimson and her body was surrounded by crimson aura of an HP cast, until she let it burst, a fireball soaring straight into the darkened maw of her foe.

Whatever death cry the Lunar Jorogumo might have attempted, it was strangled by the roar of the flames erupting in her throat and then forcing their way deeper into her body, cooking the youkai from the inside. Thankfully, SAO’s simulation didn’t seem fit to fill the clearing with stench of burned meat as the monster was killed by the sacrificial shot which converted most of her remaining HP into extra firepower.

Mirana staggered, reeling from the backlash of using herself as fuel, but she did not look at the foe… which turned out to be a mistake as its corpse tipped forward like a fainting maiden. Only when they had fallen together to the ground in an ungainly heap did Cardinal deem fit to despawn the monster in a shower of red shards of light.

[Obtained: 1x Lunar Jorogumo's Thread. (material) (rare)(magical)]

[Obtained: Lunar Jorogumo's Poison Sack (damaged) (material) (rare) (magical)]

[Obtained: Sash of Moonlight Predator (accessory) (Rare)(+10 AGI) (Wearer is immune to Slow and Bind used by the [Insect]-type enemies) (Wearer can use vertical surfaces and ceiling as if solid ground)]

[Obtained: 10k€.]

Pointedly pretending none of that had ever happened, Mirana stepped deeper into the glade, daintily plucking a strand of gossamer from a wall of seemingly identical fibres.

Thankfully, felling Lunar Jorogumo solo and at a dinky Level 1 jumped her to three, almost four, refreshing her HP from where it hovered at a single digit. The way out wouldn’t be too dangerous.