Spiritual Ascension Online (SAO AU - SI Quartet) - Chapter 2

Launch Day Part 2

Marie fiddled with the menu a bit, her right hand's gauntlet shimmering away at the same time a knife plopped from the ether into her left. It perhaps said a lot about her there was barely even a hitch of hesitation before she slashed across her palm, clean and smooth. The pain just felt like when she dreamed, distant and disjointed and no problem at all.

There was a notification about a hilariously low amount of HP being subtracted from Marie's overall pool. Then, the circle glowed, illuminating the underground chamber with ominous, red light. A figure manifested in a cloud of black smoke and lashing tongues of dark-red flames which licked at the stone in front of her. It was humanoid, towering not just over the dwarf but the elderly monk too, thick and broad with bark-like skin creaking softly with even the smallest movements, one of its eyes glowing red as it gazed down on her.

"Mmmm." It rumbled. "I have been called. The usual?" It asked in deep, slow and deliberate words. 

She looked up. And up. And higher up still. She didn't fall on her ass but it was a close thing.

Goddamn, weren't imps supposed to be runty? She expected something her size at most. Then again, nobody had called it an imp, may just be a taste of what she'd be able to summon later on.

The monk held a hand up before addressing Marie.

"There's a short gauntlet of obstacles circling the chamber." The NPC pointed at the door to Marie’s right. "With three main chambers. Two contain single use devices which will refill your mana and allow you a temporary use of the abilities inscribed upon them. Sloth here will follow your commands for the duration of the trial. The last one contains a COMP device. Bring it to me."

Next, she got a pop-up for her temporary companion.

[Sloth: A demonic familiar operating under the principles of the Sin of Sloth. Its kind's among the demonic line-up is to serve as a tank owing to its greater HP pool, absorbing the blows instead of its more fragile comrades and slowing down enemies who strike it.]

"Alright, you're with me for a hot minute! Come on, the faster we get this done, the faster you can take a lie-down!" Sounded like the big lug was stuck doing all the initiations, lore-wise, so this may get things shmoovin.

"Mmm." The demon grunted noncommittally as its singular (visible) eye flashed blue for a moment and its mouth shifted in an approximation of the smile. Then the hulking giant turned around to walk towards the door on the right, its pace sedate but still surprisingly quick on account of sheer size alone.

The chamber they entered was well lit, stark white but with blackened scorch marks covering all surfaces. By the entrance was a small podium made of shining obsidian, carved to resemble a gnarled, clawed hand. In the palm rested a scroll.

[Hellbolt: All of Hell is designed to be used in YHWH's grand design. Daemonologists ply their trade by learning Gehennan, its language, which allows them to call upon that place's very energies to strike at the enemies from a safe distance.]

[Costs 2 HP/MP per cast. Deals 75% of MGI as Darkness damage, generates 10% of MGI as unaspected Sin on hit.]

[For the purposes of this tutorial, Hellbolt is free to cast but does not generate Sin.]

[Defeat the enemies in the chamber.]

Three circles blazed to life on the other end of the small chamber, each spewing a human shaped, featureless spectre.

[Sinner's Soul]

[Lvl. 1]

[HP: 50/50]

Now, the reasonable and normal thing to do would be just shooting the damn things and hide behind Sloth when they retaliated. The placement of the enemies and the free casting of Hellbolt couldn't be more blatant about it.

However, SAO's selling point was that it played more like a tabletop RPG than an MMORPG. You could do stunts outside of scripted events.

"Put me on your shoulder. You smash them, I shoot them, you have an easier time of keeping me in one piece." Shoulder loli drive-by, as God intended.

With an easy grunt (and another flash of blue in its eye) sloth effortlessly picked Marie up and slung her onto its, surprisingly comfortable to sit on, shoulder before it took off. Its right hand remained wrapped around Marie's lower portion to keep her secured, which sure was needed as it took off.

___________________________________________________________________________

Twirling in front of a window, Kana marvelled at the way her long, grey hair curled around her body before smoothly flowing to rest at her back, blue eyes drinking in the ideal female body SAO was able to give her. Lithe, not too tall, with full hips and a sizable bust further pronounced by the cut of her kimono. A pair of ears atop her head and the sides of her skull utterly flat because who were Argus’ programmers to tell people why messing with sensory input organs might be a bad idea at this level of simulated experience?

She stood in front of that window for a fair few moments just… appreciating the changes, combing the hair and marvelling at its texture, Stretching and twisting in place to get a better feel for the new balance of her body… Really, the only thing that was truly missing from the fantasy made reality was the feeling of a tail. A proper, big, fluffy tail swishing behind her. 

Eventually, however, Kana shook her head and set off. She had several things she needed to do this gaming session and she only had a fairly limited time to accomplish them. A few days of diving through the forums surrounding the game had given her a basic idea of what she wanted to do early. Progressing down the quest tree she was required to go down to become a Youko, that being the proper name for what the West called a Kitsune. She quickly made her way to the first of many tutorial NPCs she would need to get her build operational. The one related to her race.

Her steps didn't take her too far beyond the spawning parvis, just to the other side of the street, at the corner of Prefecture de Police and Place Louis-Lepine. There, a short, brown haired NPC woman with a leaf folded into boat-like hat sat by some flowers smoking her pipe with half-lidded gaze.

She tilted her head at Kana's approach, a lazy, indulgent smile splitting her face as she chewed on the end of her pipe before taking it out of her mouth and setting it on the table. She blew a ring of smoke in Kana's direction, her brown eyes sparkling in amusement from behind round glasses. 

"Mornin', yung'un." She greeted the girl in a warm voice. "You're far from home, just as I. Need a countrywoman's help with somethin'?"

Kana took a few moments to admire the fidelity and quality of the expressions present on the faces of the NPC standing across from her even as she waved the smoke off her face. It was almost indistinguishable from the expression of a real person, honestly. They were definitely aiming for immersion here, even if it was probably pretty easy to break it. In any case, she had a quest to do.

"Good morning." Kana replied with a small smile, cutting right to it after the bare minimum pleasantries, "I am indeed, far from home. I would greatly appreciate some help with my innate abilities, if you wouldn't mind?"

"Oh?" The NPC hummed, cocking an eyebrow up. She leaned forward, propping herself against the table with one arm. "Wont pry into why your old folks didn't do their job, gods know the mess locals made 'ere couple decades ago is explanation ‘nough for a lot of neglect."

The possible tanuki shook her head as she motioned for Kana to sit at the table. "I'm a busy woman, contrary to what it may look like, so I can only walk you through the basics of one path, yung'un." She held up a hand with three fingers straightened out, folding them as she went through. “Shapeshifting is always a classic with our kind and helps blend in with this dreary land a lil'bit. Illusion, contrary to popular belief, is as much everyone's domain as it is raccoons and foxes, masters as they might be, and helped a fair few escape a spot of trouble by makin' believe there was a different spot of it elsewhere." The NPC gave Kana a crooked grin. "Finally, Folk Magic is a bit of a vague area. Not popular with the community here sadly enough." She sighed theatrically. "Lots of neat little tricks, but not much in raw power."

Taking a few moments to consider what she wanted from her Racial skill, Kana hummed to herself, tapping her left pointer finger against her chin. On one hand, Shapeshifting definitely had some potential use in combat and infiltration alike, and would allow for unprecedented utility. On the other hand, Illusion offered much of the same, and fit her better. Nodding to herself, she spoke up,

"Illusion, if you'd please. I may as well lean into being foxy, after all."

The NPC harrumphed, visibly bemused. "Of course, it's always the foxes, both with yung'uns these days and the foreigners."

___________________________________________________________________________

Without a word or pausing to put Marie down, Sloth heedlessly continued to the next room, easily pushing the door open and moving through a short corridor. The next chamber resembled a strangely natural cave with stalagmites and stalactites growing out of rocky, jagged terrain. This time, the scroll awaiting her was resting on the rocky shelf which she judged would have been just beyond her reach had she been on foot.

[Hellish Manifestation: More advanced than even summoning its denizens or harnessing its energies, fully trained Daemonologists are capable of bringing forth the very Hell itself upon Earth, if in greatly limited form. The prison realm for the sinners, even torn from the greater whole, seeks to restrain those designated as its prisoners.]

[Costs 5 MP/HP. 1s casting time. Summons chains to restrain a single target for 30s and generates noxious fumes for an AoE with a chance to inflict Blind, Confusion or Frenzy.]

[Blind: Enemy accuracy is decreased and they are more susceptible to critical hits. Doesn't work on beings not reliant on sight.]

[Confusion: Target becomes confused of its surroundings and starts to wander aimlessly without attacking anything. Small chance to hurt itself. Doesn't work on constructs.]

[Frenzy: Target is overcome with uncontrollable fury and begins attacking the nearest creature. Doesn't work on constructs.]

[For the purposes of this tutorial, Hellish Manifestation is free to cast.]

[Defeat the enemies in the chamber.]

Five circles this time, four of which spat pitch black hounds trailing dark smoke from their bodies, their teeth and eyes glowing ominous red.

[Hellhound]

[Lvl. 3]

[HP: 66]

The last one caused the ground to shake and rumble a bit before the rocks rose, hellish light shining in the cracks between them as the mini-boss took form. Two white, glowing dots shone near the top of a hulking heap of humanoid rock. Damn thing was as big as Sloth.

[Sulfuric Sentinel]

[Lvl. 5]

[HP: 100]

Well. That was a construct creature if she'd ever seen one. She held both her hands out, the smog of hell swirling around her gauntlets. A resounding clap and it collapsed in on itself, only to erupt around the Sentinel, the fabric of space seeming to shatter like sugar glass for black chains to shoot out, the space between the shatter nothing but a psychedelic swirl of red and purple.

"Keep punting the dogs back into the miasma. You can stomp them to paste once they're all vulnerable." Rockefeller ordered, already moving to cast the spell again on the Sentinel. If she could stack it, great. If she couldn't… well, there were other targets for her.

The fumes filled the area around the Sentinel, enveloping the entire group of the hostile summons. Two of the Hellhounds darted out of the cloud without a problem, one taking a lungful of the gas and starting to wander drunkenly around the construct while the last one went out just after its compatriots.

The delay allowed it to avoid Sloth's massive fist punting the first pair back overhead into the cloud at which point it sank its fangs into the muscular arm of the quiet giant.

The Sentinel itself made a rumbling sound even as it jerked under the sudden assault of Marie’s spell, the chains wrapping themselves tight around its rocky limbs. The sound of straining metal filled the air but otherwise the restraints gave no indication they were about to give.

Perched high on Sloth's shoulder, Marie was fairly safe from the Hellhounds, even if the emon's reduced damage meant it would take a lot of time for it to take down five opponents on its own. She couldn’t shoot them, either.

...Wait.

"Pile them up in front of the Sentinel as I chain them." Rockefeller ordered as the idea crystallised in her brain, the sound of shattering space and slithering chains filling the air as she got to work. A second may be an eternity in high level combat, not so much here. There wasn't really anything the dogs could do to stop them. Not when she made sure to keep the chains on the Sulfuric Sentinel going by refreshing the spell after she was done with the Hellhounds. "Now, knock down the golem onto them and start stomping."

Getting repeatedly knocked into the cloud of noxious gases simply meant that the Hellhounds got to experience the joys of the debuff roulette repeatedly with greater frequency than if they just stayed inside it and surrendered to the mercy of internal cooldowns. Which meant that, in a very short order, all four were wrapped in a way that chained them to the Sulfuric Sentinel like the world's most aggressive post.

Then, Sloth grabbed at the chains holding the construct's upper body in place and started pulling, literal tree trunk muscles bulging under their barky hide. A moment later, there was a very satisfying crunch following the stone giant's fall and Sloth all but jumped on its back and began stomping with big, exaggerated steps as it hummed a melody with enough strength in its lungs it reverberated through Marie's body.

"Óoo~, sverð rísa og stríðsmenn falla!" <Oh swords rise and warriors fall!> Rockefeller sang in Gehennan without missing a beat, improvising lyrics to the darkly cheerful tune. It felt funky to just... have a whole-ass extra language at her mental fingertips, but she guessed it was part and parcel of whatever nonsense the game used for translation and to teach people. She'd bet good money Ministries of Education all over the world were worked up in a tizzy over what the NervGear could do. "Óoo~, ásar rísa og höfuð rúlla!" <Oh axes rise and heads roll!>

"Öskraðu og sláðu í drulluna!" <Scream and pound the mud!> She hopped off of Sloth's shoulder, twirling over the chained Sentinel in the same motion she unsheathed her axe, her spin finishing with the blade embedding itself on the craggy neck. "Leiðin til helvítis er malbikuð köld og gull!" <The road to hell is paved cold and gold!>

Her damage output wasn't the greatest either, but that didn't mean they couldn't have a good time of it!

Sloth's eye seemed to flash blue to the rhythm of Marie's song and while neither's damage output was great? Between the two of them, with the enemy immobilised, they made short work of the enemies in the chamber.

"Good." The demon accompanying her grunted with quiet satisfaction as it beckoned her to follow once the remains faded.

"I try!" Rockefeller chirruped, all but skipping after the big lug. She was, admittedly, not sure if he meant the murder or the singing or both. She was flattered either way. "Hope we get to work together again, it'd be nice seeing what you can really do."

Who knew, maybe she could trigger something to get Sloth's proverbial phone number early. The game would probably make it prohibitively expensive to use for a while, but hey.