Shattered: A SAO Tale (Sword Art Online)

AUTHOR'S NOTE

I mistakenly published the unedited version of the chapter yesterday. I took it down almost immediately after, so if anyone saw it or received a notification only to find it disappeared, that's why. Enjoy thr chapter!

END OF NOTE

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It was about 8 AM when Drifter and Yuna bid goodbye to Sasha and the children, and made their way through the Town of Beginnings to the teleporter. The songstress was humming happily all the way, and Drifter couldn't help the grin that overtook his face every time he glanced at her.

"Why are you smiling like that? It's creepy."

Drifter gasped in shock, then tried to utter a frantic response before spotting the corners of Yuna's mouth trembling as she struggled to hold back her laughter. Mock-growling, he pounced at the songstress, who squeaked and tried to get away from his tickling fingers.

He proceeded to chase the teasing girl for the next few minutes, ignoring the curious gazes from the players they passed by. Finally, Yuna reached her breaking point and begged for mercy.

"Hah... Please... Please stop... Hahahaha... Uff... Sorry, Drifter... Your face was just too much hahahaha..."

"Humph! That's what you get for teasing me!"

Though Drifter harrumphed and turned his nose up to the air, there was no bite in his words. Yuna was so happy, so delighted, after playing her harp to the children that her smile refused to fade away. After all the tribulations they went through this last month, she deserved that brief moment of respite.

"Seriously now, why were you looking at me and smiling? Is someone smitten? Hehe!"

Unable to resist getting that last dig in, Yuna preemptively jumped back to avoid more tickling. Drifter just raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. Deciding not to comment on how she was contradicting herself, he grinned fondly.

"I was just thinking that we should come back soon. I don't think I've ever seen you smile as brightly as you did today. It's a good look on you."

"Ah... T-This... T-Thank..."

Not receiving a proper answer, Drifter stopped just before activating the teleporter, and saw Yuna standing there, blushing. He smirked at her.

"Drifter!"

Realizing Drifter was getting back at her for her two earlier comments, the songstress ground her teeth, and jumped at him, her face still flushed. He laughed loudly, and stepped fully into the teleporter, Yuna hot on his heels.

"Teleport! Urbus!"

Just because he was teasing her back, it didn't mean it wasn't true.

...

"Enjoyed the little outing?"

A smirking Sinon and a curious Kirito, Asuna, and Nautilus greeted a somewhat disheveled Drifter and Yuna. The songstress had chased him all the way to Urbus' gates, where they agreed to meet the rest of the party.

"Yes! You have to come with us the next time! The children were so happy someone from the raid party came to see them. Sasha said she had never seen them being that carefree. You absolutely have to go too!"

"Yun's right, you should give it a try, it's very fulfilling, not to mention relaxing."

Drifter grinned back at the songstress. Yuna flashed him a smile, and went on to tell them about everything she and Drifter had done in the church, and what they agreed upon with Sasha. Meanwhile, Drifter and Kirito moved a little ahead of the pack. The spearman had noticed that while the boy politely smiled, there was something bothering him, if the scowl he had was any indication.

"Something wrong, Kirito?"

"Uhm? Ah, sorry, Drifter. It's nothing. Just someone being annoying."

At that, Drifter raised an eyebrow. He didn't think Kirito was talking about someone in the party. The way his eyes were moving, he seemed to be reading a message.

"Wanna talk 'bout it?"

The swordsman didn't answer immediately. His eyes, which had been scanning the savanna searching for threats, turned to Drifter for a brief second. It was all it took for him to realize that Kirito didn't trust him or the others quite yet. Maybe he never would. For a moment, Drifter almost apologized, but stopped himself. Kirito hadn't refused.

"Actually, it's nothing much. Someone wants to buy my weapon, and is using Argo as the middleman. I've already rejected them a couple dozen times but they simply won't give up."

The issue turned out to be so nonsensical that Drifter paused in surprise. He frowned at his party member.

"Someone wants you to sell your main weapon? Are they stupid?"

Kirito snorted in amusement. If he wasn't the one being constantly bugged by the mysterious wannabe buyer, he would probably have the same expression as Drifter.

A player's main weapon was basically sacred. It was their lifeline. No one would sell their main weapon without having a replacement ready at hand. And losing it during a battle, whether by emptying it's durability or some other means, meant almost certain death. Drifter would have died a couple times already if he didn't have his << Kobold Spear +4 >>.

"Heh, that's what I was thinking too. Even Argo's starting to get annoyed, but they are using the anonymous feature to message her."

"They're gonna regret that when she finds out who they are."

"Hahaha... That's true."

"What is your sword anyway?"

"This? An << Anneal Blade +6 >>. I didn't dare try and upgrade it anymore."

As he spoke, Kirito pulled the weapon in question from it's sheath. The dark blade glinted in the sunlight. But Drifter wasn't drawn in by it's beauty, but rather the familiar name.

"<< Anneal Blade >>?"

"Uhh... Yeah. What's wrong?"

Without saying another word, Drifter scrolled through his menu, until he found one of the very first items he got in SAO. With a tap, an identical sword to the one Kirito had materialized in his hands. The swordsman's eyes widened in surprise.

"How come you have an << Anneal Blade >>? Aren't you a spear-user?"

Running his fingers sadly over the blade, Drifter shook his head, nodded, then shook it again. His mind was elsewhere.

"I was partying with someone before Kayaba's announcement. We got it together."

"Not Yuna and Nautilus?"

Drifter heard the unspoken second question, and closed his eyes in pain for a moment, which didn't go unnoticed by Kirito.

"They... Disconnected."

"I see. I'm sorry."

The spearman brushed off the apology. Who amongst the surviving SAO players hadn't lost someone? There was no need to speak more, because they were all familiar with the pain.

Deciding to change the subject, Drifter stored away his << Anneal Blade >> and gestured to the one in Kirito's hand.

"How come there's more than one of it? I thought it was a unique quest reward."

"Almost. It's not a unique quest, but the requirements to complete it are very harsh. To start with, you can only have up to three players in your party, and none can be above level 5. Not only that, but if anyone who doesn't fit those criteria captures the << Large Nepent's >> aggro, the sword won't drop."

"Hum."

Drifter made a grunt of acknowledgment. It made sense the quest was so restrictive. Considering how high the stats of the not upgraded << Anneal Blade >> were, he could only imagine how overpowered the one Kirito had was, which was up to a plus 6 according to him.

The higher you tried to refine and upgrade a weapon, the higher the chances of it going wrong, and, unlike with simple repairs, once you failed an upgrade, there was a chance of incurring a penalty, which ranged from the blade losing maximum durability points, to breaking completely. Each upgrade was a bet.

"No wonder someone is being so insistent on buying yours. A sword like that is a literal game changer."

"Which is why I'm not selling."

"Heh, I wouldn't either. But we do have an extra << Anneal Blade >> now."

The younger man stopped, a pensive look on his face. That gave time for the rest of the party to catch up - not that they were ever far behind - and glance at the two of them weirdly. Kirito frowned at Drifter.

"Whoever that person is, they want a +6 enhanced sword. I don't think I am lucky enough to get it again."

"Maybe not a +6, but a 4 or even a 5 should be possible. And don't forget I have SAO's highest-leveled blacksmith on my friend list."

Kirito thought about it for a moment before shrugging and typing a quick message to Argo, letting her know they wanted to meet her at Urbus' plaza later tonight. Meanwhile, Drifter sent basically the same to Liz.

After seeing that Drifter and Kirito had finished their discussion, Sinon placed a hand on the back of each, and pushed them forward.

"If you two are done conspiring, we have mobs to kill."

...

It was already dark when the six-people party returned to Urbus. The day had been tiring but productive. They spotted the field-boss, << Bullbous Bow >> and unanimously agreed to avoid it. The gigantic bull was frankly terrifying, and would need a combined effort of several parties to be taken down.

They also reached the entrance to the tower, though they did not go in, seeing as it was already late when it happened, and they were both exhausted and low on supplies. They did mark the location on the map, however, and sent it to Argo, who paid handsomely for it.

"Liz! How's business?"

Ever cheerful, Yuna hopped over to the stall the blacksmith had set up. The freckled girl raised her hammer in greeting.

"Better now that you are here, Yuna. Your party always brings in the big orders."

"Oh? So that's all we are to you, is it?"

Feigning a hurt expression, which she managed to hold for all of two seconds, the songstress hugged the blacksmith. While the rest of the party settled around, Drifter and Kirito went up to Liz, and explained what they wanted.

"My << Enhancing >> is high enough that getting it to +3 should be easy. +4 is risky, +5 could be a problem, and +6 is outright gambling. You sure you wanna do that? That's a beautiful sword, it would be a pity to lose it."

Kirito glanced at Drifter, asking for permission, after all, the second << Anneal Blade >> belonged to him. When the spearman nodded, he gestured for Liz to go ahead.

Shrugging, and not just a little excited to work on such a rare piece of gear, the blacksmith sat cross-legged in front of her workstation, and placed the sword, as well as the upgrade materials, on her anvil. Then, she raised her hammer above her head, holding it there for a few seconds, before bringing it down with a resounding 'bang!'.

She repeated the action a few times before the sword flashed and the materials disappeared, showing it was a successful enhancement. With a quick glance at Kirito, Liz proceeded. There were three more flashes of light before she stopped.

"+4, Drifter, Kirito. Do I continue?"

"Continue what, Liz-chan?"

Before either of the men could answer, a fourth voice interjected, causing the blacksmith to jump in surprise. Drifter and Kirito showed no reaction other than a sigh.

"Argo! Don't do that!"

The info broker gave an unrepentant grin when Liz smacked her arm. She wasn't the least ashamed of the complete lack of personal space. In her own words, 'a good info broker can't be stopped but such things as boundaries'.

Drifter was about to ruffle Argo's hair - his way of scolding her when he didn't really mean it - when he saw something on her face, and stopped. Kirito started explaining everything - again -, but he wasn't really paying attention. He just stared intently at Argo while frowning.

"Somethin' in my face, Dri-bou?"

He could hear the mirth in her voice, as if the twinkle of amusement in her eyes wasn't enough. Slowly, he reached for her face, and ran a finger over the now very real whiskers.

"Those aren't painted on, little rat."

"Nope!"

"And, suppose I was to ask how that change came about, how much would that intel cost?"

The info broker smirked cheekily.

"Ah, ya know, not much. I'll even give ya a friendly discount. Just half-a-million cor."

The party stared slack-jawed at Argo. Sinon was the one to break the silence.

"Did you hit your head somewhere, Argo?! 500,000 cor?!"

"Hihihihi!"

"Don't 'hihihi' us, little rat. You are using this intel as bait, but you seemed to have forgotten you still owe us a favor. Ninjas, remember?"

After snapping out of his surprise, Drifter grinned evilly. His smile only widened when he saw Argo gasp and splutter. It was rare that he managed to get one over the info broker, and victory tasted sweet.

"I already repaid that!"

"No, you didn't. We simply decided to keep it in reserve for an especially valuable piece of information. I think now is the time. Don't you agree, guys?"

He received several nods of agreement, even from Liz, who didn't belong to the party. While Argo scowled, Drifter's grin only widened.

"All right, all right! And ya say I'm the black-hearted one. It has to do with what the Fuumaningum people wanted the other day. And a secret skill. Come with me tomorrow and I will show ya. Y'all are gonna owe me some, though!"