RotTS 10

Alright, as I've received some correct answers, here is (the first four parts(of eight) of) Rondo part 10.(Yay, a fraction of a fraction)

Those that got the quiz so far, in order received:

1. Sludge
2. Arczyx
3. Pepperor

4. Bujebus
5. ff7_freak
6. grek14

Thanks for trying, including those who got it wrong!

Edit: Pryun is on a trip due for his work, he asked me to post the rest of part 10 for him, so here you go.


Rondo of the Transient Sword 10

At the same time the bell notifying that it was eight in the evening rang, the continuous hammering sounds that could constantly be heard stopped.

I hastened my steps, and went past the entrance arch to Urbus's eastern square. Avoiding moving within the range of the lighting effects of the streetlamps, I arrived at the broad leafed tree which grew in the eastern square and leaned my back against its thick trunk.

I chose one of the shortcut icons aligned to the right side of my field of sight, and set my third skill slot to «Hiding». A small indicator appeared on the bottom of my field of sight.【70%】was displayed, indicating what was called the «Hide Rate», which meant that my avatar had blended in with the trunk behind me by 70 percent. That rate finely increased and decreased according to the type and colour of the worn armour, the brightness and terrain of the surroundings, and of course, by my own movements.

Right now, despite risking being caught as the evil beater, I had re-equipped the «Coat of Midnight», hoping that the black leather coat possessed magical properties that increased the hiding rate. With the addition of the surroundings being dark, and no one being nearby, the hiding effect function was at its highest. 70% was a modest number, but because my skill was at a low level, as training the hiding skill to achieve its complete state was a boring and tiresome.

That said, the hidden state at this level of skill was sufficiently effective for most opposing monsters on the first and second floors(aside from the non-visual type mobs), but unreliable against humans. Against a slightly perceptive player…… for example, Asuna, at a rate of seventy percent it was highly likely that I would be detected. Besides, hiding in the middle of the city was like a ''No Manner''<ref>Kirito's Engrish, probably ''no manners''</ref> action, recently the people from the disciplinary committee could often be seen using Reveal in the Area, so it would be very troublesome.

Even for me, it was not like I had a hobby of secretly looking at people, however it could not be helped at the moment. Because from here on, for the first time since the start of SAO's official service, I'm trying to tail other players.





In front of me as I was under the tree, the crafting class player stopped working at eight in the evening, quickly closing his shop. Of course, it was Aincrad's first blacksmithing shop's Nezuha-shi.

The forge's fire went out, and the ingots were put away in a leather bag. The hammer was placed in a special box for keeping blacksmiths tools. The displayed signboard was folded and the vacant carpet was left lying there, and the weapons for sale were also rearranged closely.

All of the objects for trade were placed without any gaps on the two tatami sized carpet, and Nezuha gave a tap on the corner on the menu. As he pressed the «Storage» button, all the various items that were on it were swallowed up as it rolled up, and in just a few seconds, changed into a cylinder.

The small framed blacksmith lifted it and threw it over his right shoulder. The Magic Item «Vendor's Carpet» had a constant weight independent of the amount of items that was stored in it. Suppose you go into a dungeon, it was like a dreamlike space, being able to bring whatever food and potions you wanted in and take back any drop items. Obviously such a sweet story did not exist, as the carpet could only work within the Area of towns and villages. In addition to that, the carpet could not be stored in a player's storage's item field, so the one and a half meter long, ten centimeters in diameter cylindrical object had to be carried around by hand all the time.

As a summary, this item was horribly useless to a person of any class aside from a craftsman merchant ―― Although this was the case, those people sure had considered many things, as during the β test it was popular to exploit the rule that «The objects arranged on top of the carpet cannot be moved by someone other than the owner» by playing pranks like putting large furniture on it in order to block the road. Of course, this was quickly patched, and the carpet's «Edge defining the area of the affected space» no longer spread out.

Nezuha carrying that magical carpet with such a story behind it, as expected of his tired state, gave off a deep sigh. And while in that state, he trudge along with a somewhat crestfallen posture. He headed for the square's southern gate.

I waited for a space of twenty meters between us, before separating from the trunk of the tree.  the indicator for hiding rate in the middle of my field of vision decreased rapidly, and the hiding effect was cancelled at the same time it reached zero. Even so I tried to remain as close to the shadows as possible, unnaturally erasing the sound of my footsteps as I chased after that small back.

The reason I was tailing the blacksmith Nezuha, was obviously to complain about the failure at strengthening Asuna's rapier, without a threatening glance.

If anything, there would be a slight sense of discomfort ―― probably.

He had, as far as I know, just today had two…… No, more accurately five failures in his attempt of strengthening weapons. When Asuna's Wind Fleuret disappeared, as well as when Ryufior-shi's Anneal Blade+4 sadly ended as a +0, makes five times altogether. Although the probability of that may occur ―― somehow it occurred too much, no, it's not about #Occuring too much#.

In the first place,I had come to visit Urbus' east square this afternoon in disguise because I had heard of the story of a «the appearance of a skilled blacksmith player» in Marome, and had intended to ask him to strengthen my own sword. Bringing a leather bag filled with enough material to boost the success rate of the strengthening to eighty percent, and arrived at the square wondering whether I should increase the sharpness or durability before coming upon Ryufior-shi's tragedy, and then I had encountered Asuna and so lost my timing…… If not for those circumstances, I would definitely have requested Nezuha to strengthen my weapon.

And thanks to that, my sword did not encounter a failed strengthening. Although there was no basis for that feeling, for some reason I could not help but feel that it was true.

Because so many rumours that he was «Skilled» had spread all the way to Marome, Nezuha's strengthening's success rate should not be low. Although there was no way to confirm that, but the actual results did not seem to be higher than a proper NPC blacksmith's. However, supposing he #always fails under certain conditions#, if there were some reasons ―― and he explained it, I would believe that this was not a malicious trick.

Of course, this was all my guesswork, as I had an unpleasant feeling of distrust. In the worst case this kind of trick existed, but at the moment i have no idea. After all, in front of my eyes, he had put all the materials he had received from Asuna into the furnace, heated the received sword in the furnace, then used the hammer to hit it on the anvil. All his movements were exactly as described in the manual, and there were no odd movements at all. First, destroying or lowering the performance of a specific player's sword, were there any merits for him......

As those various questions swirled round and round in my brain, I single mindedly followed the blacksmith's back. Fortunately, he didn't seem to think he was being followed, as he continued walking at a constant pace without looking back. Although thanks to that I didn't have to stop unnaturally, and despite having no experience following a player compared to having monsters as an enemy, I did not break out in cold sweat. With the «Hiding» skill's proficiency as well as the considerable distance I was following behind, right now I was like a spy from a movie who had no choice but to extract information somehow.

A BGM from a certain Impossible movie began playing in my mind, as I continued to stylishly move from cover to cover for seven, eight minutes.

The town of Urbus's southeast area, close to the outer wall, was where Nezuha was walking trudgingly, and he stopped moving his feet in front of a dimly glowing signboard. I immediately stopped and stuck myself close to a roadside tree.  If a third party looked around I would look ridiculously suspicious, which was something that I realized later.

The word 【ＢＡＲ】on the signboard was illuminated under the lamp. In other words, it is a bar. Once again, I felt a sense of discomfort. Of course, after a day's hard work it was not strange for players to go to the bar for a drink…… however, in comparison to that, Nezuha's atmosphere was strange. It was like he wanted to say ''I want a cold beer quickly!''  and rush in, yet it was as if he did not want to enter this kind of shop, as he stood in front of the swing door for more than ten seconds.

―― Surely, he's not turning back now.

As I worriedly kept him in my line of sight, Nezuha carried the carpet on his shoulder again, and put his right foot heavily in front. He arrived in front of the door of the bar, and gently pushed with his left hand. As the swing door opened, the small figure disappeared into the store, and the door swung close once more, and after just two seconds ―― a sound came from within, and I could hear it faintly from twenty meters away.

Cheers and applause suddenly welled up. And then ―― a man's voice called out "Nezuo, WB!"

" ………………!? "

I inhaled sharply.

This progression was completely unexpected. My motive for following Nezuha was to get to his residence for the time being in order to understand him better. However, arriving at a bar at the outskirts of the town just a moment ago, there were even players who knew him inside ―― I felt there were four, five people in there, what on earth is this…….  

Hesitating slightly, I came out from my cover, and quickly rushed to the bar's swing door

I put my back flat against the wall, but unfortunately could not hear the conversation within. It was all because of the «Closed Door», where sounds were generally blocked, and only allowed those with the «{{Furigana|Listening Ear|Straining}}» skill to bypass it. Even with the huge gaps above and below the swing door, it was no exception.

"Crap……"

A gave a light curse, as in this situation I only had two options. «Pretend to be a customer and go in» was out of the question. «Give up and go home» or ――.

I sucked in my stomach, and stretched out my left hand, pushing open the swing door. I pushed it five degrees, ten degrees, but still couldn't hear any sounds from within yet. When i finally pushed it to fifteen degrees, I could finally hear the voice of the man from earlier again.