RotTS 13

A refresher from the Anime in case you can't remember who Diabel is. If you've never watched the anime, you should know who he is anyway. 

PS: A spoiler: He dies. 

Rondo of the Transient Sword

Part 13


For one beat, I sheepishly looked up to see her continue looking at me.

"Then, the only way to get the sword back is the last method…… «completely all items objectify». Because of the situation where there were only a few seconds before the information about the sword was cleared, I rushed into this room, and it was necessary to forcefully manipulate your window…… Is that what you would say."

"W, Well, That is the case…… I guess?"

I tried my best to tilt my head so that I could look as innocent as possible, but Asuna did not give any indication that she was affected, otherwise she would have made a *fuun* noise with her nose. Fortunately, she seemed to give priority to the situation rather than blame me, as the fencer used both hands to hold the Anneal Blade and faced me, switching her tone before asking.

"Even so…… That fully objectify button, why did it drop the things in that order? Somehow it looks like it is too hard to use…… before that, why is «Complete» necessary? Can't it just select all owned items in hand, without materializing under…… unrelated equipment?

"The answer, Asuna has already said it yourself. Frankly, it's because «It is too hard to use.»"

"Eh……? What do you mean?"

While the rapier user gave a good frown, I shrugged with both shoulders.

"Just now, the words «Last resort». Where important items were somehow misplaced, dropped, or the equipment snatched by a monster and you were forced to run away…… because it is caused by your own mistake, the items that had been lost would not be given to you so easily. However, those people in production probably decided that the difficulty was too high to do so. So only one method to recover it is given…… although that is the case, it is limited so that you can't use it easily, and because of the depth, the level of access is difficult, therefore the flexibility of selecting the most recent item out of all the items does not exist. There is a sad story during the beta test……"

From a small plate on the tabletop, I took a star shaped nut and threw it up high, catching it with my mouth. Even this childish action, in this world affected by dexterity etc with a surrounding brightness, was corrected by the hidden parameter of luck.

"…… In a dungeon on the ninth floor, the first snatch mob appears there. A player who had lost his main weapon, without using the «Quick Change» reluctantly ran away, and after managing to shake them off, regretfully returned to a safe room. The dungeon, seeing what looked like the safe square, used «All Objects Materialize», and while all the objects fell at his feet, obviously including the sword which had been taken, but…… Actually, that dungeon, aside from having snatch mobs, also had #Pick Up#(Looter) mobs! From all sides, tiny gremlins crawled in, and got away with one bag of items on the floor……"

"……Th, That is truly depressing……. ―― Ah, but, once he goes back to a safe area he should be able to completely objectify again, right……?"

"But then, Looter Mobs have the «Robbing» Skill so the ownership would immediately move. Fortunately, other players had not reached the area, so after five hours of hunting down every gremlin on that floor, he managed to manually recover all the items…… at that time there were tears in his eyes……"

At the moment I took a breath mixed with nuts, Asuna sighed as she said.

"That comment sounds extremely personal."

Right after that, as a disturbance was introduced into my system, the nuts that should have entered my mouth, dropped into my hair and was buried there. While shaking my head, I replied with a straight face.

"……I heard a rumour of that story, of course. More importantly, about that, umm……"

"Although «All Objects Materialize» is useful, it could be said that it's usefulness is because it is restricted by various factors."

Asuna's face showed how shocked she was, while I picked the star shaped nut off my head with my right hand. What to do now, I thought for a moment as my thin fingers curled, Pin! The nut  was sent flying into my slightly open mouth with a nice shot. It was a really terrible accuracy correcting trajectory, I thought as I crunched on it.

"In any case, I know understand the logic behind the sword's return."

Nodding lightly, the glass of herb wine was brought to her lips, and the fencer's eyes continued giving off a strong shine.

"But, isn't this only half? Because I did actually see it. My sword in the hands of the blacksmith-san, broke into shards on top of the anvil. If the sword that returned to me was the wind foil, the sword I had originally equipped myself with…… What was the sword that broke at that time?"

That was an excellent question. I returned a nod, putting together some information and speculation as much as possible, before opening my mouth.

"Honestly speaking, I'm not a hundred percent certain of the logic behind this. However, for this case…… Asuna's Wind Fleuret, some time between the period you passed it to him and it reached the anvil and was destroyed, it must have been switched with an item of the same type. At first I thought, he intentionally breaks down weapons of specific players, but that is not the case. He is, Aincrad's first player blacksmith, and also the first «Strengthening Scammer»……"






Strengthening scam. It was like enchant scam, forging scam, refining scam, et cetera.

What it is called varies depending on the game title, and has been done without stopping since the beginning of MMORPGs, a classical trick technique.

The method was extremely simple. Place a weapon strengthening signboard outside the player's blacksmith shop(Or any other similar jobs), and customers would come with high grade weapons, and then scam them by saying that«The Strengthening of the weapon has failed and caused it to be destroyed». Even though there was no damage to the title or penalties due to failure, a similar equipment with the + number reduced could be returned as the failed item, and there were many variations, in which the unused strengthening materials were stolen.

After all, in the player's monitor, when a player leaves his weapon at the blacksmith they can't see it at all. Since the work was all done on the screen of the other person, there was no way to check whether a scam has occurred.

Of course, if such a scam occurred so often and quickly, the blacksmith would get a bad reputation and no one would go to him, but when facing a very rare weapon in the MMO which is expensive, occasionally scamming could be very profitable. The blacksmith Nezuha, up till now I have not heard any no bad rumours about him, and with the frequency of fraud it could have been suppressed. However ――





" … The question is, in this SAO, it is not a flat panel game, but the world's first VRMMO. Here, even after passing the swords we can still see its existence. Secretly swapping it is not easy…… in fact it should be quite difficult."

After giving off my long explanation, Asuna's eyebrows grew tight as she nodded.

"Yes……. I, even though I handed the sword to him my eyes never left it. The blacksmith-san, with my sword in his left hand, his right hand was used to operate the furnace and hammer. In that situation, it is not possible to open the window to the storage to put the sword in, and swapping it with a fake is impossible."

"Ah, I'm confident of that. In that stall, ready made rapiers like the «Iron rapier» were arranged so that it was easy to take, but because there was no extra «Wind Fleuret», it was impossible to substitute it……. ―― But…… "

"But……?"

"but, in that short amount of time…… there was a certain timing my eyes weren't on the sword. Nezuha, with the strengthening material he received from Asuna put on the furnace, the blue light had started from the furnace…… The longest it would have taken would be three seconds. I was anxious with the material that we had struggled to get in the furnace……"

I said in an uncertain tone, and Asuna's hazel eyes opened lightly.

""A……! A, at that time I was looking at the furnace……. However, not for the same reason as you, I just thought the blue light was beautiful."

"I-Is that so. ――Anyway, in those few seconds, it was difficult for both our eyes to stay on the sword in the left hand. In other words, I think everyone would be looking at the furnace. The materials were burned, melted, it's property changing colors, those can be called the highlights of strengthening. I suppose, at that moment, a misdirection like those used in magic was used……"

In the three seconds when our eyes were drawn to the furnace, the sword was replaced? Without opening the window?"

Asuna could not believe it and just shook her head, then suddenly stopped moving.

" ―― But, it's true, that timing was there. that three seconds, perhaps there was some hidden trick. I may not know what it is now, but if I can see that same scene again……"

If you pay attention to the left hand this time, we'll see through the trick ―― That, is what i think. But, it will be difficult……"

"Why?"

"Around this time, Nezuha should have realized that the Wind Fleuret he secretly took has disappeared. In other words, the scamming player…… In this case, by Asuna using the «All objects materialize» command, it is likely that the existence of the scam has been revealed, is probably what he thinks. He'll probably be alert and not set up shop for the time being, and will absolutely not think of doing any strengthening scams."

"…………That's right. He's not the type of person who has too much urge to continue…… I mean, in the first place……"

Here, Asuna's mouth swallowed her words, and i instantly realized the rare case.

In the first place, the scam was not seen by other people.

"Ah…… I too, agree with you."

Muttering, Asuna hid her line of sight while facing me, and smiled faintly. Returning a nod at that face, I continued in a quiet voice.

"I took some time to collect information. I don't know about the switching trick though…… Only Nezuha would know. Anyway, he won't show up tomorrow.

"Yes…… I see. I heard talk at Marome in the afternoon today, tomorrow morning would be the last field boss battle, so in the afternoon they'll probably in the dungeons."

"Heh, that's fast……. Who is the raid group leader?"

"Kibaou-san and, another one…… Lind-san"

Of those two people Asuna mentioned, The first was a familiar name. However, I twisted my neck, wondering whether I knew the second ――

"Lind is…… During the first floor boss fight, the scimitar user in Diabel-san's party."

Those words, came out from Asuna's lips somewhat reservedly.

As soon as I heard that, I could hear something deep within my ear. A scream of "Why, did you leave Diabel-san to die", mingled with tears.

"Is that so…… It's that guy"

"Yes……. That person has begun imitating Diabel-san. Right now, his hair is dyed blue like Diabel-san's, and he also wears silver armor."

I closed my eyes for a moment, in my mind, I envision a blue and green dressed «Knight», and muttered.

"In any case, Kibaou…… That scimitar user serves as a leader, so I don't think I'll join the field boss raid. ――How about you, Asuna?"

Upon being asked, the rapier user who was a solo similar to me, the long hazel colored hair swayed from from left to right as she shook her head.

"I've joined during the scouting of the Field boss, and it feels like it is just a very large cow, so it probably doesn't need a lot of people to control……. ―― Also, the matter of the last attack bonus is treated in a style of not wanting to listen to others, "Then do not participate" was what they said."

Having seen the situation there, I gave a stealthy bitter smile and nodded.

"I see. Well, as you said, Asuna, the field boss is not a worthy opponent. However, the problem would be the floor boss……"

"Problem…… Is it?"

Asuna's straight question, made me smile bitterly again.

"That is so. After all, logically it would be stronger than the first floor's Kobold King."

"Ah…… I see. That is the case……"

"I don't think it has strong attacks but it will use some special skills. It would be fine if we had time to practice against the mobs that spawn in the dungeon, but……"

Me and beta test players like Diabel if he were alive, would probably have subtly told that theory to the frontline raiders. However he has died, so now the only information during the beta test would be from the well known «Argo's strategy guide». But, there was a problem there as well. As found out in the battle five days ago, the boss battle's patterns had changed slightly from during the beta test…………

"Then, ignoring the matter of the blacksmith-san, we shall train tomorrow."

While I was thinking, I nodded at her words automatically while she was talking.

"Ah, that is right……"

"So meeting at seven in the morning at Urbus's south gate is fine"

"Yes, that is right……"

"Don't stay up late tonight and sleep properly. If you're late this time there is an acceleration of 100g."

"Yeah, that is right……―― Te, eh, huh, what?"

Finally tuning in to the conversation, I looked up. On the other side of the table, the fencer-sama who had got back her beloved sword had used her completely recovered tone and was setting up her alarm clock quickly.