Latest Update: March 30, 2023
Summary: "Going into a dungeon? Fighting monsters? And getting dirty?" The merchant in silks laughed. "Why do that when you can hire mercenaries to do the job?" Kazuto Kirigaya doesn't like fighting, he likes making money. Much safer than swinging a sword at monsters, yuck! Besides, that was what his fearless Asuna was for anyway. KiriHarem (Argo, Asuna, Sinon)
Link: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/13800080/1/Merchant-Prince-of-Aincrad
Word count:139k
Chapters:18
Chapter 1: What are ya' buyin?
"Hello Potion Seller. I am going into battle and I want your strongest potions."
- Justin Kuritzkes
The raid wasn't going well.
Indeed, one might say it was going disastrously.
There were forty-four of them in total and half were suffering minor wounds and a couple were on the brink of death, their health bars blinking red like an emergency light.
Though they felt no sense of pain save for the dread of death. They were fighting extremely cautiously. What would take a few minutes in the beta took half an hour currently. Better than fighting recklessly yes, but also much much slower.
Diavel thought he could whip up a probable fighting force. Give the rest of the playerbase a sense of hope in these dark times. He thought they could be freed from this horrid Death Game.
Training? He drilled them to march like the lockstep legions of Rome. Discipline? He had to expel a dozen players early on for not being serious. Orders? He chose officers to keep the men in line.
But Diavel did forget one crucial thing.
In an abandoned room of the dungeon complex, stomachs were growling.
He forgot to bring the damn food.
"Diavel, boss," said Kibaou. "I think we should -"
"No, Kibaou. I don't think that's a good idea." This was the third time he bought it up. "We can't retreat. The dungeon's not cleared yet. And if we leave, they will respawn."
Kibaou nodded. "We can send a runner."
"Yes, and it'll take a day or so till they reach Horunka, and another day to gather all the food, and another day they return here, that's assuming no random encounter gibs them on the way. We can't leave, don't you understand?!"
Diavel ran a hand through his hair. "Sorry, this is my fault. I shouldn't have snapped. I should have remembered about bringing enough food."
"It's fine, boss."
"No, it really isn't." He paced around his corner of the room, what appeared to be an old barracks of sorts. The wounded were lying on beds, waiting for their HP to refill. They've exhausted what little medicine they've had as well. I
The raid team were in a precarious predicament. They can either return to Horunka and have their fill, fix their gear and restock, at the cost of having the monsters respawning and they'll have to fight again.
Or they could forge on ahead, pain in their belly and with parched throats, tired and unfocused. It wouldn't take long for the first death to occur and Diavel wasn't sure how his group would react to that.
He was snapped out of his dark mood when one of the players outside came barging in. "Everyone, come out quick! Something's coming, something big!"
Diavel called for battle stations and allowed the most wounded to stay behind and lock the door. If those kobols were sending their best troops, he would have to be right there in the front.
They formed what was an attempt at a shield wall but half of them had no shields and far too many of them wielded either longaxes or greatswords, swinging too haphazardly or too conservatively to do any real damage. They practiced in an open field but the dungeon had little in the way of that, just corridor after corridor of monsters.
The current chamber was at least spacious: a circular hall connecting with three hallways. One was where they came from, one was collapsed and the last was the way to the boss room. Whatever was coming, it was coming from where they had entered the dungeon from.
Diavel closed his visor and rallied his team. His officers did the same. Someone was complaining how they haven't eaten in almost a day before Kibaou shut them up.
"Ready, men! Death or glory!" If they were to die here, perhaps that would inspire the others to take up their swords and finish the fight. Quite literally, he wasn't going to care if someone else came and looted his corpse.
Stress turned to silence. Silence turned to fear. Fear turned to confusion as the thing approached.
"What the hell?" said a spearwoman. Diavel concurred.
"Ho, dungeon divers! I see you've found yourself in a predicament!" said a robed teenage player. "I followed the kobold corpses here and what do you know, it was only a matter of time until I found you stalwart warriors!"
He had two mules with him, with bags and boxes strapped onto their backs. His only companion was a girl in a red cloak. She unfurled a mat right on the floor.
The newcomer rummaged through one of the bags. "Ah, perhaps you find a need for tools, I have just that! He placed a box of spare parts onto the floor, hammers, pliers, rings of mail and leather strips.
"I see some of you aren't in the best of shape. Good grief! Potions for the body, healing for the soul!" Glowing bottles of potions were spread out on the map, complete with price tags tied around the necks.
There was an audible sniff in the hall from numerous players. Even Kibaou wasn't immune to it. "Is that … food, I smell?" he asked.
"Asuna-chan, if you pleased?" He clapped his hands dramatically as if he was ordering a servant.
Asuna rolled her eyes and produced a large wicker basket from the second mule.
Steam rose from the basket. A second basket joined the first and Diavel could sense all the players' agro homing towards them.
"Bread for all! Freshly baked from the Horunka's finest bakeries! Get them while they're hot! Butter's only 50 col a jar!"
It was at that point Diavel lost control of his raid group as the players immediately descended on the merchant like the dungeon monsters they've just faced.
And they would stampede over him had the swordswoman not unsheathed her sword and stopped the human wave with a steely glare.
"Listen, I really appreciate your help uh …"
"Kirito, CEO of the Kirito Corporation, humble sutler at your service! Nice to meet you, Knight Diavel," he said, vigorously shaking the raid leader's hand.
The atmosphere made a complete 180. Instead of doom, relief. Tiredness replaced by respite. Campfires were made to boil large pots of tea that the merchant brought with him. It resembled less a dilapidated dungeon and more of a comfy restaurant, if you ignored the filth and dead kobolds of course.
The girl known as Asuna was not going about pouring tea and refilled Diavel's own clay cup. Knight and merchant sat upon a mat and enjoyed their drinks.
"Oh, so you've heard of me?"
"Indeed! Half the player base probably has. Brave man leading brave folks, freeing us from the tyranny of Kayaba. This dungeon diving business, tsk tsk. Not for me, sir."
Diavel glanced at the mules. The small pile of things on them were almost entirely gone. The barracks were cleaned as the Clearers helped to themselves to the medicine.
Diavel leaned over. "I don't know how you knew, but you just saved my bacon. I am eternally grateful. We don't have much in the way of wealth on us -"
"Oh I know."
He continued. "I'm sure we can work something out. We still have a dungeon to clear after all.'
Kirito scratched his chin and pondered. "Hmm, some of the loot would be nice."
Diavel was dreading this. Even in the days of the beta, the splitting of loot for boss dungeons was a touchy thing considering SAO didn't have instances. A Unique Weapon or Armor was a one time drop, and if that was lost it was lost basically forever.
Kirito reached for a parchment from inside his robe and handed it to him. Diavel skimmed the document.
He bit his lip. "70% of the dropped loot huh. That includes …"
"No, I don't want the boss gear. You can keep it to yourself. I'm not that greedy."
That was a weight off his shoulders. Still, he was unsure. "70% seems a bit high though. What if we just … pay for your services?" Maybe he could just scrounge up enough money to make a profit.
Kirito produced an abacus from thin air and started doing calculations. Diavel had no idea how to use one and couldn't follow the calculations.
The sutler wrote down his price on another note and passed it onto the raid leader.
If reading text could give psychic damage, Diavel would have been reduced to zero hit points.
They shook on it.
The raid went miraculously well. So well in fact that it went better than the opening dive itself.
Illfang the Kobold Lord lay dead amongst his minions. Already the Clearers were raiding his treasure pile in the corner of the boss room. Kirito and Asuna stayed at the back of the room and the pile of kobolds that lay dead at her feet made Diavel regret not recruiting her into his party.
Kirito did nothing. Just sipped his tea and watched, unbothered at the battle that unfolded before him.
The knight rubbed his stomach, realising how dented his breastplate was. Diavel took a massive hit from Illfang's tulwar and he would be bisected had he not repaired his armour. He was only somewhat injured but a quick top of a potion fixed that right up.
That would be real bad, dying to the first boss. If Heaven existed, the dead would not have let him forget about it.
He heard clapping from behind. "Well done, Diavel-san! Ingenious tactics. Sun Tzu should hire you to write his next book."
"You know, you could have help."
Kirito glanced down at his belt. "Oh this? This sword is for show. I don't think I've ever used it myself."
Kibaou appeared, no worse for wear. "Okay, so uh, the quest is updated. We were supposed to just kill Ilffang and get our rewards right?"
Well yes, that's what happened in the beta Diavel recalled. "We collect our bounty and get paid, what's the issue exactly?"
Kibaou scratched his head. "Well, the thing is …"
Diavel glanced at his Quest Log.
Quest Updated! - Kobolds in the Ruins:
- Slay Illfang the Kobold Lord - [X]
- Return Illfang's Corpse to the Mayor of Tolbanna [ ]
Kibaou continued, "We'll need a cart … and mules …"
Diavel looked at Kirito and could physically see the Yen symbols appearing in his eyes. His bodyguard sighed for the umpnteeth time, wondering how she got herself into this.
An iron sword costs 50 Col. A basic helmet costs 100 Col. A mail shirt costs 150 Col. In total, that's 300 Col.
Every character started off with 500 Col in their inventory. By design, this allowed 200 Col left to buy potions and the lowest level health potion costs 60 Col. That's 20 Col left.
Kazuto Kirigaya, or Kirito in this virtual world, would take advantage of this.
Kirito found himself outside the city and a small army of players were doing battle against that most dangerous and ubiquitous of low level enemies: the Blue Pig.
He sat on a farm fence, watching a player with a rapier trying, and failing, to cut at one of with a rapier. The boar slammed into her, throwing her into the air. He was sure that the boar was some chuckling to itself.
The girl got the last laugh as she jammed her sword right into its side. The boar collapsed dead. In celebration of this act of heroism, she did a little victory dance. That's when Kirito introduced himself.
"Hey there! Looks like you got a bit hurt!"
The girl turned around. "Yeah, looks like I did. Uh, how do you like, get back your hurt points?"
At this, Kirito was confused. "Have you never played a video game before?"
She giggled and scratched her head. "Ha, not really! Name's Asuna."
"Kirito. Nice to meet you, Asuna." Kirito opened his jacket, revealing numerous potions inside. "Want a health potion? It's free."
"Oh wow, thanks!" She downed the potion in a swig. "Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?"
"Well … I am in the market for a bodyguard …"
Looking back on it, Asuna really shouldn't have taken that deal. Stupid one year contract.
Link: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/13800080/1/Merchant-Prince-of-Aincrad