Eight people easily made their way through the knee-high dry grass of the 2nd floor's savanna biome. They were Drifter's party of six, plus their guide, Argo, and a curious tag-along, Lisbeth. The blacksmith had been insistent on coming after hearing the info broker mention a hidden skill.
Such a large group of players was rarely seen, and the mobs on this floor were mainly solitary, so they could advance almost casually. That didn't mean they weren't paying attention to their surroundings, however. With the exception of Liz, all of them had plenty of experience diving into the labyrinth, where monsters could literally spawn in the middle of your party, so they all walked in formation, so they could react and support each other almost instantly should the need arise.
On cue, a << Windwasp >> appeared, and zoomed towards them. The monster, which was quite literally a wasp, only a thousand times it's normal size, aggroed on Argo, who was at the front of the group.
Before it's menacing stinger could strike, however, it was intercepted by a spear reaching from behind and above Argo's head. Not allowing the mob to recover, two of Sinon's picks hit it, bringing it's health down to half, and Kirito and Asuna finished it off with a flurry of blows. The entire battle lasted no more than five seconds.
"Waa... Woah! That was incredible!"
A gobsmacked Liz stared at the remains of the << Windwasp >>, while the rest of the party nonchalantly went through the loot and resumed walking. Asuna grinned at the blacksmith.
"<< Windwasps >> have high attack but low defense and HP, Liz. The secret is killing them before they hit you."
"The secret to every battle you mean, Asuna."
The fencer stuck her tongue at Sinon, who smirked. The others smiled while Liz proceeded to praise them. Out of the entire group, she was the one with the least battle experience, having spent most of her time improving her forging skills. She had also only watched the party fight through the live-stream of the 1st floor boss raid. Witnessing it first-hand was very different.
"How far are we, Argo?"
"Not too much now, Dri-bou. Cross that stretch of plain over there and into the trees."
And that they did. Almost immediately afterwards, they found themselves in a clearing full of rocks of all sizes, and, on top of the biggest one, there was the weirdest NPC Drifter had ever seen.
An old man, with an incredibly long beard, was laying lazily on his side, head propped up with one hand. He had an unnerving smirk, complete with missing teeth and all, on his face as he watched the eight players get closer.
"Ho ho ho! What do we have here? Some hot-headed adventures, I see. Hihihihi!"
The old man jumped down from his rock with surprising agility, and hopped until he was standing in front of the group. He completely ignored Argo, but circled the others, all the while mumbling and cackling. It didn't take a genius to understand that he had one screw loose.
"Came to learn my secrets, have you, little warriors? Huh? Huh? I can teach you, I can. Should I? Humm? Hihihihi!"
"Err... Argo?"
Unnerved, and not just a little creeped out, Kirito looked at the info broker asking for help. What the old man was saying was clearly a quest prompt, but the way it was delivered didn't inspire much confidence.
Argo nodded, but when Drifter sneaked a glance at her, he couldn't help but get the feeling she was grinning. And not the good kind of grin, but an evil one, that promised mischief. If he wasn't sure she would never purposely harm them, he might have told Kirito to stop when the boy started to answer the old man. As it was, he just prepared himself for some kind of prank. And he was right to do so. Unfortunately for him, this was not one that could be avoided.
As soon as Kirito told the old man that they wanted to learn whatever it was that he was teaching, his face split into a predatory smile, and he became a blur, jumping from one party member to the other faster than they could see. Even Liz wasn't spared. Clearly, Kirito's acceptance had been taken as the agreement of the entire group.
"What the..."
"Hey!"
"Hihihihihi!"
Instinctively, Drifter, Kirito, Asuna, and Sinon all tried to react, and stab the old man with their various weapons, but he jumped and flipped his way out of range and back to the big rock with a speed that would forever be impossible for players to catch up. All the while he was laughing madly. And he wasn't the only one.
"Pffft... Wahahahaha!"
Argo's shrill laughter broke the tension that had fallen over the group. When they turned to her, the info broker was literally rolling on the ground, clutching her sides as she guffawed. There were even tears in her eyes. Whenever she looked like she was calming down, she would take another glance at the party, and start laughing again.
Almost afraid, Drifter hesitantly turned his eyes to his other party members. What he saw caused him not to know whether to cry or laugh. He facepalmed and let out a deep sigh.
"Little rat, you are going to pay for this."
"Wahahahaha!"
"Ugh. Look at your faces, people."
Groaning, Drifter watched as the others did as they were told, and discovered what he already had. Suddenly, the clearing was filled with shouts of surprise, stunned looks, and not just a few snickering laughs. Of course, none of them missed sending a death glare to Argo.
Right there, on everyone's faces, including Drifter's, were three pairs of painted whiskers identical to the ones' Argo had. Now they all knew where she had gotten them from. With a murderous glint in their eyes, Yuna and Asuna started chasing after the info broker, who shrieked in mock fear and ran.
Meanwhile, Drifter opened his quest log, and saw that it had indeed been updated. The new quest's objective was to break the large rock upon which the old man was laying, but they couldn't use sword skills, or their weapons. It had to be done with their bare hands. The only upside was that it could be done as a group.
'Reminder for the future: never try to blackmail Argo again.'
Ignoring the calls for help from the info broker as Asuna and Yuna tickled her into oblivion, Drifter walked towards the big rock they had to break. The old man had fallen asleep on top of it, and didn't show any intention of moving.
Telling himself that there was no pain in SAO, Drifter took a deep breath, clenched his hand into a fist, and punched the rock with all his strength. It did nothing.
Shaking his hand to get rid of the phantom pain, Drifter gestured for the others to try too, though he didn't expect it to do anything. The rock was almost as hard as an immortal object. Not happy, he walked towards Argo, who had managed to free herself from the girls' clutches, and was watching the seven other players alternatively hit the rock, curse, and try in vain to wipe out the whiskers.
"I will admit, Argo, that was a well-executed prank."
"Hihihi... Thank ya very much, Dri-bou."
"Hm. How much more can you tell us about the quest? And how much will it cost?"
"Consider it a professional courtesy, Dri-bou. And I'll say we're even. What do ya think?"
"I hate you. Deal."
The rest gave up trying to break the rock for the moment, and joined Drifter in a semicircle around Argo. The whiskers were comically distracting, but the info broker made an effort to be at least somewhat serious.
"Durin' the beta, there was an NPC on the 7th floor that hinted at this quest. I followed his tips, and gained the whiskers. The beta was too short for me to spend days tryin' to shatter a damn rock, so I just accepted it. Gotta admit, they kinda grew on me over time."
"Thus was born Argo the Rat."
"Aye, Kii-bou!"
Drifter sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose. Needless to say, Argo had rushed here as soon as the 2nd floor opened, and regained her trademark whiskers. She had also conveniently kept silent about the fact that, if they wanted to complete the quest, they would have to bare with them too. It wasn't like the painted whiskers interfered with their combat power, but it was damn humiliating, a constant reminder that they failed to finish the old man's quest.
"And the only way to get rid of them is by breaking this boulder with our hands? No shortcuts you know about?"
"None that I know of, Aa-chan."
"Ugh... This is going to take forever!"
Drifter happened to agree with Yuna. He didn't think there was anything they could do, however, other than complete the quest, unless they were like Argo and rocked the whiskers.
"Since we are already stuck with it, can you at least tell us what the reward is, Argo?"
"Don'tchu worry, Nau-bou, it's more than worth your time! Like I said, it's an extra skill! << Martial Arts >>!"
"<< Martial Arts >>?"
"Yep. It's a bunch of unarmed techniques, from what I know."
"That... Doesn't sound very useful."
"Hah! Ya think so, Sin-chan? But what if ya lose your weapon mid-battle? Or ya are fightin' another player and don't wanna kill them? And what if I tell ya that << Martial Arts >> doesn't share the same cooldown with the sword skills?"
While the first two points Argo put forward were only useful in very specific situations, as soon as the last point was mentioned, everyone's eyes widened. Argo gave a knowing smirk.
<< Martial Arts >> not sharing the same cooldown with other skills meant they could easily integrate it into their combos, and use it as a buffer between sword skills. It allowed for countless new possible combinations and attack patterns. Others might not understand it's value, but how could they, who were known as frontliners, not see it?
"All right, let's get to it, then!"
Clapping his hands, Kirito stood up and walked towards the rock. Unequipping his sword, he clenched his hand into a fist before pounding the boulder. Once, twice, three times. He repeated the action until dust and small fragments finally started falling off, and a small crack appeared. It was minuscule, but it was a start.
Turning to look at the others, who were watching him in amusement, the swordsman showed an embarrassed smile and scratched the back of his head.
"Err... I thought we better not waste more time than necessary here. Sorry."
Drifter chuckled, and took Kirito's position in front of the boulder. He teased the boy.
"Don't be, party leader. You are right, after all. Let's get to it!"