On February 23, 2024, within a field dungeon called the Forest of Wandering, a mid level player and Beast Tamer Silica decided to leave her current party after an argument with one of its members, Rosalia, and return to Mishe on her own. However, due to the field dungeon's design, she became lost and encountered the local monsters multiple times. After hours of navigating the forest, she encountered several Drunk Apes; however, she had left her party without taking extra healing items and her remaining stock of healing items were soon depleted. While Silica was distracted looking for any leftover healing items, the Drunken Apes used the opening to attack Silica. Just before she was about to be hit with a final blow, her Tamed Monster, the Feathered Little Dragon Pina, intercepted the hit and was subsequently killed in the process. The shocked Silica was then nearly killed by the apes, but was saved by Kirito who had come across her by chance. After being saved, Silica cried over the loss of her pet and dear friend.
Silica regained some hope when Kirito explains to her that it is possible to revive her partner with a special flower at the 47th Floor. However, she is soon discouraged when she realizes that the difficulty would be too high for her current level as well as there being a three day time limit to revive Pina. Feeling obligated for not being able to save her Tamed Monster, Kirito provided her with some sturdier equipment to increase her protection, and partnered with Silica to retrieve the flower. Kirito would have gotten it himself, however the presence of the deceased pet's owner was required for the item to appear. Silica asked him why he helped her and, after she promised not to laugh at his response, Kirito says that she reminds him of his sister, which caused Silica to burst into laughter.
Silica returned with Kirito to Mishe, the main town of the 35th Floor, to discuss their plans for retrieving the flower. While in town, Kirito dealt with some troublesome encounters with some of Silica’s fans and Silica's ex-party member, Rosalia. At the inn, Kirito explained to Silica about the concept of «Player Killing» and Color Cursors: players who have attacked and/or killed someone are indicated by the cursor above their heads being orange, while a green colour indicated that the player was not hostile to others. After having dinner, the two went to their own rooms. Silica, in her undergarments, was considering of visiting Kirito's room, just as the latter comes knocking at her own door. After Silica barely remembered to get dressed before letting her new party member in, Kirito took out a «Mirage Sphere» to show the known data on the 47th Floor to Silica. As he was continuing with his explanations, he suddenly detected someone eavesdropping on them and ran out to see who was there, but the player quickly fled. When Silica asked Kirito how someone was able to eavesdrop on them, Kirito explained that players with a high-level Straining skill did not have to knock on the door to hear what was going on in the room.
After spending the night at the second floor of the «Weathercock Pavilion», Kirito and Silica began their journey to the southern section of the 47th Floor from the main town on the floor, Floria. Before going to the location of the Pneuma Flower, Kirito gave Silica a teleport crystal just in case something went wrong. After defeating multiple plant monsters along the way and conversing about Kirito's sister, Kirito and Silica were able to make it to «The Hill of Memories» and retrieve the Pneuma Flower. Kirito asked Silica to revive Pina in Mishe as there were strong monsters around the area.
However, when returning with the item, Kirito sensed a group of players waiting to ambush them, and told Silica to get her teleport crystal out. Rosalia, who Kirito revealed to be the leader of «Titan's Hand» guild, appeared, and demanded them to give up the flower. When Silica wondered how Rosalia could be a member of an orange guild if she had a green cursor, Kirito explained that this was a simple trick, where players like her find targets for the orange members of the guild. Kirito then told Rosalia that he was looking for her, under the request of a leader of the fallen guild, the «Silver Flags», who wanted her and her guild to be sent to jail. The other members then came out of hiding, with their weapons at the ready.
One of the members, after hearing Silica call Kirito by his name, recognized him as the Black Swordsman. The member told Rosalia that Kirito used a one-handed sword with no shield build, was a «Beater», and a member of the «Clearers», but Rosalia rejected such a claim, as she believed that if he were a Clearer, he would not be wandering on the lower floors. She then ordered her members to attack him.
As the orange players attacked Kirito, he did nothing, thus Silica began to worry that he would die, and was almost ready to attack them. However, as she looked at his hit points (HP) bar, she suddenly saw it rising again. The orange players continued attacking Kirito for awhile, but eventually got exhausted from attacking, annoying Rosalia. Kirito then told the orange players that they did around four hundred damage to him in ten seconds, while, being a much more higher level then them, his battle healing skill would heal six hundred points within ten seconds, and, as such, they could be fighting him all day and he would not die.
At that moment, Kirito took out a rare «Corridor Crystal», bought by the fallen guild's leader, and planned to send them all to the prison on the 1st Floor governed by «The Army». All the orange guild members seemingly gave in to Kirito’s supremacy except for Rosalia, who told him that if he attacked her, he would go orange. Kirito, with his speed, rushed up to Rosalia and threatened to kill her, stating that because of his status as a solo player, he would not mind being orange for a few days. Rosalia then dropped her spear, and all of the members were sent to the Black Iron Palace's jail.
Afterwards, Kirito and Silica returned to the «Weathercock Pavilion». There, Kirito apologized for ending up using her as bait to lure the orange guild, revealing that he was afraid that if he had told her the truth beforehand, she would have been scared, but she denied it, stating that he was a good person. Silica wanted to join him, but their levels were too far apart, and Kirito needed to return to the front lines. Under Kirito's prompt, Silica used the flower on Pina's Heart, thinking of how she would tell Pina about her one-day adventure with Kirito.
Rating: 8/10
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