Shindo thought of Geese’s injured leg and made the obvious assumption.
“He probably won’t be in much of a hurry to wear them.” “That’s not what I mean.
Forget about Old Geese for a moment.
The important one here is you.” “Me?” “Of course.” Old Gray folded his arms with complete confidence.
“My principle as a craftsman is to make shoes for every customer who comes through my door.
And with leather this fine, it would be an honor for Old Gray to make a pair for a great adventurer like you.” He gestured toward several neatly arranged strips of dried meat near the window.
“Old Geese has looked after me for years.
See those?
He brought them over just a few days ago.” Before Shindo could argue, Gray had already picked up a measuring tape and several tools and begun taking measurements of his feet.
“Didn’t Old Geese mention any of this when he asked you to come?” “No!” Shindo was absolutely certain of that.
Geese had been so drunk at the time that he could barely get his words out properly.
“Four…
no, three days.” Gray nodded to himself once the measurements were complete.
“Come back in three days.
Old Gray will put everything he has into making these shoes for you.
That’s a promise backed by several decades of craftsmanship.” Then, apparently afraid Shindo might refuse, Gray promptly pushed him out of the cottage and shut the door.
Through the glass pane set into the wooden door, Shindo could already see the old cobbler getting to work.
Apparently, having excessively high Affinity came with problems of its own.
Geese’s exceptional hunting skills had earned him a great deal of goodwill throughout Horunka Village, and many of the villagers genuinely respected and liked the old man.
Since Shindo had helped Geese when he was injured, that affection had naturally spilled over onto him as well.
For the first time, Shindo was discovering that having a reputation could be troublesome.
…
That night, Shindo continued tirelessly clearing the “weeds” from Horunka’s dark western forest.
At his current level, even being surrounded by twenty or thirty Little Nepents was no longer especially dangerous.
His stats and equipment had improved enough that he could cut through a group of that size without too much trouble.
The reason Kirito and Coper had struggled so badly against them was mostly a matter of raw strength.
That was not a criticism of either one’s combat instincts or technique; it was simply the reality of their situation at the time.
Their levels and equipment had not been sufficient to handle a large swarm of Little Nepents.
In the original timeline, Kirito had exhausted the Durability of his weapon and only managed to clear the surrounding monsters after Coper was discovered and drew part of the swarm’s attention away from him.
Shindo no longer had to worry about circumstances like that.
After reaching Level 6 and gaining another Skill Slot, he had learned «Searching», giving him a major advantage when detecting enemies and avoiding danger.
His level and equipment quality were both high enough that an ordinary attack could easily kill a Level 3 or 4 Little Nepent, while even a Large Nepent only took a few more strikes.
Unfortunately, Luck in SAO was not an attribute that players could increase by spending stat points.
On higher floors there were items capable of temporarily raising Luck, but nothing of the sort was available on the First Floor.
Here, there was only one solution to terrible drop rates.
Grind harder.
The Flowering Little Nepent was already a rare elite MOB, and the Little Nepent’s Ovule was itself a rare drop from that already uncommon monster.
With those probabilities stacked on top of each other, there were probably very few players besides Kirito lucky enough to obtain one on their first serious attempt.
No wonder Coper had betrayed him.
Put a man cursed with terrible luck next to someone favored by the RNG gods, and resentment was almost inevitable.
Granted, considering how that story ended, it was not a particularly funny joke.
After several more hours of relentless farming, Shindo finally obtained a Little Nepent’s Ovule.
By the time he returned to Horunka Village, it was already deep into the night, and exhaustion weighed on him as heavily as the darkness itself.
Almost every light in the village had gone out, forcing him to navigate largely from memory.
Still, he wanted to complete the quest as soon as possible.
Eventually, he found a faint point of light glowing from one of the narrow, pitch-black alleys.
“Cough…
cough…” The quiet coughing carried clearly through the still night, repeating intermittently from somewhere inside the house.
A thin curtain covered the latticed window, but the fabric was light enough for Shindo to make out the dim glow of an oil lamp beyond it.
He knocked gently.
For several seconds, there was only the slow stirring of someone waking, followed by hurried footsteps approaching the door.
Warm yellow light spilled from inside when it opened, casting a narrow strip across Shindo’s body.
The sudden brightness carried an almost physical warmth after the darkness outside, and he instinctively narrowed his eyes.
“Ah…
young adventurer…” Aunt Anje stared at him in delighted surprise.
There seemed to be moisture glimmering at the corners of her eyes when she realized he had returned in the middle of the night.
“Please…
come in.” A steaming cup of tea was soon placed in front of him.
Shindo took a small sip.
Warmth flowed slowly down his throat and settled into his stomach, easing some of the fatigue accumulated in both body and mind.
For a moment, it reminded him of Aunt Hirako back in the real world.
The house still smelled strongly of bitter medicine, and the pot on the stove continued to bubble softly.
Whether all of this was merely code, predetermined behavior, or something more complicated no longer seemed especially important to Shindo.
This world felt more like another world than a game now, and he had stopped caring whether that impression was technically correct.
“Aunt Anje, this should be the medicine you were talking about, right?” He materialized the fist-sized Little Nepent’s Ovule and slid it across the table.
Anje did not immediately take it.
Instead, she walked toward a cabinet behind Shindo.
Creak…
The old cabinet door gave a long groan as she opened it.
Reaching into the back, Anje withdrew a long wrapped bundle and carefully removed the cloth around it.
Inside was a sword with a red scabbard.
A Anneal Blade.
“Young adventurer, perhaps this will be of more use to you…” She offered it to him with both hands, looking uncertain whether he would consider it enough.
Shindo gave her a reassuring smile.
“Yeah.
A sword like this will help me a lot.” He already knew the circumstances Anje and her daughter were living under, so whether the quest rewarded him with col had never mattered.
Only after confirming that he showed no disappointment whatsoever did Anje finally accept the ovule from the table.
She added it to the simmering medicine, poured the resulting mixture into a small bowl, and carried it toward the back room.
Curious, Shindo followed.
Agatha lay beneath a thick blanket on the bed.
Illness had left her painfully thin, and her arms were so slender that she looked almost fragile enough to break.
Anje gently woke her.
Agatha’s eyes slowly opened and wandered around the room before finally settling on Shindo.
“Agatha, this adventurer brought back medicine from the forest for you.
Once you drink it, I’m sure you’ll get better.” “Mm…” Agatha gave a faint nod, her voice barely above a whisper.
Shindo looked at the girl.
There was unmistakably an NPC marker above her head, yet nothing about her behavior felt meaningfully different from that of an ordinary person.
The contradiction brought another strange sense of unreality over him.
Or perhaps this was exactly the opposite.
Maybe moments like this were proof that he truly was living inside this impossible, unreal world.
Anje carefully helped Agatha sit up against the pillows and slowly fed her the medicine.
No golden light appeared around her body, unlike the effect that normally accompanied a player’s recovery from an abnormal status condition.
Even so, perhaps it was only Shindo’s imagination, but some of the deathly pallor seemed to leave Agatha’s face almost immediately.
“Thank you, adventurer big brother.” Her gratitude was quiet but sincere.
The light returning to her eyes made them seem like a night sky scattered with stars, and for a moment Shindo found himself staring.
They reminded him of his absurdly adorable little sister.
Five-year-old Mano Hayasaka had the same expressive eyes, the kind that seemed capable of speaking without words.
That familiar feeling pulled Shindo’s thoughts back toward the real world again.
He smiled at Agatha, said goodbye, and quietly left the house.
…
“Wah—!” On the uneven trail leading from Horunka Village toward the western forest, Asuna caught her foot on a protruding stone and stumbled forward.
Mito immediately reached out and steadied her.
“You okay?” “Yeah.
Thanks.” Asuna quickly regained her balance.
“Watch out for monsters around here too,” Mito warned.
“Higher-ranked Little Nepents can appear in this area.” “Little Nepents?
Those are basically carnivorous plants, right?
Like Venus flytraps or pitcher plants?” “Pretty much.
They’re plant-type monsters.” Mito glanced toward the dark forest ahead.
“We’re high enough level that ordinary ones aren’t much of a threat anymore, but the terrain here is difficult, so we should still be careful.” After completing several quests around Horunka, both Mito and Asuna had reached Level 5.
Compared with the Little Nepents in the area, which were generally only Level 1 to 4, the two girls had little to fear as long as they were not overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
They had apparently accepted «Secret Medicine of the Forest» as well and were heading into the western woods in search of the rare drop from a Flowering Little Nepent.
“Okay, I understand.” “One more thing.” Mito’s expression became serious.
“Sometimes you’ll see a Little Nepent with a round fruit growing on it.
Never attack those.” Asuna looked puzzled.
“Why?” “If the fruit is damaged, it releases red smoke that calls nearby Little Nepents to it.
A huge number of monsters can gather at once, and once you’re surrounded like that, escaping becomes extremely difficult.” Mito stopped walking and turned fully toward her.
“Asuna, I’m serious.
No matter what happens, do not attack a Fruit-Bearing Little Nepent.” She emphasized the warning for the second time.
“Okay.
I’ll be careful.” Asuna nodded obediently, then looked toward a small rise not far ahead.
Several large plant monsters resembling pitcher plants had appeared there, each with an ordinary red cursor glowing above its head.
“Mito, those are Little Nepents, right?” Mito followed her gaze.
A spark of fighting spirit immediately entered her eyes.
She lowered the scythe resting against her shoulder and took it in both hands while Asuna drew her rapier beside her.
“Remember—don’t attack any of the ones carrying fruit.” “Okay!” The two girls rushed toward the Little Nepents emerging near the forest’s edge.
Little Nepents were not fast.
Calling their movement slow would have been more accurate.
Their attacks were similarly straightforward, relying mainly on the vine-like appendages common to plant-type monsters and the predatory mouths attached to their tulip-shaped bodies.
Their weakness was equally obvious.
Where the flower-like body connected to the feeding organ was a narrow, stem-like “neck.” A sufficiently precise strike there could kill one in a single blow even without using a Sword Skill.
Soon, Mito and Asuna were moving comfortably through a group of more than a dozen Little Nepents, farming EXP and drops without much difficulty.
At their current efficiency, clearing every monster in this small section of the forest would not take long.
Partway through the battle, however, Mito suddenly noticed movement in the nearby undergrowth.
A Spry Shrewman had appeared.
The rare MOB immediately reminded her of something, and excitement rose inside her.
Defeating a Spry Shrewman had a chance of yielding unusually high-quality equipment.
Among those possible drops was the rapier Wind Fleuret.
For Asuna, who was still using a Bronze Rapier, it would be an enormous upgrade.
Mito glanced back at Asuna.
Her friend was dispatching the surrounding Little Nepents with growing ease.
“Asuna, can you handle these Little Nepents by yourself for a little while?” “What happened?” Asuna had just finished off another monster with a few casual strikes and turned toward her.
“A rare MOB just appeared over there.
It’s one of the rarer monsters on the First Floor, and it can drop high-quality equipment.
I want to try taking it down.” Mito pointed eagerly toward the Spry Shrewman hiding among the bushes.
“Okay.
Leave this side to me.” Although Asuna was still technically a beginner, she had already become capable of handling small groups of ordinary MOBs alone.
The number around them remained well within a safe range.
“Thanks!” Delighted, Mito immediately chased after the Spry Shrewman.
Despite its ridiculous, almost dim-witted appearance, the rare monster had very little offensive power but compensated with remarkable speed and agility.
Actually landing a hit required more precision than its appearance suggested.
Mito swung several times with her Two-Handed Scythe attacks, only for the creature to dodge each one with irritating ease.
After being made to look foolish several times in a row, embarrassment finally got the better of her.
She activated a Sword Skill.
Purple light gathered along the curved blade of her scythe.
Mito rotated the weapon through both hands, tracing a glowing circle through the air before locking her grip around the shaft.
The system took over.
Her «Horizontal Sweep» tore sideways through the space in front of her, followed by an upward rising cut that completed the multi-hit sequence.
The Spry Shrewman was struck off balance and launched into the air.
Before it could recover from the resulting stun, Mito followed with a direct overhead strike.
The scythe came down cleanly on the immobilized monster.
Its HP bar emptied from right to left.
A moment later, the Spry Shrewman burst apart in midair into crystalline fragments.
A system window appeared to display the battle rewards.
Mito’s eyes immediately locked onto one item in the list.
Wind Fleuret.
Her face lit up.
She turned around at once and hurried back toward Asuna.
“Asuna!
I got the rare weapon!” Mito could barely contain her excitement as she rushed back to share the good news.
“That’s great!” Asuna smiled, genuinely happy for her.
Then she turned her attention back to the Little Nepent in front of her.
Red light gathered around her rapier as she assumed the activation stance for «Linear».
Mito’s smile vanished.
A Large Nepent had been blocking part of her view before, and now that it shifted aside, she saw what had been hidden behind it.
A Fruit-Bearing Little Nepent.
It was standing directly inside the projected path of Asuna’s Sword Skill.
“Asuna, don’t—!” But the warning came too late.
«Linear» had already finished charging.
Once the fully activated Sword Skill received system assistance, Asuna’s body was committed to the forward thrust.
Her rapier shot ahead.
The blade pierced through two Little Nepents in succession.
Then it struck the fruit growing behind the smaller monster’s feeding organ.
The fruit burst open.
A cloud of red smoke exploded into the air.
Behind that expanding crimson haze, hundreds of red cursors suddenly appeared.
They filled Asuna’s blurred field of vision so densely that there was almost no empty space left between them.
Little Nepents began converging from every direction.
Worse, the monsters responding to the signal were moving several times faster than the ordinary specimens they had been fighting only moments earlier.
Within seconds, layer after layer of them closed around Asuna.
“Asuna!” Mito shouted her name repeatedly from outside the forming encirclement, but the rapidly advancing Little Nepents forced her backward, widening the distance between them.