When I opened my eyes again The familiar cobblestone plaza had been replaced with sandy streets of Urbus, the main town of the second floor. Like Kara had told me the night before, the second floor was a barren wasteland of canyons and cliff faces. While the first floor had been filled with lush forests and lakes, the second floor was in stark contrast closer to a desert.

“What took ya so long Ma-bou?” a nasally voice called out. I turned towards the voice to see Argo impatiently waiting for me.

“Come on then.” She urged. “We’ve got a long trip ahead of us, and trust Big Sis Argo on this, you’re gonna want as much time as possible to get this skill!”

As we left town I noticed that there really weren’t many players around. It wasn’t that I was uncharacteristically longing for company, but no players meant there would be more mobs for us to encounter along our journey. Thankfully, Argo’s expert guidance meant we were able to avoid the aggro ranges of most mobs, but the floor was so thick in enemies that there was no way to escape every encounter.

“Looks like we’re gonna have to take this one on.” Argo whispered to me as an angry bull stamped its hooves at us. “How about you show ole Argo this insane new fighting style of yours?”

With a deep breath I pivoted my foot and took off towards the large bull.

We were easily over a hundred meters away from the bull, yet no sooner had I taken off running than I had successfully negated that distance. My new sprint ability was indeed a powerful skill.

“Aim for between its horns!” Argo shouted out. “That’s its weak spot!”

Normally with my acrobatic skills this wouldn’t be much of a problem. However, I forgot to account for the additional speed I was now traveling at. As I leapt, I found myself overshooting the bull’s head by a good meter.

“Well, Argo wanted to see my new style in action.” I thought to myself gripping my dagger tighter.

Activating my Whirlwind Slashes skill I managed to turn my body around so that I was now flying backwards. The large bull’s AI was having difficulty locating where I had disappeared to which gave me the advantage I needed. Noting my target, I activated my favourite Jab skill just as I passed the hump of its back. Instantly my body shot forward like a bullet, plunging my dagger deep into the large bull’s skull.

The large bull reared its head as the critical strike sapped away majority of its health bar, but I wasn’t done yet. Switching to Plunge I sunk my dagger deep into the back of the bull’s neck anchoring me in place as it swung itself back.

The bull staggered for a second before disappearing into a cloud of polygons. The mobs on the second floor were harder than the first, but it was easy to see that I still outleveled them a fair bit. Thanks to my acrobatics skill I managed to stick the landing where I peeked up towards Argo who stood in the distance admiring the fight.

“So?” I asked. “What do you think?”

Argo gave a toothy grin as she looked up at me. “I think I’m gonna be very excited to try whatever VRMMORPG you learned that from when we get out of here!” she beamed.

Argo continued to lead me south until we had reached the eastern-most point of the floor to a large mountain. Argo wasted no time however as she led me along a hidden pathway up the mountain.

We had a few more fights against some stronger enemies along the way who were half cow half humanoid. It seemed like every enemy on the second floor was in some way related to cows, though the stronger these enemies were, the more humanoid they became. While Argo would often point out she was a non-combatant, she could apparently handle herself quite well if necessary. The claws she carried weren’t just for show as her incredible agility made quick work of enemies.

After about thirty minutes of walking through a cave, we finally emerged at our destination. A tiny shed stood under the shade of a single tree in the center of a clearing surrounded by sheer rock walls on all sides.

“Welp! Here we are Ma-bou.” Argo announced. “To get the second skill, you’re just gonna need to walk up to that small shack. Just realize this is truly your last chance to back out if you’re getting cold feet!”

Unsure what Argo meant, I approached the small shed only to leap back again as the door burst open. Inside amidst the sparse furnishings there sat a bald elderly man with a massive beard and golden exclamation mark above his head.

“From here on out, I’m not responsible for what happens to ya.” Argo muttered.

With a deep breath, I approached the NPC.

“You want to follow my school?” the NPC read off its default quest line to me.

“Y-yes?” I stammered.

“The road of training is long and fraught with peril.” The NPC continued.

I thought about all the people who had helped me come to where I was now, and about Miku who every day was risking her life in this game thinking she was alone. I’d come too far to back down now.

“Even still I’ll do it!” I exclaimed… perhaps a little too enthusiastically for talking to a glorified pre-recorded message.

The old man gave a nod of understanding as the exclamation mark over his head turned into a question mark signifying the quest had been accepted.

Rising to his feet, the elderly NPC led me back outside to a large boulder sitting at the edge of his garden.

“Your training is simple.” He explained laying a hand on the massive rock. “Split this stone with your two fists. If you succeed, I will teach you all of my secrets.”

“Eh?” I exclaimed looking at the NPC and then back to the rock. I turned to Argo who averted her eyes away from me. I was about to interject when the NPC continued.

“You are not permitted to descend this mountain until you break the stone. I will put the sign upon you now.” He explained pulling something from his pockets. Before I could react or even blink, the old man moved at an inhuman level of agility painting six lines on my face. Six lines identical to those of a certain information broker who had led me here.

The NPC nodded in satisfaction at his artwork. “That sign will not vanish until you break this rock and complete your training. I have faith in your potential, my apprentice.” He finished his preprogrammed text leaving me alone with my stunned expression.

“Argo…” I began not sure if I wanted to shout or cry.

“Just gonna say, I gave ya fair warning to back out.” Argo defended. “Though I won’t deny, that’s quite the look for ya.”

Putting a hand on the rock, I wondered if it wasn’t an immortal object.

“Argo, I know this isn’t the time to mention this…” I explained. “But so far I’ve put every stat point I had into agility and dexterity. Can I even finish this quest without being a strength build?”

“Ah! Don’t worry about that Ma-bou!” Argo exclaimed waving her hand to dismiss my concerns. “I’ve seen a girl who was lower level than you while also agility focused beat this quest before, so it should be possible.”

I cringed a bit at the ‘should’ that she had snuck in there, but decided there was a more important question that needed to be asked.

“Does that mean you know how to beat this quest?” I asked desperately.

“Yep. Several ways to actually.” Argo replied with a nod. “Ah! But that doesn’t mean I’m gonna tell ya though.”

“What!?” I cried out. “Why not!?”

Argo gave her usual nasally laugh. “Consider this your punishment for not trusting Big Sis Argo’s advice and taking on that Briar Nightmare by yourself!” she scolded. “Oh! Speaking of the Briar Nigthmare, Klein told me in a message afterwards about the amount of col you all earned as a reward for beating it. So whatchya say? Dontchya think it’s time ya started to pay off that tab of yours?”

After paying Argo a large sum of col, she said her goodbyes and then left me alone with my boulder.

It took almost three days to break that rock, and even then I will admit I had to get ‘creative’ with my solution. As promised, once the rock had broken, my whiskers disappeared and I had gained a new extra skill called Martial Arts.

I sent Argo a message saying I had completed the quest and she sent me back a message congratulating me and telling me to meet her back at Urbus.

“I’ll give ya a bonus if ya have a screenshot of ‘Makku-Nyan’!” she added causing me to groan. This had been an experience I fully intended to forget.

Without Argo’s guidance, I was caught in far more battles on the way back than on the way out. Thankfully with my high level, I was able to solo with ease. I took the opportunity to experiment with my new martial arts skills integrating them into my style. Unfortunately, due to my high level, I received only a pittance of experience for every mob I defeated.

When I still had my stealth and hiding skills, Sword Art Online’s system would reward me with experience when I hid from players. Since I hid all the time from players of varying levels, my experience gain had always been constant. Now that I had irreversibly abandoned those skills, I could see how simply fighting low level monsters would be insufficient for leveling up. Technically my original strategy would have become less effective as I caught up with the average player level anyways, but it still hurt to lose such an easy experience farming technique.

I returned to find Urbus was as empty as I had left it. It felt like there were not only a lack of players on the level, but also a lack of NPC’s compared to the first floor. This did, however; make it fairly easy for me to quickly locate the red headed two handed battle axe wielder and her short cloaked companion.

“Ya know it’s considered rude to make a girl wait Ma-bou!” Argo snickered. Kara gave me a skeptical glance but didn’t say anything.

“I’m sorry. I kept aggroing mobs on my way back.” I apologized. It wasn’t a lie but it was also true that I maybe got a little carried away testing out my new skills.

“Where have you been the past few days anyways?” Kara asked.

“I’d… rather not say…” I replied as my shoulders sank and my face became mournful.

“Eh?” Kara replied wide eyed. “Seriously… Argo? What did you put him through?”

Argo gave her signature nasally laugh. “I may tell you for the right price.” She chuckled. Her laugh grew louder as I shot her a glare more desperate than threatening.

“Of course I might also NOT tell for a better price.” She added with a wink in my direction. Ah yes. This was what it was like dealing with The Rat.

“Soo! What’s our next step??” I quickly asked hoping to distract Kara who appeared to be honestly considering making an offer. “You said something about heading up to the fourth floor first?”

Kara shook her head seeming to unfortunately file this thought away to bring up later. “Not yet.” She replied. “There’s something else we need to do first.”

Dabbling with her menu, Kara proceeded to materialize a large sack from her inventory that she handed to me.

“You’ve leveled up, respeced your skills, and got a decent set of armor from the Briar Nightmare a few days ago, but you aren’t going to make it too far if you keep using iron daggers from the first floor.” Kara explained. “I don’t want to babysit you any more than I have to, that’s why while you were off doing… whatever it was you were doing, I was collecting resources for your new weapon.”

I tapped the bag that had been handed to me to see a variety of resources I had never seen before.

“Oho! I see ya went up to the fifteenth floor to get all this. You must be serious!” Argo mused looking over my shoulder. “With that amount of material ya must be planning to fully enhance it too! If ya wanna know the blacksmiths with the highest success rates ole Argo’s got the info for a price.”

“Thanks for the info but there’s no need.” Kara politely declined. “I already have a friend who is a blacksmith. I wouldn’t get work done by anyone else!”

We walked back to the teleport gate together before bidding our farewells. Argo looked up from beneath her hood before shaking her head.

“Never would’ve imagined you two would be teaming up together.” She mused. “It makes me relieved in a number of ways.”

She leaned over to Kara and whispered something to her. I couldn’t quite hear what was said, but saw as Kara’s face went red and furious.

“I WOULDN’T!” Kara cried out at the top of her lungs.

“Neeheehee!” Argo laughed as she deftly dodged Kara’s flailing arms. “Be sure to contact me if you ever need some more info!” she called out. “Your patronage is always appreciated!”

As Argo disappeared in a flash of light, Kara and I were left in the plaza alone. I turned to ask Kara about what Argo had whispered to her, but her red face and clenched fists made me think better of this decision.