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Silica was a beast-tamer, a class not often seen in Aincrad. Past tense “was” being the key word. The familiar that served as proof of her occupation was now gone.

Even the term “beast-tamer” was not an official class or skill within the game, merely a nickname thrown around by the player population.

It is possible, if extremely rare, for the monsters of the game to display friendly curiosity in battle, rather than open aggression. With a quick offering of bait, you can successfully tame the monster, turning it into a very helpful familiar. Those lucky players who managed to snag their own familiars were called “beast-tamers” out of both admiration and jealousy.

Of course, you can’t tame every single monster in the game. Only a few species of small-animal types are eligible. There are other factors involved that no one is entirely sure of, but one thing seems clear: You can’t tame a monster if you’ve killed too many of its kind.

Upon examination, this makes the process extraordinarily difficult. If you specifically seek out a species for taming, they’ll typically be antagonistic, which makes battle unavoidable. In other words, being a successful beast-tamer means encountering many individual monsters but running away at the very first sign of aggression. It’s hard to imagine how tricky and tiresome that can get.

In that sense, Silica was unbelievably lucky.

Without any preparation or knowledge of the system, she’d descended on a random floor, wandered into a forest without a particular reason, and found that the very first monster she happened across was friendly. When she pulled out a bag of nuts she’d bought the previous day and tossed it to the creature, it just so happened to be its favorite food.

It was a Feathery Dragon, a tiny species covered in a down-like pale blue fur, with two large feathers in place of a tail. This type of monster was already quite rare. Silica was apparently the first to ever tame one, and she caused quite a stir when she walked back into Frieven, her hometown on the eighth floor, with the dragon perched upon her shoulder. Numerous players headed out in search of Feathery Dragons of their own based on her information, but no reports ever surfaced of another successful taming.

Silica named the little dragon Pina, after her cat back in the real world.

Familiars were typically not very powerful fighters, and Pina did not stray from the standard, but she did have several other useful abilities. She could search for monsters in the vicinity and heal small amounts of her master’s HP, which immediately made hunting dramatically much easier. But most delightful of all to Silica was the warmth and comfort Pina brought to life in Aincrad.

The AI routines for familiars were not particularly advanced. They couldn’t speak, of course, and only understood about ten different commands. But the salvation Pina gave to Silica—trapped in the closed world of Sword Art Online at just age twelve, crushed with fear and loneliness—was impossible to put into words. Only with her new partner was Silica ready to begin her adventure—to begin her life itself in SAO.

In the year since then, Silica and Pina had both grown in experience. Silica learned to use daggers and even gained some notoriety as a high-level player in the middle floors of Aincrad.

She was still inferior to the top fighters working at the front line, but out of the seven thousand surviving players, the few hundred “clearers” working the highest floors were a rare sight, even rarer than a beast-tamer. So it came to be that among the crowded middle floors, Silica earned a spot as one of the famed celebrities of the game.

Given the major lack of female players and her surprisingly young age, it didn’t take long for “Silica the Dragonmaster” to make a legion of fans. It’s hard to blame a thirteen-year-old girl for getting a little carried away, what with the never-ending stream of invitations from parties and guilds hoping to capitalize on her fame. But ultimately, that pride led her to commit a terrible mistake, one that no amount of regret could undo.

It started with a simple argument.

Silica joined a party she’d been invited to two weeks earlier, to adventure into a wooded region on the thirty-fifth floor known as the “Forest of Wandering.” The actual frontier at this point was far above, on the fifty-fifth floor, so this region had been cleared long ago. But the top swordsmen only had eyes for the labyrinth of each floor, and thus the sub-dungeons such as the Forest of Wandering were left untouched for the mid-level players to tackle.

Silica’s six-man party was full of experienced fighters, and their daylong expedition was a fruitful one. Monsters were slain, treasure chests found, and many col looted from the forest. As the first signs of evening settled in, the group was running low on healing potions, so they decided to call it a day and head back to town. The other female in the group, who brandished a long, thin spear, gave Silica what seemed to be a competitive admonishment.

“When we get back, we’ll split up the items we found. But since your lizard heals you already, you don’t need any heal crystals, I assume.”

Silica immediately snapped back, on the defensive.

“And you were just wandering around on the back line not doing anything, so you don’t have any use for crystals, anyway.”

The argument only got worse, and the leader’s attempts to intervene were sadly futile. Silica finally reached her breaking point and snapped, “I don’t need your stupid items. I’m not working with you anymore. There are plenty of other parties who want me there!”

And ignoring the leader’s pleas for her to stick with the group until they’d at least left the forest and returned to town, Silica stomped off down a different path, steaming in anger.

Having mastered about 70 percent of the Dagger skills and bolstered by Pina’s help, Silica wasn’t particularly troubled with the monsters of the thirty-fifth floor, even working alone. It shouldn’t have been hard for her to dispatch any foes on her way back to town…if she hadn’t gotten lost.

The Forest of Wandering wasn’t named without reason, after all.

The dungeon was split into several hundred minor areas like a board game, massive trees towering on all sides. One minute after someone entered a new area, the exits to the adjacent areas—north, south, east, west—would switch to a random configuration. Therefore, traversing the forest meant zipping through each area in less than a minute or buying an expensive map item in town that showed the proper route.

Only the sword-and-shield-bearing leader of the group had a map, and within the Forest of Wandering, teleport crystals would take you not back to town but to a random area within the forest. This meant that Silica’s only option was to try dashing through the dungeon as quickly as possible. What she didn’t count on was how difficult it actually was to speed down the path as it twisted and curved, tree roots leaning out to trip passersby.

She should have been going straight north. But after a few instances of the clock hitting time just before she left an area, sending her in a totally different direction, Silica began to grow weary. The sunset was a deeper shade of red, and the more she hurried to escape the growing dusk, the worse her progress.

Eventually, Silica gave up on running and clung to the hope that her path would take her to the edge of the forest at some point. But Lady Luck was not kind to her. Monsters closed in on her as she traveled, and although she was well equipped for them in terms of level, the darkening surroundings made her footing unsteady. Even with Pina’s help, it was impossible to escape battle unharmed, and soon she was out of both healing potions and her emergency healing crystals.

Pina seemed to sense Silica’s unease and lighted on her shoulder with a trilling krururu, rubbing Silica’s cheek with her tiny head. As she stroked her partner’s long neck, Silica regretted the anger and impatience that had put her into this predicament.

She began to silently pray to God as she walked.

I’m so sorry. I’ll never think of myself as special again. Please, just let the next warp take me outside of the forest.

She stepped into the wavering teleport zone as she prayed. After a brief bout of dizziness, she saw…the same old forest, deep and foreboding. It was dark beyond the trees, and there was no sign of the meadow that surrounded the forest.

Disappointed, she began to walk again—when Pina suddenly raised her head.

Kyuru!

It was a warning. Silica quickly drew her short sword from its scabbard, readying herself in the direction Pina was looking.

A few seconds later, a deep growl emerged from the shadows of a large, mossy tree. Silica focused on the spot, and a yellow cursor popped into being. It was more than one. Two…no, three. They were Drunk Apes, some of the strongest monsters to be found in the Forest of Wandering. Silica bit her lip.

Still…

In terms of her level, it shouldn’t have been that difficult.

When mid-level players like Silica took to the wilderness, they typically played it cautious, leaving themselves a wide safety margin. They wanted to be strong enough that even if surrounded by five monsters, they could handle them all without needing healing items.

The mid-level players had different reasons for adventuring than the top fighters who strove to complete the game. They did it to raise the col necessary to lead their daily lives, to level enough to maintain their status as middle-class players, and to stave off boredom. None of those reasons was important enough to risk dying in real life. In fact, there were still more than a thousand people down in the Town of Beginnings who had never left, because they refused to expose themselves to any amount of danger that might raise their chances of dying.

On the other hand, periodic income was required to afford meals and a bed to sleep in, and there was the chronic unease that all MMO players felt when they sensed they were distinctly below average within the game. So after a year and a half in SAO, it was now common practice for a majority of the players to venture out into the wilderness here and there and enjoy a good adventure, albeit under very safe conditions.

Because of that, Silica the Dragonmaster shouldn’t have had any difficulty with three Drunk Apes, even if they were the most powerful monsters on the thirty-fifth floor. Shouldn’t have.

Silica lashed her tired mind into alertness and readied her blade. Pina floated off of her shoulder and took a battle position.

The large ape-men emerged from the shadow of the trees, covered in dark red fur. They held crude clubs and jugs that looked like gourds wrapped with rope.

The apes raised their clubs and roared, displaying their canines, but Silica darted first, determined to seize the initiative. She started with Rapid Bite, a mid-level charging Dagger skill, then led into a rapid combination attack that overwhelmed her target.

The Drunk Apes could only use low-level Mace skills, and while they hit hard, the speed and complexity of their combos were trivial. Silica struck quickly and precisely, then leaped aside to dodge the return blows. After several rounds of this hit-and-run tactic, the first ape’s HP bar was significantly shorter. At regular intervals, Pina would breathe out bubbles that disoriented the foes.

But just before she was about to finish off the first ape-man with her fourth attack—the combo Fad Edge—a new enemy instantaneously switched in from her target’s right. Silica was forced to change tactics, and she began work on this second ape. Her original target backed away and seemed to be drinking something from the gourd it held.

And then, out of the corner of her eye, Silica was shocked to notice the first Drunk Ape’s HP bar refilling rapidly. Apparently, whatever the liquid contained within its gourd was, it had healing properties.

Silica had fought Drunk Apes once before on the thirty-fifth floor. There were two of them, and she’d had little trouble. She’d eliminated them before they could try switching out, so she’d never known about this particular ability of theirs. She gritted her teeth and reapplied herself to the second ape, determined to finish this one before it could escape.

But after a fierce rush that sent the monster’s HP bar into the red zone, she stepped back in preparation for her finishing blow, and the third ape stepped into the gap. At this point, the first ape was practically back to full health.

This wasn’t going well. The taste of impatience flooded her mouth.

Silica actually had very little experience fighting monsters solo. The level-based safety margin was just a numerical buffer, but a player’s actual skill was a different matter altogether. Silica’s impatience slowly began to transform into panic. Her attacks missed more and more, opening the door for enemy counters.

When she had beaten the third ape down to half health, Silica overreached, trying to string too many combos together. The ape did not miss her brief period of paralysis and connected with a critical blow.

The club was a crude tool of carved wood, but its weight and the Drunk Ape’s strength stat augmented the damage done, carving away nearly a third of her HP in a single shot. A chill ran down her back.

The fact that she was out of healing potions only made Silica’s panic worse. Pina could only recover a tenth of Silica’s total HP with her healing breath, and it wasn’t an ability Pina could use often. Even accounting for that healing, another three hits like that would kill her.

Death. Once that specter loomed over her mind, Silica couldn’t help but falter. She couldn’t raise her arms. She couldn’t move her legs.

Until this point, battle had been a thrilling experience, something far removed from any real danger. It had never truly occurred to her that actual death could result from it.

As she helplessly watched the Drunk Ape tower over her, roaring with its club brandished high, Silica finally came to understand battle against the monsters of SAO. The truth behind the paradox: This might be a game, but it’s not something you play.

With a low growl, the ape dropped its club onto Silica, who was standing stock-still. She fell to the ground, unable to withstand the shock. Her HP bar shot sideways, plunging into the yellow warning zone.

She couldn’t summon a single thought. Get up and run away. Use a teleport crystal. Silica had a number of options, but she couldn’t bring herself to do anything but watch as the club approached for a third time.

The clumsy weapon glowed red, and just as she was about to reflexively close her eyes…

A small shadow leaped in front of the club in midair. There was a heavy, percussive thud. Visual effects and blue feathers flew outward, and a tiny HP bar shrank to its left edge.

Pina was crushed on the ground. She raised her head, looking up at Silica with round blue eyes. She let out a small kyuru…and exploded into glittering polygonal shards. One of her long tail feathers floated through the air to settle on the ground.

Something within Silica audibly snapped. The invisible threads that held her captive were gone. Before the sadness, she felt rage. Rage at herself for letting a single blow drive her to panic and paralysis. But more importantly, rage at herself for throwing a fit over a silly fight, and being arrogant enough to think she could escape the forest on her own.

Silica nimbly leaped backward, evaded the monster’s next swipe, then tore into the beast with a roar of her own. Her dagger flashed again and again, tearing into the ape-man.

Upon seeing its fellow taking critical damage, the first Drunk Ape tried to butt in again. Silica stopped its club with her left hand, not bothering to evade. Her HP did drop, but not as much as if it had hit her directly. Silica ignored the ape. She only had eyes for the third, the one who’d killed Pina.

She used her small size to slip inside the enemy’s defense, driving her dagger into the ape-man’s chest with all of her strength. With a splashy effect signaling a critical hit, the enemy’s hit points were gone. It screamed, exploded.

As the shards flew around her, Silica turned and silently charged her new target. Her health gauge was already in the red danger zone, but she wasn’t even cognizant of it anymore. Only the enemy she needed to kill filled her narrowing vision.

Just as she was engaging in a reckless charge beneath the downward trajectory of a club, all thoughts of death forgotten—

A horizontal white light lashed out and struck the two Drunk Apes from behind.

Instantly, their bodies were split into upper and lower halves. First one, then the other, burst into flying fragments.

Silica stood in disbelief, then saw that a single man was standing behind the evaporating pieces. His hair and coat were black. He wasn’t all that tall, but his entire body seemed to emit a predatory intensity. Silica stumbled backward in instinctive fear. Their eyes met.

But his gaze was gentle, and as deep as the night. He slid his sword into the scabbard over his back with an audible ching, then opened his mouth to speak.

“…Sorry I couldn’t save your friend…”

At the tremor of his voice, the last strength from Silica slipped away. The tears flooded out one after the other, unstoppable. Her dagger fell out of her hand, clattering on the ground. But Silica worried only for the unmoving blue feather and fell to her knees before it.

As the white-hot rage that had gripped her faded away, sadness and loss filled its place deep in her chest. That in turn led to tears, which spilled down her cheeks without end.

The AI programming for familiars wasn’t supposed to contain routines in which the creature actively attacked enemy monsters. Which meant that when Pina darted into the path of the oncoming club, it was an act of personal will, a sign of the friendship that had built up between the two over the last year.

Her hands on the ground, Silica choked out the words between sobs.

“Please…don’t leave me all alone, Pina…”

But the pale blue feather gave no response.