Just like that, we kept running for 2 hours at a suitable speed, but there was still no sign of the girl in front of us. Speaking of which, based on the time now, Selka may have already reached the cave. The restlessness and anxiety spread through my mouth with a slightly metallic smell.
“I say… Eugeo.”
I said as I took note not to mess up my breathing. Eugeo, who was running on the front side in front of me, turned back to look.
“What is it?”
“This is just for precaution’s sake…but if Selka enters the land of darkness, will she be taken immediately by the Integrity Knight?”
At this moment, Eugeo looked like he was searching through his memory, and immediately denied it.
“No…I guess the Integrity Knight will most probably fly over to the village tomorrow morning. It was the same six years ago.”
“I see… then, even if it is the worst case scenario, there’s still a chance to save Selka.”
“…What are you thinking about, Kirito?”
“Simple. Today, if we bring Selka away from the village, we might be able to hide from the Integrity Knight’s pursuit.”
“…”
Eugeo turned his face forward, remained silent, and whispered,
“How is that… possible. What about the Sacred Task…?”
“I never said that you have to come along, Eugeo.”
I deliberately said with a taunting tone.
“I’ll take Selka away. It was my fault for talking too much, so I’m bearing responsibility for this.”
“…Kirito…”
On seeing Eugeo’s face from the side showing such a hurt expression, I felt a sharp pain deep inside. However, this was to shake his sturdy «Obedient Will». Even though I’m scolding myself deep inside for using Selka’s crisis, I had to make sure right this moment whether the Taboo Index was just a philosophical law or an absolute rule to the people living in this world.
After that, Eugeo slowly shook his head, several seconds later.
“No… it’s impossible, Kirito. Selka has a Sacred Task too. Even if I know that the Integrity Knights are out to capture her, I can’t let you go with her. And I don’t think things will develop to such an extent. Selka can’t possibly commit such a grave crime.”
“But Alice did it.”
I simply gave an example. With that, Eugeo bit his lips tightly and shook his head hard to deny it again.
“Alice… Alice was special. She was different from everyone else in the village. Even me… and of course, different from Selka too.”
After saying that, he increased his pace as if he didn’t want to continue talking. I followed him from behind, whispering to that girl whose name I only knew in my heart,
—Alice… what in the world are you?
To the residents, including Eugeo and Selka, the Taboo Index wasn’t something that could be broken even if they wanted to. It’s like people in real life being unable to break the laws of physics that states that they couldn’t fly. This was something that affirmed my observation that «they were still different from me as humans even though they have real Fluctlights».
However, breaking a powerful Taboo…what kind of existence is this girl called Alice who could break such a powerful Taboo? Is she a test player like me using the STL? Or—
My feet moved on their own as I tried to piece together all sorts of thoughts in my mind. At this moment, Eugeo broke the silence.
“I see it, Kirito.”
I lifted my face, and like he said, at the break of the forest, I could see greyish-white rocks lining up.
Both of us dashed down the remaining few hundred meters left and stopped at the grassy patch that became gravel. I panted in a slightly heavy manner and looked up at the scene in front of me in a dumbstruck manner.
It was not the virtual world— the change in area was really too clear-cut, causing me to think of saying such a thing. There was only a very narrow buffer zone splitting it, and abruptly, it became a rocky mountain that was almost vertical. The amazing thing was that if I raised my hand, the places I could touch were covered with thin snow. I didn’t know how tall it was, but there was pure white light flashing nearby.
The snowy mountains extended out to both left and right sides of where I stood, until I could no longer see them. It felt like they wanted to divide «this side» and «the opposite side» of this world perfectly. If this world really had a designer, I really wanted to complain that his design for the boundary was too simple.
“Is this…the Mountain range at the Edge? And on the other side is the land of darkness…?”
I whispered with disbelief. Eugeo nodded.
“I was shocked when I came here for the first time. This Mountain range at the Edge…”
“…Is so close to us now.”
I sighed as I continued and subconsciously tilted my head. It was a road that had no obstacles, no split paths and a distance that could be covered in 2.5 hours just by walking faster. It was like— like it was luring us, luring the residents over to the Taboo area. Or it may be the other way around, inviting people from the land of darkness to invade…
Eugeo turned to me, who was relaxed, and said anxiously.
“Then, let’s hurry. There’s most likely still a 30 minutes distance between us and Selka. Once we find her and pull her back, we might be able to go back to the village while it’s still bright.
“Ah, ahh… you’re right.”
I looked over at where he was pointing at, and I could see that the river we walked down was being sucked in —or rather, flowing out— from a protruding hole in the wall.
“Is that it…”
We jogged in. The height and width of the wall wasn’t small, and on the left side of the trail of water that was flowing, there was a stone path wide enough for two people to walk side by side. The hole was completely covered in darkness, and there would occasionally be a cold wind blowing.
“Oi, Eugeo…how do we light this place?”
I had completely forgotten about the necessary items needed for exploring a cave and panicked when I said it. Eugeo nodded with an expression indicating to leave it to him, and raised a piece of grass that even I didn’t know when he had picked up. What are you going to do with a bristlegrass? Just when I looked forward in a dumbstruck manner, Eugeo said with a serious expression.
“Systemシステム・Call!コール！ Litリット・Smallスモール・Rod!ロッド！”
«System Call»? Just when I was startled—
The tip of the grass Eugeo grabbed onto let out a bluish-white light with a *swoosh*, and the brightness was enough to illuminate several meters of darkness. Eugeo raised it and stepped into the cave.
My surprise didn’t fade at all as I hurriedly followed him and walked beside him, asking,
“Eu-Eugeo… just now, that was?”
Eugeo frowned sternly, but obviously showed a delighted expression as he answered,
“This is a sacred art, but it’s just very simple. I learned this by practising hard in order to get the «Sword of Blue Rose» last year.”
“Sacred art… you know… the System also had the meaning of Lit… or something like that?”
“Meaning… not at all. It’s a formulaic line. It’s a sentence used to call god and pray for a miracle. The higher level sacred arts seem to be a lot longer than the one just now.”
I see, so he just treated it as a spell without thinking of it as a form of language. I nodded away deep inside my heart. However, this spell really demanded instant effects. The designer of this world was really a realistic person.
“I say… can I use it?”
It wasn’t the best situation at the moment, but I still asked with a thought to try. Eugeo started pondering with uncertainty.
“I practised this spell whenever I had free time in my work, and spent a month to learn this spell. Alice said before that those with aptitude would learn it in one day, and those who don’t have it will never be a
ble to learn it in their lifetime. I don’t know your aptitude, Kirito, but it might be impossible for you to learn it immediately…”
In other words, if I wanted to use magic… sacred arts, I had to practice it countless times to raise my skill level. This really wasn’t something that could be mastered instantly. I could only give up for now and stare at the darkness in front of me.
The moist grey stone path was meandering forward. Icy cold wind that could cut the skin blew over at me from the front. I had an ally with me, but I didn’t even have a wooden stick, let alone a sword, which really worried me.
“I say… Did Selka really come into such a place…?”
I couldn’t help myself from muttering. Eugeo silently used the glowing bristlegrass to light the ground.
“Ah…”
The bluish-white ball of light showed a shallow frozen puddle. The center of the puddle was trampled upon, creating cracks all round.
I tried to step on it, and the ice let out a cracking sound as the cracks became bigger. In other words, there was someone lighter than me who had just walked on the ice not too long ago.
“I see… Guess we’re right then. Really… I don’t know whether she’s just reckless or doesn’t know fear…”
I couldn’t help but mutter. On hearing that, Eugeo tilted his head in a puzzled manner.
“Actually, there’s nothing much to be scared about. There’s no white dragon inside this cave, not even a rat or a bat here.”
“I-Is that so…”
I was again reminded that even though there were enemies, there were no attacking monsters. At least I could assume that the mountain range at the edge was inside the field area in a VRMMO.
My back that had been tensing up for some reason relaxed at this point— and at this moment.
There was a strange sound that came with the wind coming from the darkness in front of us. Eugeo and I glanced at each other. *Gii*, *gii*, that sound seemed to be some cry from a certain kind of bird or wild beast.
“Oi… What was that just now?”
“…Well… It’s the first time I’m hearing this sound… Ah.”
“Wha-What is it this time?”
“Do you… smell something, Kirito…?”
On hearing him say this, I tried hard to smell the incoming wind.
“Ahh… something, giving a burnt smell… and… “
The burnt-resin smell had a little primitive beast stench in it. My expression changed the moment I smelled this. This really wasn’t a smell that I could bring myself to relax over.
“What is this… “
Just when I forced out these words, another sound came, and I gasped.
“KYAAAAAAHHH…!!!!” and, the long dragged out voice was undoubtedly the scream of a girl.
“NOT GOOD!”
“SELKA…!”
Eugeo and I shouted at the same time as we dashed down the slippery stone path that had frozen on top.
I was released into the biggest sense of danger —so huge that I couldn’t recall any other situation where I had had a stronger feeling– as it struck my body like ice, numbing my limbs.
As expected, «Underworld» wasn’t a complete paradise. There was pitch black malice wrapped under the thin layer of peace. It would be illogical otherwise. This world was most likely like a giant clamp holding down all the residents in between. A certain person spent hundreds of years unscrewing the clamp slowly, watching whether the residents would unite to resist or get crushed weakly.
Rulid village was most likely one of the closest places to the clamp. As the «final moment» continued to approach, the souls of the residents breaking up and disappearing would continue to increase.
But I would definitely not allow Selka to become the first one. That was because I was the one who got her to this cave. I had to make sure that she would come back safely in order to take responsibility for getting her fate involved…
Eugeo and I continued to dash at full speed, relying upon the weak light of the grass. Our breathing became erratic, and whenever we inhaled, our chests would feel pain. We nearly slipped a few times, and the knees and wrists that hit the ice walls would continue to hurt. It wasn’t hard to imagine that both our «lives» were decreasing. However, even if it was so, we couldn’t slow down.
As we continued to move forward, the smell of burning wood and the wild stench became thicker. *Gii gii*, the sounds could be heard with the metallic sounds *gacha* *gacha*. I didn’t know what kind of people were waiting in front of me, but I could easily imagine that they weren’t some friendly guys.
Since I don’t even have a knife on my waist at all, I should plan some strategy before heading forward cautiously… I whispered to myself as a game player, but the feeling that it was not the time for this overwhelmed it. Eugeo’s face was even grimmer than mine as he quickly dashed forward with tremendous speed. No matter what, I couldn’t possibly stop him.
Suddenly, there was an orange light swaying on the wall in front of us. From the reflection, it seemed that it was a rather large dome inside. My skin felt a clear prickling sensation at the enemies’ presence, there were many of them— a whole lot. I prayed that Selka was fine as I stepped into the dome space with Eugeo.
I have to look around and take the most suitable option— as fast as possible.
I followed the deduction made in my mind and widened my eyes to access the situation like a wide-view camera snapping away.
Basically, the round dome was about 50m in diameter. The ground was covered by a thick layer of ice, but there was a large crack that opened in the middle, showing the bluish-black surface of water.
The orange light came from two clusters of bonfires. In black metal cages, *pacha* *pacha*, the firewood was burning away.
Also, right around the two clusters of bonfires, there was a group of things that looked humanoid but were obviously neither humans nor wild beasts, and there were more than 30 of them.
Each of them, or it should be said that every single one of them, weren’t big. The head of the thing standing was only at my height, but their bodies with slightly slouched backs were rather ripped, especially the arms that looked weird and the hands that had sharp claws on the ends that looked like they could rip anything apart. They had bright leather armor on, and their waist had all sorts of fur, bones and little bags jingling there. Also— even though they were crude, I could feel power from their crafting machetes.
Their skins were dark grayish-green, and they had some light bristles growing on them. All of them were fully bald, without exception, and they were growing furs only on the side of the sharp and pointy ears, like wires. They had no eyebrows, and below the protruding forehead, that were eyes that were so big that they didn’t match their body at all, all giving off a corroded yellow.
They were extremely abnormal— and also things that I had been used to seeing.
They were the low-level monsters «Goblins» that would definitely appear in RPGs I was familiar with. Having realized that, I heaved a sigh. Goblins were basically monsters used for beginners to train and gain experience, and their stats were normally very low.
However, this relaxed feeling could only last until the one that was standing closest to Eugeo and me discovered us and turned around.
My bones were frozen as well the moment I felt the expression coming out from the yellow eyes of that guy. Its eyes were showing doubt and surprise, which then changed to a cruel delight and endless hunger. That was enough to make me tremble like a small insect stuck in a large spider’s web.
These guys weren’t programs as well.
I realized this clearly in the midst of my overwhelming fear.
These goblins had real souls as well, of a same nature as Eugeo and me to a certain extent, intellects born from Fluctlights.
But why—? Why was there such a thing?
During the approximate 2 days I was released into this world, I had a rough deduction on what kind of existence Eugeo, Selka and the other resid
ents was. They were most likely «Artificial Fluctlights» kept inside some artificial medium and not saved in a living person’s brain. I couldn’t imagine what kind of medium could preserve a human’s soul, but at least it wasn’t hard to imagine that since the STL could read souls, it should be able to duplicate them.
It was really a scary thought, but the source of the duplication was most likely a new-born’s Fluctlight. They could have duplicated that thing called the «Original Form of the Soul» infinitely and let them grow up from babies in this world. Other than that, there was no other hypothesis that could explain why the Underworld residents had ‘Real Intellect’ and ‘Outnumbered the current number of STLs’. What I was scared about on the first night was that the reason why RATH challenged god was— to create a real AI, an Artificial Intelligence, and used human souls as a mould.
This aim was already 90% complete. Eugeo’s foresight had already far surpassed mine, and his complex emotions already had more depth. In other words, it wouldn’t be strange for RATH to end this grand yet arrogant experiment at all.
But the experiment still continued on, which showed that RATH was still not happy about the current results. What was lacking? I kept thinking about this, and maybe it had something to do with that «Taboo Index», the rule that Eugeo and the rest couldn’t break.
Anyway, this assumption could explain Eugeo and everyone else’s existence. They were different from me in the physical dimension, but their souls were all «human», completely the same.
But— If that was the case, what were these goblins? This strong hatred that looked like it was about to flow out from the yellow eyeballs was…?
I didn’t think, and was unwilling to think that the original form of their souls were humans. Maybe RATH caught a real goblin in real life and let it use the STL— this fragmented thought flashed in my mind.
The goblin and I stared at each other for less than a second, but it was enough to terrify me. As I didn’t know what to do and could only stand blankly, the goblin in front of me let out a sound, *Giii*— which may be a laugh, and stood up.
And then, it spoke.
Sword Art Online - Volume 9 - Alicization Beginning Page 23