Chapter 6: Chapter 6: Equipment Failure

Pushing our way through the other customers, Summer and I managed to reach the front of the line. Lyfeti had already left us, retiring to a hostel in preparation for meeting up with his friends later. It was odd since I knew it was technically evening, yet the sun hung squarely in the sky. The events of the day, combined with it being so bright out, were throwing me off. Although, I imagined I would be crashing some time soon and would have to figure out what to do about sleeping arrangements. 

I brushed my bangs out of my eyes as Summer placed a single gold coin on the blacksmith’s stall. He held up the coin, his burly arms tensing while he flipped it over in his massive palm to examine it closer. Seemingly satisfied–not that there were any counterfeit coins in this game, so it was probably a programmed quirk of his–he set it back down and smiled. “What can I get you, little lady?”

I leaned down by her ear and whispered some last-minute advice. “You’re going to be the only one fighting, so make sure to pick things you can actually use.”

She nodded and began to examine the equipment he had laid out. Most of it was leather armor with a few pieces of heavier plate, a few spears, knives, and swords that she picked up and examined. Nothing seemed to grab her attention, though.

"Do you have any robes?" she asked.

My lowered voice became a stage whisper. "Hey, do you even have any magic skills?"

She shook her head. "Nope."

The way she popped the 'p' somehow infuriated me more than her answer. I could only stare in awe at her audacity as the blacksmith scratched the scruffy goatee on his chin. He turned his back to us and began searching around the forge behind him. "My youngest daughter might have some clothes that would suit you. They’re heat resistant too."

"Don't buy that! Get some sort of armor and a better weapon!" I hissed.

My advice went ignored, the same as it had been since the beginning. After a few dull clinks and scrapes of him moving aside some of his other equipment, the tanned blacksmith faced us again, holding out robes toward her. The top was a shade of turquoise with a dark gray collar, while the bottom was a full-length plaid skirt. 

Her grubby hands lunged out for them eagerly. "I'll take it!"

He grinned. "We have a deal, then."

She wasted no time swiping a finger in the air to navigate her menus. It should have been more shocking, but I had come to expect the unexpected with her. The girl had some type of advanced AI and had many of the same capabilities a regular player would. While this was simultaneously intriguing and horrifying, it did make me curious about what the devs were playing at.

Either way, I wasn't going to waste precious brain cells stressing out about it. 

In the briefest flash of light, her ragged clothes had been replaced by her newest additions, and I had to admit she looked nice in them, having the same eerie cuteness that most dolls did. Yet, a bold fashion statement wasn't going to win us any fights. So, I decided to give the look a zero out of ten.

She was going to be absolutely useless.

The girl was pleased, however, twirling in circles much to my chagrin. The other players around us chuckled at the display; the blacksmith cupped his chin looking thoughtful. "It's missing something." His eyes lit up thoughtfully. "Of course, how could I forget?" He rummaged around once more before handing Summer a thin, white jacket with multi-colored stripes on the sleeves.

She accepted it but stared at him warily, yet the man simply waved her off. "It's on the house, little lady. I'm sure you'll have more use for it than me."

I huffed, trying to keep the laughter out of my voice when she practically pranced around in thanks. She slipped the coat on, and the sleeves dipped a little past her hands while the jacket itself stopped above her waist. A little chuckle slipped past at this, but I was able to hide it with a cough.

"Alright, you've had your fun. Now, let's pick out a weapon."

Placing a finger to her lips, she tilted her head. "Why would I need a new weapon? I still have the dagger I found in the cave."

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I shook my head. "That's not going to cut it. The stats on drops are usually pretty bad in the early game, so it'd be better to get something here."

After all, I was trying to clear these floors quickly. Convincing her to cooperate wasn't working well, and I hadn't factored in her stubbornness either. Maybe a bribe wasn't out of the realm of possibilities. What did girls her age even like? Toys? Games? Makeup? I had no idea. Yet maybe I was thinking about this entirely wrong in the first place. She was an AI, so the better question was what would it like?

"Hey," I started, thinking on the fly, "if you buy a better weapon, I'll get you some better computer chips later. What do you think of that?"

She stared at me blankly, obviously not thinking much of it at all. "You're weird." Then, she lunged in my direction, gripping the front of my shirt. "Let's go back to the cave, so I can test out my new stuff!"

Assuming she meant we'd be going back to Beginner Woods, I gave up completely and allowed myself to be dragged off. It would be better than continuing this pointless debate. Mentally I cursed Lyfeti and everything he stood for, not sparing me even a single gold coin.

◇

On the trip over, I had seen groups of other players fighting slimes that were also prevalent in the plains. That was a good sign since playing solo was all well and good until you decided to take on a floor boss. No matter how high you raised your level, they were nigh unkillable without a party. Not to mention heading in there without a healer or a wealth of healing items was practically suicide. 

And we certainly weren’t going to be any help clearing the first floor.

My eyes had finally begun to adapt to the darkness of the forest as I trailed Summer on her near memorized path back to the cave. There was nothing in me that wished to traverse that thing again, however, so I bounded forward and placed my hand on her shoulder. My extra weight succeeded in causing her to halt. She glanced up at me with narrowed eyes. “What’re you doing? We’re almost there.”

“We don’t need to go back to that cave. There’s literally nothing in there that we need.”

“Null”–she said my name like it left a particularly foul taste in her mouth–“you said you wanted to make some money.”

“I do…” I trailed off, not understanding where she was going with this.

She laughed. “You might’ve been the strongest player in SSO, but you sure don’t know a lot.”

I ignored how she knew that about me and instead focused on finding out what she knew. Maybe there was some secret treasure in there I had neglected to discover in my rush to get to the post-game content. “What’s in there?”

“A boss.”

Her easy declaration left me stunned. I had never heard about this. It wasn’t surprising that I had missed it since I was more focused on leveling up than exploration, but surely one of the expedition guilds would have found it. While I had no idea how far the cave extended underground, I couldn’t imagine it having more than a few branching tunnels. There was no way, and yet I couldn’t detect that she was lying.

“And you know where it is?” I asked, the excitement growing in my voice.

She nodded in response, a smile playing on her lips.

“And you can beat it at your level?” 

Another confident nod and a smile played on her lips. A smile graced my own lips as well, and I laughed happily. Seemed like things were starting to look up for me.

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