Ch 12: A villain through and through.

When Noah teleported back into the labyrinth, he wasted no time heading toward the exit. The Kobold killed by Asuna had respawned a long time ago, but Noah dispatched it with ease. Since he had just gotten his lustful hands on Asuna, he needed to prioritize getting some materials to raise his crafting proficiencies. At the very least, he would need a few more pairs of cuffs. Something suitable to replace her adventurer’s outfit as well. He could always keep her naked all day long, for the psychological impact of it, but he would prefer something like, for example, a maid outfit.

It took him almost three hours to descend the 19 levels of the labyrinth and reach the exit. He then turned east to return to the area with the small packs of wolves. The sun had set long ago, but he could still see reasonably well, in part thanks to his night vision proficiency. Dire Wolves regularly dropped Wolf pelts, but not that many leather strips, and he needed to restock on those. So he made a beeline back toward the starting city, picked up a bunch of stones, and Threw them at any Frenzy Boar in sight. They all died in one hit.

There were still some people hunting them, mostly under leveled players who had stayed inside the city the first few days for safety, and were only hunting because their money had run out, and they faced death by starvation if they didn’t kill at least a few boars every day. Hunting at night had the advantage of having less players competing for the monsters. But it also increased the chances of being robbed.

Noah made a comfortable stock of leather pieces, then headed to the best spot Argo had told him about for mining ores. He needed more of those, too. Raising proficiencies was hard work, and crafting needed a lot of materials. He actually had an idea about this, but would need to wait for Lisbeth and Argo to wake up. He wasn’t going to bother them in the middle of the night.

And speaking of rest, maybe it was time to invest some of the Yin Points he had accumulated with his repeated use of Lesser Healing.

He opened the Yin-Yang Store and searched for one of the many skills he had decided to take one day.

“Improved Rest. The user only needs three hours of sleep to be fully refreshed, is more resistant to fatigue, and can fall asleep at will. Cost: 750 Yin Points.”

Noah bought it, and checked his two statuses. The skill appeared on the Yin-Yang Status, but not on the SAO one. So Kayaba wouldn’t blow his ears off about more “defacing his life’s work”.

Most of his reserve of Yin points was gone, leaving him with only 172, but this would give him more time to grind, aka more materials, aka more crafting proficiency, aka more naughty things to try on with Asuna. In short, those Yin points had been well spent.

The skill was already having an effect, as Noah was feeling slightly more alert.

For several more hours, Noah farmed materials. Then, as the sun was peaking over the horizon, he entered the Town of Beginnings.

He could see some players huddled in the side streets. There were not enough inn rooms for everyone, or those players couldn’t afford the rooms. A room in this town was only 500 Cor, and killing 20 boars was enough to pay for it, not even counting the leather that could be sold for more Cor, and the possibility of rare drops. Noah felt a bit sorry for them. There were in for a few rough years, if they couldn’t get over their fear of dying. There were beautiful places in the Aincrad castle. Delicious foods, great landscapes, and so on. But only those willing to fight would experience them.

Noah quickly found the forge and the leather workshop, paid a minor fee for the right to use them, and got to work.

He used most of the ores he had collected to craft new equipment for himself.

“Crude light copper cuirass. Def +10.”

“Crude light copper bracers. Def +8.”

“Crude light copper boots. Def +8.”

With this, his total defense increased from 36 to 49. Wearing less leather pieces would reduce the speed at which his Light Leather Armor proficiency increased, but it would add the Light Metal Armor one to his list… After a bit of thinking, he placed the new gear in the storage and put on the leather pieces back. He would wait until he reached 250 in proficiency before switching his equipment, to gain one attribute point as soon as possible.

Making sure no one was looking at him, he crafted another Slave Collar, and two more pairs of leather cuffs. When he reached 50 in Leatherworking, he unlocked no less than five patterns.

“Basic Leather Jerkin. Def +12, Agility +1. Variable. Lvl: 15.”

“Basic Leather Pants. Def +8, Agility +1. Variable. Lvl: 15."

"Basic Leather Boots. Def +10, Agility +1. Variable. Lvl: 15."

"Leather Body Harness. Variable."

"Leather Gag. Variable."

Noah was puzzled as he contemplated the name of those patterns. He didn't know what the Variable attribute meant. And he wasn't aware that pieces of armor could have stat boosts on them. At least non the normal variants. The level mention was, he supposed, a minimal requirement to equip the items. And the costs of crafting materials for those items were not fixed anymore, but brackets with minimal and maximal values.

He still had some material left, so he decided to test it by making two Basic Leather Pants, one with the minimal amount of material and one with the maximum possible.

"Basic Leather Pants. Def +8, Agility +1. Lvl: 15."

"Basic Leather Pants. Def +9, Agility +2, HP +20, Lvl: 15."

Examining those two items, Noah now had an idea of what this variable attribute represented. That was very interesting.

Guessing that Argo and Lisbeth might be awake now, Noah decided to contact them.

"Good morning, Lisbeth. Did you sleep well?"

"Noah? Good morning. It's unusual for you to contact me this early. Did something happen?"

"I'd like to have breakfast with you, and maybe another person I'll invite in a few minutes. I have some sort of business proposal in mind. Interested?"

"Sure. And it's been a while since we saw each other face to face."

"In 30 minutes, at the restaurant with red bricks just south of the plaza?"

"Okay… One good thing about being in this game, is that I don't need an hour to wash, deal with stubborn bed hair, and so on."

"Eh, I'm trying to imagine you with bed hair, and the image that comes to mind is quite adorable. See you soon."

He then contacted Argo.

"Morning, Argo. I hope I'm not bothering you."

"Morning Noah. Are you buying information?"

"Yeah, about crafting. I have a pair of crafted items to show you, and a few assumptions to confirm, but I also want to buy some of your time, with a breakfast as payment. And I have a half dozen Chicken Skewers with different seasonings ready for you, made last evening. I'm in the Town of Beginnings right now. Are you interested?"

"I'm coming!"

"Restaurant with red bricks south of the plaza, 30 minutes. I'll be with someone else, but she's a good person. She might become a regular customer for you."

"She? You're trying to seduce her, I bet."

Noah rolled his eyes. Maybe he was a little too predictable.

" I already told her that I was open to the idea, but I won't try to pressure her, either. The ball is in her hands. I hope to convince her to agree to join my not yet founded guild. Anyways, don't be late. For each 5 minutes you're late, I'll eat one of the skewers."

"Ya wouldn't dare!"

"I just took from my storage the one with salt, pepper, and that yellow spice that taste like curry. I'm staring at it, and it call out to me, saying things like 'Eat me.' 'I am tasty, still steaming hot, and juicy.' 'Savor me slowly.'… I feel my willpower wavering."

"I'm on my way! Put the skewer back in storage before it gets cold!"

Noah giggled at her reaction. He had no doubts that she was joking and not all that motivated by the food, but rather by the possibility of extracting sellable information from the encounter. And he managed to make himself hungry with his joke about the Nepenthes skewers.

Noah headed to the restaurant and ordered a black coffee and a large plate of pastries. He didn't have to wait long, as he saw Argo come, and he waved at her.

"Release your hostages at once!" She demanded as she sat in front of him.

Noah snorted, and obediently surrendered the skewers to her custody.

"How have you been, Argo? Is business going strong?"

"I'm good. Things are going relatively well, as far as my business is concerned. But overall, it's… not that great. I visit the Monument every few days, and there's already way too many names on it."

The waiter came to take Argo's order.

"Order anything you want, it's on me." He smiled at Argo.

"Wow, feeling generous today, are ya? It will cost ya."

Despite her taunt, what she ordered was pretty reasonable, consisting of a coffee, a cup of fruit juice, and a plate of American-style breakfast.

"…How many?" asked Noah softly.

The Monument of Life she had referred to was a huge, thirty meters wide, seven meters tall stone tablet, dark gray in color. On it were engraved the names of the people who had already died, as well as the cause and date of death.

Another stone tablet of comparable size, the Monument of Swordmen, listed the names of those who participated in the subjugation of each floor boss. At the current time, it was empty.

"1623 yesterday. Of those, 254 were beta testers." She answered in a pained voice.

"… So, about 25% loss rate among the beta testers, and… somewhere between 15 and 20% for the new players…."

"18 percent. You were right, about the beta testers. Most of them seem to be dying from things that were different in the beta."

"That's… painful. But the death rate curve must already be flattening. Those who were inclined to suicide have done so, and most of the careless guys have either learned caution, or are already… gone."

"Yeah. But we'll need to find the boss quickly, and kill him on the first try. If possible, without any loss on the raiding party. It would to a lot of good for everyone's morale. If we fail, or take heavy losses, there will be another wave of suicides."

"I agree… To quickly do away with the depressing matters, have you spotted any sign of criminal activity from the players?"

Argo nodded, her expression grim.

"Six players have died, with the cause of death being 'player-induced monster killing'. Most of those were in the first three days. I suspect the quest for the Anneal Blade account for most of it. Five more death are noted as 'Killed by a player.' But those are more recent, all within the last eight days.

"That's worrisome. We have a bunch of ruthless robbers or outright murderers on the loose."

"Yes. I'm not going to investigate that too closely. I don't want to attract those people's attention."

Noah nodded thoughtfully.

"This will be for the large guilds to deal with. Do you know who the biggest ones are currently?"

"It's too early to tell yet. A lot of guilds are being formed, and probably less than half of them will still be around by next month. "

He spotted Lisbeth making her way to their table, and waved at her with a grin.

"Lisbeth! Great to see you again. Lisbeth, this is Argo, the best information trader around. The best because she's the only one." This earned him a kick under the table. "Ouch! Argo, this is Lisbeth, my first and only disciple."

Lisbeth and Argo smiled at each other as they shook hands.

"Nice to meet you, Argo. Did Noah try to seduce you, too?"

"He did! And I turned him down. Nice to meet you, Lisbeth. But what does he mean by 'first disciple'? Did he do anything improper to you?"

Noah sighed, wondering what kind of reputation he had made for himself. Maybe arranging for them to meet would turn out to be a mistake.

"He helped me on the plaza, when I was falling apart. He taught me the basics of fighting, helped me gain some experience, and gave me some good advice. So, we became pen pals."

"Oh. Good for him, and good for ya. I knew he's a good guy. A womanizer, but a good guy still."

"Guilty as charged." Noah answered somberly, his hand knocking on the wooden table like a judge's gavel, making them laugh.

"Order what you want, Lisbeth. It's on me."

"I knew I was right to come!" Lisbeth ordered a drink and food, and was soon served.

Noah took a moment to relate to Lisbeth what they had just discussed. The mood was quite muted as he did, but it was important that she'd be aware of the danger.

"Actually, some guys from a group calling itself the Aincrad Liberation Force tried to recruit me." admitted Lisbeth. "But I didn't like the way they were looking at me. And the more they insisted, the more I realized those guys were scum. They kept claiming that they were the good guys trying to liberate us, so I should support them, bla bla… Noah, something's wrong?" She looked at him strangely, as he suddenly snorted.

"Not at all. It's just that those guys claiming to be good guys made me think of a video I saw on internet. I could tell you about it, but it may take a few minutes."

"Tell us, I want to hear. Sounds interesting." grinned Argo. Lisbeth nodded as she ate her breakfast.

"Fine. For context, the video in question was made by an influencer in the tech industry, with over a million followers, who made a name for himself by calling out various corporations on their shady practices. That guy made a video about a certain company, denouncing what they were doing as a scam. Said company had promised to develop a smartphone with end-to-end encryption and deliver it to their customers. And they started accepting orders. That happened over a year before that influencer received letters of angry customers having paid for that phone, and never receiving anything. That's the context."

"So, the influencer received a letter from the president of that company. In the letter, the president described himself as a good man, working hard to solve technical difficulties and fulfill the orders, bla bla. Near the end of that letter, he said that by turning away potential customers with his video, the influencer was contributing to depriving the company from the funds it needed to build the phones and fulfill the first orders. And, as one good guy to another, he was politely requesting the influencer to take down his video."

"Needing money from new customers to deliver products to early customers. Isn't that just a Ponzi scheme?" wondered Argo.

Noah nodded.

"Got it in one. Anyway, In the video I saw, the influencer declared most vehemently that no, he would not take down the previous video, and the words he said in conclusion left an impression on me. He said that he, himself, was not a good man, but a scum. That all those describing themselves as a good person were granting themselves a license to act like scumbags, because they were doing it for a good cause. And if they were good persons, then they didn't need to question themselves, or the ethics of their actions. And so, no one else had a right to doubt their good intentions, either."

Lisbeth nodded in understanding. "It's like that Game of Thrones quote. 'A man who needs to remind people that he is the King, is no true King.' A real good person will not call themselves a good person. Because being good is so much a part of themselves that they consider it a normal thing, and not something worth using as a descriptor. They will just let their actions speak for themselves.

Argo's eyes danced with mischief. "What about ya, Noah? Are ya a good man, or a scum?"

Nah laughed softly.

"Oh, I'm definitely a villain. A scumbag through and through. You girls should run for the hills. But I am a villain who treasures his possessions. And since the world contains my stuff, I should work to make the world a better and safer place, so my stuff doesn't get lost or damaged. See? It's a perfectly selfish reason."

"I don't feel like running just yet." laughed Lisbeth.

"How fortunate for me, because I had a reason to invite you both to breakfast, aside from the pleasure of your company."

Noah took from his storage the two pants he had crafted, and let the girls examine them.

"Argo, I got the pattern for those when I reached 50 in leatherworking, and the pattern had a 'variable' attribute to it. The crafting cost was also a bracket rather than a fixed value. What can you tell me about it? Are there any tips to optimize it?"

"That's going to cost you, Noah. 1000 Cor."

Noah paid without hesitation. The information provided by Argo was always well worth the price she asked for it.

"Until now, the items you have used or crafted are sort of 'tutorial items'. They have fixed attributes. But once you reach 50 in any crafting proficiency, you can start making items that are… better. The amount of crafting materials you pour into them has an influence on the final result, but there's also a lot of randomness on it. Some beta testers claim that having a clear mental image of what you want to obtain when you craft helps, but I have not confirmed with a sample large enough to be positive about it. It's not just the stats that are randomized, either, but the shape and color of the item might also change. There's even a small chance when you craft for your items to obtain a higher grade and become magic items. And who know, maybe even legendary grade? The beta version limited everyone to lv20, so we don't know what high-level crafting can do."

"That's very interesting." Commented Lisbeth as she stared at the leather pants. "I want to become a blacksmith, so I'll end up crafting a lot of stuff in the future. Hey, does that mean that I owe you a thousand Cor, too?"

Argo grinned.

"It's fine, since Noah already paid me. How about you add me to your contacts as compensation? A large network is important for an information trader."

"Sure, I'd like to."

"Another customer got! Thanks, Noah."

"You're welcome. And now, Lisbeth, on to the business proposal I mentioned to you. I want to raise proficiencies on all variants of blacksmithing, leatherworking, sewing, even carpentry. But I can't be bothered with waiting on a shop for hours and haggling with customers while I might be instead fighting monsters for materials and experience. So, I'm proposing something like this. I give you what I craft, you sell it alongside your own stuff, and you give me back the cost of the materials I used for crafting. As for the profits, we share it, 30% for me, 70% for you."

"You want to raise that many crafting proficiencies? Metal working alone has… five, six, seven proficiencies associated with it! You're insane…" said Argo.

Lisbeth frowned as she considered it.

"How are you going to determine the cost of the materials?"

"There will eventually be a consensus on the average cost of materials, once players become more organized. I also wouldn't mind getting compensated in materials instead of money. And my proposal isn't something we need to start right away, while things outside have yet to stabilize. I'm thinking long-term."

"Why would you let me have 70% of the profit?"

Noah grinned.

"Quizz time, Lisbeth, Argo. What is the most valuable thing for us?"

"…Experience? Relationships?" Lisbeth looked at Argo for more inspiration, but she shrugged.

"Ok, relationships are arguably more important that the answer I had in mind. Time, Lisbeth. As long as you have time, you can obtain anything else. I can craft a dozen items in ten minutes. How much time might you need to sell a dozen items? That's why you deserve the bigger share."

"Not when you include the time taken to acquire the materials."

"Yeah, but I'd kill a crapton of monsters anyway to raise my level, and mining and woodcutting is relatively fast."

"…I understand. I'm in favor of the idea for now, about metal, clothing and leather products. Within limits. Not sure about furniture. It would take a lot of space to display them in a shop, meaning a larger, more expensive shop would be needed, and there's no market for it yet, not until people start buying houses."

"Shop capacity… You're going to need furniture to display your products anyway, when you get a shop... I'll craft those for you, free of charge. In return, you'll put a price tag on them, and if customers are interested, we can have them put in orders, and I'll craft on demand."

"That sounds good to me." smiled Lisbeth.

"Great."

They chatted for a while longer, and went their separate way. Noah almost invited them to team up with him for a few hours, as Lisbeth and Argo were only lv 9 and 10, respectively, but he couldn't make Asuna wait much longer. She should be hungry by now.

Noah left the Town of Beginnings and headed north, towards Tolbana Town. Twice as large as the Horunka village in the forest, Tolbana was also the nearest NPC settlement from the labyrinth's entrance, and most of the font line players had made it their temporary base.

Before he reached it, he changed direction to enter a secluded grove, and used his crystal to teleport to the 24th floor.