Ch 35: The Skull Reaper
Another six months passed since Noah saved Silica. Noah and everyone else had been stuck in Sword Art Online for close to two years now. And Noah was just about ready to put an end to it. He had killed well over a million monsters by now, and he was getting seriously fed up with it.
As he headed alone toward the freshly discovered boss room of the 75th floor, Noah opened his two status windows.
Name: Noah Enfield
Age: 19
Level: 46
Exp: 123215/532560
STR: 40
AGI: 68
END: 40
MAG: 62
CHA: 25
Unattributed: 0
Skills: Automated Translation, Greater Healing, Hands of Nirvana, Improved Rest, Greater Cure. Negative Effects Immunity.
Slaves: Asuna Yuuki (Asuna), Rika Shinozaki (Lisbeth), Suzu Aizawa (Susu), Kaede Aizawa (Kaede), Kazuto Kirigaya (Kirito), Misumi Tozawa (Mito), Tomo Hosaka (Argo), Keiko Ayano (Silica).
Yin Points: 72622
Yang Points: 1700
Noah
Lvl 100
Exp: 10 000 000/10 000 000
HP: 20 250/ 20 250
Strength: 185
Agility: 106
Unattributed: 0
Cor: 63 507 412.
Proficiencies:
One-Handed Sword: 1000/1000
Rapier: 1000/1000
Two-handed Sword: 1000/1000
One-handed Curved Blade: 1000/1000
Katana: 1000/1000
One-handed War Hammer: 528/1000
Two-handed War Hammer: 253/1000
Two-handed Lance: 762/1000
Dagger: 512/1000
Shield: 1000/1000
Light Leather Armor: 1000/1000
Light Metal Armor: 752/1000
Heavy Metal Armor: 504/1000
Martial Arts: 1000/1000
Acrobatics: 1000/1000
Sprint: 1000/1000
Parry: 1000/1000
Battle Healing: 1000/1000
First Aid: 826/1000
Extended weight limit: 1000/1000
Searching: 868/1000
Cooking: 1000/1000
Leatherworking: 1000/1000
Light Metal Armor Forging: 1000/1000
Heavy Metal Armor Forging: 1000/1000
Thrust Weapon Forging: 826/1000
Blunt Weapon Forging: 798/1000
Metal Equipment Repairing: 1000/1000
Metal Refining: 1000/1000
Sewing: 1000/1000
Throwing: 832/1000
Hiding: 923/1000
Tracking: 528/1000
Night Vision: 1000/1000
Mining: 621/1000
Woodcutting: 824/1000
Carpentry: 960/1000
Accessory Crafting: 1000/1000
Thanks to his tireless effort with using different types of weapons and armors, and with his slaves providing him with staggering amounts of materials, Noah had managed to fully master 22 out of the 20 required skills to fulfill his last quest, thus ensuring that Asuna, at least, would be able to follow him to the next world.
Assuming he didn’t fail at the end, of course.
Noah opened his interface and messaged Argo.
“Hey, Argo. Still attending the pre-raid meeting?”
“Yes. They’re actually debating about raiding the boss another day because you aren’t present. Of our usual team, only Kirito and I are here. Some people flat out refuse to participate if you aren’t there. They say they’re almost guaranteed heavy losses if you don’t come. I’d argue that you coddled them too much, but I can’t exactly fault you for saving lives. Heathcliff is acting strange, though. He isn’t saying a word and just sit there, looking at the others arguing like he’s watching a clown show.”
“That’s understandable, the 25th and 50th floor bosses have been much more difficult than the others, and this one will surely be no different.”
“Are you really sure you want to do this? I know you’re crazy strong, but that’s just insane.”
“Yes, I’m sure. I’m not doing it for glory or any other silly thing. That’s a test my backer assigned of me, and I’ve prepared for it the whole time.”
“I know. But I don’t have to like it.”
“I’m about to reach the boss room. You can tell them what I’m doing if you wish. It’s too late for them to interfere anyway. Wish me luck.”
“I’m praying for your success. Come back to us alive.”
“Thanks. I’ll contact you once I’m done.”
Noah closed the chat, and opened another with Asuna.
“I’m reaching the boss room. This is it.”
“Good luck, Master. We’re all crossing fingers and waiting for you.”
“See you soon, girls.”
After turning a corner, Noah found the two huge doors leading to the boss room. The engravings on them represented a huge pile of human skulls.
Before opening them, Noah put on the equipment he had prepared for this boss. He removed his light metal armor and instead put on his best leather one. This was going to be a long fight, and he was willing to trade significantly less protection for more mobility and a lighter load.
And because it was going to be a long fight, against an overpowered monster that would shave off his weapons’ durability with each parried attack, Noah intended to start the fight with no less than ten blades on his body. Four one-handed swords strapped on his back, with two hilts over each shoulder. Four katanas sheathed on the sides of his waist. And one in each hand. All his weapons and his armor were level 80+ end-game gear, enhanced to their maximum. It had taken a staggering amount of resources, including most of the profits he made from selling stuff at Lisbeth’s shop, but the results spoke for themselves.
Noah felt ridiculous like this. He felt like that scene with Neo from Matrix where the protagonist revealed a dozen hidden guns and SMGs hidden under his coat, or like a living cutlery expo. But he wasn’t there to make a fashion statement.
Taking a deep breath, Noah pushed open the doors and walked forward. Stairs going down to a vast circular platform about 150 meters in diameter, surrounded by a chasm. Falling over the edge would be fatal.
Noah quietly walked down the stairs, not bothering to turn when he heard the doors closing behind him. As all boss rooms past the 73th one were anti-teleportation areas, The only chance for Noah to survive was now to defeat the boss.
When he reached the platform, he placed a recording crystal on the ground, and walked halfway toward its center, he stopped and lifted its head, toward the giant stone stalactites hanging from the ceiling.
The boss was hidden among them, ready to drop on unsuspecting challengers. Seeing it had been spotted, the boss made a strange hissing, gurgling sound. And let itself fall, twisting its body on the way to land on its feet. Its many feet.
Noah, being familiar about what had happened in the novel, jumped as high as he could when the boss made contact with the platform. This allowed him to avoid the shockwave that would have put him in a paralyzed state. And it was only when he was midair that he remembered the Negative Effects Immunity he had purchased over a month before. He didn’t actually need to dodge. But old habits die hard.
Noah landed fifteen meters away from the boss, as they stared at each other for a moment.
The Skull Reaper was nightmare fuel on so many layers it wasn’t funny. It was like someone had made a centipede skeleton, removed it head to glue the upper half of a human skeleton in its place, and elongated its skull to remind players of an alien xenomorph, added another pair of eye cavities, and replaced the lower jaw by two pairs of bone mandibles. The “ribs” of the torso under the skull were articulated and were constantly moving in that uncanny way that reminded Noah of spider legs, and ended in sharp points.
And the arms. Oh, the arms. The Skull Reaper had no forearms or hands. Instead, it had huge bone scythes.
And then someone upscaled the whole thing to be almost thirty meters long, because why not? And ended the tail of the abomination with a large bone spike, because again, why not?
The four red lights filling the eye cavities of the boss stared at Noah, as if in disbelief that a single player would challenge it.
Noah snorted. To give himself a boost of confidence, he declared loudly.
“I’m not stuck in there with you, you’re stuck in there with me!”
As if understanding that the puny being had challenged it, and perhaps its IA actually did, the Skull Reaper hissed and charged forward, lowering it torso almost parallel to the ground.
Noah stepped forward, keeping track of the bone scythes that were about to strike in horizontal arcs at waist and shoulder level.
He suddenly bent his knees and leaned backward, as if doing a limbo dance, and the bone scythes passed harmlessly over him.
Noah recovered his picture and slashed at the Skull Reaper’s face, to test the level of damage reduction the boss possessed.
-4093.
The black katana Noah had just slashed the boss with, Vortex’s Edge, had 812 Attack after enhancement. With his rather impressive 185 strength from his SAO status, the bonus 56 Strength from all his equipment pieces, the 100% damage bonus from his mastered proficiency, and his Yin-Yang strength attribute that quadrupled his strength, Noah usually did an impressive 12 280 base damage on unprotected targets. Sword skills, that added a fixed amount of damage to the base damage depending on player level, didn’t add much to it, and Noah had virtually stopped using them.
Noah was actually hitting harder than most floor bosses.
Noah jumped over the boss’s left scythe and away from it, checking the first of the five health bars above the Skull Reaper’s left shoulder. A tiny sliver was missing.
That hit had taken maybe 0.1% of the abomination’s total HP. It was going to take a while.
Or maybe not that long. For two years, Noah had barely used the trick of overlapping damage lines, for fear that Kayaba would get irritated and disable it. He only did it once every few weeks on minor mobs to confirm it was still possible.
But now was the time!
Noah used his huge speed to flank the abomination, and slashed four times at some of its many, many legs.
-4093, -4093, -24560, -4093.
Noah grinned in satisfaction as he jumped back, and used his second katana, Polaris Fang, to slightly deflect upward the monster’s scythe as he ducked under it. The light blue blade lost a tiny bit of durability. The damage would have been much more severe if Noah had tried to outright block the hit, even if he had the strength for it.
Noah jumped forward, using one of the Reaper’s legs as a foothold, and landed on it’s spine, just behind the humanoid part. He slashed at one of the cartilage joints between the vertebrae, as a test.
-8186.
Before Noah could strike again, he was struck from the left side and sent flying.
-6117.
The Reaper had just used the back of its huge, elongated, and spiky head as a cudgel to dislodge Noah. If not for him having 40 Endurance, reducing the damage to a quarter of its normal value, Noah would have died.
Not wanting to lose the opportunity, the Reaper swung its barbed tail at him while Noah was still mid-air. He blocked the hit with Polaris Fang and pushed against it to land a fair distance away from the Reaper, and used Greater Healing to start regenerating the damage. The skill started giving him back 2% HP per second for 30 seconds and entered its 60 seconds cooldown.
For a second, Noah and the Reaper just stared, acknowledging the opponent as a worthy doe. Then they launched themselves at each other.
…
“It’s been, what, twenty-five minutes? Isn’t it too long?” asked Silica worriedly.
“Oh, ye of little faith. Are you doubting Master?” replied Asuna with a smile, as she sipped her tea.
“Who’s doubting him? It’s just that, it must mean it’s a very strong floor boss, right? Noah-sama could have killed the Gleam Eyes in three minutes flat, if he had decided to go all-out.” retorted Silica, referring to the five meters tall, fire breathing, greatsword yielding goat man who had guarded the 74th boss room.
“We’ll see the boss when Master returns and show us the video.” said Kaede. Suzu nodded in agreement.
Asuna noted that while Suzu had a spoon in her hands, she hadn’t touched the piece of chocolate cake in front of her yet. She, too, must be worried.
Asuna kept projecting a serene smile, but she, too, was starting to think it was too long. She was about to suggest preparing some surprise welcome to keep them busy, when the icon she wanted to see blink so badly, started blinked.
“He’s messaging me!” she announced aloud as she opened the conversation.
A visible wave of relief came across the room, and the girls laughed at each other.
“It’s done. I’m going to open the next floor’s portal then come back. I’ll inform Argo. See you in a few.”
“We’re waiting for you.”
Asuna closed the conversation and looked at the girls. All of them had dressed in their day maid uniforms and were eager to welcome their master back.
A few minutes later, Argo opened the door of the house and entered.
“You girls heard already, right?” She said excitedly as she opened her interface and started equipping her maid uniform, too.
“Yes. Welcome back, Argo.” Grinned Asuna.
“You girls should have seen the faces of everyone when I told them Noah had gone to fight the boss alone. It was chaos! And when I told them the boss had been killed, most of them headed to the Monument of Swords on the first floor to confirm. They’re probably going to the 76th floor by now.”
“I can imagine.” grinned Lisbeth. “He should be there any minute now. Let’s line up!”
As they had agreed before, Asuna, Lisbeth, Suzu, Kaede, Silica, Mito and Argo arranged themselves into two neat lines.
A short while later, Noah appeared in the middle of the living room, his torso naked, missing his gloves and bracers. A few of the leather sheaths on his back and waist were empty.
“Welcome back, Master!” all the girls said un unison as they elegantly curtsied. They had decided they were all going to be all over him to reward him for his achievement, and the whole night would be a maid-themed orgy.
Noah smiled warmly at each of them.
“I’m back, everyone.”
He spread his arms wide, and they flocked to him.
…
On the next day, as they all ate breakfast together, a very tired, but very, very satisfied Noah made an announcement.
“Girls, I suggest you spend the next few days visiting whatever places you wish to see and take screenshots and stuff. We’re going to be released from SAO within a few weeks, at most.”
“Ah? What do you mean, Master?” asked Lisbeth.
“There are actually two ways to defeat the game. One is to reach the hundredth floor and defeat the final boss. The other one is to defeat the final boss, Akihiko Kayaba himself, while he is still disguised as one of the players.”
His words had the effects of a bomb as the girls gasped, while Argo’s eyes glazed, as she started considering suspicious people.
“Ah! He must be Heathcliff!” she suddenly jolted from her seat.
“Heathcliff?” Asuna was surprised, but then she frowned as she considered the possibility.
Noah clapped with a grin.
“Got it in one! But do not confront him. I’ll wait until I Master Carpentry and Woodcutting, as it will make me a little bit stronger, then I’ll challenge him. So, I’m going to turn myself into a mad woodcutter for a while. I’ll cut down entire forests if I must.”
“Those poor trees…” laughed Kaede.
“Indeed.” grinned Noah. His expression froze suddenly, as a name he didn’t expect blinked in his interface.
“And speaking of the devil, someone named Akihiko Kayaba is trying to contact me.”
The girls tensed suddenly, displaying angry expressions.
“He must have some kind of alert that triggers whenever someone speaks his name, or he’s spying on us way too much for comfort. If it’s the later, I swear…”
Noah opened the conversation.
“Hi, Kayaba-san. Long time no hear.”
“You won’t be able to repeat what you did to kill the Skull Reaper anymore. I had created the wounding system to reward accuracy among players, but you made a mockery of it. From now on, displayed wounds are only a visual effect.”
“Because I’m too accurate?”
“You are cheating. No one can move that fast or hit that hard. You should have died many times during this fight.”
“I understand why you would think that. It is the logical conclusion to reach. And yet, you are wrong. The superhuman performance I demonstrated last night is an accurate reflection of the real world. Which is a convenient segue toward something I wanted to speak to you about. Kayaba-san, I want you to survive our upcoming challenge, and the end of SAO. I know you plan to die if you lose, but there is a task I want you to do in the real world, as compensation for the trouble you caused.”
“And why would I humor the man who is spoiling my work?”
“How about I make sure the Aincrad Castle will be maintained indefinitely? Millions upon millions of people will be able to log in and experience the wonders you have created. It will be your life’s legacy. And your girlfriend would want you to live.”
“…Do you have that kind of power to even make that promise? Servers aren’t cheap to maintain.”
“I have Lilith as my backer, and she gave me carte blanche, as long as I provide the results she wants. A few billion yen is nothing. Besides, if you live on, you will learn the whole truth about me, and about Lilith.”
“I will wait for your challenge.”
Kayaba closed the conversation from his side, and Noah reported to his lovers its content.
“As long as he pays for his crimes, I’m fine with him living. But what do you want him to do in the real world?” asked Mito.
“I’ll need a way to track the movements of money, worldwide. A way to know how much money unscrupulous billionaires and businessmen have stashed away in anonymous offshore accounts, and where. Eventually, I’ll force them all to pay their fair share of taxes.”
“Master is going to be so unpopular with them.” laughed Asuna.
“There is this saying, about the worth of a man being known by the enemies he has. I’m perfectly ok with the idea of being hated by that bunch. It will mean I’m doing something good… Anyway, let’s finish breakfast. I have a lot of wood to cut today.”