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SAO: Dual Realities (ImaginaryMuse & East)

ImaginaryMuse

ImaginaryMuse

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Jun 27, 2021
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An exhausted huff elicited as sixteen year old Yuri Hasegawa let her book bag slump off her shoulders and onto the floor. School was by no means horrible for her or anything, but it definitely was tiring. Worse than that, though, was it was very boring. She was earning all As, and not just because her father expected it of her. Because that's truly how easy it was for Yuri. But now that she was home and her father was occupied, she intended to take full advantage of these situations. Especially the latter.

Not that her father was abusive or anything. Far from it. Contrary to how he looked, he was very loving but ... definitely strict. Then again, given he was leading one of the few remaining yakuza families, it did make sense and explain his nature. Yuri's background was something she made damn sure to keep hidden away, for an array of reasons. And it was precisely because of her upbringing that it came along with certain curses. A major one was not being able to make or even keep friends. It seemed that despite making certain no one knew about what exactly her dad did, she emitted some sort of aura.

Maybe you do? she mused, remembering herself as Athene and how her own character had such abilities. Granted, those were the kind that gave allies extra defense, but that was besides the point. What did matter was for all that Yuri lacked in the real world, she made up for in the game. Particularly with the one named Leo .... a name that had, admittedly, made her uncertain whether to chuckle or snicker at first.

But over the past few months, they had been proving to be quite the competent healer. It had certainly been an intriguing display, namely because she was so used to seeing more females take up that role. And that was likely why she, herself, opted to break the stereotypes and become a paladin.

Either way, it'd worked out for her, all things considered. They had become quite the duo and were working their way through SAO, otherwise known as Sword Art Online. Arguably one of, if not the, best MMOs that had come out in years.

"Sorry in advanced if you've been waiting too long," she muttered softly, a smile appearing as she grabbed her head gear and slipped it on. The log in screen appeared and as it did ... Yuri took a few moments to admire herself. While she had no shame with her actual body, she'd been curious enough to see how her appearance would be if she took up a completely different form. Hence the long, flowing blonde hair and light blue-grey eyes compared to her usual black hair and violet eyes. It was incredibly Western ... and yet fitting for using the name Athene, the Greek goddess of war among other domains.

A soft breath elicited and then ... she pushed down on the "Log In" button.

"That's right," she murmured to herself. "We'd just finished up quite a few quests, so .... hmm ..... "

Yuri, now guised as Athene, found herself in the town square. Her fingers lightly tapped against her armor before she nodded and decided to go wait for him in their usual hiding spot. A cliché location, admittedly, but it most certainly served its purpose. An inn that doubled as a tavern, and thus a place to eat and drink. The one and only White Dove Pub. And indeed, as the name suggested, it was a relatively peaceful environment. Should anyone be foolish enough to try instigating anything? It was typically halted in its tracks, primarily by the staff. However, if Athene was ever needed to assist in any form or fashion, she absolutely would.

As such, she was very well known and typically greeted well.

"Athene! Good to see you again!"

One of the waitresses smiled as she walked in. Athene gave Irene a polite bow of her head before sitting down. "Waiting for Leo, are you?" Athene merely gave a nod. "You want anything while you're waiting?"

"Just some water to start with."

Irene giggled softly at that. "You're one of the few people I ever see stick with just water. Are you scared of trying anything else?"

"Hardly," Athene quipped back, her smirk widening, "However ... I will need to make certain I can think and properly focus, particularly if we end up doing a long quest. And in that regard? Water is the safest option."

"Even if the most bland." she internally admitted, able to hear and understand why Irene was trying to poke fun at her. Thankfully, she didn't push any further and walked away to go grab her drink. Athene, meanwhile, started going through her list of quests that hadn't yet been finished. Thankfully, most of those were side ones that could be done at any time. However ... they could still proceed with the main one. That was likely a good idea, given they probably spent enough time grinding to proceed with minimal complications now.
 

"I'm home," Kibe spoke to an apartment he knew was empty. His parents had probably given him too much freedom, not that they had much of a choice. His parents had gotten divorced years ago, his father worked abroad, and he had taken to living in his apartment, not wanting to deal with the difficulties of his mother. Technically Kibe was an emancipated minor under Japan's laws but his father was in the picture at least on paper.

The only creature who ever seemed happy to have Kibe around was Riri, his cat. He wasn't always alone, he had a small sense of community from his uncle's Dojo where he learned martial arts, and a few passing friends from his old school, but having just entered a new school and a new phase of his life, and spending most of his time alone it was little wonder why he had chosen to start gaming with the full dive system. It was way easier to find people to hang out with than it was in the real world, and it gave him a chance to have some kind of social life.

As a healer, he got to feel far more helpful and less alone than he ever did as Kibe, while the job had some pressure to it, as long as he was with a good tank like Athene he had a much easier time with quests and dungeons. While he may have gotten the odd look thrown at him as a male playing a roll most associated with women, it wasn't like genders gave you buffs or debuffs.

He glanced at the clock and realized he was a little late for meeting up with Athene. Getting into the full dive gear and logged in.

stretching in the virtual world he felt far less pressure here than he did in the real world. Even his clothes seemed lighter, though part of that was the fact that healers only wore robes as opposed to those with heavy armor. His appearance was sort of the same in both worlds, his hair still short and messy, though in-game it was a stark white, an almost silver fox look to him. He had made himself look brighter, more approachable. Where in the real world he wore baggy hoodies here he was more open.

walking to the White Dove he waved hello towards Ireene who pointed out Athene's table. "Can I get some cranberry juice?" He called after the waitress. he didn't really drink alcohol in this world. Made that mistake once or twice and it never went well for him.

He took the seat across from Athene smiling at her as he did. "How's my favorite paladin doing today?" Leo asked as he sat back feeling more confident in this skin than he ever did in his real one, Maybe because in this world he had a bit of power.

"I was thinking about it last night, and I was wondering if you would be okay with going down about two levels with me?" Going down meant a much easier time, but not a lot of Exp, most players were always trying to clear out dungeons that were on the same level, and get to the next floor for better loot.

"I saw a staff online that I want for re-fashion, but it's in an old dungeon. It's low level but I do almost no damage on my own so it would take me all day to get." It wasn't their usual plan, but Leo was often distracted by shiny and unique styles of clothing he could use for reskinning his current equipment.
 

Irene had just returned with Athene's water when Leo asked for cranberry juice. She walked away with a giggle and a smile, muttering something about how cute it was to see two people maintaining their innocence so well. Athene rolled her eyes at the thought, managing to grin despite her reaction. Even her real self wasn't completely innocent in certain rights, most linked with her father's line of work, knowing fully well what it was ... even being unfortunate enough to see sometimes .... things like that. Still, she couldn't argue Irene was completely wrong.

"Anyway, I'm going to pretend that part didn't happen. Good to see you. I figured if the absolute worst had happened, it was either you got too busy or you're finally a bit too intimidated of me now. I wouldn't blame you much for option B, I get that a lot even outside of here."

The faintest tinges of crimson painted her face as Athene took her glass, rose it to her lips, and downed some of the water.

"Flattering as ever," she quipped back, her grin widening as the cup was set back down upon the table, "But ... well enough, I'd say. And what of you, my partner-in-good-crime? You been doing well enough?"

"Maybe you two should get married here."

What was meant to be an irked glare came off as an embarrassed and cheesy half-smile, with the rest looking something between embarrassed yet ... amused at the idea. "Do you not have other tables to tend to, Irene?" she managed to ask calmly enough.

"Luckily for you both, I do. Enjoy!" And after setting Leo's cup of cranberry juice down, Irene left, giggling to herself all the while.

"Now ... umm .... " Thankfully, Leo had something else to help change the subject. However, some part of her did tuck the thought away. It wouldn't be the worst idea, and frankly ... if she had to consider anyone for that sort of arrangement, Leo was proving more and more to be one of the better people to be in such a situation with. With the past few months having been as smooth as they were ... she wasn't exactly having any reasons to immediately say no to that idea. For now though, it didn't quite feel completely right to say immediately yes to either.

"Not at all. I'd be fine with helping out with your staff." Athene's smile widened as she added, "After all, if you're going to continue to heal me in the game, your gear needs to be in the best possible shape. So a large part of that responsibility falls on me and ... well ... I'd be a fool to decline helping you out."

While there were one or two skills that did allow Athene to regain some health over time from her shield, it was nothing nearly as impressive any of the heals Leo could provide. "If it's really that low level, we might be fortunate enough to have it all to ourselves. Who knows, maybe there'll be extra bosses and thus extra treasures?" Her grin expanded even further as she nodded at the thought. "Yep. Sounds like a win-win to me, most definitely."

Once they both finished up with their drinks, Athene would stand up and exit the tavern with Leo. First thing was first though ... now that he was online, she sent over the party invitation link. And once he accepted, she nodded. "Okay. If there's a way to teleport there, I'm ready now. Otherwise ... lead and I'll follow."

She couldn't help but take a few more moments to examine other differences of her in-game self. Here it wasn't only her shield that damn well nearly towered over everyone. She'd made Athene far taller than her true self, standing at a height of five foot ten inches. While she wasn't flat, her chest was more endowed also. She certainly felt a lot more heroic as well as confident here, much like Leo noted. It was precisely things like this that made her enjoy her 'fake' life a lot better than her real one.

But then ... Athene quickly shook her head, keeping those thoughts away, even if only for now.

Leo needs your attention now, so give that to him.

However they would leave ... Athene would be quick to follow once Leo started guiding her to the old dungeon he'd spoken of.
 

"Intimidated? Athene I've healed your actual butt, it's hard to be Intimidated after having to pull thorns out of someone's backside." He giggled at the image. It had been back a few floors when both of them were less experienced, Athene was knocked into a thorny plant he had to remove the thorns before he could get rid of the debuff. At the moment it had been time-consuming and embarrassing, now it was funny.

He shrugged a little when she asked him how he was. "Just started a new school so I'm kind of on edge, it takes me a while to adjust and get comfortable in a new place." He didn't realize his slip up till he said it, he hadn't spoken about his age with Athene before, she didn't know he was just 15 years old going into his first high school year, and as far as he knew Athene could have been much older than he was, heck he didn't even know that she was a she outside of the game world.

It was thoughts like those which made the idea of marriage kinda ridiculous. He shrugged it off. Marriage was a decent buff, extra inventory space, an extra ring slot for your character, and a bunch of other functions linking menus, but it really came down to how much he could trust Athene. At the moment he could trust Athene with his life, but he had no idea if he could trust her with his personal information. It was a warming thought, but not one he could think to act on, at least not for a while.

He took his drink and sipped on it, the tart flavor was one of his favorite drinks to come back to again and again. Somehow the taste of food in the game world always felt more fresh and real than his senses in the real world. He was glad that Athene was quick to agree to his plan, it was warming to think he had a friend and ally who would happily follow him into a dungeon whenever he needed it just on the whim that he wanted a rare item for its looks. He appreciated the fact that she would go so far for him, and he had a faint blush on his face from that generosity plus the slight innuendo that came with the way she said she would help him. He caught it, but he wasn't sure if she intended it.

He nodded to her, and they would have to go to the town center, where the teleportation grid could be accessed. The massive crystalline structure was like a tree, it grew out of every level, piercing floors and popping up through various areas, and since each area the crystal touched was connected at its root, you only needed to learn the proper name of the shard to teleport through it. Or select the proper command words from a drop-down list. The MMO was far too massive to keep all of them straight. "Whispy, woodland, graveyard."

The two of them disappeared into a world loading screen, and the helpful hint 'remember to turn off auto-loot to avoid pets activating traps' came up for his screen. before he was once more dropped back into the world with a slightly sickening feeling, it was a bit like he had just fallen several stories, and gave him a bit of a headache. "Teleporting is my least favorite thing to do."

Each dungeon floor had a theme, and while the two of them hadn't been on this floor for a while he still had a few memories of this place. Its theme was a dark, Mirkwood, a mix of swampy forests and unsettling fog. The chicken he traveled with shivered, and he pats its small head. "Easy Riri, we outclass just about anything we would find down here." He said softly reminding the chicken that they were fine. However, even with the higher-grade gear the two of them had, it still had a feeling of damp coldness that stuck to his clothes.

"Tank takes the lead." He bowed playfully towards Athene, letting her take the lead as they still had to walk towards the dungeon. Honestly, the biggest danger to them here might have been other players if they found anyone.
 

Athene merely shrugged as she smirked. "Most people note my shield, stats, or sword and just .... " She wove a hand through the air as the words were purposely allowed to trail off. "But it's fine. I'm kinda used to that sorta thing back home. Just ... for different reasons." While Leo's slip up wasn't necessarily a huge one, mainly because he didn't specify what kind of school, it did at least give Athene a bit of a range. She gave him an understanding nod and smile, then moved her fingers across her lips.

"That'll stay with me, no worries. I've been lucky to remain in the same school for a while now, but I have had to move in the past, so I hear you well enough."

Eventually, the time for drinking would end. Athene would walk with Leo to the familiar tree, one that they'd had to use often. This wasn't the very first time they'd backtracked, but it was the first in a while when they'd done such a thing. And as such ... she almost forgot how teleporting felt ... up until the loading screen finished. Athene shook her head, lightly massaging her temple for a few moments.

"Suddenly, I dislike it too. Damn. Ah well ... it's tolerable."

Her hand quickly rose as Leo's chicken - of all pets - popped up and looked anxious. That had definitely been one of the first things that grabbed her attention. His familiar was most certainly by far one of the most unique ones she'd ever seen. Doubly so from a Cleric. But that was what made him fun and different.

"Poison's probably going the be the most annoying thing, but ... you got a very good owner to deal with that, Riri."

While she did have some resistances to certain status effects, it was the same as her small heals over time. They weren't nearly as great compared to anything Leo could do. And now ... it was time to head in. Leo would be flashed a sly grin as Athene gripped her shield tightly in her left hand, her great sword being wielded in her right. A soft breath was taken ... before Athene would indeed lead the way inside the dungeon.

She wasn't necessarily scared. A bit nervous at worst. There was always a pressure with being a role such as the tank, and Yuri had taken a lot of pride in building Athene so she could always be reliable, no matter what. Granted, if push came to shove .... Leo could revive her, but that was risky if he was stuck in combat mode ... for an array of reasons.

Should be fine, she convinced herself ... if only because this was a lower dungeon, and not a higher one they'd yet to explore.
 
Kibe blinked she was in school as well? and she intimidated people in the real world? or had something intimidating about her at least. It was a little surprising to hear he always had gotten along fine with her. He took those observations and thoughts and noted them down for the moment. Part of him wanted to ask if she was in high school, or if she was in college, but it seemed rude just to ask a woman her age, even if one of those options meant they would be a lot closer than the other.

Part of him kind of thought she would fit a college girl, she was always seemingly well put together, and there was the added benefit of older women kinda being hot, but he didn't even know what she looked like in the real world, and so he would leave potential fantasies to the side. Once they had fully recovered from teleporting he did a quick status check on his equipment and abilities. She was right this place was known for it's poison, in the form of spiders and he wanted ot make sure he had the right stuff keyed up for treatment. "Don't worry, I got Esuna, and plenty of mana, we will have this covered in no time flat." He said with a smile.

He had to reassure himself that this was a lower-level dungeon. As they walked into the dungeon, a deep cave in the dark forest, the gate behind them slowly closed ambient creepy horror noises of the deep dark cave echoed around them with each step they took. The faint dripping of water and the slant of the earth led them down towards a dark underground tomb. "Strange to think that this floor was only cleared out a few months ago and I've already forgotten this dungeon in its entirety."

Not that memory would help them, the Raids of SAO while themed shuffled themselves every time you entered, the various hallways procedurally generated connected pathways, while more thematic rooms were static, but their locations were randomized. The threat of being lost underground for hours would probably be their biggest threat.

He did however hear the rattling, and chittering movement of something that did bring back a memory or two. "Oh right..." As he connected the dots, he felt his entire body freeze up, not by choice, but by strong, and sticky threads, as he was suddenly pulled ungracefully into the air, and strung upside down, he grunted as his weight was suddenly lifted off the ground and supported by threads that while soft still bor into his shoulders as he was cocooned. It wasn't uncomfortable, but the position was also not comical.

Two large spiders hung hungrily over him. Despite his higher level, his lower defensive stats meant that this room was very much a threat to him. Plus with his hands bound to his side he couldn't actually do his job of healing. Leo however didn't really seem scared, he just kind of looked at Athene. "You know usually it's the girls that end up in this kind of situation in the anime I watch."
 

"Oi, do I look worried to you, Leo?" Athene quickly teased back, flying a sly grin. "At worst," she admitted, her face shifting to a more neutral, but still stoic look, "A bit ... well, I'm trying to recall the place, for a lack of a better wording. It's been a while. And while we likely do have our bases covered enough, remembering things ahead of time would be nice."

Particularly for any mobs to look out for or the boss at the end. But .... she continued to reassure herself that no matter what may or may not appear, they'd both be ready.

As Leo outright admitted he'd forgotten the dungeon, Athene chuckled softly. "Well, I don't feel as silly for also kinda forgetting the place."

And there they were. The first of many familiar sounds. Skittering quickly moving along the cavern grounds. Athene swiftly withdrew her blade from its sheath and easiliy dealt with any that attempted to bite her. The poison wasn't necessarily deadly. Sure, it could deal damage over time. But worse than that was the paralysis condition it tended to give anyone who wasn't prepared for such attacks.

"You handling yourself okay?"

.... Only to find the answer out from both his words and turning to see him already hanging upside down. Athene shook her head, lightly laughing. "It's also typically the girls who take up the healing role. But we've both agreed the hell with stereotypes, so ... guess not this time. Well .... let's see .... "

Raising the blade up high enough so that it was parallel with the uppermost set of threads keeping Leo suspended, Athene got her other hand ready. What for? Leo, of course. Because once he started falling down ... she was quick to grab him and hold him against her armor. It wouldn't do him any good to fall on his head, after all.

Athene would then take a few moments to gently set him down and proceed to cautiously cut him free.

"There ya go. Now .... do try to be careful. It'd be bad to be stuck like that again when we get to the sub-boss."

On the off chance Leo had forgotten, Athene seemed to remember a few major details about this place. Mainly the two primary enemies at the end of it; a large spider and then a full-fledged Drider. Thankfully, the Drider had more than enough weak spots for any tanks or DPSers to hit, which made up for the annoying poison to look out for.

And indeed, the rest of the journey would be relatively smooth sailing. Eventually, they entered a large area that was empty ... for a few moments. A magical portal appeared from the exact location they'd just walked through and sealed it off. That was always a signal one could note to know something bigger than just a minor mob of spiders, in this case, were coming. There was always the "WARNING!" that flashed across the screen, too.

But the most obvious tell-tale sign .... came in the very form of the spider itself as it emerged and formed in front of the two.

"Divine Protection and Taunt, activate!"

The first was but one of her many buffs, allowing for any party members to have an increase to their resistances and defenses. The second ... was to help ensure the spider paid more attention to her than Leo so he could safely heal from afar ... and even toss over any damaging spells he did possess..

"Come at me, you eight-legged menace!" Athene called out, dashing forward and keeping both shield and sword held and very much at the ready. When she got close enough, she swung her blade, aiming to cut at one of the legs in hopes of chopping it off.
 
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