The Survival Logs || Sword Art Online Fanfic

PK Pandemonia Arc: Chapter 70 - Those on Top

19 February 2024

Katalysis, 43rd Floor

By the time Tekion had finally finished prepping, the streets were already filled with players in the morning as usual.

I did prefer moving out of the inn before the crowds thicken, but it just couldn't be helped if Tekion hadn't declared he was ready till then.

Though, if he did take that long to get ready, I hoped his shopping list was enough to fill up his inventory to the very brim. At the very least, I think I needed to prepare some empty space in mine as well.

Both me and Rakuno took either side of him as we walked through the streets. The smithy that we were planning to go wasn't that far, but dodging the player jam made it a fairly long trip.

Tekion draped his own hood on: a brownish raincoat that simply covered his entire body.

"So what's on the list?" I asked amid the bustling noises. My voice was really muffled, even when I was right beside him.

"The basic stuff," Tekion replied. "You don't have these basic materials, you're not a blacksmith. I'm not expecting much from that smithy, but my list also contains other stuff I hope to get, but still.....the basic stuff's the priority."

"You ran out of all the basic stuff you have?" Rakuno swerved away from a player with a two-handed sword on his back.

"To make the long story short for you non-smiths," Tekion raised his finger matter-of-factly. "We smiths need the basic stuff for everything we do, crafting, enhancing, repairing and the rest."

I, too, didn't really know what he meant about the 'basic stuff', but the fact that it was a necessity to blacksmiths was blindingly clear to me.

"Ah, that spiky rapier! Time for business." Tekion looked across the sea of heads, finally tracking down the smithy in the simplest way possible.

He basically did all the talking. I didn't think Tekion would click that well with the smithy owner, since he had quite the bad first impression of the place, but I guess the black market smith turned out to be not as different from Tekion himself. Without Tekion, things would get awkward pretty fast, no matter the situation.

The blonde smith did have tactics of his own though, starting off his approach to the owner by complimenting the handiwork of the swords lined up by his counter. I watched him from behind for a while, as Rakuno wandered around the smithy, stopping at a group of katanas hung on the walls.

Her cheerful demeanor has returned to her, it seems. I had half-assumed that my demand for her to keep that promise would have made her to stare at me quietly, probably thinking about the promise that she so desperately has to keep.

I really did need for her to keep it as tightly as possible though, not gonna lie, but I guess my demand might have sounded more like a threat to her instead. Maybe, but I hope it's just me thinking too much about it. If she's still naturally an easy-going air-head on the outside, then I wouldn't worry much.

As long as she never leaks a single word about Kira, I would never have to trouble myself on how I would deal with her if she did.

"C'mon! Why don't you just sell this whole bundle here for like, maybe 25000 col?"

I heard Tekion's request, as he and the smithy owner stood at the counter, with the counter now filled with a considerably large pile of materials chosen by the blonde man himself.

"No can do, brother," The smithy owner replied while twindling his thumb. "You may be a fellow smith, but I prefer to treat most of my customers equally. You should be lucky that I'm lazy to even calculate the total price of all of these that you're willing to buy. I'm rounding the estimate down to 30000 col. Take it, leave it, your choice."