Progressive Factor II: Lacrimosa Of A Reaper

The Men In The Hoods

Asuna, a little bit earlier.

Her skirt and hair dripping wet with water, her body slumped against the wall, Asuna lamented her misfortune ever since she stepped down the staircase to the second level of the catacombs. The result of her adventuring is the loss of the Chivalric Rapier Plus 5 to a vanished Sly Shrewman.

Her solo adventure began after she and Kirito split off to their respective rooms. Asuna was mentally kicking herself and Kirito's butts for not speaking about the friend request he mentioned earlier at dinner about Argo. As of now, the only people on said list is Mito and Koharu, for she never thought to add Kirito before. And even then, logically, she didn't need to; Koharu added her prior to the fight against Illfang the Kobold Lord, believing the party would split there. It was meant to message the other and keep in touch.

Asuna is with Kirito daily, so she does not need to message him. Yet...emotionally, it wouldn't have been so hard for him to ask her to be his friend and for her to accept. Emotionally, she wants it to be done. But it probably has slipped his mind, so if she wants it, she'll have to ask for it. But before that happens, Asuna swore to herself she'll only do so once she's on the same level as Kirito.

She was going to take a bath, located down the hallway instead of connected to her room, when she noticed Kirito sneaking out of the inn. Curious and knowing what he was doing, she decided to stalk him, forgoing getting Mito's help. As she raced after him in Karluin, she tried to message him, but by the time she was ready to send it, Kirito had slipped into the second level of the catacombs. Messages, whether instant or from friends, cannot be sent or received in dungeons, meaning the second and third levels of the catacombs are inaccessible locations.

It is that very thing that sent Kirito into the dungeon again. At dinner, he tried sending Argo a message but could not do so. After explaining the difference between a friend and instant messages (instant messages are only sendable if the recipient is on the same floor as the sender, while friend messaging can occur across floors) and the dungeon itself, he dropped the subject. But if he was going on this excursion, he could have asked for help.

She swore again to be strong and decided to catch up to him.

Asuna lost his trail at the catacombs entrance, though she knew he went through the southern exit of the first room. She steeled herself and ventured down to the second level after him. She searched through the doors that lined the hallway and succeeded in the descending staircase, finding them void of the black swordsman and (living or reanimated) people. If there were monsters here, someone must've cleaned house. Kirito was a few minutes ahead of her, but he couldn't be fighting this fast. She remembers Jaymes and Koharu stayed behind too, but chances are they long left the dungeon now.

Eventually, something caught her attention, and that'll prove to start this series of unfortunate events.

In the fifth room she searched, she noticed the sparkle that indicated a relic. Asuna and her partner ate some more blue-blueberry tart just for the hell of it, so the buff was still active. She crept into the crypt, heading to a crack in the back wall where the sparkle originated. It revealed itself to be a silver pendant. Placing it in her pocket, Asuna started to leave the room, only for a sarcophagus lid to start moving and a Mournful Wraith to emerge from it.

Asuna's fright from its wail caused her to step back, unintentionally triggering a trap door. Shaken by her fear, she dropped thirteen feet down to the third level of the catacombs. She reacted quickly enough not to land head first but to roll upon landing into a wall. She was fine, only losing about ten percent of her health. Body frozen from the impact, she quickly decided her new goal to return to the second floor.