The Survival Logs || Sword Art Online Fanfic

PK Pandemonia Arc: Chapter 54 - Meta Encounter (Part 1)

14 Feburary 2024

Algade, 50th Floor

"...You can't just give me a monster right off the bat, even if it's tamed!"

"The point is, Tekion, is that it's tamed. You don't need to worry about anything."

"B-but, a tamed monster's big news! Look at those beast tamer players, if you've ever seen one! This is gonna grab too much attention in the workshop!"

"You.......don't need to worry about the shortage of customers here, I guess...?"

"Goddamnit, Zenalyth!"

The lively atmosphere in Tekion's workshop lingered on as Tekion continued to blast me with complaints which I had never expected when I entered with an unexpected gift.

Well, maybe I should have expected his reaction when he stumbled back at the giant four-legged lizard that crawled through the door. He was definitely not prepared to lay his eyes on an enemy monster which was supposed to be slain by players in a field dungeon.

However, the fact that some enemy monsters can be tamed exists. And this was the result. A komodo dragon with orange-red skin, with its tail being shaped like a sledgehammer at its end.

"Please don't tell me you walked that lizard through Algade." Tekion stared at me, still dumbfounded.

"Um, it's called a Hammertail Dragon, by the way..." I tried to look away as I dodged his claim.

Tekion pulled a chair for himself to sit on. "Hammertail Dragon? Don't they spawn on the 47th Floor?"

"Yeah, in the rocky dungeons." I added, quickly swerving the topic away a bit. "That's where I went with my last party of clients. Apparently, one of them taught me how to tame them."

"Aren't tameable monsters insanely hard to find, let alone tame?"

"Don't know about that. But to tame one was extremely hard. Literally. Anyway, they're a blacksmith's best friend, so I thought you'd need one."

I then brought down my system menu. "I'm transferring Rogna's ownership rights to you. It can live in the guild base the next time you go there, probably. Depends on you, I guess. I'll give Misuko a heads-up on that as well."

"You named it Rogna?" Tekion asked with a skeptical tone.

"I had to name it in a minute after I tamed it." I replied as my hand raced through the system windows. "Can't afford to waste that chance after all that hard work."

Tekion gave a little sigh, before resuming to his work. He reached for his hammer, and aimed it at the pole body of my double-edged spear, Binarium Edge at the fireplace, as he had always done.

"Speaking of the guild," He said, as sparks flew by him. "I'm not sure if it's still okay to be away from the guild base for so often."

Tekion recently became the newest member of Horizon's Edge, some time after the 63rd Floor was first opened to players. He was reluctant to join at first, but much discussion with me and the guild leader, Misuko, he eventually gave in, though he told me that his reasons for joining were fairly logical.

"Those rumours about the orange guilds and stuff..." He had told me. "It's all what they talk about in Algade nowadays."

"I'd even heard of players disappearing without a trace in the field dungeons on the middle Floors. Misuko herself brought it up as well, didn't she? I hope it's only an exaggeration of what's really happening there."

I couldn't blame Tekion, or any other player for joining a guild for such a reason at this point of time. Uncertainties were all over the Floors, now that reports of player PKs and disappearances were now on the rise.