Traveler Of The Multiverse

Discord Link ~ discord.gg/smAesXp

***

Yuna laid on her bed within an inn on the first floor, wearing only some small undergarments with frills on them. Her body was exposed and her long legs were in the air and resting against the wall.

A thoughtful look crossed her face as she moved her little toes before sighing, "I can't go to [Myriad Paths] yet..."

Yuna had once again stopped herself from going to [Myriad Paths] for the umpteenth time for the past week. Ever since she saw the Bloody Knight two weeks ago, Yuna has been training as hard as she can.

She would go out daily to the hunting field to fight against kobolds with a wooden dagger and a bow with arrows composed entirely of wood after getting the Bow Skill.

After pushing back meeting the master of [Myriad Paths] once more, Yuno jumped off her bed and equipped her clothes and armor. She put her dagger on her thigh and the bow around her with the quiver of wooden-tipped arrows on her back.

"Should I tell Eiji I'm off to hunting?" muttered Yuna as she left her room with a lowered head.

"Off to where?" came a voice from next to her unexpectedly.

"Nautilus(Eiji)?!" Yuna jumped back in shock, seeing Eiji, Nautilus, standing right outside her door with a serious look on his face.

Nautilus' eyes examined Yuna's body, noticing the bow and dagger on Yuna. His eyebrows furrowed and his eyes displayed worry.

"I hope you're not going out to hunt… I know it's tempting, but we need to survive," muttered Nautilus, trying to stop Yuna.

Yuna sighed and looked away from Nautilus with a sad look upon her face before raising her head and proclaiming, "I will not spend my days here rotting when I could have made a change! I want to grow strong and escape from Aincrad with my own two hands and hard work!"

With a fierce look on her face, Yuna stomped away with the determination to free herself from Aincrad.

She ignored Nautilus' pleadings to stay back and remain with him on the first floor, waiting for others to clear Aincrad. Yuna didn't want to just sit around and wait, she wanted to help and leave Aincrad.

Yuna ran outside the inn and out of the city, straight into the hunting field.

The deeper she ran into the hunting field, the higher the level of the monsters and the more different they are.

Soon, in a matter of seconds, Yuna ran into a lone Kobold walking around with a club in it's hands.

Looking at the Kobold Scavenger within her sights, Yuna took out the bow and nudged an arrow into the bow string before aiming at the Kobold Scavenger. Her eyes narrowed and her breathing slowed and turned calm, holding her hands steady.

Whoosh!

Yuna's slender fingers let go of the string, letting the arrow whistle through the sky and hit the Kobold Scavenger on the tail.

Grah!

The Kobold Scavenger jumped up in pain, and looked around in anger. It walked over to where the arrow came from and found nothing.

Just as the Kobold Scavenger was going to head back to scavenging, it received a sharp pain on the left side of it's waist. It's snout turned into a snarl, glaring at the figure trying to stab it's skin with a wooden dagger.

With eyes filled with anger, the Kobold Scavenger backhanded Yuna. Before it's hand could hit Yuna, the petite woman lifted the wooden dagger and hit the Kobold Scavenger squarely on it's elbow.

Crack!

GRAH!!

The Kobold Scavenger roared in pain as it's arm bent in the wrong way. It's forearm fell limp and it could only move around what remained mobile of it's left arm.

Yuna quickly jumped back and dashed away, pulling out the bow and standing a couple of feet away from the Kobold Scavenger. Replaying her earlier actions, Yuna took out an arrow and placed it on the bow string.

Unlike before, Yuna used a skill this time around to hurt the Kobold Scavenger some more.

<Single Shot>!

The arrow glowed red and flew across the distance between her and the kobold, only successfully hitting it's thigh and piercing it by chance.

Grah!

The poor Kobold Scavenger was being tortured, receiving a pummeling from the petite woman.

She pulled out the dagger when she approached, or was approached by, the Kobold Scavenger and the bow when she made some distance in between her and the Kobold Scavenger.

By the time the fight ender, both the One-Handed Dagger Skill and the Bow Skill both were raised by 5 levels. On the other hand, the poor Kobold Scavenger was filled with many wooden arrows.

Some loosely hanging since they didn't pierce the Kobold Scavenger's skin well enough. Many other arrows were around the dead monster, showing all of Yuna's missed attacks.

"That took longer than yesterday," muttered Yuna in exhaustion as she sat down in front of a tree.

'I need to go to [Myriad Paths], or else I'll never end up going...'

Strengthening her will after killing the Kobold Scavenger, Yuna stood up and quickly ran back to the city to go to the Teleport Gate and go to Dragon City.

…

'Quick! Quick!' thought Yuna as she made her way through the streets and arrived in front of [Myriad Paths]. Not stopping in her tracks in fear of chickening out, Yuna quickly made it to the front door and knocked.

"Mmgh..."

Yuna's face turned red, embarrassment winning over her.

She wished to run away at this instant since she attracted the attention of many players and Aincradians when she ran straight to [Myriad Paths] doors. Yuna felt like running away and never coming back, but she couldn't budge a single inch because of her resolve to leave Aincrad.

Nervously standing in front of the door, Yuna caressed the lute she took out of her inventory after exiting the Teleport Gate. Touching the lute calmed Yuna down a bit as she waited for someone to answer the door.

Her heart began beating so fast she believed that it was going to explode. Yuna watched in anxiousness as the door "clacked" open by a tiny pair of hands coming from a black haired girl.

"Welcome to [Myriad Paths]," said the little girl with a bow, allowing Yuna into the dojo.

"H-hi! My-my name is Yuna… I came here to train under the master of [Myriad Paths]."

Yuna entered the dojo, stuttering as she made her way in, taking in the amazing sight of the inside of the dojo. Her eyes wandered around for quite a while before stopping on a handsome man with his figure fighting against a wooden puppet.

The wooden sword in his hand flashed around, moving in many amazing ways. Sometimes ready, other times completely invisible. It was like watching hundreds of people fighting.

A blacksmith, a sculptor, a dancer… even animals!

Before being drawn in more into the charms of the man and his amazing sword arts, Yuna was shaken awake by the little girl.

"Go sit over there, onee-san," chirpilly said Princess out of courtesy before skipping away happily.

Yuna went ahead and sat down where Princess had told her to sit before continuing to look at the man practicing on the puppet that was fighting back.

'Who is he? His attacks are so powerful and they look like they have no cooldown at all.'

Yuna looked at the young man with a dazed look, curious about the man and every action of his. His charms, his skills… strength… origin…

Before she knew it, Yuna had entered into a sort of trance-like state as every move the young man did was the only thing that existed in the entire world.

Ahem.

"Ah!"

Being startled awake, Yuna looked ahead to the place where the young man was sparring with a puppet only to sigh in regret as the young man had disappeared. Yuna felt dejected as she thought about the young man that she saw.

Her thoughts were cut short after hearing a fake cough behind her.

Yuna turned her head and looked in shock at the person behind.

"Nice to meet you. I'm the Master of [Myriad Paths], how can I help you, young lady?"

The person talking to her was the same young man she saw sparring earlier with a puppet.

"Ah… you're the… Master?" asked Yuna nervously.

"It's what I said," chuckled Sora as he looked at Yuna with interest.

He told her to find a master or a dojo two weeks ago, but he didn't expect to end up falling into his laps. Now that she's here, not only will he be training her skills, but also her singing.

Whenever Sora hears Yuna's voice, it's like an incomplete melody that keeps annoying him. Her potential going to complete waste annoyed him more than the incomplete melody of Yuna's voice.

Yuna's voice was naturally very pleasing to the ears and excellent for singing, but Sora was very sensitive to sound, so it always sounds like Yuna is out of tune. She had a natural talent to sing from her voice, and he felt annoyed hearing her half-assed pleasing voice that doesn't have it's full potential unearthed.

"I… want to learn from you!"

Yuna bowed to Sora after standing up in a hurry from her seat, performing a 90 degree bow to Sora. Her eyes were shut tight and her hands were clenched into little fists nervously waiting for Sora's response.

"You're the second one this week already," muttered Sora as he stood up and continued, "Okay. You will be my disciple then. From now on, you and Argo will be following me around. Unlike the other players I trained, you will all receive battle experience whilst training your skills as well."

"Why different?" asked Yuna, wondering why she and the other player 'Argo' are being treated differently.

"Because both yours, and Argo's, set of skills are different from the other players," said Sora.

"How did..."

After maxing out his Mentor Skill, Sora was able to see the skills, level, and equipment his disciples have. He noticed Yuna's skills, and although she had the sword and dagger skill, she still had other skills that can't be grinded in the Dojo, like her Bow, Sneaking, Dagger, and Hiding Skill.

Especially her singing skill called Chant.

The Chanting Skill helped boost the strength of players and their morale when the skill holder sang, so it was a sort of buff that Sword Art Online doesn't typically have. Akihiko Kayaba wasn't looking for a sword and magic type of game after all, he was creating a sword only world.

Argo had a Claws, Sneaking, Blade Throwing, and Martial Art Skill, which won't level up much against the dummies in the Dojo.

Sora just mysteriously smiled at Yuna and stood up, gesturing to her to follow him.

"Follow me, we will be heading out in a bit," said Sora. "We will begin the training today on the 21st floor. Stick close to me and you won't get killed."

"..."

…

After waiting for five minutes, Argo appeared and they were ready to leave.

As they made their way to the Teleport Gate and across the 21st floor, Yuna kept staring at Argo in suspicion. The feeling of familiarity kept creeping up into Yuna's head as she looked at Argo.

"Hey Yuna, I thought you would be here earlier than me," said Argo as she awkwardly waved at Yuna.

"Huh? Do we know each other?" asked Yuna in confusion.

Argo revealed an awkward smile before continuing, "Ahem… I'm 'The Rat', the info broker you met a week ago..."

Yuna put a finger on her chin, trying to remember last week and the info broker she spoke to. Slowly, the figure of the info broker slowly overlapped with the image of Argo, completing the puzzle.

"Ah! You're 'The Rat'?!" asked Yuna in shock.

Argo nodded and said, "Yup! I suspected you had caught on to me since your eyes revealed familiarity, but I guess you didn't."

"Well I did see you familiar, but I couldn't connect the dots," said Yuna regrettably.

"Usually I don't let others know of my identity, but I don't think you're the same. That and there's other people in the dojo that already know me as well."

Argo chuckled as she thought about Asuna, Lisbeth, and Kirito, her most loyal customers that look for various info regarding Monsters, Materials, and Quests.

"Haha..." Yuna giggled and said, "I love your rat whiskers by the way. I hope we turn stronger here!"

"Same here! Let us grow strong together!"