The GeoCrawler hadn't been without its drops.
Adaptive Power—as the name suggested, once Yimi arrived in a world she became a part of it, her strength automatically syncing to whatever that world commonly ran on. She truly hadn't gained any experience, but the spoils had dutifully landed in her Storage Space all the same.
The Corridor Crystal—the very one Kirito had used when he hunted down Titan's Hand—could be obtained only two ways: dropped by a large boss, or opened from a rare treasure chest. A single purchase was enough to bankrupt the leader of the Silver Flags.
Yimi held the thing in her hands and turned it over and over, studying it.
"A Corridor Crystal? This—this is a really precious thing, you know. It lets you pick a spot and warp straight there. Where did you get it?" Asuna bent down beside her.
Surely she hadn't just produced an item that would drop from her own body as loot?
Asuna's mood was good. The monster blocking the way on Floor 56 had finally been broken through, her relationship with Kirito had thawed a little, and in under two days they'd cleared the whole floor outright, pushing the clear to Floor 57. Since everyone among the Clearers was leveled well above the floor's recommendation, the Floor Boss fights weren't much trouble so long as they stayed focused, and no one would end up a casualty here.
Kirito had been adamant about the affinity business, but Asuna had, after all, promised to teach Yimi to cook—so the girl had come along with her to the Knights of the Blood headquarters, newly relocated to Floor 55, Grandzam, the City of Steel.
Yimi turned her little face aside and refused to speak. "Hmph!"
Asuna blinked. "Hmph? Were you just saying 'hmph' to me?"
"Not talking to you."
Full-of-herself woman. The kitty already said she wasn't talking to you.
Asuna tapped her chin, putting on a thinking face. "Oh? So that 'hmph' wasn't for me. Then was that last line meant for me?"
"No!"
Asuna said nothing more, only narrowed her eyes and smiled.
"Mmgh."
Realizing she'd been played, Yimi lifted a foot and stamped it against Asuna's white knee-high sock—but nothing showed up at all.
"All right, all right. If you won't talk to me, how am I supposed to teach you? I flicked your forehead because I was worried, that's all—and you were the one who broke your promise first."
Asuna stepped behind her and guided her hands.
"Worried?" Yimi tilted her face up, finally answering properly.
"That's right, worried—so once I found you safe, the fear caught up with me, and of course that turned into anger, didn't it?" Asuna rubbed her head.
So if they really did finish the clear, once she got back to reality she'd probably get an earful too—but just how much worry, anger, and care was bound up in her mother's scolding? That she had no wish to face at all.
"Mm-hm."
The kitty's sure to get scolded when she goes back too. Though running off used to get her scolded by Grandma anyway.
Pushing thoughts of reality away as best she could, Asuna guided Yimi's hands. "In S—in this world, what's the most important thing about cooking? The pairing of seasonings, of course."
SAO had done away with most real-world seasonings and devised its own set of ingredients, leaving players to research and synthesize them—after all, plenty of real seasonings were processed and compounded too.
The cooking process itself was dull enough, yet here of all places the game refused to simply copy reality, and it had cost her no small effort to work out how to recreate things.
"Let's start with the meat stew you're best at. I'll teach you seasoning synthesis down the line, but for now you'd better learn the measurements first. After that I'll show you how to make these things—it's my own secret recipe, so once you learn it, you're not allowed to tell Kirito-kun."
Regrettably, Asuna didn't actually have all that much to teach—a dish's flavor depended even on your Cooking skill level.
"Why can't I tell Kirito?"
Asuna pinched her cheek. "Little kids don't need to know that much."
> Ongoing Quest: Teach @@ to cook
> Reward: /
This had popped up in her quest log at some point without her noticing.
Since this was a lesson, there was no need to break out anything precious, so Asuna had Yimi work with C-Grade ingredients.
By now she could no longer see the little girl before her as a game NPC, so when Yimi followed her instructions and brought out a fragrant, steaming stew, a gratified smile slipped onto her face despite herself.
"Let me taste. Mm—that's quite good."
With that bit of praise, Asuna ladled out a small bowl and set it in front of herself.
> @@'s Meat Stew: Drinking it grants an Attack-boost effect lasting ten minutes.
> Durability: /
Buff food?
Asuna paused. It wasn't that such food was rare—plenty of NPC restaurants served dishes like it—but as a rule the effect only applied if you ate it right there in the restaurant. Players could make that kind of cuisine too, though only with specific ingredients, and she was quite sure the ones she'd handed over had no such property.
The real crux was the durability. The reason food could never replace healing potions was that most finished dishes had, at most, a single day of durability.
Asuna mulled it over for a moment, then hit on a good idea.
She drew a bolt of cloth from her inventory, then a pair of scissors. "Yimi, how about I teach you to make clothes next?"
"Clothes?" Yimi, who'd just started shoveling in her food, paused mid-bite.
"Pretty little dresses, things like that. Once you learn the craft, you can make clothes however you like."
She had the Tailoring skill too, though next to Cooking—which she genuinely enjoyed—it fell a little short.
"Pretty." Yimi nodded.
The kitty was a girl who loved pretty things. A pity that ever since she'd gone clothes-shopping with Itsuka Shiori, no one she'd met along the way had approved of her sense of style. A few days back, when she'd slipped off to the Madoka Magica World to rest again, she'd finally been reunited with the leopard-print dress she adored—only for Kaname Junko, who'd promised to buy her whatever clothes she wanted, to grab her and drag her off.
"Do you want to learn?"
"I want to learn."
"Then let's start with something simple—a ribbon bow."
She cut the cloth into two strips and handed Yimi a pair of scissors. "Careful now. Don't cut your hand."
"Mm."
Fine work that called for nimble fingers had never been Yimi's strong suit; she hadn't been able to hold human form for very long, and her hands were still small. Still, following Asuna step by step, she managed at last to produce something lopsided but recognizably a ribbon bow.
Asuna took the fruit of Yimi's labor and gave it a glance.
> @@'s Handmade Ribbon Bow
> Bonus: /
> Effect: [Childlike Innocence]When approaching a monster that would normally flee, there is a 30% chance it won't run.
"It works!"
The effect wasn't much use for clearing—the things that fled were creatures like the item-stealing rats a few floors back, or the Ragout Rabbit, an S-Grade Ingredient with blistering speed. But even the mere possibility was a pleasant surprise.
Delighted, Asuna scooped Yimi up and spun her around in circles.