Summary of Sword Art Online Volume 21: Unital Ring, Chapter 2

Made this summary by request from a friend, who’s nagged me for details for a while since he knows I’ve been reading it in my during meals and free time. I probably won’t do anymore than this, since defan752 is still actively translating the series. Anyway, here you go.

Update: Removed some minor comment that was here.

PLEASE NOTE: Summary starts from where defan left off.

• The incident (as described at the end of defan’s chapter 2 translation), reminds Kirito of SAO’s launch day, but he dismisses the possibility of it happening again cause they’re using the animusphere.
• He also dismisses the possibility of it being a surprise event, as it would never get past compliance for being so similar to SAO’s launch event.
• The ground begins quaking.
• Once it stops, Asuna and Alice notice that the ground is falling beneath their feet – Kirito surmises that it took them this long to notice because they’re on the 22nd floor and a number of factors like air resistance and preventing complete free fall.
• Immortal objects will be fine, but the log house’s durability and their hp will deplete if they crash into the ground.
• Kirito releases that they can escape the tragedy using the wings on their back.
• Glancing outside the log house, Kirito observes that the entirety of Aincrad is falling, not just them.
• Kirito predits that they’ll have 3 minutes more or less before crashing into Alfheim.
• Kirito cries out loud that he could easily carry the rock with incarnation, if he could use it, but Alice comments he shouldn’t rely on it to solve all his problems. Kirito argues that this would be a suitable time, but Alice rebuts by saying that ‘dangerous situations are a true test of a knight’s readiness’.
• Asuna butts into the argument, saying that there’s something they can do.
• Kirito’s first thinks about Stacia’s terra-reformation ability, but dismesses it since they’re not in the underworld.
• Asuna says they can use their wings to help push the rock which they’re on. Kirito replies by ssaying that it’s impossible to carry it. Asuna clarifies by saying that they redirect the crash course into a body of water or the like.
• Kirito notes that they should be in Undine territory since theres a body of water not far.
• Kirito wants to believe that they can push it far enough, and that the log house would survive the ordeal if it crashes into water.
• The three of them begin pushing the falling island/rock towards the right.
• Alice says ‘Yoisho’ when she pushes; Kirito thinks to himself if an integrity knight should be using the same utterance as a youthful girl.
• Kirito notes that the flying gauge would’ve been depleted if ALO had still be run by RECT Progress, but hasn’t thanks to it’s new owners Umil(?) abolishing flying limits.
• Alice points out that they wouldn’t be able to adjust the course if they push it too far. The team puts their faith in Kirito’s judgment that they’ll barely make it if they keep pushing as hard as they can.
• Asuna counts from five and they stop.
• The rock crashes into the river.
• The log house survives.
• All of a sudden the crew lose their wings. Kirito tries to use the flight assistant but it doesn’t work either.
• Kirito tells the crew to ball up as they crash, as damage on fall depends on stance and he doesn’t know how deep the river is. They crash into the water, losing half their hp in the progress.
• Kirito thinks “huh” to himself, but doesn’t really have time to think to much about it as he’d drown otherwise. He notes that there aren’t any predators in the river, luckily.
• The three swim to shore. They can’t see the log house from where they are, but they’re fairly certain that it’s fine.
• They don’t dry off quickly, but usually it takes about 10 seconds.
• Kirito isn’t able to bring up the menu, and thinks to himself that it might actually be happening again.
• Tooltip menu pops up saying that the menu is now opened by making a ring with the middle and index finger.
• Opening the menu, Kirito is surprised that its assorted with circular icons rather than the standard rectangular menu. He commentss that it must’ve taken a lot of work to get this to work.
• Menu contains the standard stuff – skills, items, quests and the like. They scour the submenus and find the logout icon.
• Asuna and Kirito breath a sigh of relief, thanking back to SAO.
• Alice comments that she can’t understand why Kayaba Akihito did SAO.
• Kirito, despite having thought about it for 4 years, hasn’t arrived at the answer. He says that there’s no way to know but asking Kayaba himself, but also says that it’ll be pointless as he won’t answer honestly.
• Kirito tries to summon Yui, but gets no response.
• Alice comments on whether they’re really in Alfheim, as the types of flora nearby are far more than the usual 30-ish types.
• Asuna also comments that there aren’t such big rivers in Undine territory.
• Kirito opens the menu and finds that he’s lv. 1. Everyone else is too.
• Kirito notices that there’s a 2 new gauges beneath his HP and MP bar. He thinks that’s its probably TP/SP, and it’s what he went ‘huh’ to when he fell.
• He states that the UI is too complete for it to be a simple bug or update.
• Friends lists have complete been reset too.
• His clothes finally dries.
• He finds that there’s only two equips left in his inventory, the black sword made by Liz and the . Asuna has her rapier and staff, Alice has her sword and shield. Seems like the equips left are the two most used.
• This confirms that this isn’t an accident once and for all, more or less.
• Kirito summons the sword on his back as he usually would, but he is instead crushed under the sword’s weight. As he falls, he grabs onto Asuna’s and Alice’s belts. (There’s an illustration here)
• Letting go and crashing to the ground, he notices that there’s a ‘scale’ icon next to his hp bar. It’s the first time he’s seen it, but he quickly understands that it means he’s over the weight limit.
• It’s because his status has been reset. The sword was made recently so it’s fairly high-level.
• He opens the status menu again and finds the weight gauge full and red, while the carry-capacity gauge is 30% with only Excalibur in it. Basically, he doesn’t have a weapon he an use.
• Asuna comments that magic proficiencies have also been reset, but she stops all of a sudden and quickly check her menu. After a bit, she breathes a sigh of relief. This is because the skill of equal person value as the log house, the OSS passed on by the late Yuuki, <Mother’s Rosario>, is still there.
• Seems like the skill with the highest proficiency remains. Kirito asks Asuna why her rapier skill was higher level than water magic. Asuna asks if there’s anything wrong with that. Kirito respons by saying that it’s normal for the person nicknamed the ‘berserk healer’. Asuna comments that she can relinquish the name since she doesn’t have magic skills anymore.
• Asuna then asks when Kirito is going to put the sword away. Kirito tries with all his might to stand up with the sword on his back, but isn’t able to. Asuna and Alice sigh in response.
• However, this causes the a message to pop up, telling Kirito that the [Constitution] skill to be generated, with a proficiency of 1. It seems the system is identical to ALO, with skills learned as conditions are cleared and triggered by action. Kirito comments that this is probably identical to the [Inventory capacity expansion] skill that existed in SAO.
• Kirito thinks to himself that he could use the sword if he keeps grinding the skill, but opts not to since he doesn’t know how many hours, even days in might take. He obidiently puts away the sword as Asuna instructed.
• Kirito gets up, and the trio head through the forest. Kirito thinks that it’s a bit dangerous to head through the forest with no weapons, but it’s better than being exposed on the riverbank.
• Kirito opens up the menu and invites Alice and Asuna to a party through the communication menu. Since the basis of the controls seems to be the same, Kirito concludes that the VRMMO they’re in is still part of [The Seed] package.
• Asuna wonders about the TP/SP gauges, Alice replies by saying that they’ll figure it out when it drops.
• Kirito thinks that the two get along rather well.
• Eventually they come across a crash-site/destroyed area in the forest.
• Kirito opens the map before entering, but as expected, it’s empty – it’s probably been reset too. He can tell that they’re heading northeast, though.
• The trio carefully traverse the fallen logs, but they come across a wall which they have no choice but to climb to proceed.
• This reminds Kirito of the time he and Suguha played around in the park.
• As Kirito is climbing, Asuna, discovers that the logs are actually material items; tapping the log Kirito’s foot is on, the menu opens.
• Before Kirito can stop her, the logs turn into blue light and he falls and lands on his back. The other logs, having lost its support, roll across the area.
• Asuna and Alice quickly apologize and pull Kirito out of the way, lest he be squashed.
• Kirito internally decides that Asuna antics was a net-zero, since she discovered a way through, and after a few seconds of menu tabbing the wall disappears. His inventory is now 90% full.
• After a few minutes of proceed through ducking and jumping past logs, they finally make it to the place where the log house crashed.
• The left wall is destroyed, the roof and central part has a large concave, and the windows are all gone without a trace, and the stairs look like “the evil gods of Jötunheimr just came through” but the log house is in better shape than expected from a 10 kilometer high impact.
• Asuna runs forward, Kirito and Alice run after them.
• Alice asks if the house can be repaired, but Kirito says that the player houses should be immortal objects. He taps on a wall and a window appears [Cypress Log House – 4713/12500].
• The durability is steadily dropping, which Kirito infers is a result of structural damage. Based on the rate, there’s about a little over 13 hours. As Kirito is lost in thought, Alice points out that there’s a repair button in the menu.
• Kirito presses the button hoping that the house will be miraculously repaired, however, he is greeted by a series of menus instead.
• [Basic Carpentry Skill is required to repair this structure].
• [You do not have enough resources to repair this structure. For complete restoration, x 162, x 75, x216, x 463, x 30, x 24, are required.]
• Since the system didn’t exist in SAO or ALO, the team concludes that they’re now in a completely different game.
• The team get to work at gathering materials, with Asuna taking the initiative to go gather the logs. Kirito catches her before she heads off, telling her to drop off the wood she already has before going though, to reduce carry weight.
• Alice and Kirito follow suit, also dropping their weapons in the process. Kirito feels a bit uneasy, but there aren’t any other players around.
• The three silently work for 20 minutes. After making 10 piles of 15 logs each, they find themselves 12 short.
• Alice suggests that they cut the trees around them, but Kirito thinks it’s easier said than done… That said, he firsts asks Asuna what the name of the logs are.
• “”. Asuna ponders about the name.
• Kirito suggests that maybe it’s something that exists in the real world, but Asuna immediately answers in the negative.
• Asuna slaps the log a few times. Kirito comments that the wood is of fairly high quality. Alice comments that it’s quite similar to the trees around Rulid Village. Kirito feels a rush of nostalgia but drowns it.
• The crew discuss how to process the logs, and surmises that it’s probably something similar to the refinement or carpenting skill in SAO.
• Kirito says that the mystery would be solved if Yui were here. Asuna and Kirito discuss Yui’s possible whereabouts – probably with Lizbeth and Silica.
• Alice comes forward saying she doesn’t know the fine details of carpenting, but she had experience building a log house with the help of Garitta from Rulid when she left the Central Cathedral, describing a tool with blade with two handles.
• Kirito finds himself curious as to how he was like and how Alice had taken care of him in the log house during the half year between the battle against Administrator and The War, but he decides to focus on the problem at hand.
• He finds himself unable to imagine what the tool is, but Asuna immediately figures it out. It’s a draw knife.
• After a brief explanation of how they might make one from a normal knife, Asuna heads into a log house to fetch a knife, but the storage is empty. Asuna is in shock as all the decorations and items she’s gathered from all of Alfheim are gone. Kirito takes a step forward to comfort her, but he comes to a sudden realization.
• He grabs the handle for the black sword, saying that they can use it to process the wood instead. Alice reminds him of his earlier embarassment. However, Kirito says that that was because he tried to equip it while fully armored, if he isn’t…
• Kirito uses the , stripping down to only his boxers. Alice and Asuna cry out, but Kirito says that there’s no time to ask for forgiveness, telling them to look closely.
• He still finds himself unable to use it though, but Kirito says that there’s no way the sum weight of all his equipment is higher than the .
• Kirito thinks that it’s thanks to the system’s relief measures, since level was reset; e.g. Players, especially Tank players/Metal armor users like Alice would find themselves unable to move otherwise. Weight of weapons/armor that were equipped during the reset was partially mitigated.
• Thus, by stripping down, Kirito has negated that. He tries equipping his main def. equip, the chest equip , but immediately crashes down. He is met by the [consitution +2] window.
• The golden-armored Alice berates Kirito, asking why he didn’t notice when he stripped, saying how lame he looks right now.
• Kirito says that it was good that he was the only sacrifice, since it would be a bigger problem for the other two. Alice says that if that happened, they two wouldn’t login until Kirito prepared some new clothes.
• Kirito thinks deeply about all the points so far. He comes to the conclusion that it might be a survival game, likening it to airsoft in the real world. Players don’t die in ALO if they don’t eat and drink, but it’s different for survival games.
• He comes to the conclusion that TP and SP are a measure of hungriness. TP = ‘Thirst Points’. SP = ‘Starve Points’.
• Alice comments that the bars didn’t drop when they gathered logs, but Kirito says that it’s similar to the gear adjustment.
• Kirito complains about the situation. Alice says “That’s the spirit, Kirito” and slaps his naked back, it doesn’t hurt, but he reflexively cries out.
• Alice likens the survival world to the Underworld, since eating and drinking were necessities there. Alice comments that there’s a river and probably beasts in the forest, and that the goblins of the Dark Territory would laugh if they somehow died in such a place.
• Kirito isn’t as optimistic as Alice, but agrees that the environment is leagues better than the Dark Territory.
• Kirito announces that they’ll survive come hell or high water, and that they’ll establish the Kirito Empire upon the land someday.
• The girls give a hurrah! Or at least Kirito hoped they would. Asuna says that she’s fine just defending the house. Alice calmly comments on the dissonance between his garments and his gallant speech.