Initially, Kayaba had planned for 12 Unique Skills in Sword Art Online. A nice, meaningful number. An oversight on his and Cardinal's part had seen to it that the creation of another skill was necessary.
Kayaba owned up to his mistakes. It had been his failure, and he wouldn't see a player unfairly punished for it.
But, of the now 13 Unique Skills in SAO, only 9 had been allocated until now - one of them twice, but it still only counted as one. They were:
UQ-001 - Battoujutsu - Holder: Redblade Klein.
An Unique Skill designed for the best katana-user in Sword Art Online, carrying within it a skill tree of its own, as well as a boost to katana-related skills proficiency acquisition, and a permanent bleed effect.
UQ-002 - DarknessBlade - Holder: PoH (deceased).
A monstrous Unique Skill, made for the worst of the worst in Aincrad. It could only be acquired by the first player to kill over a hundred people, and allowed one to grow stronger by committing slaughter.
UQ-003 - DualBlade - Holder: Black Swordsman Kirito - Secondary Holder: Untamed Storm Yuuki.
The exception to the rule. An Unique Skill meant for the player with the fastest reaction time in Sword Art Online, only to find two who tied for it. The Unique Skill for the player, or players, who would end Sword Art Online.
UQ-004 - HolySword - Holder: Holy Sword Heathcliff.
The cheat. An Unique Skill designed to disguise Kayaba's system assistance, and ensure he was in the proper position to bring about Aincrad's biggest betrayal when the time was right.
UQ-005 - InfiniteSpear - Holder: Broken Spear Drifter.
The greatest surprise of all Unique Skills. In a world designed for swords to rule supreme, Kayaba had never expected someone to climb to the peak using a spear, even discovering parts of the Unique Skill before it was supposed to be released. Now, he wasn't sure who would be the one to clear SAO.
UQ-006 - Mirage Burst - Holder: Lightning Flash Asuna.
The Unique Skill of Sword Art Online's fastest player. A skill so swift it killed the enemy before they realized the first attack had been launched.
UQ-008 - Indomitable Might - Holder: Indomitable Knight Nautilus.
An Unique Skill originally meant for a pure tank, but reassigned after its holder broke through the restrictions of a FNC even Kayaba and Cardinal could do nothing about.
UQ-011 - Volcano Forge - Holder: Forge Master Lisbeth.
The tool of Aincrad's greatest blacksmith. An Unique Skill that gave its host the power to forge anything, anywhere, anytime.
And finally...
UQ-013 - Arrow Path - Holder: Aero Huntress Sinon.
The extra Unique Skill that was never meant to exist. It allowed for nothing more than using the bow - a weapon that only existed in SAO because of a mistake. But that was enough.
9 out of 13 Unique Skills. That still left 4 that had yet to find their owners.
Until today.
As the Assault Team stepped into the meadows of the 47th floor, Cardinal decided now was the time to arm four players with the weapons that, quite honestly, were already theirs since long ago.
UQ-007 - Shurikenjutsu - Holder: Shadow Blossom Akari.
UQ-009 - Spirit Friend - Holder: Dragon Tamer Silica.
UQ-010 - Soundless Melody - Holder: Songstress Yuna.
UQ-012 - Mourning Sun - Holder: Hero Orlando.
Only Silica glowed, because of her Unique Skill reacting with an item she carried. But the others would find out their own gifts in the coming days.
"Unique Skill? Just like that?"
No one thought Silica was lying. All of them, Reavers or not, knew her too well, and trusted her. But it still boggled their minds how out of leftfield it had been.
"What is it, Sil? And what does it do?"
"Err... The name's Spirit Friend. The owner of the skill can register up to 3 pets. The pets will receive a number of buffs and skills that will make them more effective in combat. The pets can be- Ah!"
Suddenly, Silica cut off, her hands going up to cover her mouth while her eyes opened wide as saucers. Her pupils were tiny.
"Silica!? What's wrong?"
"Ah- T-The Unique Skill- It! Feredir! I can bring back Feredir!"
"What!?"
Pretty much every player in earshot shouted. The Reavers were crowding around Silica, and the rest of the frontliners weren't even trying to hide the fact that they were listening in.
"Yeah! It says here, the pets can be revived any number of times as long... as they wish to?"
The Dragon Tamer trailed off, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"What does that mean? Wish to?"
"It sounds like the pet can reject being brought back?"
"But why would they do that? Actually, how would they do that? Y'know, being dead and all."
"I dunno, man. It's Silica's skill."
As the Reavers fell into speculation, Drifter thoughtfully tapped his chin. He couldn't exactly claim he was experienced. His 'death' had lasted 10 seconds, while Feredir had been gone for months.
But also, Feredir wasn't a player, was he?
"Cardinal probably - no, definitely - has Feredir's data stored somewhere. It can just make a copy of it and bring him back. As for the 'wish to' part... Well, Spirit Friend didn't set a limit on the number of resurrections, did it, Silica?"
"No? Why?"
"Imagine, and I know you would never do that, but just imagine for a moment that you wanted to take advantage of the skill and just keep sending your pets to their deaths. There would come a moment where they might not want to be brought back, no?"
Silica's indignant expression was enough to relay what she thought of the mere idea of treating Pina and Feredir and any possible third pet as if they were disposable.
"Like I said, you would never do that, so I don't think you have to worry about Feredir refusing to come back to us, Sil. Instead, you should be re-reading the description of Feredir's Fang. I don't it's for no reason that it glowed and you received your Unique Skill now of all times."
Silica had the description of the memento engraved in her brain. Her eyes widened as she arrived at the same conclusion as Drifter, and a tentative smile spread over her face, as if she couldn't believe it quite yet.
Drifter's grin encouraged her hopes to bloom. He ruffled her hair and pulled her into a one-armed hug.
"C'mon, Silica. Let's bring Feredir home."
...
It wasn't quite as simple as that, of course. The description of Feredir's Fang may have said that they could use it to revive the wolf in the Hill of Memories on the 47th floor (and the time limit had disappeared!), but they still needed to actually find the place.
And that meant exploring the 47th floor.
Which, in itself, wasn't any big sacrifice. They were already going to do just that anyway, and compared to some of the floors they already had the displeasure of mapping, the 47th was actually very pleasant.
Grassy hills and vibrant meadows stretched for the entire floor, and all of it was covered by beds of flowers of all shapes, sizes, and colors.
Small, waist-high stone walls separated different sections of the floor, including a rather large radius around the main settlement, Floria.
Those walls usually flanked an array of paths, which, from the Reavers experience over the last couple of days, were safe from mobs as long as you stuck to the paved ones.
All in all, this was another floor that was well in the way to become a tourist attraction and a resting spot for the players once the clearers were done mapping it. Especially now that there was no Laughing Coffin to worry about.
The only wrench in that plan were the mobs. Unsurprisingly, the floor was populated by plant-type enemies. And annoyingly, all of them were ambush mobs.
The Giant Venus Fly Traps were basically invisible to the naked eye. They waited, buried in the ground near unpaved paths, for any passing players, and sprung to life when someone came close.
They looked... Well, pretty much exactly like their name indicated. Giant green and purple venus fly trap plants, which tried to eat the players alive.
They weren't too bad on their own. Deceptively fast for a plant, but nothing the Reavers weren't used to.
What was annoying was that, while the Giant VenusFlyTraps were stationary, you couldn't exactly avoid them. That was because, if you tried to go around then, you always ended up running into the second mob of the floor: Land Anemones.
Those were easier to spot, the collection of lilac tentacles waving in the wind at about shin-height a dead giveaway. But there were so many dotting the flower fields that it was like trying to traverse a minefield while blindfolded. You were bound to hit some.
And they were disgusting. Giant slimy purple columns that rose up to 12 meters in the air,and flayed around like some sort of inflatable gas station mascot, either crushing players with its mass, or, worse still, capturing them with its tentacles and attempting to eat them.
Drifter had the unfortunate privilege of being snared by it once. The feeling of getting squeezed on all sides by the mob while it tried to digest him was one he never wanted to repeat, and had locked away in a box at the back of his mind and thrown away the key.
No, there and then he made an executive decision that Reaver's Requiem would stick to the paths even if they had to uproot every Giant Venus Fly Trap between here and the 48th floor.
And it was looking like that was exactly what they would have to do, because, by everything that's sacred, there were a lot of mobs.
Mostly just the Giant Venus Fly Traps, thank gods. A few times they strayed from the path to investigate something and had to deal with the Land Anemones, but those were few and far in-between, thankfully.
While Drifter was feeling exasperated by the constant battles, Silica, on the other hand, was almost giddy with excitement and anticipation.
She was also showing off her Unique Skill at any possible moment, not that the Reavers minded.
"Growth!"
The whole guild had decided to come and search for the Hill of Memories together. Not the most efficient clearing strategy, but none wanted to miss the moment Feredir was reborn.
That was how all of Reaver's Requiem ended up watching somewhat indulgently as Siloca used the first - and for now only - skill inside of Spirit Friend.
Suddenly, her faithful companion, the Small Feathered Dragon Pina, wasn't so small anymore.
The amicable pet glowed green and doubled in size - which, considering she could comfortably nest on top of Silica's head before, meant she was only about the size of a big cat now.
Drifter wagered the skill would be a lot more impressive if used on Feredir. The wolf was already intimidating as he was, and would be nearly of height with the spearmaster if the skill also doubled his size.
Another reason to get to the Hill of Memories quickly.
But while they made their way there, watching Silica get used to her Unique Skill wasn't bad.
Growth unfortunately didn't do much for Pina, as the skill raised the attack and defense of a pet, which wasn't all that useful when the little dragon was a healer.
But it looked cool. And, surely, as the girl used Spirit Friend and her proficiency increased, more and more branches skills would be unlocked.
And Silica wasn't the only Reaver testing out new skills. After she received Spirit Friend out of nowhere, every frontliner had been tempted to at least check their menu. You never knew, right?
And, lo-and-behold, at least two of them had been rewarded. One was Hero Orlando, who made a lot of noise about his Unique Skill, Mourning Sun.
And yes, that was 'mourning' as in 'to grieve something or someone'. At first they thought it was just Orlando who couldn't speak right.
As far as Drifter been able to tell from the Brave's excited gibberish, Mourning Sun was the Unique Skill for heavy-weapon users. Warhammers, maces, axes, and, of course, Orlando's weapon of choice, the greatsword.
The skill was impressive. Other than a massive boost to his attack power, it also had something Orlando called 'passive butcher effect'. It made it so he had a much higher chance of dismembering or cutting off limbs of enemies.
Brutal, but extremely useful when it was on their side. In SAO, losing some part of your body was more than just an inconvenience. It came with penalties, ranging from getting your speed reduced to temporally losing your vision.
And last but definitely not least, there was the other Reaver to receive a Unique Skill.
Yuna had been delighted by Soundless Melody. According to her, the skill was simple, but also everything she needed.
Other than giving a major over-all boost to her songs, Soundless Melody did just one other thing: as long as she completed a song, it would last for the entirety of the battle.
In other words, no more did she need to juggle different instruments and tunes like crazy. Now, with just a little planning, she could stack buff after buff on her allies, and debuff after debuff on her enemies.
Already one of the major contributors of the Assault Team, Songstress Yuna had now risen to be, perhaps, the most important person in the frontlines.