Fortune Favors (QQ) Chapter 8 (Patreon)

Fucking Kayaba.

Leave it to that inconsiderate asshole to take what was supposed to be a fun little pastime and turn it into a game of life or death.

'Oh yes, why don't you clear this MMO I made.' Fucking cunt. The month-long beta didn't even pass floor five!

A blonde girl walks through the streets of the Town of Beginnings a small frown on her face.

She's a bit late, having a little moment where she broke down in the town square, but hopefully she can still go out and take advantage of her knowledge-

A glowing wave of light washes over her, causing her to pause mid-step.

System Announcement:
Copper Ore Veins have been generated on Floor 1​

Huh?

That is... unusual...

That only happened when... someone got the blacksmithing skill.

Her eyes widen as she speeds up her walk, going in the general direction the wave originated from.

Did Kayaba add in the crafting jobs floor one?!

She needs to-

She spies a black haired figure slowly walking down the street towards the large gate leading outside of town.

What catches her attention immediately would be the two fox-like ears atop his head and the large fluffy tail sprouting from his lower back.

After taking a moment to shake off her surprise, her eyes flick upwards towards a large golden exclamation point over his head.

Huh?

An NPC?

He never existed in the beta. She knows that for a fact.

Floor three might have elves, but she is completely certain that she would have remembered a neko npc... primarily because she would have been practically drooling over him.

Cat eared boys is a healthy fetish. Nobody can tell her otherwise!

She watches the new target of her attention turn and lean up against the wall of the town, just beside the exit.

Argo Naut {NPC} Level 5 ​

Her eyes flick upwards to her own name.

Argo - Level 2​

'son of a- HE STOLE HER NAME!'

She wanders over to the npc, pausing just in front of him and letting out a low hum. "You look like you need something."

"I do!" He smiles brightly. "You see, recently I made a little investment... I'm a traveling merchant by trade. I managed to find an entire blacksmith's forge and transported it to the Town of Beginnings. I thought I had everything I would need, but it turns out the blacksmith I hired isn't exactly skilled enough to work iron quite yet, so I find myself needing some copper ore to help get her up to snuff."

"Iron?!" The girl gasps.

This npc is the source of the blacksmithing unlock?!

"I have two iron weapons with me that I'd be willing to part with, but... hn... tell you what. If you manage to bring me one hundred pieces of copper ore, I'll give you one of them." The apparent merchant casually shrugs.

"The weapons, what are they?!" The girl demands.

"Oh, nothing much, just an Iron Shortsword and a butchers knife which seems to be enchanted a little bit. Tell you what, if you can bring me two hundred copper ore, I'll give you both." The fox-eared young man explains casually.

Argo- the player- stares at the other Fox Argo for a long moment.

PING

A quest has been received!

A new avenue of progression:
Argo Naut has traveled from far away, but in his haste, he failed to realize that the village of beginning wouldn't have anyone capable of what he had in mind.
Now he is in need of a large source of copper, and is willing to part with some iron weapons to ensure he gets it.
Objective:
Give Argo Naut 100 Copper ore. 0/100 [ ]
Bonus Objective:
Give Argo Naut 200 Copper ore. 0/200 [ ]​

"…"

The girl stares at the quest for a long moment, then brings her hand up, touching index fingers to thumbs as she makes a slight rectangle.

Click-FZZZ the sound of a camera shutter echoes out from her as the area in between her fingers seems to flash.

She waves a hand downwards, opening a messenger app.

"OI. Ki-bou. Help me get two hundred copper ore!" - Argo 12:33 ​

She waits for a moment, then sends the screenshot she just took.

"?" - Kirito 12:34
"!" - Kirito 12:34
"Iron Knife and Iron Shortsword." - Argo 12:34
"Fine. I'll get on that. I want the sword, of course." - Kirito 12:34
"Yeah, yeah. Stay safe." - Argo 12:34​

With that message she turns and walks out into the grasslands surrounding the town of beginnings.

--Linebreak--

Pov: Returned.

I take a seat on a crate, book in my lap as I quietly wait.

It has been about a day since I initiated my quest. After that girl showed up and sent a message to apparently Kirito, I moved on and went back inside.

I trust the main character to accomplish my quest.

Now I am merely studying. Trying to determine what I can do to help.

I think its about time I start actually using my alchemical knowledge.

The first potion I plan to make is something simply called 'Unarmed Fortification'… a potion that strengthens the bones and muscles in the hands, making them harder and more durable.

The downside is that it does make your hands a little stiff, but still. It's as if you are wearing brass knuckles.

From my talk with Yui. It appears that this game does have unarmed combat, with an entire skill dedicated to it on the second floor. It's just not effective as a sword or hammer.

I need two of three objects for my potion. I'm just deciding on which would be easier.

The first item, Wild Cotton.

I'm unsure if the first floor has that, so that's more of a 'maybe'.

The next item is 'Wolf Liver'. Wolves exist outside the city, realistically I'd only need to create another 'quest' and have those wolf livers be a quest item.

Next... is just salt.

Simple salt.

I'll ask Yui once I get inside.

"Hey!" A feminine voice calls out.

I glance up from my book to see the blonde- who stole my name- waving as she rushes over.

My eyes flick to her right.

Kirito - Level 3​

I slip my hand behind my back, storing my book on alchemy, then hop off the box, landing on the ground with a small crouch, a small disarming smile appears on my lips as I take a single step forwards. "Ah yes, you. You're back! Please tell me you have collected enough copper."

"I have!" The girl beams. "Two hundred!"

"Two hundred?!" I mutter, eyes widening. "I see... that's more than I expected you to find in such a short amount of time."

I tilt my head and scratch my chin. "I was originally going to ask someone to get me more at a later date, but I guess it'll be a bit longer before I am forced to do that."

"Please, follow me for a moment." I smile as I turn and walk up the stairs into my rented house.

The two figures- who seem to have partied- follow me as I open the door and step inside.

I nod my head to the two of them as I close the door. "Thank you for assisting me with this. You have no idea how much it means to me. As I said earlier, I planned to ask for someone else, but since you have gone above and beyond my request, I'll stick true to my word and give you both."

I pull out the sword and dagger from my pipe and hold them out.

They disappear from my hands with a flash as numerous large burlap sacks appear, sitting on the floor nearby.

FLASH

The blonde glows brightly as she levels up.

She opens her inventory, looking over her new rewards.

"WOAH! These are badass Ki-bou!" The blonde girl grins. "The only issue is that the minimum level you can equip them is five... and that's if you specialized your stats the right way."

"Can I see?" The black haired swordsman questions.

The Argo girl seems to send him a trade request.

"Hn. It surpasses the Anneal Blade by roughly seventy percent." He lowly hums. "I can't equip it yet, but in two levels I'll be able to. This will definitely help with the boss. Thanks for the heads up, Argo."

"Pfft. We're all in this together now, I guess... but that's your last freebie." The blonde huffs.

"Excuse me." I begin slowly, noting another exclamation mark forming above my head. "I am actually in further need of assistance."

"What do you need?" The girl questions bluntly.

"I am in the process of transforming this little home I rented here into a legitimate store to sell my goods. You see, I am a bit of an alchemist in my free time and I just thought up a new interesting recipe that I want to try my hand at making." I begin with that same blank smile I have kept more or less the entire time they have been here. "Normally, I would go out and collect the ingredients myself, but remodeling is taking a lot of my time. I would appreciate it if you would go out and grab what I need."

"What do you need?" Kirito himself questions.

"I'll need some Wolf Liver and, if you can find it, wild cotton seeds."

A wave of energy explodes off me, shooting out in all directions.

A notice seems to appear in the two beta tester's line of sight, their gaze flicking from the announcement back to me.

"If you are unable to find any, salt will also do nicely." I smile.

Their gaze strays from me to the cooking pot to the left.

"Admittedly, I wouldn't have that much Cor to pay you, but I could offer you a nice meal... maybe even introduce you to my blacksmith!"

"We'll do it!" Argo grins savagely, a small glint in her eye.

"Wonderful!" I grin, clapping my hands together with a beaming smile as they both seem to get a quest.

"Ki-bou this is BIG. This guy just unlocked cotton for the entire floor, and if I'm right about my assumptions, sewing kits can likely be found in the general goods stores. Plus he has alchemy?! We don't get that profession until floor five! If we help him... maybe he'll teach one of us the alchemy skill! Hell, maybe this blacksmith of his will let someone use their crafting station and we can have a player with blacksmithing! think about it! enhanced weapons and armor!"

I pretend as if I am not listening to their conversation, picking up one of the many large sacks of ore and hefting it over my shoulder.

"You're right." The black haired swordsman lowly replies. "If we get blacksmithing on this floor... we'd have a much better chance against the boss. Remember in the beta how it killed seventeen of the thirty-man raiding group? If that happens again..."

"It would be disastrous." Girl-go agrees with a nod.

"We'll be back!" She calls out as she turns on her heel, then walks outside, the swordsman of black following her.

"Huh." I hum as the door shuts.

"Oi! Lisbeth." I call out, up the stairs. "We've got copper!"

The brown haired girl tiredly walks down the stairs, wiping an eye.

She lets out a quiet yawn as she looks to the several large sacks of copper ore.

Her eyebrows raise. "I can start working now?!"

"That's right." I nod once.

"Hey, Yui." I call out. "What's a reasonable price to sell these items?"

"Forged copper weaponry can be enhanced twice. One further than the starting equipment given by the system. You can buy other starting equipment at the general store for around fifty Cor for daggers and up to two hundred Cor for Warhammers and battleaxes." The little girl supplies as she appears with a flash of glitching error symbols.

"I see." I mutter quietly. "In that case, Lisbeth, make them as good as you can, fully upgraded to plus two, and we'll sell them at around... twice the price."

Yui tilts her head slightly. "You are a merchant, yes? You know the value of having a hold on the entire market, yes? Of supply and demand... why are you selling these objects for so little?"

A small humorless smile appears on my lips. "I... I don't want anyone to die if possible. I know it's a fool hearty idea, and there are people who are dying at this very second, but... I don't want anyone to look down at their weapon, moments before death and resignedly think to themselves. 'if only I had more money... if only I could have afforded that weapon. I wouldn't be in this situation'."

Yui stares at the side of my head for a long moment, before a smile appears on her lips. "Yes. I understand. You are a good person."

"I'll save the scamming for some place else... it would leave a bad taste in my mouth to rip off people who never asked for this... who just wanted a fun game to play." I scoff as I cross my arms.

Lisbeth stares at the side of my head with an unreadable expression, then breaks out into a full smile and marches downstairs.

"Now. Can you help me turn this into a shop?" I gesture around the dining room.

The girl nods once. "Since you, an NPC, have voiced your plans to turn this into a shop. I can begin to reconstruct this room. However. I am limited by the fact that the changes must be 'reasonable'. You cannot decide one day to build a castle out in the wild, then do so instantaneously. I am not all powerful. I can make some changes, but more time must pass as I continue to remodel. This time is slightly sped up by players doing quests for you, so keep that in mind as well. Oh. And let it be known that I cannot do anything like this while in the view of players."
She waves her hands, causing the chairs to be moves to the edges of the room and the large table to be leaned against the wall.

"I see... well, it's a start." I shrug.

I take a seat in one of the chairs and begin reading again.

--Linebreak--

Knock Knock Knock

I slip my book back into my pipe and stand up slowly, I walk forwards to the door and open it slowly.

"Ah! Welcome back, my friends!" I smile brightly, spying the faces of Kirito and blonde girl on the other side of the door. "Come in, come in."

They accomplished this quest fairly quickly... it barely took them an hour.

I reach behind my back and pull out a small sack of coins, roughly twenty dollars worth- or twenty 'Cor' and offer it to them.

With a flash I have a slightly reddened bag in my hand and a little jar of seeds.

I nod slowly and stick both into my pipe.

My tail swishes out behind me as I walk over to the sole tiny table sat in the center of the room. "I did promise you a nice meal on your return and I am a man of my word. The fox is the most trustworthy animal, after all."

I raise a single hand and snap my finger. "Table be set with two full course meals."

They both flinch back as numerous plates and cups appear on the table.

"My blacksmith has been hard at work for the past hour or so, smelting down the ore you brought me, if you want to visit her, she's in the basement. I should really get to work on that potion I wanted to make. If you drop by in a couple of days I'll give you a free sample."

With that I turn and walk up the stairs.

--Linebreak--

I rub my temples, letting out a long sigh as my alembic slowly drips a yellowish liquid down into a glass vial.

Bit strange that cotton seeds and a red organ makes yellow, but I suppose that strange change in appearance just means that my method worked.

As a final drop drips into the vial, I slide the little wooden 'bottle holder' I made to the side, allowing the next bits to drip into a completely empty bottle.

I put a small cork into the vile and take it out, looking over the yellowish concoction.

Ah. Here we are. It worked. A fortify unarmed potion... though, it's pretty weak, I seem to have messed up somewhere in the crafting process. Ah well, it was a learning experience.

Basically, these are just brass knuckles, but the people in sword art online might find a use for it... I might also be able to combine it with Longstrider, but that's a much more difficult task to accomplish.

Infusing a spell into a potion... that is... impossible for me as I am right now. Despite the fact that I don't even know the spell yet, there's also the fact that I'll need to have a considerable understanding of the spell in question. Beyond just 'knowing how to do it'.

Then I'd need to discover a way to have the potion store the magic of the spell and that will take some time and effort.

I'd need some sort of magical ingredients. The cotton and the wolf liver have some sort of alchemical reaction, but it's completely and utterly mundane, it might be better if I had some sort of magical variant of the ingredients? Maybe some winter wolf liver? If this game has them? Some sort of enchanted cotton maybe?

I should probably stop worrying about it for now. There's really nothing I can do, anyways.

"Hey, Yui. How does this potion look?"

A system screen appears in front of me.

Lesser Unarmed Fortification Potion:
A strange brew created by an errant fox merchant. Its strange abilities are second only to its strange taste.
This potion improves unarmed damage by 10 points for 120 Seconds.​

"Rude. But I guess it was made of liver and cotton." I huff as I cross my arms, turning back to my lab.

I turn up the heat a little, causing the bubbling to intensify. "We should discuss how my selling this is going to work... as this is technically an 'Npc' shop, does the system restock?"

The black haired girl sat behind me slowly nods once. "It does, however. Any money gained from items sold by a true Npc merchant is sent directly into Aincrad's system. You will not be able to profit on them."

"Egh. That's fine. Like I said, I don't want people to die. I would still make a profit if I put this down there, right?" I question.

"Oh yes, that would be correct. you would make a profit up until the system restocked your products and replace them with artificially generated items." Yui supplies.

"Alright. Technically speaking I got the ingredients for free. So, I'm not too broken up about it. All it took was my time, and it's not like I didn't gain anything from it. I'm perfecting my alchemy."

"They brought me ten wolf liver and an entire jar of cotton seeds. I could probably make at least twenty potions with that much... and it cost me, what, twenty dollars? A meal from the table that can produce infinite food? Even if I sold these for a single Cor I'd have lost absolutely nothing."

"But." I continue with a head tilt. "More money means I can grab items from other worlds. Grabbing items from other worlds means that the players are given things that Kayaba didn't intend."

"Things Kayaba didn't intend... gives the players an edge." I smirk viciously. "How do you think the system would deal with bows and arrows? Realistically I could go and grab some fairly easily."

"One of the other systems has ranged weapons such as bows and crossbows as their special trait." The black haired girl announces.

"…"

"Seriously?" I frown "So these fuckers just get left to rot while other people can draw agro from across the fucking map?"

"Many servers have their own special qualities." she neutrally states.

"Name some." I deadpan. "What's this server's quality?"

"This server grants its users an additional three stat points at level five, ten, fifteen, twenty, and so on. Thus, by the time they have reached level one hundred, they would have base states that would reflect a level one hundred and twenty instead." She informs. "Then there is the ranged weapon server, whom I mentioned. After that, there is the fairy server, which allowed the users to pick from one of nine specialized races, each with their own passive benefits and modifiers to their base statistics. After that, is a server which unlocked every single crafting method on the first floor."

"Heh." I huff. "Get fucked Kayaba."

"Then, there is a server who has a strange 'enchantment' method, where sometimes certain powerful enemies, typically named or unique ones, such as floor bosses or field bosses, drop a crystal which can be affixed to weapons or shields to grant passive buffs that range from dealing more damage to a certain type of enemy, to granting the wielder a chance to heal with each successful parry."

"…" Desire enters my body. Damn it! now i want to go around collecting a bunch of shiny rocks to attach to my weapons!

"Kayaba's such a fucking bitch." I sigh, lowly growling as I look back to my little lab that I brought into SAO to prevent me from having to walk back and forth between this place and back home to check potion effects. "No magic! But ooooh we've got fairies and enchantments! Make up your fucking mind, dude."

I pull out the next potion. "Yui, if you would?"

Honestly, I am TRULY thankful I came to SAO. I gained access to Yui who gives me FAR more accurate readings than my eyes. like, if I looked at my first potion back in my own world, I might been told that the potion lasts 'roughly' two minutes, but without any concrete number. there's even a chance It might have said something like 'short duration' just to bother me even more.

Lesser Unarmed Fortification Potion:
A strange brew created by an errant fox merchant. Its strange abilities are second only to its strange taste.
This potion improves unarmed damage by 11 points for 60 Seconds.​

"Hn? More heat lowered the duration but slightly increased the effect overall. I wonder if that's unique to this potion or the same across all potions." I mutter under my breath.

"Reasonably, the duration should go up if I turned the heat down, yes?" I continue as I do just that, allowing the next brew to simmer as I add in more crushed liver and cotton seed.

Let's see what other experiments I can do.

--Linebreak--

I stand in the center of a changed room, tables line the walls with large armor stands stood in the center of the room. Clutching fully enhanced 'plus two' copper weapons while adorned with armor that has also been enhanced. Weapon racks sit above the tables. On the far side of the room, is a countertop, with a large shelf behind it.

The shop has changed quite a bit over the past five days.

It's looking pretty good, all things considered.

A bit barren, the only things currently in here being Lisbeth's armor and a dozen or so small vials of yellow liquid on one of the shelves. I did manage to pick up a single bow and a set of ten iron arrows from when I stepped back into skyrim. I had to give up all of my money to do so, but it worked out in the end.

The door opens behind me causing me to turn and face the new person entering the shop.

Oh. It's her. Name Thief.

Argo - Level 5​

"Welcome back, friend!" I smile. "As you can see, we are inching closer and closer to our grand opening!"

"Yeah..." The girl notes, glancing around slowly. "WAIT WAIT WHAT THE FUCK?! IS THAT A BOW?!"

"Yes, yes. Quite the rare commodity here in Aincrad. I had to travel to a parallel dimension to grab one for myself and it wasn't cheap!" I smirk as I walk over to the wooden bow.

"Parallel- wait... do one of the other servers have ranged weapons?! What the fuck?!" Argo gasps, her yellowish orange eyes growing wide.

"There are many parallel dimensions to Aincrad. Most prevalent in the lower floors. The upper floors are thick with this... energy that seems to solidify each of the timelines into one singular stream of time. I do wonder what caused that. It just isn't natural." I hum, dropping some faux lore here and there. "Regardless. This longbow here should prove some use to you should you purchase it. I've only got ten arrows for it, however, but we should be getting more in stock soon."

"It'll take it! How much!"

"Five hundred Cor, I'm afraid." I sigh, shaking my head slightly. "But for you, I suppose I could lower the price down to four hundred and fifty."

"I'll take it." The girl repeats as she walks over to the bow and arrows, she sees a small price tag beneath the arrows. One Cor each. Twice the price I got them for in skyrim.

Both of the items disappear from the table, a sack of coins appearing in my waiting hand.

I wordlessly slip it into my pipe and turn, walking to the counter.

"I am glad you are here, as I need a bit of help... not a quest to go fight vicious beasts to bring me their livers, mind you, but more... advice." I monologue as I crouch down, miming that I'm taking something out from beneath the counter when in actuality I'm taking it from my pipe.

I sit three little vials of yellow fluid on the table. "You see, I have actually finished that little potion I was working on."

I gesture to the three potions sat on the table. "But I am at a bit of an impasse."

Lesser Unarmed Fortification Potion:
A strange brew created by an errant fox merchant. Its strange abilities are second only to its strange taste.
This potion improves unarmed damage by 4 points for 300 Seconds.​

"One is weaker, but lasts longer, one is stronger but is shorter. Then I have one roughly in the middle. I'd like to ask you... which of these three do you think it would be more worthwhile to sell? I mostly made the average variety, but after those sell, I will perhaps swap over to whatever suggestion you might have. Oh. And these three are for you. I promised to give you a sample, after all."

The blonde slowly walks over to the countertop, looking over the potions, I can see her eyebrows raise slightly. "The middle ones are good. Do those."

"Very well. Thank you for your second opinion." I nod slowly.

"Do you need anything else?" I question. "Otherwise, I really should get back to experimenting."

"Can I see the place you make your potions?"

"No." I deny instantly. "You see, that was a lot more expensive than the blacksmithing forge I bought, and considering it is made of primarily glass... it's a lot more fragile. If the forge made me poor, you breaking my alchemy lab would bring me to financial ruin!"

"…"

"Fine." The girl relents with a sigh.

"But. I do have a spare mortar and pestle. If you want, you can buy that." I admit.

"How much?" She questions slowly.

"Five hundred Cor." I shamelessly state, increasing the price I bought it more than tenfold. But. It's a crafting station. Thus I feel it's appropriate.

The blonde lets out a low hiss. "Damn damn damn. Can you go get it for me?"

I offer a slow nod, then turn and walk up the stairs, hearing her mutter under her breath. "I hope Ki-bou is awake... and has an extra four hundred cor. Ugh. I hate being in debt to people."

'noooow. What can I do with a little under one thousand dollars from today's profit? I could go buy some alchemical ingredients if I happen to show up in a major hold in Skyrim. Then Yui told me the next level of metal arms and armor is Bronze... and that needs tin. It's normally unlocked on the third floor, but Skyrim probably has at least a few bars of it sitting around somewhere.'

It would be theoretically possible for Lisbeth to get forty smithing skill off nothing but copper, thus be able to smith the iron bars I gave her... but there are diminishing returns and it would take a long time considering the experience needed to level up keeps growing larger and larger and the experience copper gives her just keeps getting lower and lower. Eventually, it'll probably reach a point where she can't increase her skill level with copper.

I mean, she's already become a level twenty blacksmith in five days.

twenty out of one thousand, that is.

She's at the level requirement for bronze, thus I should really go and get some Tin for her as sort of an investment.

Yes. That's a good idea. Tin now, plus some wacky potions that the SAO system can take a look at and be all 'hm. Yes. This works, let's stock these in the shop' and I can go about my day... maybe get some more ingredients as well.

"Hey Yui. What's the chance of me getting some form of farm or something for ingredients I bring from other worlds?"

"Possible. But certainly not on the first floor. The fifth floor has a few open farm plots which you could use, the main issue is purchasing them. Luckily you would have a head start on the other players who will be forced to wait until floor ten for renting and buying property. You should be able to purchase everything you need by the time the tenth floor is reached." The black haired girl who appears behind me informs.

"I see, I see." I nod slowly. "Would I need to harvest the ingredients myself to actually get them?"

"Considering that the players who purchase such farms can hire Npcs to run the farm and collect materials for them, you would not. Just keep in mind that the daily yield will not be high. Instead of like real life, where there is a period of planting, a period of growth, and a period of incredible harvest, Kayaba did away with this, causing the farms to produce daily. However, the amount of produce created has been limited somewhat. perhaps half of what you would get normally if you harvested everything all at once like in real life, but this was primarily to protect the economy of Sword Art Online, plus you have the benefit of always having ingredients, regardless of season."

"I see... that's fine." I hum with a slight shrug. "it'll allow me to start producing some hard to find ingredients."

I grab the spare mortar and pestle sat beside my alchemy lab, then turn and begin walking back downstairs.

Unlocking alchemy could be seen as an overall negative for my profit, but at the same time, new and interesting plants could be unlocked via SAO's bullshit.

It'll probably help more than it hinders me, honestly.

I come back down the stairs, seeing the blonde looking at me expectantly.

"Here you are." I hum as I place the stone bowl on the countertop. "Five hundred Cor."

She holds out a sack of coins towards me, the bag teleporting onto the countertop, then the bowl disappears.

A wave of energy explodes off her after a moment of sorting through her inventory.

And thus, Alchemy has been unlocked for floor one.

"Ah. While you are here." I begin slowly. "I do actually have another task for you, a bit of an open ended one."

The girl's eyes flick up to me as I continue. "If you see any strange and unique plants and alchemical ingredients, could you stop by? I'd be willing to pay you for them or offer something up in trade."

The girl's eyes flick up towards the exclamation mark above my head, then back down to my face. "Sure. I could do that."

"Wonderful!" I smile brightly. "Now, I need to go and prepare for the grand opening for a couple of days. If you will excuse me."

I grab the coins, then turn and walk away.