Arun

**Arun** (アルン, *Arun*) is the capital city of Marshmallow Island in ALfheim Online, located at the base of the World Tree.

## Appearance

Arun is the largest city Marshmallow Island. It is known to be a neutral city and acts as a main raiding base for the advanced dungeons on the Arun Plateau as well as the central trading market for all races. Due to its size, this city has been divided into five zones: North, South, West, East, and Central. The World Tree's Dome located in the Central Zone. The city also holds four Dungeons located to the north, south, east and west of the city.

## Synopsis

### Fairy Dance Arc

#### Pre-Episode 17

As part of ALfheim Online's development, Arun was designated as the game's capital city, and the location of the final Dungeon, the World Tree. After the Race War started, Arun became a safe haven for the players who didn't want to partake in it. It soon gained a reputation for having a cool night life, probably because the city was a source of various drugs, most notably sold by an NPC called Terry the Tweaker Tarantula. It also became famous for having a large, player-made pinwheel.

#### Episode 17

One day, two players named Kirito and Leafa arrive in Arun to gather an army in order to raid the World Tree, as Kirito's wife, Asuna, was being held captive at the top of it. After arriving at the city, the system announces that the server will be shutting down for the next eleven hours to apply the game's "Say No to Drugs" update. This enraged all the drug addicted citizens of Arun, and they start rioting in response to the update, destroying the largest pinwheel in the process.

The next day, Kirito notices that things have really been cleaned up after the update, commenting how nice it is to see the streets full of different races are getting along. Despite this, however, he then states that he still feels on edge for some reason. Leafa agrees with this, stating that she's always been creeped out by the city, before criticising a Gnome and Cait Sith couple for "living in sin". Kirito assumes that Leafa's roleplaying again, sarcastically commenting that he missed her character, much to her confusion. As they're walking through the city, Yui detects that the game's admin, Nobuyuki Sugou, has updated his Facebook status, moving up his and Asuna's wedding to tonight. Yui launches another scan, which tells her that Asuna's right above them, and Kirito flies towards the branches. Leafa chases after them, trying to warn them about something, but she's too late and Kirito hits an invisible wall.

After numerous attempts to get passed the wall, Kirito receives a card from Asuna. Yui then scans the card and realizes that it's a system admin access code, which they can use to log out Asuna. Kirito says they better do this at once, to which Leafa reminds him of their plan to recruit other players. Kirito states that they don't have time, however, pointing out that the admins might change the code once they realize the card is missing. Kirito then tries to the World Tree's quest himself, but it eventually defeated, prompting Leafa to rescue him. Kirito then tries to do the quest with Leafa at his side, but Leafa tries to stop him, accidentally revealing that she was his sister, Suguha, in the process.