Chapter 1: The Update

"Link start!" Rika's heart was pounding as she felt her consciousness leave her bedroom and dive into the most popular VRMMO on the market right now, Alfheim Online. It had been several days since she had last logged on. School and family life had been keeping her pretty busy, but she was more than ready to be Lisbeth once again. The largest update in the history of ALO was scheduled to go live in just under 10 minutes and she knew that everyone that played was overly excited about the new content. Several new dungeons of both lower and higher level for new and old players alike. A brand new end game level raid that, if the leaks were true, the boss of had the chance to drop a legendary weapon with stats that had never been seen in the game before. And of course most importantly for Liz, tons of new crafting items that could be used to make all new weapons and armor. She could just see the all of the people that would be pouring into her shop looking for the newest weapons.

Lisbeth opened her eyes to the sight of bright blue skies and fireworks exploding overhead. Thousands of players were standing around jostling each other in the center square of the market district. Some were already forming parties and groups, while others, Liz noticed, seemed to be checking equipment or looking for other players whom they would normally be playing with. It was complete chaos and the noise level of the chattering players made it hard for Liz to even hear herself think. She took a quick glance around but knew that even if any of her friends were online already she would never see them mixed in the throng of people. The only think that Liz could do was to pull up her friends list and hope that someone would be online. The name that she saw pop up made her smile widely. Of course Kirito was the first one of her friends online. She would have expected nothing different. He was always first on for any updates no matter how small or large. Her friends list showed that Kirito was actually sitting in a small back alley tavern not to far from her. Liz took off running as fast as her legs would carry her, apologizing to other players that she bumped into, in the direction of the small tavern.

The tavern was packed. Players were taking up all of the tables, talking loudly and sipping various drinks. Liz stood on the tips of her toes and quickly glanced around the room. Kirito was sitting at a table that he had to himself tucked away in a dark corner. He looked to have his inventory open and sorting through his items. Liz assumed that he was making sure that he was properly stocked on potions before any run that they would be doing. She walked over just as he closed out his inventory and took a long pull of what looked to be a dark ale.

She sat down gently in a chair right next to him and casually rested her chin in her hand. "Buy a lady a drink?" She said smiling and elbowing him playfully.

"You got it," Kirito responding returning her smile and waving at one of the NPC's to signal for another ale. A bubbly looking NPC walked over and sat a tall glass on the table. He handed her a few coins and she walked away with a smile and a thank you. "Are we the only ones on yet?" Kirito asked glancing at Liz as she took a generous sip of the ale.

"For the moment we are," Liz said taking another sip of the cold beverage and nodding a silent thanks to Kirito. "I'm sure the others will be here soon enough though. I know they have to be just as excited as we are about this update."

As if magically summoned by her words, Leafa, Sinon, and Silica appeared on the opposite side of the tavern and looked around. The three girls spotted Kirito and Liz right away and ran over smiling and waving. Drinks were placed in front of them as soon as they sat down. A moment later Klein and Agil walked in and over to them.

"Yo, what's up Kirito?" Klein said excitedly smacking him on the back and pulling up an empty chair while Agil leaned against the wall and nodded at each of them. "So did you guys hear the rumors yet?"

Kirito opened his mouth to respond, but Liz beat him to it. "You mean about the legendary weapon?" She exclaimed. "I don't usually put to much stock in simple rumors, I mean we've heard rumors like this before and that's all they've been. This time feels different though. If it's true I wonder what it could be."

"Whatever it is, I want it!" Leafa said bouncing on the balls of her feet. "Kirito already has Excalibur and Klein has that hammer, so I figure I could use whatever it is."

"Excuse me," Klein said indignantly pointing a finger at Leafa, "but I can't exactly use that hammer. It's just kind of sitting there taking up inventory space."

"Not our fault that you hammer skill level is ass," Sinon said smiling and Silica burst out laughing.

Everyone was laughing and ripping on each other while discussing the possibility of a new legendary weapon. Everyone except Kirito that is. He found himself distracted and pulled up his friends list. It showed Asuna offline. This was most unusual as she was always among the first in their party to log on whether they had a run planned or were just meeting up. Kirito contemplated logging off for a few minutes to try to reach her by phone, but decided against it. He didn't want to interrupt if she was busy with something irl. Kirito figured she would be on soon anyway and they could all start trying to conquer this new content together.

"Kirito...yo Kirito!" Agil's voice sounded far off, but it was enough to penetrate his thoughts. Kirito looked around and noticed that the whole party was not staring at him.

"Are you okay man?" Klein asked giving him a sharp smack on the back. "You were totally spaced out."

Laughing and running a hand through his hair, Kirito looked around at everyone. "Yeah, I guess I did. Sorry, I was just thinking. What were you guys saying?"

"What he was saying," Liz said poking Kirito playfully in the cheek, "is that the bosses we will be dealing with in the update will be unlike anything we have every faced before."

"What do you mean?" Kirito asked.

Liz sighed. This was unlike him. Kirito was usually on top of all of the information for raids. "What I mean is that the fights are supposed to be the hardest in the game. From what I have read you can not even enter the dungeon unless you have a group of 6 or more and they highly recommend at least 8. On top of that, only the first group to take down the boss gets this rumored legendary weapon." She took a quick breath and smiled. "I think that we all know that party needs to be ours!"

Kirito let out a low whistle. "It'll be a race then. With a lot of hard fighting along the way, plus it looks like we are going to be a player down as well."

"Yeah, where is Asuna?" Leafa said looking around the tavern as if she expected the Undine to appear any second.

"That's a very good question," Kirito said. "Has anyone actually talked to her today?"

It was Lisbeth that spoke up. "I tried calling her earlier, but it went straight to voicemail," she said.

"That's strange," Kirito said looking around the tavern. It was quickly starting to empty. Entire groups of players were teleporting away, all anxious and eager to take on the new content and hopefully have a chance at whatever that legendary weapon was.

"Well there isn't much we can do about it," Sinon said. "We'll just have to do our best without her and hope no other party beats the boss before us."

Kirito hated to admit it, but Sinon was right. They were already behind other parties who had left already. If they held out any longer they would have no chance to be the first to down the boss. He looked once more at the now barren tavern, only a few stragglers remained, probably waiting on the rest of their own parties and stood up. "Well guys, let's go get a legendary weapon!"

Author's Notes:

I have been sitting on this one for a long time. This first chapter has been written and rewritten many times over and for a while I had given up. I hope you all enjoy it.