Sword art Online ( the Soul Takers)

by flaming hunter

Something has happened changing everything, now they must learn to live in a world that has changed

1. Chapter 1

It happened almost in an instant, no if one was to be clear several things happened all at once.

For the briefest of moments a cold chill ran threw the collective spines of every player, a long with it was a strange dizzy feeling the king one gets when standing up to quickly and finally was the sensation if feeling the sun on their skin and the gentle breeze of the wind.

Two years ago, the fist two massive multiplayer role playing games of their kind were released, Sword art Online allowed its users to enter the game without the risk of walking into a wall.

It did this with the use of something called Nerve Gear technology, tho most people didn't know the details it comedown to this, the helmets people used to enter the game, somehow intercepted the signals in a person's brain.

This meant that a person could move all they wanted inside the game, while their own bodies stayed completely still in the real world.

The two games were made by the same company and everyone calked it what it was, a greedy company trying to make money.

Which it was, but each game gave certain perks for example Sword art Online allowed its users to learn magical harnessing, this allowed people to make guns- grenades and anything they wanted while being able to use magic.

The thing was that not everyone could do it, some people could choose to play entirely without magic and use more common things, at least until they could build whatever they wanted, that is if they didn't buy it from someone else.

Sword art Online, was a world that was losing its magic and its people were preparing to live their lives without it.

Alpfheim Online however was a game where magic was in its abundance and everyone learned to use it from the get go.

However there were two distinct differences that further separated the two games Sword art Online had only Human Players, everything else was either a monster or a None Playable Character.

Their forms vary but regardless, if something wasn't Human its life didn't matter.

Afheim however was a world completely dedicated to Faeries, every playable character was one type of a fairy or another, the lives of everything else didnt matter.

There was a rumor going around even before the two games were released, that the company had done this on purpose.
The story went that when a player reached a certain level or floor, they could enter the other game, essentially jump threw worlds.

Still none of that was here nor there, as every player suddenly felt a cold chill run tru their very beings, they looked at their hands and noticed that their bodies had changed.

Children now looked their own ages, their avatar forms now lost, yet their armor remained and those that were playing as a nother gender soon found they now resembled themselves in real life.

Then every single player found themselves teleported to the town of beginnings. Almost instantly the entire sky turned red and blood rained yet it never touched the ground.

No, instead something far worse happened a hooded figure materialized from all of the blood drops and announced that if they ever wanted to log out, they had to reach the last floor or else be trapped in the game forever.

That had been to years ago, now life seemed to throw them a nother curve ball, as repots from the town of beginnings announced that several people that had died had just comeback.

When everything started those who were in denial or simply gave into despair, either killed themselves or started killing other people.

That was the thing death was permanent no one could re spawn, yet they now had come back to life.
However something happened almost instantly, a lot of them started attacking the near by people, killing several spectators.

The people respond, but they realized something horrible, as good and as detailed the game was, it failed to do several things and now people were finding it suddenly could.

What they realized was that ordinary Human needs and sensations were now real and that meant they now felt the pain of everything.

[][]

It was but an instant he blinked and he soon found himself in the town of beginnings once again, next to him was what he could assume were every player that had been present when the hole mess started.

Almost as if it had been a replay of the events that had occurred two years ago the sky turned red, however this time there was no blood falling from the sky.

No instead it was an un worldly how, the ceiling that everyone had become so use to seeing began to vanish until it was completely gone. Replaced by a blue sky, the only hint that there was a way to go up, was the notice in his help screen showing where the floor guardian was.

Again he felt the cold sensation pass and his body felt as the a feeling similar to that of when his foot fell asleep, had been spread all over.

Then just like that it was gone, a near by window showed the truth of what had occurred.
Unlike the first time when people's faces- physical limitations - body shapes and genders had been shown, the second time had mixed both their game avatars strengths and weaknesses with their original bodies, their true bodies.

Immediately after he felt as if a drill had been forced threw his head and in an instant, his help screen showed all of his information.
Age- weight- hight- wat kind of armor he used, along side the potions and weapons he carried.

However, there were things that shouldn't be there, for example his skill in using computers, an everyday thing in the real world was now listed as a type of skill, the proof was the fact he could ride a bike, was now listed as a skill.

Then there was the other thing, the areas map seemed to grow for miles, so much so that a person could keep going and not reach the edge for years.

The sound of murmurs cought his attention and it wasn't until a man, threw an N. P. C onto a wall, that he knew, this was no longer a game.

There was blood on the wall and a nearby woman, three herself at the fallen man begging the player not to hurt him.

He could see people moving their fingers in the air and calling out to their teammates or guilds.
Teams were different from guilds, the people in them, stayed together simply because they wanted to or didn't want to be alone.

Guilds on the other hand, there was a responsibility for each other there, they were both the same thing, but while the guilds had banners and stuff to mark them with, teams didn't.

Instantly the people began to divide amongst themselves, it was at that moment that the few loners, instinctively looked for people they knew.

Leaving only the desperate and confused to stand not knowing what to do.

Instincts kicked in and the teams and guilds began to force order in the town, forcing the resurrected people to calm down or be so hurt that they wouldn't even try hurting anyone.

Floors one thew seven are known as safe areas, children and people that couldn't handle it stayed behind and made their lives on these floors, in the fields- forest and towns.
That was why they were protected, it didn't matter who it was, but if anyone attached anyone in these floors, there was a wordless agreement amongst the Adventures , to put those people or monsters down.

Sure some tried to fight back in their mixture of confusion and desperation, but now everyone that hadn't killed or died in the first few months, was a hole lot stronger then they were.

He looked up into the sky one last time and somehow knew that this was truly something else, he could taste the air, feel the wind and sense the warm blood on his that a man bleed on his hands, as a higher level player forced him to calm down.

]][]

Rounding up the trouble makers was the easy part, the problem was keeping them from acting like idiots again.

The entire open area was filled with mad screams of desperate people or children that simply wanted to go home to their families.

An alert cought his attention it seemed that the group chat still worked, however a recording could be sent and spread out by anyone really.

"This is Michael leader of the guild the Black Hammer. The information I'm going to give you is incredibly delicate so you might want to sit down...

The American, Uropean players have sent what little information they have and it's bad and good for everyone."

"According to the American players they sent out scouts to every floor they cleared and thankfully they were able to pass without an issue.
The same goes for the people in Europe, nither one of them thought it was a good idea to push their luck on the floors they hadn't beaten yet."

"From what they have uncovered is that we are no longer subjectsubjected to permemantly die, but we will come back after three seconds or a should we repeatedly die."

"The last peace of information was them requesting we inform them of what we might uncover, according to them the fields have changed and with them, roads that didn't exist are now present some lead to nearby villigas.

That is all they know... For guild leader's and Solo players eyes only.

The way both of these people were able to a aquier this information was by repeatedly killing any player that got out of hand. The children obeyed almost emidiatly but... I don't need to explain it.

[][]

Oh sorry with everithing happening so quickly I haven't reintroduced myself.

My name is Dante or at least my avatars name is, my real name is Jose. I'm thirty years old and Im part of the team known as the Soul Takers.

I bought the game online from someone who had bought a copy and sold it to me, considering I was the highest bitter, so why did I buy it simple.

I was a factory worker back on earth, no in the real world, I think. Every day get up - eat- go to work and if I wanted my weekends free I had to have a reason for not going to work.

I hated it, it wasn't a bad life I knew wat was expected of me, but it felt so empty. I only played videogames on the PlayStation and on my cellphone, but I needed something to get me away from all of the constant complaining of how we aren't producing enough.
Even tho we were all doing the jobs of two different people each.

The soul stealing routine that only changed because, someone misses a day and they needed a replacement.

So when I heard the game allowed you to feel as if you were in a nother world, I spent a lot of money I barely had.

To be perfectly honest with you, I'm one of the ones that wishes this wasn't a game. Everyday it feels like we have a purpose, to live and enjoy life, something completely different from what I left behind.

[][]

Still nothing changed the reality of the situation, this word was a virtual game and nothing more, our true selves were somewhere else and we could die at any moment. Be it because we died in the game or if someone removed the helmets we wore in the real world.

You might think that being trapped in a place like this was maddening and for the first two months people, straight up killed themselves.
But humans are stronger then they give themselves credit, those that survived the initial shock either started fighting to get out, or said fuck it and started making new lives in this world.

The later were probably the smart ones, after all if the guard protecting the floor was defeated, then they could move safely between floors.

Thece people became merchants, some sold informative others tools- potions and armor.

"Hey it's being passed by word of mouth, but a meating is beeing held in the main plasa." Rick one of my teammates, the guy wears minimal armor. The reason is simple he moves around a lot, because if he didn't his explosives would kill him.

Still he wears long black pants, a breastplate and knee and wrist guards.

"So have any idea how we ended up in the Japan first floor, shouldn't we have been sent back home." I asked him.

"I think whatever it was just wanted the people in the system to gather in one place. From words I heard here and there we arnt the only ones to show up in a nother country's first floor." Rick answered.

"So where is everyone else?" I asked Rick.

"Resupplying, we were food and potions... Can you feel it?" Rick asked me.

"Yeah something's changed a lot. I don't know but ... this feels real... I can't explain it, but either the hole thing was upgraded or this is real." I answered him.

We both walked in silence after that, still neither one of us could deny what we were seeing.

Before the N.P.C's either simply walked around doing the same thing over and over again, or they just offers some dialect and gave a mission.
There was no emotion in their eyes, a person could stave- push and beat one and it wouldn't react.

Now they hid behind curtains, inside their homes. Some bleed and others cried, this was way to much detail.

It was almost like if they were truly alive, but that was impossible. Wasn't it?

We reached the meating area and nearly everyone was there, except for the truble makers.

"I wonder why I'm starting to think about them with disgust. No I know the reason, with the exception of the children, everyone of them was a coward.

Here we were fighting for our lives and seeing people that we talked to only minutes earlier, die in front of us. While they... they took the extra sword or potion they had and we needed away

."

"All right the reason we gathered all of you here is, we have to know how to deal with the... people that returned." A black man with a bald head, spoke to the ground, he struggled to find a way to talk about the resurrected people.

"Simple, we find the ones that were our team or guild members and leave the rest of the trash behind!" A girl screamed, she was hidden underneath the sea of faces.

"I get how all of you feel, believe me I do, but everyone that survived or died passed the second floor has already returned to their guilds or teams.
The rest are triying to sort things out, diying shook them up." The man answered.

As I looked closely at him I noticed he was a bartender in one of the higher floors.

"With the exception of the kids, the ones that don't want to fight. We will desperate the troublemakers between our guilds and teams." The man said and instantly, everyone protested.

No one wanted them, some screamed how they didn't want dead weight, others how cowards would cause unneeded troubles and a few stayed quiet.

"Alright here's the thing. We all agreed to leave floors one threw seven alone and keep them safe considering how exhausting it is to go up those floors.

If we leave those people here or let them form their own groups, we will end up having more then one player killer group to deal with." The moments the man said that everyone suddenly became quiet.

There was a guild dedicated solely to kill other players, the one time they attacked one of the floors
They made every player search each section until at least one of them was found and killed. Stories said that those that were cought were tortured until they talked, but no one knew if it was true.

It's known as the U.P.F United. Players. Floor treaty, every player eventually agreed to it as time went on, so if it was ever broken the perpetrators would be hunted down in every sector until they were found and executed.

The rules are simple: No one is allowed to rape anyone within a town or a safe zone. If you get raped outside of these areas it's your fault, this is a death game you could have killed your attacker after or before it happens.

:No one is allowed to kill any player in the floors numbered one threw seven. If one dose eye whitneses are needed to prove that it was absolutely necessary.

All players are to gather and hunt down anyone that breaks the no killing other people in the designated floors...

Two simple rules, but extremely effective.

"What do we do about the ones that are to far gone?" A man wearing a red bandana asked.

"...We take them to floor twelve and leave them in the blue forest, they can live there for whatever life they have left. Best of all if they redirect they will be ressurected inside the blue forest." The man answered.

"The others aren't going to like this." Rick said.

"Yeah but do you want any of those people near the orphanage." I answered him.

Nether one of us wanted to listen to the rest of the meeting and as we walked away a small pop up window showed itself and automatically it began to say everything that was being said in the meeting.

[][]

We walked for a few minutes listening to the meeting, there wasn't anything really worth paying attention two, things in the town of begging had already assume a strange sens of normality.

The N. were going about their day, tho they seemed more on the edge, most likely worried about catching some un welcomed attention, from the wrong people.

I could hear guilds names being called out one by one and whatever representative was there suddenly answere.

Rick turned to look at me, we both knew what this was and it didn't set well with us. The sex ratial was off most of the players were men and there were extremely few woman.

One would think that for this reason people would choose a girl to be on their team, unfortunately that wasn't the case.

We could hear them looking at the resurrected individual's skills -weaponry and so on.

This was no different then being sold as a slave, I switched to my American chat screen and found that the same thing was going on over there.

Guild and team representives, chose not to get any girls for teo reasons one girls tend to be more emotional then men and the other unless they already had anoyher woman on the team.

There was always that one idiot, that wants her and ends up breaking the unity of the team because of it. I've seen it happen in other games.

It was cruel but everyone neded to be on their top game whenever the fighting started.

Questions were being asked, as to who knew how to cook- repair armor and so on, if they weren't fighters then maybe their skills could help.

Invitations to join guilds or teams were being sent out and being confirmed. Some people reflected them and said they would rather do it alone, then be someone's slave.

After that the only ones left were either truble makers- children that didn't want to fight or people that were seen as they were dead weight.

Back when all of this first started a mirror was given to everyone and the moment they all looked at their reflection, their game avatars had changed into a near identical copy of their bodies in the real world.

Now whatever happend had mixed in the two, they still had their old normal looking faces, none of the handsome or gorgeuse character faces people normally see.

However everyone was now slightly more muscular and if they had been fat before, they had lost some weight.

Some people had been together for the entirety of the two years, others only a few weeks or days.
Still no one was confused of who was who and that seemed to help make things go back to normal.

[][]

We walked around looking at the various shops selling, food- water- knives-armor- explosives -pations and magic crystals.

Like it or not but we all had to replenish our supplies, but we had to be careful, the streets and even the majority of the buildings didn't have anything seperating them, so people couldnt use them as land marks to navigate.

There are story's of a players turning the wrong corner or going to deep in an alley and being lost in the town for days and in one passion for months.

Oddly enough this is where into brokers came in. The thief job didn't exist here, that didn't mean anything in the long run, to get food you either hunted monsters for their meat or you bought your food at a shop, the same went for everything else you might need.

Not everyone could fight, before when this was nothing more then a game a person could just log out or come back to life, but seeing the creatures in front of you was something completely different.

A lot of people died just because they forgot, they could just turn around and run or hadn't leaened how to fight properly.

So people needed money and you got money by fighting monsters and completing quests.

But what if you just didn't have the skills or nerves to fight, well if people were getting lost and players could transfer money to one another.

Then didn't it make sense for people to charge those that were lost in the town's, it was an honest living and even if people resented it, no one could argue that they were a lot of help.

These people passed their days mapping out the town, what building was wat shop and so on, that was the beuty of it all a person could get high qualety equipment even on the first floor if they had the mony and if they knew whitch shop to buisit.

I asked a merchant once and surprisingly the n.p.c had an answer for it, he just loved the town and had gotten tired of his time as an explorer.

It seemed the town's and villages were designed with variety in mines.

Ricks hand flew in front of my face, stopping something that had been thrown at me. He opened his hand and showed it was a kiwi, Saito a Japanese teen who joined our team had thrown it at me.

Rick for his part just took out one of his none poison dagger and cut the thing in two, he bit in to one half and threw the other half at me.

Stuff like this now felt normal, but before the fact that we still got hungry was more of a mental thing, to taste and chew. In the real world some sort of chemicals must be being pumped into us, as for the bathroom, the less we know the better.

Still it was amazing just how fresh the fruit was here, the kiwi was sweet and soft, but honestly we needed to increase out or cooking skills, in this world that was seen as a job and like any job. If your level isn't high enough the food won't be as good.

Near even with al of the seasoning and properly cooked tasted like burned and mixed drinks, were nothing but water.

People got around this by eating fruits, going to a shop and buying food, getting someone to cook for them or actually learn the skill.

Satio pointed at a large group of children being moved, it looks like they're rapping things up.

"We heard about the auction, so did you guys see anyone we could use?" Satio asked us.

"No." I answered.

"It's better that they didn't, with the exception of the little kids, the dead in combat and anyone on the month list, everyone of the lower class have a knife or a bullet with their names written on it."Raffaell said as he swong his new hammer.

Our team was made of older men the oldest of us was around thirty three and Satio was the youngest considering he was only sixteen.

A man's scream made us turn around and members of the Army were taking a group of people to the sub levels.
Or if you wanted to name them the dunjens, where all of the prisoners were kept.

"I was talking to a friend of mine and according to him, all of the trash came back two.
Everyone back in Los Angeles is hunting them down, we might have to teleport back to the American section to back them up and make sure the criminals go into their cages." Rafael told us, tho the way he said it was more like he was looking for our approval.

"If they need us our friends will ask for help, in the meantime I suggest we figure out whether we stay at an inn or we go back up and camp oout for the night." I answered Rafael.

"Well look at that, everyone look at your notifications ." Saito told us, we all made a pinching gesture and acted as if we were pulling something down.

A letter from the guild known as the Army said that it would no longer be taking low level members, everyone that wanted to join them had to be level forty or higher.

The Knights of the Blood were saying the same.

One by one teams or guilds were closing their doors to new members below level forty, there was one exception tho anyone with any useful skill could apply but only if their skill was high enough.

"Looks like everyone wants to stay away from the troublemakers." Rick said.

" You guys buy watt you need, in the meantimewe will find a good inn, or do you idiots want to sleep on the dirt instead of a warm bed." Rafael said, before all of us gave him a thumbs up.

[][]

Buying was an interesting art, the way the game worked was simple high level items be them armor, potions, food and so on cost more the higher their effects were, even the material played a role in the price.

A person could get what they needed by buying from an n.p.c or traiding with another player.

Why anyone would do this for weapons or tools was simple. Not every attack was a guaranteed hit and to be able to have an extra swing of your sword or to be able to have a better chance of hitting your opponent, was heavenly sought after.

To be able to leave an enemy confused or stunned, was a blessing that saved lives more often than not.
For this reason the merchants became a guild of their own, however to do this they had to master alchemy- engineering and more skills that I really can't even name.

Cottages and mansions were also for sale but they cost a lot, so if a person owned land or a building, chances were they had a lot of gold.

Speech change

[][]

We left Rick and Dante behind, those two needed to replenish their supplies and in all honesty we needed to get of the streets. It's strange having the need for a warm bath, in a virtual world.

If this is virtual reality.

Two years of fighting has caused us to set our own way of living and now with this hole reboot nothing's changed or so I want to believe.

To feel pain- hunger- exaustion and sexual desires, like it or not but soon bit by bit people will forget about the real world. Some like before will simply waited for someone else to finish the game, others might forget why the he'll we're even going up

The children in the orphanage didn't deserve this and it's them that will be affected by it, more than everyone else. They're the ones that might forget sooner then everyone else and God help us all, if someone gets pregnant , I don't even want to think about the consequences of that.

My help screen light up and from the looks of it all of the cheap inns are full, even the mid class ones are gone. Saitos been looking threw the map and from the looks of it we are going to sleep like kings.

As things stood most players were going to wait and see how the lower classes would react to everything.

The seven floors would keep them safe, so they can level up and be able to defend themselves, but that's not what everyone is waiting for.

The orphanage is located here and it's a target for anyone that just wants to cause truble, not only that but they are triying to see who might be useful.

Once all of the confusion and panic passes how will these people react, will they have to be taken to the cells- will they fight - become merchants or join a team/ guild.

"Looks like the only place with any openings is the most expensive Luxury Hotel in town." Satio told me.

"What is it?" Saito asked me as he he noticed my hesitation.

" I want to go look at the orphanage, you don't have to come, I'll do this on my own." I answered Saito.

"Alright let's go, it's not the rooms will be filled up anywayand if they are well just camp out." Saito answered me.

The damn town took twoenty percent of the first floor and withought any street signs we had to rely entirely on our maps.

As we walked I couldn't get my self to feel at eas here, the n.p.c's showed to much emotion fear, anxiety and curiosity wen we passed, others just plain dissmised us.

I didn't like it, they seemed to human, to alive.

Regardless the sight that greated us when we arrived at the orphanage was one of the worst we ever saw, children as young as five were being confirmed by other kids and the few men and woman that took care of them were being over worked.

Kids that put on their older brothers or sisters game helmet on and turned it on by accident or simply played when their parents or siblings weren't around were trapped here.

It seemed like the people running the orphanage were kicked out of their building, the increase of children they had taken in had brought down all of their savings and they were forced to choose between, the orphanage or food.

Atleast that's what the notification said.

I walked up to a woman who looked like she was in her late teens. "How did you loose the building?" I asked her.

She looked at me with a desperate expression and spoke. " We didn't have enough to buy the building, so we rented it and the fact we brought in more children only increased the rent."

Me and Saito both stared at each other before we walked back a bit.

"Don't." Saito told me.

" What?" I asked him.

"Ask the others if they are willing to pitch in, either we can buy the building or pay the dann rent and put a rug on those kids heads." Saito told me, his expression was one that showed just how much he had changed. Long gone was that scared kid we met back then.

"Dante Rick, I want to buy the orphanage, before the two of you say anything listen up.
It looks like they can't afford to keep so many kids and pay the rent, I figure we but it and use it whenever we are in town.

It's always going to be an orphanage but let's be honest we're almost never here." I sent Dante and Rick a voice mail.

" Sure." Rick said.
"You are the leader. Added Dante voicing his aproval..

Coal was the name of the currency used here and the one most players have, the other one is diamonds. As at the buildings price I exhaled and spoke.

"Fivety diamonds and eight hundred coal."

"Stop hessiatating and do it already, the two of us already finished our shopping anyway." Rick told me, tho the sound of his voice showed he wasn't happy about it.

The two of them sent me the money they had on them and Saito added his part and with one click we were all brick.

The moment the sight said confirmed, I placed my name on it, however I sent the message to Saito who wrote his name and passed it on to Rick, who later sent it to Dante who returned it to me.
Officially we were the proud owners of a Great Lords Mandsion.

We walked back to the woman and stopped right in front of her and a man who was around his early twenties.

"We'll crack you a deal, we will let you stay and live here under the following conditions.
1: This has to always be an orphanage.
2: There will be no preferential treatment between girls and boys.
3: You will not allow .just come in and take the kids." I told them.

They both looked at me with confused expressions, but ehen the simple silver Cross we used as an emblem for our team manifested itself on the two giant wooden white doors, they two of them understood.

They simply vowed and began to walke the children back in, some skipped happy to go back, others walked slowly still crying

Fifteen friend request were sent to me and my team, no doubt the people that worked in the orphanage. Unfortunately I had to accept them all, my notifications showed that the others were doing the same

Why did I do it? Why did I help them? No reason really, it just didn't feel right.

Quest began to pop out one after another, invitations to cathedrals- meeting lords- hunting down monsters - looking for clothes and so on.

I began to look as to why the hell this was happening and then I saw it written in bright red letters First of Four Orphanage Guardian Lords.

I could feel.a head ache comming.

[][]

It had only been a moment but we knew word had gotten out fast, there was a feeling in the air the kind one get before it hits the fan.

The message board had light up and it wasn't good, do to the fact that the building now belonged to us and all of the players that took care of the children were on our friends list.
As a direct result they were officially recognized as our team members, that wasn't the issue eight hundred children were being watched in the orphanage.

That was eight hundred new members for our team, like it or not those children fell under the orphanage and the orphanage now fell under our control.

Without wanting to we had taken control of the next generation and that didn't set well with a lot of people.

Already there was arguing going around between the guilds and amongst the sections, but do to the seven floors treaty no one could move against us, withought bringing the other sections against them.

Still this would be a problem for the near fefuture.

Still rather than going in and getting first dibs on the rooms, Saito and I decided to wait for Rick and Dante.

From the outside the place had a large front yard, a equallylarge back yard and somany windows that washing them would be a nightmare, considering there were three floors of them.

All around the place was a thick stone wall that had several gargoyles standing on next to each other by a distance of eight steps.

Yet both the mansion and the entrance to the front yard stood a set of large wooden white doors, that now had our teams siilver Cross proudly displayed on them.

[][]

While we waited for Dante and Rick to show up, Saito had the bright idea for us to looked at the notefications we had received, maybe a few good quest could get yet threw the week.

Neither of us was concerned with going up at the moment, but we still needed to keep boredom away.

What we discovered was no mysterie but it still didn't set well with us, meet the current religious leader - find teachers - meet nobles over land that we use and food donations.

It was all stuff that an orphanage used, not only that but ninety percent of what we made would be automatically sent to the bank.

Money wasn't a problem, but still knowing my own mony wasn't under full control still felt off, even if it was just a bunch of ones and zeros.

"Looks like most of the quest are annoying, but the ones that are for gathering meat are actually useful." Saito said, as he casually dismissed the his help screen.

It was strange how natural everything like this felt now, but for whatever reason we had adapted and stuff like floating massage widows and people walking around in armor seemed as if they had always been there.

The voices of Dante and Rick cought our attention, Dante letting out a whistle showing how impressed he was about the building.

We didn't even wait for them to reach us, Saito and I emidiatly began to walk inside.

The large white doors had two openings at the top just large enough for people to stand on, when the doors opened, there was a narrow hallway that twisted in several corners before we reached the main building.

At the entrance as well as in the long slender hall leading up to it there were several small openings, there was no mistaking it, those openings were kill zones, made for attacking people while they were directly underneath them.

Behind us we could hear our two friends footsteps echoing and getting louder by the moment, Saito reached out and pushed the large white doors in front of us, but oddly enough they didn't open, then he pulled back and we were greated by a white marble floor and several children grabbing several sacks that barely held anything at all.

I opened my help screen and found that several rooms had at least three kids in them and only one bed.

The screen also showed the names and ages of the kids, but they weren't my problem, nor did it really matter in the long run, they all would one day join the frontlines and this place will be forgotten by them.

The mansion had three hundred rooms, plus the three kitchens, several dining rooms that were right next to each other, so if a person wanted do join them all they had to do was open the doors.

There was a basement but the only thing I could see about it, was that for some reason it was a lot bigger than the rest of the building.

"I call dibs on the library. " Dante said behind me, the guy didn't even wait to enter the building.

"Whitch one?"Saito asked Dante.

"The biggest one." Dante answers back to Saito and the room glowed greenacknowledging him as it's owner.

The room seemed to be something like a giant hallway, that someone just wanted to fill up with something, considering that the dann thing covered the first second and third floor.
There seemed to be an opening in the middle, but other than that there didnt seem to be anything else.

Another room glowed this time its color was red and a large study was taken by Saito, the room had a large fireplace, several wine racks and some sugars. The kid seemed to like the finer things in life.

"This will do just fine"" Rick said as hepicked out an empty room and made it his, the room glowed yellow after that.

I finally found something I liked, it was a large room but it had several tables and more then a few figurines that said they needed to be painted and with that the room glowed blue.

No one bothered to try and talk to us, in reality they had no reason to, even tho we bought the building and helped them out.

They all were going thrue their own things, the reasently re'spawned had to deal with diying and coming back to life and those that had been alive had to deal with the few moments of feeling like if they were homeless.

All of that and at the end the four of us ended up sleeping on the roof, we had gotten use to sleeping together when we were surrounded by strangers, even if those strangers were children.

[][]

We woke up to the early sun rise and left without a word, none of us wanted to experience the awkward feeling of seeing everyone and not knowing what to say.

I sent a message to the children's caretakers, saying that they were free to use anything within the rooms no one was using, as long as they didn't hurt the kids or damaged the mansion.

As for anything else, as long as it was something hat had to be done and they themselves couldn't do it then they could message us but it bad to be in blue or green writing.

Blue: for food- medicine and anything that is needed for people to live.
Green: for cloths - hiering/ buying things such as workers like cooks to feed all the kids or things such as school supplies.

Anything else could be in plain black or white colors and with that we decided to move on and re fill our now empty wallets.

Floor twelve had exactly what we needed, granted we didn't mess the hole thing up, there was a kind of towere located in it and in there were monsters whose bodys made several different kinds of diamons, that was the hole reason we had all done our shopping back in the town of beginnings the day before.

Each one of use had enough food- potions and more than one teleportation crystal just encase things somehow managed to get out of hand.

Even before we left town Dante had begun to look at his help screen no doubt reading about the events that had occurred yesterday.

Aincrad didn't have something like the News om tv or the old newspapers people used, no what it had was it's message board and all of its gossip.

It was mostly nonsens but it wasn't uncommon to see valuable information being spread around, such as floor maps and the kinds of fighting stiles the monsters used.

However seeing the man's expression hinted out he hadn't liked what he had seen.

Exhaling he said. "Well I looked into it and from the looks of it, if we want to keep all the money we make well have to close down the orphanage and make it our mansion.

The problem is, that if we do that those kids will be out on the streets, don't get me wrong they can survive on floor one, but it just wouldn't feel right." Dante finished and his face showed that he had more to say, but at the same time he didn't want to say it.

"What is?" I asked.

"There is another way, but it would involve way to many head ackes... We become a Guild and sigh all of those kids as out guild members.
Don't get me wrong, our money will still be devided in three, but atleast we will still be able to control most of it and those kids, get to have a roof over their heads." Dante finished.

"A guild." I said, that didn't set well with me, the reason teams even existed was because we expected the person next to us to die.

Only that there had been a reboot of the game and everyone that had died had comeback, so maybe just maybe something like that could happen again.

I turned to look at Rick and noticed he was at least considering it, Saito for his part didn't seem to care.

Still we finally arrived to floor twelve and we all just wanted to eat something, there was no need to rush, we had all the time in the world to get started and after all we wouldn't leave the tower until our supplies ran out.

We ate our food under the hot sun, while we were surrounded by the green fields that lead in to the green forest.
This place was known for its odd weather, one part was completely green and filled with life and a nother was blanketed with white snow and the trees barely had any leaves on them.

Between them , the forest became red and the ground was covered in red leaves, until you passed the forest and found a field that seemed to be turning brown or orange.

It was like all of the seasons were present here and our target was right in between Sumner and Autumn.

The castle didn't have dungeons like the ones people normally expect, no instead it had towers.

Still it was nice to be able to eat with everyone, Dante tore threw some scrambled eggs and bread with a jar of orange juice he used to wash it down.

Saito took a spoon full of Dantes scrambled eggs and put them in his mouth.

Rick just drank a lot of wine and ignored the dried meat he had brought with him.

I cut of a peace of the steak Saito had brought, while Dante helped himself to my shark fin soup.

After that we walked, enemy detection helped us know when trouble was near and in reality we welcomed it.

A giant boar, was more meat and less money spent by us, he'll if we were lucky we might even end up running into an insect queen or king, those things bodies were nothing more then diamonds or gems.

The diamonds were money and the gems could be use to power up our weapons and armor.

Still as we walked I could hear the birds singing and our armor making a light clanking sound.

As we left the green field behind I could feel that someone something had its eyes on us and a loud scream proved me right.

A giant black crow flew in the air and from it fell a man , no a monster. It's body was that of a man but it's legs and head were those of a crow.

We each drew our weapons and prepared to fight, but the creature didn't move it just looked at us.

"That, that was is no more and what shouldn't happen has happened... I offer nothing but knowledge and a way to connect with those lost." The creature said.

We all looked at each other. " A quest maybe." Saito said.

"What do you want?" Asked Dante, tho he never even considered lowering his sword.

" The flames have been re light, long before they should have and one order has been lost, so another must be found." It said, the creature spoke in riddles and it was incredibly annoying.

However after it said that it waved it's hand for us to follow it, before it began to walk away.

We looked at each other not knowing what to do and withought thinking we followed.

We walked for about five minutes, none of us willing to say a word, just in case we were being lead into a trap.

We could see the giant wolves that were native to this place, from time to time but other than that, the only thing around was the sound of the giant crows wings flapping.

Finally we stopped at a broken cathedral and there stood a pair of pillars whose light glew blue.

For a moment we all looked at our maps and yeah they were there the cathedral and the pillars.

"I offer you a choice." The creature said, it's voice was somehow hollow, yet it sounded as it was filled with regret.

"Step thru and claim your prize, if you do you must agree to stop those that have come from the other side." The creature said to us.

'Are we talking a save the world kind of situation or just keep them away from this specific place." Saito asked.

"The fact that you even ask that proves that you wouldn't want to do it. Good you won't be so easily tempted that way.

Come with me..." it said, it's voice lingering in the air. The creature walked into the opening between the two pillars and vanished from sight.

It was a hidden room or a kind of dungeon no one had seen before, we looked at each other and we each prepared a teleportation crystal, just in case we couldn't handle what was in there and with that we stepped thru.

Long gone was the forest and all its beauty, we emerged in a cementary our maps didn't show the forest anymore just the cementary.

However our maps did show that inside specific graves there were special items the problem was getting them.

It might be a virtual world, but it was still grave roving.

Tho we hesitated for a moment, we decided to look into them anyway and what we found was better then we could have imagined.

Inside the graves were magic stones and rosaries, Aincrad is a world where magic is leaving, so peole use magic stones to power specific attcks or do certain things that in other cituations would be impossible.

The teleportation crystals were a kind of magical object that were good for one use and the rosaries depending on the version could heal/ restore a persons health - cause damage to an undead enemy or act as a steth sistem, allowing a person to move in places they would surely die in.

We spent the rest of the day opening graves and filling our pokers, from time to time we found armor- candles - swords- shields and other weapons and we even saw undead walking around.

Then I felt it a pulse, no a hollow a scream that seemed to come from my very being and spread out into the world, like a heart beat that lasted an eternity.

"Looks like we spent to much time here, we should head back." Dante said, tho the look in his face showed that he to had felt it.

The moment we left the cementary and returned to the forest the feeling was gone, we each checked our health and noticed that the title Grave Keeper had been given to us.

As the ones that had found the new area, it was up to us to report what we had found, tho no one said we had to do it imidiatly.

The moment word got out, players would head in there to fill their pokers, so we decided to go in one more time, tho we decided to wait until tomorrow after all we had no idea what that feeling had been.

That night we took turns sleeping under the red colored trees, close enough to see if something came out of the pillars, yet far enough we could react to it.

The next day we went back in and looked for the edge of the cementary, triying to see if there was more to the place and luckily for us it seemed that it was only a seven hour walking distance long space, that was also seven hours walking distance wide.

It was a huge room that had pretty toys but that was it. At the end of the day we sent ou the report, as well as the maps we each had made of the place and headed to the tower.

Tho we never saw the giant crow again, we knew those things had a way of randomly showing up, so we kept our guard up the entire time we walked to the tower.

"Effects suddle yet the same, like the other but are not like the others." The crow man said as he watched his unsuspecting friends walk away.

"So they arnt greedy. They just took what they needed and left after informing everyone. ...

[][]

The moment we returned to town was the moment we noticed that a lot people were walking around even tho it was still dark.

Some were looking at the sky with blank expressions, while others just had their heads between their knees.

The atmosphere was heavy, so heavy in fact that if a feather managed to be picked up by someone it might be a miracle, considering how out of it everyone seemed to be.

The town of beginnings had a small waterfall that ran into the center, it wasn't uncommon to see kids playinging in it, splashing each other or racing their home made wooden boats.

The place was peaceful and had a good atmosphere, however all of that was gone replaced by the feeling of helplessness that all of the people that were just laying around had.

"There's a small shop that's open late." Rick said as he began to walk in front of us, yet even tho he just kept walking and didn't bother to turn around he continued to talk.

"I don't get what they're so worked up about, most of the people here didn't enjoy their lives on Earth and now that they have a completely blank slate they act like this." Rick said as he spat on the ground showing his disgust.

"Some are kids that don't know what to do, others just don't like knowing they could die at any moment, either because they get killed in here or because something happened to the helmets." Dante answered Rick, tho the sound of his voice hinted he really didn't care.

"But is this still a game?" I asked " We feel pain- exaustion- hunger and from what I've seen in the chat some of the players have even had sex, the only thing remaining is going to the bathroom." I said.

" If that happens it's only of time before people forget they are in a game, as things stand Japan has only about a thousand frontline players actively clearing boss battles and opening up new floors." Saito aded.

"Lets say you're right and this isn't a game and we are in another reality. What happened to the us in the other side did we die or did we wake up." Rick said.

"Who knows, the truth is we might never know and even if we ever did, would any of us really want to know."Dante answered Rick.

"Who knows, on one side we know what happened on the other we might not like what we find." Saito said as he followed Rick and took a seat.

The store was small, one of those late night shops, that feed people who got out of work late.

There was only one thing on the menu, red bean stew and cold beer. It wasn't like any of us was complaining, so we decided to waite for our food to arrive.

"...So have you guys given any thought about us becoming an official Guild?" I asked.

"I'm fine either way." Saito answered as he took a drink from the beer in front of him.

"Sure why not. The only difference between guilds and teams, is that everyone in a guild acts all high and mighty. So yeah, why not." Rick said as he yook a spoon full of red beans.

"Then I guess that's it." Said Dante as he sent us an invitation to join his guild, the same simple Silver Cross, that we took as an emblem was proudly displayed on it.

"No arguments we all keep the same roles." Dante said and with the sound of glass cups hitting each other our guild was born, same name- same emblem and the same founding members.

As I took a deep drink from my beer, I found my mind returning to the kids "Send the guild request to the caretakers in the orphanage and if you can have them send it to each one of the kids." I told Dante.

A beep informed me that the requests had been confirmed and we had twelve new members, all of whitch were seventeen to twenty years old.

"We really should have looked at their ages." Rick said.

"Does it really matter, at the end their the ones responsible for the kids, we're just the muscle." Saito said, as he looked at his message screen, staring at all of the green letters.

"We should welcome them to the guild, as the founding members it's our job to welcome there new guys." Dante said as he continued to eat.

The sounds of the people moving around us reminded us about the situation, we had forgotten about the world and enjoyed the one we had created, now the problems of the world we had left behind made themselves fully known.

We stayed out for the rest of the night and enjoyed the sun rise as we drank the night away, it was amassing feeling the cool morning wind.

Even if we were surrounded by hopeless people, at the end all of them would find something to occupy their time and eventually forget about whatever it was they were feeling.

[][]

We walked back to the guild house/ orphanage and noticed that people seemed to stay away from it, even as the n.p.c's began their day they seemed to give the building a wide breath.

Even as we opened the doors and walked in, we could feel their eyes on us.

I sent a message to our new members, saying that I wanted to meet with them and by the time we entered the building we found everyone waiting for us.

The adults were standing in front of all of the little ones, who were arranged from smallest to biggest.

"Welcome home sir." A deep voice sought our attention, a man vowed his head to us.

"Raze your head or you will force me to vow as well, there are no rulers here. You protect the children and we protect all of you so don't vow and look at me in the eyes when you speack." Dante said to the man.

"We would like to thank you for what you did for us, but what is it you need us for." Said a girl no older than thirteen.

"Catch." I said as I threw a rosari at her, Rick - Dante and Saito did the same as we each threw a rosari at the twelve caretakers.

"Our emblem is the silver cross, we chose it because the rosaries saved our lives more than once. Welcome to the guild, welcome to the family your one of us now." I said to them.

They all looked at the rosaries and one of the girls fell on to her knees and cried the same thing happened to some of the men tho they tried to hold back their tears.

"Hey, if you don't want them." Saito began before he was cut of.

"Thank you." Was all they said.

I understood what was happening, these people were just as lost as the ones outside they had given up and decided to live their lives in the town, but other than that they didn't know what to do.

So they decided to take care of the ones that were weaker than them.

I could hear Dante exhaling frustrated about something as he said " Damm it."

"Come one by one." Dante told the kids as he take out the rosaries one at a time and began to give them out to each kid in front of him.

When he ran out, he stepped back and Rick shot him a disgusted look and began to give out his rosaries aswell only keeping the costemary two for emergencies

Saito stepped forward and spun the rosaries in his hands as he thru them at the kids, who in turn cought the objects in their hands.

Finally only I was left listening to the beeping sounds of the children confirming their entrance to the guild.

We spent the entirety of a day and a half getting there things and just like that they were gone. I knew we would never get this kind of luck again, yet I still gave mine away, I wasn't happy about it at all but still, seeing the little ones playing with their rosaries did make me smile, if only for a moment.

[][]

Speech change Dante:

I watched Raff leave with the people that had taken care of everything until now and headed to my room, the children murdered to themselves as I passed.

Some of them followed closely behind, while others simply watched me with wide eyes. The moment I opened the doors to the library, I could hear them gasp at the sight of it.

"Go play if you want, but don't tear any pages off." I said to the children behind me.

I walked to a red soffa and sat down it was time to get to work, first I needed to find anyone that needed crystals, from what I had seen earlier few people were willing to buy anything at the moment.
So I simply put, that I had a large quantity of crystals and was looking for buyer's.

With that out of the way, I started looking into the messages sent to us by our new guild members.

It seemed that we needed a way to prove that the kids were under our protection, but the rosaries took care of that, so that was done.

What I saw in red letters nearly made me slamm my fist in frustration.

Due to the seven floors treaty no guild could expand more than they had when they made themselves a guild, on the first floor.
This meant that the only building we could have was the mansion, it wasn't a problem for us, but the kids would eventually want something of their own.

From the looks of it, we also needed cooks because the person doing all the cooking was being over worked.

I put up an add, saying that all we needed was someone that could cook and clean their pay would be having a place to live

Beats the he'll out of me, who would accept that deal but still, atleast it got the word out there.

I later put an add for teachers, like before they would get a place to live and nothing more.

How the he'll where we going to pay the people. I wondered as I saw the kids running around, I looked for simple armores and began to put the crystals in them.

The armores were things I came across and the crystals were the small ones, I didn't have nearly enough armored for eight hundred kids, but an armored glove for one, a breast plate for another and so on, allowed me to send them all a gift.

A buyer showed up and offered more then a few thousand coal, for the crystals. I couldn't help but think that were being under payed, but when I looked into the buyer I noticed why.

It was an n.p.c and they always bought bellow market price to avoid inflation.

I sent the other the message and they all agreed to sell nine hundred thousand cut in three parts, it wasn't much but it would do.

[][]

It was time to look at the reports again, tho Raff and Rick thought it was a waist of time it was better to keep your self informed, less something happen and you were cought completely of guard.

It looks like nearly everyone that isn't in shock has begun to move again, the thing is people are reporting monsters they've never seen before.

One eyes that fly in the air with no wings, Ogres in floors they shouldn't be in and according to a girl, some but job tried to attack her by waving some sort of wand at her.

As much as people say there isn't magic in this game, the gems and the crystals are proof that some magic remains, so maybe it was better to keep an eye out, for people using magic.

A beeping sound cought my attention a message from someone in America, I smiled as I looked at the name 101.

"Yeah, long time no see 101, welcome back to the the land of the living." I said to 101.

"Well look at you master you... im...glad to be back." 101 said tho his voice showed he wasn't comfortable with it.

"Listen I'll get straight to the point. I need you and the others to go to floor eight and see if something has changed about the floor." 101 said, clearly hesitating.

"What is it?" I asked.

"..." 101

"I won't put my team in danger unless I have all of the information." I said to 101.

"That's a first."101 said, tho his voice was almost a whisper.

"The scouts are coming back with information, disturbing information. It seemed the fields have changed.
The cleaners have opened up the floors all the way up to floor seventy seven."

"However according to th scouts, the floors are changing, there are castles where there shouldnt be any and from what we are hearin from Europe... The n.p.c's are now able to speak and interact with everithing.

We've tried the walls of the buildings and they arnt indestructible anymore.
Your job is to see if the eighthfloor on your part, has suffered from any of that." 101 told me.

"If it's that big of a problem why don't we secure the seven floors first?" I asked.

"Because that would cause an international incident. Unless the n.p.c's are hostile we don't have to deal with them. However if we begin to march and cause truble." 101 said before I cut him off.

"It would be seen as an act of aggression on the other parts... God I hate politics." I said, before pausing and thinking about it for a moment.

"We need pay and I do have to inform my team. So you will know if we do accept." I said.

"I heard you're now taking care of a lot of kids, how's eighty thousand coal, pluss a hundred boars sound."101 said.

"I'll inform my team if they're up for it, but I will inform everyone here. " I told 101 who just cut of his chat screen.

[][]

I looked at the kids and noticed that some of them had sat down and started reading, others had taken maps out and started using them as swords.

There were several tables, in the room, one day I would have to reed all of the books here and study every map...

"Raff, guess whose back. ... 101 is alive and he offered us a mission, the thing is something's off." I sent Raff a message, a beeping sound alerted his answer.

"Dis he give you a hard?" Raff asked

"...No. According to him the floors are changing or have already changed, castles in areas they should be, new kinds of monster, old monsters in floors they shouldn't be in and the new room we found." I answered Raff.

"So what's the problem?" Raff answers.

"Rafael, 101 is offering eighty thousand coal, plus a hundred boars. You know the animal. " I told Raff.

"..." The silence on the other side lingered for what seemed hours, even tho it had only been a few seconds.

"Are you sure this isn't a trap, he died fighting besides us. He's offering way to much for information that can easily be acquired by normal means... tell him no, this is way to fishy." Raff said before cutting of the line.

It was only a moment but I received both Ricks and Saito's answers, it seems Raff sent them a recording of our conversation.

Both agreed, this had all the makings of a trap.

After that I sent 101 a message only saying no deal. He never answered back.

With that out of the way and nothing better to do, I went back to seeding all of the gossip. What I saw next nearly made my eyes pop out.

Raff had put the word out, that the floors had been changing or had changed already but he changed the wording.

According to him we should compare information, old and new tho the seven floors were of limets we were still open to assult by power hungry n.p.c's, that could swarm us and kill us by pure numbers.

A slight tug on my sholder made me turn and I saw a small girl with twin ponytail pulling on my sleeve.

"Theirs someone at the door." She said.

The girls small form and hazel colored hair made you simply want to let her head, even as she walked her twin tails danced around on their own.

When we reached the main entrance to the outside, we found a man around seventeen and a girl who couldn't be older then thirteen.

"I ...I heard this was a place for those that ... didn't. ...didnt know what to do." He said, his eyes seemed distant and lost.

I just looked at him, for a moment.

"... let's see if we can find you a room." I said to him, while knowing full well we had more than enough rooms.

The girl just followed us in, she never said a word. Even as the two passed me as I closed the door, I could see several people turn and look at us, somehow this felt as if it would comeback and bite me.

There are a lot of hopeless people and I had just shown a small spark to them. No doubt that some will come looking for shelter and protection.

The problem is, is that if there is one thing life has thought me, is that a lot of people will just take and take and take, all ways demanding for more and it's never enough for them.

I sent Rick a message about what had happened and his his only response was; I'll take care of it.

Rick, probably the coldest one of us all, but the guy had gone thrugh enough to be made that way, there is an unspoken rule.

You don't talk about who you were and what you were in the other world. We broke that rule in day one, back when this was all a game.

Rick had been a police officer, whose family had been killed because a news station put up his name -adress and the names of his wife and children.

He found them dead, his wife and daughter had been... all because he had arrested a woman who had killed her boyfriend and her family wanted revenge.

[][]

To my surprise even before we entered the building Rick was already waiting for us at the entrance.

"Leave them to me I'll handle this." He said, tho his eyes showed a heavy amount of dis interest.

I nooded and left the pair with Rick, the little girl saw a pair of kids she knew and ran off, it was gone by me, after all I did have something to do.

I followed the map of the building until I came across a large pair of heavy steel reinforced doors. My first instinct was that this was the entrance to a dungeon, but then I thought why would a dungeon be here.

The moment I opened the doors was the moment I smelled cold wet stone.

A stareway that went down was all I could see and my map only showed white even as I enters the room, the map itself was only filling out as I walked.

That is until I reached the bottom and all of the room or should I say rooms became known to me.

Closed cells that had iron barred doors stood in front of me, each with a bed and toilet each on their own little corner.

No bodies, no stench of death common to thece kinds of places.

Even as I walked looking at every cell at the bottom I couldn't help but feel on edge, as I waited to defend myself from whatever abomination lived in this place.

Yet even as I reached the end I found nothing, I went up a sent of stairs and again nothing only cilance and a feeling of want.
It's amassing how use to a sound or some form of stimulant a person needs, but down here there were no sounds, no bells- no merchants selling- not even the sounds of the birds singing, just silence.

Finally after going up one last set of stairs, I saw that there really was no one here. However as I looked down I saw that what looked like a narrow path, that allowed people to reach the stairs I used to come in with.

"I looked into the basement and it looks like some form of prison, but there are no bodies and it's clean. From what I saw it has a hundred rooms on each of the three levels, but that's it." I sent out what I found in the guilds private chat, however no one answered back.

I made way back up the stairs and had just closed the doors behind me when I heard a beeping sound alerting me to a message and to my surprise it was from Raff.

"I was thinking about what you said earlier, the deal 101 sent us... I say we should go check it out. No because of the deal but for what reason he or they chose the eight floor."

"Think about it guilds and teams moved around hunting monsters all the time even here on the first floor.
So he could have gotten anyone to do so... but he didnt... there is something on the eight floor either it's a trap or a new room might have opened up.

So what do you say want to go check it out." Raff's message said before cutting itself of.

[][]

I was about to answer Raff's message when I noticed that someone had responded to my request for a cook and from the looks of it, it was an n.p.c.

Not exactly what I had intended, but n.p.c's could still make good tasting food. However there was a catch, in exchange for a total of seventy adults ranging from teachers- maids- cooks and people that tended to animals, there were several children amongst them

No doubt their families, I sent Raff the information and he immediately gave his approval.

Space wasn't a problem, every room was the size of an average living room- bed room and kitchen all mixed in one, that was the hole reason we could fit eight hundred children and sixteen adults in this place.

Correction eighteen adults, this place would make us all grow up in ways we never thought possible, that man and that girl by the end of this will be adults, if not physically, mentally.

I kept reading the response and checking out the people's credentials and I noticed that a lot of them had the word Depowered Mage or servant written next to them.

Nothing too out of the ordinary, I was just about to close the window when a nother message came in, yet when I opened it I couldn't help but feel my eyes widens.

There written in red letters was a request by the Knights of the Blood Oath, it simply said please come to our headquarters on the fifthy fith floor.

I couldn't Waite the Knights of the Blood Oath were the strongest guild around, even tho they only had thirty people, no forty people they are amongst the strongest cleaners.

I sent the message to Raff who imidiatly graved Saito and Rick before asking.

"Alright anyone's got an idea, why the elites want to talk to us." He said.

None of us answered, for a long moment.

"It could be because of the new floor room we found" said Saito.

"None of us have done anything to be noticed for, so maybe they just need help clearing out a boss.
We are among the few with our shit together." Said Rick.

"... Alright let's go and deal with thus." Raff said and with that we wore off.

[][]

Speech change Saito.

We left almost emidiatly and I didn't even get to drink.
Just how people could taste food- feel the world around them and smell the flowers, they could get as drunk as they wanted, there were no such thing as age restrictions, after all why would there be, we were already beeing killed anyway.

I could tell that Raff was not happy and he'll even Rick was mad, why wouldn't he be. We haven't enjoyed the house we bought and whatever rest we had wasn't enough.

Like usual Dante was looking thru all of the gossip and not paying attention to the world around him.

...God I wish that was true, no frome time to time I could see his help screen switch to a map and enemy detection mark out any danger, the guy was constantly keeping an eye out for us.

Either thru information or from possible threats that might be around. Whatever had happened in the American section affected him somuch, that he was left in a constant state of worry.

It wasn't healthy.

We all heard about the battle, how Europ lost a lot of people and how America lost nearly half it's players.
People would think that being trapped in a game and fighting for our lives would make people shape up and try and get along, but it didn't work that way.

The real worlds problems followed us in here and it didn't take long for those that wanted free things or simply wanted people to blame, to cause truble.

Europe's section went up in flames, the only ones that survived were the people that fled to other floors or simply killed everyone that attacked and ended up leading entire guilds, forced into a position they never wanted.

America is said to have been carved in half, before an organized assult by everyone that wanted revenge, killed the truble makers and the people that sided with them.

Japan'ssection was no better suicides and desperate people diying was a common sight.

Then the treaty was formed, to prevent stuf like that from ever happening again. The solution was simple and no group or government would stop it.

Simply get rid of the problem now and not deal with it later.

For that reason not even player killers try their luck on the seven floors, less every section move in and hunt them down to the last man.

I have to remember to get Dante so drunk he actuallygets some sleep and get a woman to sleep with Rick, so the guy can loosen up.

Anyway after walking for a while we finally arrived to the teleport station and we used it to jump to the Knights of the Blood Oath' s floor.

I wasn't looking forward to this and neither were my friends, whatever the Knights of the Blood Oath wanted couldn't be good.

If they wanted us, to help them clear out a boss, then that would mean our lives would be in danger.

People said that, people weren't staying dead anymore, but we hadn't seen it for ourselves and even if they had comeback to life on the first floor, that wasn't any garentee that the same remained for the next floor or the one after that.

Then there was that hunted look every player had, like if they had lost something important about them.

No, whatever the Knights of the Blood Oath wanted couldn't be good.

We arrived at a floor covered in black steel and other metals, the wind blew coldly here, like being on a tall building or a high hill.

Raff drew his hammer and Dante was now holding his sword, I took out two small daggers and followed them to a dark tower and went in.

No one tried to stop us or even greet us for that matter, that thought alone was troubling, still the fact we had to go up so many stairs that a person could faint, was even more worrying.

We all would be tired from all of the walking, so if anything happens we would be at a disadvantage.
Even though we were already behind enemy lines and outnumbered, all it took was one word and we would have to fight off a guild full of experienced players.

I could see Rick moving his hands and setting up timers, he was expecting a fight.

We arrived at a large set of metal doors, that opened on their own, at a table at the far end of an otherwise empty room stood Asuna the Flash- Kirito the Black Swords man and Heath cliff Leader of the Knights of the Blood Oath.

"Keep your guard up, chances are we're already surrounded." Dante warned me.

"Either that or they're so confident in their own skills that, they don't even see us as a threat." Rick said.

"Welcome." Heath cliff said to us, even before we reached him.

[][][]

I could see Dante's help screen switch to monitoring our health, before switching back to a map of the area around us.

"Heath cliff, we came here as soon as we received your message, namely because we don't want to be involved in anything.

So what do you want?" Rick answered.

"By that logic wouldn't it have been better for you and your team not to have come." Heath cliff answered Rick.

"That would have been an insult..." Rick said, before an awkward feeling was left hanging in the room.

"Anyway we called you here regarding your teams recent activities." Asuna said, somehow breaking the awkward feeling.

We looked at each other not really understanding what they mean.

"Allow me to explain." Said Heath cliff.

"You gained an overwhelming number of new members to your guild. Members that will remember how they were treated in their time if need, by the people around them.

You have involved yourselves, in international affairs, by speaking to other player, in other countries and sharing information."

"Not only that, but you managed to use a loop hole in the treaty and bought a large guild house in a protected area.
Knowing full well that any attack there, would be considered a decelerationof war against all sides." Heath cliff explained.

"There's talk, here and there that you planned it all. Maybe not everyone coming back to life, but for some form of distraction that would allow you to move." Asuna the Flash said.

"We're offering you and your team a deal. If there is any truble or you ever need some help the Knights of the Blood Oath will help you.
In exchange for you to act as messengers to the American section, incase we need to share information." Kirito the Black Swords man said.

Something was off about this, it seemed to clean almost transparent, but it was almost like they were saying.
We watch your backs, but you work for us.

"No deal. If you wanted servant look somewhere else." Raff said, as he aimed his hammer at the tree.

"Perhaps we said it wrong, let me say it in another way.
People are planning on attacking you, we know you hired a large amount of n.p.c's, that job offer you put up has recently been taken down.

Not only that that new room you found, it's not apart of the original game and the alert you sent out, its being shown as proof that you went to that floor in search of the new loot."

"How else could you have found something that shouldn't exist."

"This was vital information needed to keep people alive and the fact that you sent out that warning, after you found that room proves you knew rhis before hand." Heath cliff said.

"How bad?" Dante asked.

Asuna picked up a notebook "There are castles showing up in areas that they shouldn't exist and well the n.p.c's arnt acting like n.p.c's anymore."

"Something your warning told people before anyone on our section knew anything about it and finally something happened that scared everyone... people are now going to the bathroom." Asuna said.

I could see the look on Raff's and Danted's faces, they were both saying shoot, even as they looked at the rest of the room thru the corners of their eyes.

"Look your team is one of the few that has some influence in another section and people are now aiming for you.
So like it or not you need help." Kirito the Black Swords man said.

The look in Staff's face said that he was ready to kill the three in front of him.

"Deal, but we don't work for you. If you need help and we can't help you, that's the end of it, no one is disobeying orders.

The same applies for you, if you can't help us, you can't help us and if we can't say or don't know something, that's the end of it." Dante said, however his voice was filled with disgust.

"Agreed." Heath cliff said.

However Dante, Raff and Rick each took out a teleport crystal and left, I followed them back to the first floor, using a crystal of my own.
However before I left I could see the smile on Heath cliff's face, I somehow knew we were at war with the man and by extent his guild. However it was better to work with him, then against him, if people were now aiming for us them we were endanger.

][][]

Our surroundings completely dark and with the fact that it was currently raining, we didn't have the luxury of starting a fire.
He'll even if we did turn on a light, it would only a track monsters, so we only had the brief moments of light that happened whenever lightning strikes.

We're currently on the eight floor, in a land completely changed from the one we once knew, originally this entire floor was nothing more then one big open field and for the most part it still was.

However... There are ruins now, ruins of a civilisation that uses to have technology. Helicopters- cars- broken buildings and more were left behind destroyed.

Whoever these people were, they liked making their weapons more than one thing, for example we found shields that become guns-turn into swords or even spears and so on.

We each took our fill of whatever weapon and technology we found and sent it back to our rooms and apparently we could also send things straight into the basement.

It turns out that so to the fact we all have our own rooms, our storage space has grown and the system recognizes the guild house as one big storage space.

It refered to everything sent there as trophies.

Still knowing this didn't change the situation, we couldn't move because if we did we risked running into monsters and having to fight blind.

We couldn't enter any of the buildings because they all had some creature that lurked in it and we would end up in the same situation we were triying to avoid.

After we had left the Knights of the Blood South's tower, Raff initiated a force teleport to the eight floor.

"Raff what the he'll man? Dante asked Raff.

"We're doing the mission 101 asked us to do, weather we give him what wefound , depends on what we cind." Rafd answered Dante.

"Raff try to calm down and" Rick vegan before Raff exploded.

"Calm down,! you want me to calm down when we were just blackmailed!" Raff yelled at Rick.

"What I want you to do, is explain why you are taking a mission we agreed looked like a trap and could get us killed." Rick said to Raff, tho he was already holding one of his many explosives.

"So what you're going to attack me Rick." Raff said as he raised his hammer.

"I'll knock you out and keep you tied up until you can relax, if I have to." Rick said fully prepared to fight Raff if the situation called for it.

The two were about to strike one another when a sword was put between the two.

"That's enough." Dante said, however it seemed that him saying that, was the wrong move, as both Rick and Raff trhu themselves at eachother.

A miniature explosion set of by Rick, only missed Raff because Dante moved Ricks hand and the impact of the hammer was diverted by Dantes sword, before it hits Rick.

"That's right, kill each other!"Dante screamed as he drove his fist into Raffs face.

"If we do what this guy wants it's going the cave all over again!" Rick screamed as he made a fire blast circle Dante, forcing some distance between the two.

"You idiot! Can't you see Im triying to avoid that and keep us as safe admissible!" Raff screamed.

"You are leading us into a trap, it's the damm cave all over again. A team leader that isn't thinking straight abd a team that is both ill equiped and unprepared for what they might find!"

"Did you forget how those kids died In front of us! Did you forget the reason we left America!" Rick screamed as he shoved Dante out of the way and landed an explosive on Raff chest, the explosion was a solid hit and Raff fell to one knee.

Rick stopped attacking when he saw Raff fall and slowed down his breathing "We're already here, but the two of us are to emotional right now Dante, you lead this mission." Rick said tho he sounded defeated, as he said those words.

From there we just walked until we found what looked like a town with a castle in it, the town was in ruins and the people... what people, there was no one here.

Come to think of it, had someone said that little Saito, the meet that stayed in his room allday would one day be out exploring and fighting for his life. He would have laughed.

Tomorrow they would investigate the castle but right now they needed to survive the night.

[][]]]

"Sorry" Raff said, as he struggled to keep his voice from breacking as he shivered from the cold.

"Its cool." Said Rick.

" First thing I'm doing when I get back to town, is finding myself a brothel and letting all this shot behind me." Dante said to us, as he tried to lighten the mood.

"Really, all I want is to get back to my room and drink until I pass out." I said to them.

"I'll probably get my self two or four woman and put adventuring behind me. You know settle down and raise my own bunch of headache." Raff aded to the growing conversation.

"None of that for me boys. I've been thinking and if we have to deal with this kind of shit, then maybe its best we start building a police force. Rick said.

"So you want to bring, law to a place where the law barely exist. The treaty won't let you, it will have to be an another floor.
Something like starting your own town or forging an Empire." Dante said.

"So be it."Rick said with a slight chuckle.

The rest of the night we kept quiet and when the sun was out, we treaided out our old wet cloths for dry ones and we began to explore.

Half buried cars, some wagons and broken machines along with a lot of broken robots and skeletons with strange weapons littered the streets.

Whatever happened here wasn't recent, but it had been a while since it happend, all of the skeletons proved that, some of them still had some meat on them.

"It seemed like the grand majority of people here, where a mixture of animal and human." Dante said as he opened a door to a nearby house.

Instantly Raff hammer slammed into a strange wolf like creature. All it had taken was a split second, had Raff hesitated then Dante would have had his head ripped off.

We walked in slowly, triying to find anything that might tell us what happenedhere.

The strange animals were obviously the culprits, but what has atracketed them? and had they acted alone?

Yet what seemed more trubeling of it all as the two main questions. Are there any people left? And if they are what was so important, that this city had been destroyed for it?

The first question was optional, but the second one needed to be answered.

Behind me I could see Dante sending out the report of the strang wolf, a cometly black creature capable of walking on two legs. Somehow the creature has a hard exoskeleton that's completely white with some red designs.

The report was simple and easy to understand.

The house was a simple two bedroom apartment, kitchen and all there was nothing important about it, so we decided to leave and head straight for the castle.

That is until we head a sweeping sound coming from a room.

We aproached slowly, ready for an ambush and when Raff pushed the door, we found out someone had blocked it from the other side.
The wolf's claws has already done a number on the door, it had been the creatures simple mind, that had saved whoever was inside.

The reason was simple, even tho the door was made to open by pushing it in, the walls and the door itself had been so damaged that all one had to do was pull.

Behind the door was a wardrobe being held in place by moor furniture, but none of us expected to see what we found inside.

Two boys, two girls and a small infant hidden behind a woman who was holding a gun aimed at us.

The moment she saw us, she began to lower her gun.

Raff slowly put his finger in front of his lips, signaling the kids and the woman to be quiet.

"Call the Army " Rick said.

Dante signaled to us to aproach him and Rick made a sigh n that he would stay behind and calm the group, but he tapped his ear signaling he was listening to the conversation.

"They're N.P.C's, the Army won't move unless they are Players. So if we want a suppression force to come in, we need to find a real threat to every player." Dante told us.

"Can we call in our friends and other guilds?" Raff asked, before realizing that they wouldn't move, not for n.p.c's.

"Looks like we're on our own." Raff said until I decided to cut in.

"We do have the other option, call in the knight of the." Raff cut me of.

" If we find more then we send in the report to them asking for help. Meanwhile send out our call for help." Raff said, before he returened to Ricks side.

[][]

"As far as I'm concerned, we have two options, we leave or we take them with us." Dante said as he looked at the survivor's.

"Saito do you see what I see." Dante asked me.

I looked for a moment but I didn't see anything wrong, it was only a mother protecting her children... No that wasn't wright, the way they trembled and how the children cried it was to real, not to mention the fact that Rick was giving candy to the kids, just to calm them down.

"They're real." I said.

"We suspected this from the start, it's the reason why we didn't want to get involved in anything.
One of three things happened, either the game was updated to become more realistic and everyone that came back was on some sort of life support."

"Another possibility is that, the creators of the game didn't know what they were completely doing and the collective mind's of the people, filled in the blanks of this reality.
They built the car, but had no engine to make it completely work, everithing was there and our subconscious just filled in the blanks."

"God help us if the last option is right. The creators of the game, either didn't know what they were doing or knew damm well the end results and still created the game anyway."

As Dante spoke I could feel the fear grow inside me, sure things seemed more realistic and I had gone to the bathroom in the mansion, but this place couldn't be real could it.

"Dante, what do you mean by God help us?" I asked Dante even tho U feared the answere.

He looked hesitant to answere but did so none the less.
"Son, the day we met you I told you we will always be friends and we would always watch each other's backs. In this team we are family, so take a deep breath and calm down." Dante said to me, as he tried to calm me down, but I only felt more agitated.

"...Its possible we're in another dimension, I'm not sure if it was created by combining our mind's, with the technology we used or if we were thrown in here because we met the right conditions." Dante told me, tho he didn't sound completely sure.

"I say we take them back to the first floor, no matter how you look at it, it's to dangerous to go deeper into the city." Rick said, as Raff neared him.

"We're already in hot water, to do that is turning more eyes in our direction." Raff shot the idea down.

"How about the seventh floor, no dangerous reports have come from it. They can live in one of the clearings and a new town there." Dante said.

"Woman are there any more survivors?" Raff asked the woman, she flinched a little and pointed at a large building shaped like a dome.

"I need a vote." Raff said, he didn't need to explain himself, either we leave with what we found or we go and get whoever was left inside the dome.

"Lets do it." All three of us said.

Raff neared the woman's face and looked at her straight in the eyes, the moment he did that she realized what he wanted, she shook her head and said no.

"We need you to show us the way, we will keep you safe but we have to move before it gets dark." Raff told the woman.

The squeaking sounds of the infants laughter would be a problem, the problem was we couldn't leave the kids behind and if one of us stayed behind, it would weaken the group.

"They're coming with us." Dante said.

[][]