Aincrad, the shining castle in the sky, made of steel and promises. That is what it was for the ten thousand people that bought it and logged on for the first and last time ever. The date was November 6, 2022, which was made all the more memorable on account of the stark imprisonment and death that awaited those lucky enough to get in it. Among the notables of this great disaster were players like Kirito, Asuna, Klein, Agil, and so on. Stories which encompassed those players have been told over and over again. Nevertheless, however, some stories weren't told, and only the survivors contain the memories of a tale as important as the Black swordsman, and of the players who controlled destiny up to the Ruby Palace itself.
I find myself in that very pickle. Pickles are sour, and you'd have to be insane to actually want to be in one. Unless of course you like cucumbers, in which case I pity you.
Ten Thousand people though…hard to believe it, right? If you're that nutcase that does believe without proof, then I do pity you, regardless of your love for Cucumbers.
Unfortunately for me, however, it was real and I was the idiot that got myself stuck there. I survived, of course; but many weren't so lucky. Or maybe they were the lucky ones, as the guilt of what went on in that trap haunted many of the survivors.
Does it haunt me? You bet it does, it haunts me more than most. Oh sure you had your murderers and thieves; every world touched by the Human condition has those. But I…I put the bastard responsible for almost destroying all of Aincrad in the very position of doing such a deed. Hindsight's 20/20 and all that, right?
I'm not one of those people that defends my actions; not even close. I'm one of those 'it either happened or it didn't' kind of person. You can thank Aincrad for that by the way.
Before I get carried away with my story, there is something I need to get out of the way.
I'm what they call 'the rich kid'. Yeah, even in this age that hasn't gone away. The crash of 2008 still gets people mad, you know. That recession which made rich people and the middle class put a gap between themselves, which was just property mismanagement and bank guys defaulting all over their bubble. My parents had me then, while they were reaping the benefits of mass destruction in the American Economy.
I was actually born Fifteen Years and one day before Aincrad's servers went online and we got trapped there; and my parents got me one of those old NerveGears-state of the art at that time.
I wanted for nothing; I was popular, I was one of those spoiled guys. Hard to believe?
Yeah, me too-especially when you think about me surviving that death trap.
Most people would assume I would just stay in the safety of the Town of Beginnings; given my lack of the Japanese language and my past disposition on those I considered 'beneath me'. If I was one of those, then I would have the same opinion; if for nothing else than my blatant stupidity of playing a foreign game with no knowledge of its language.
I was a fool, in love with the world-not understanding action and consequence. For those of you old-timers who got that reference, good for you. If you didn't get it, then I suggest you try to watch The Matrix.
Or is that too old of a movie?
Well, this wouldn't be much of a memoir if I just kept ranting. The point is, I screwed up and paid the price for it. The rich man always gets it in the end…
So without further ado, let me just give you the context of my journey in the iron castle:
In the South-west corner of Floor Forty-Eight lies a vault, which was not meant for the eyes of the players. This vault and others like it contain secrets the developers of SAO had no chance to erase when the head GM Kayaba Akihiko took over as Lord of the Castle. The knowledge of such things were found in certain quests that attracted various people, including the Guild Zealot's Wrath. The records of such madness need to be written to further understand what exactly transpired while the 100 floors were being cleared. This is my story.
FLOOR 2- Urbus
I can remember being really scared. We all were, even those who beat the first floor boss, and that was a few days ago. Two Thousand of our number were dead, and many more were sure to follow. It was an eye opened that I wish I never had. Keep in mind I was still a pompous idiot, still used to getting what I wanted out of people. That had alienated me and my friend who had followed me into this mess. Well, I thought he was my friend anyway.
It was a bit of a relief to have reached the town and its gate; during that time I had no idea that one person could activate the teleporter to allow everyone access to the towns on the current floors (uncleared).
I had made a point to study the language (people never reacted amiably to me because I couldn't speak Japanese) but in the month and a half since we'd been stuck here, I managed to pick up very few words.
That had certainly helped in dealing with NPCs but was woefully inadequate to the many people stuck here.
I bought a few food supplies and headed back to the cheapest inn available (that was my friend's choice).
I walked into the room and threw the bread in his lap.
"Thanks" he muttered, before devouring the bread.
"There are a few quests in English" he said, when he was finished.
"Anything important?" I asked, eating my own bread.
"There was a fetch quest for a Marome NPC and another one about slaying ◾Bullbous Bow" he said "The others were in Japanese"
"I wonder why they chose English for a few quests" I said.
Of a truth, the Japanese were in the process of meshing the two languages together, probably for political reasons…but I didn't know at the time.
"Does it matter?" he asked, and looked at me.
"The Bullbous Bow is probably a field boss" he said "I'm more interested in the fetch quest"
"You would be, I suppose" I said condescendingly "Afraid to get your hands dirty?"
He looked shocked.
"That thing probably needs ten people or so to take down" he said, getting scared "I don't want to kill that thing with just you"
"If that thing is a field boss" I retorted "Then it would be in our best interest to obtain the Last Attack bonus, wouldn't you agree?"
"Yeah, but-" he tried again.
"We're going to do it, tomorrow" I told him "Before those other guys get to it"
I got into my bed, and pulled the covers up, letting him get into his bed in the dark.
Again, hindsight really does haunt you…if I had just done things differently, then perhaps things wouldn't have been so bad. It stands to reason that I had lived through the Death Game, and he did not-but I did it without him-I created the monster.
His name in game was Ultor. Yeah, not a really cool name…even now I chuckle at how stupid it sounded. Again my arrogance knew no bounds back then, for if I just had the brains to see the warning signs-at least this first clue was obvious.
Ultor is Latin (not Spanish, but actual ancient Roman), a word that translates in English as Avenger…
Oh, if only I could change things.
I woke up the next morning after he did, obvious that it was by the fact that he wasn't in the room. After dressing in what passed as armor, I walked out of the inn and down Main Street. I met him by the plaza with the Teleport gate, and he was looking at the board with the quests.
There are some quests in Aincrad that can be completed infinitely and others that cannot be completed more than once. There are still others which can only be cleared once-period.
I had suspected field bosses to be such, and wasn't surprised when that was the case.
"I am ready to go when you are, Arthur" he said.
Arthur was my player name, which I had regretted now. It was a throwback to England and its Legends about a guy that had unified all of Britannia and created Camelot. While I found out years before all this that King Arthur was probably based on a local who hated the Romans and joined up with a psychopath named Marcus Aurelius; I was nonetheless intrigued by it, and it felt like a good roleplaying name at the time.
"We'd have to hurry, before those guys get the prize" I took out my one-handed sword and belted it around my waist.
Ultor hesitated.
"C'mon" I pushed him forward and we walked out of the city and through the cave to the bottom of that flat top rock formation.
Yeah, that was a prominent feature of this floor…that and flatland, Savannas I think we call them. Most of the Monsters were bovine in nature; like this Bullbous Bow for instance.
Speaking of which…
We traveled to the indicated spot…relatively close to a small town of Taran, which I later found out was close to the Labyrinth of this floor, and watched the scene.
There were people already there, about fifteen or so. I remember being so pissed off that I rounded on my friend.
"You should have woken me up earlier!" I yelled "What are we going to do now!"
"I thought you wanted to sleep" he mumbled "I didn't know they'd be here already"
He had a point, and I later regretted this as the tipper. Ultor had only tried to help me, and all I had done was push him around.
"Well, you got what you wanted" I said and turned to walk back "Share that quest with me, and we'll be on our way"
He did so, and ran to catch up.
I opened my window, and went to the quests section.
"So an archaeologist wants a cube-like object" I said in way of conversation.
"Yes" he said, walking a little behind me "Some kind of cave has a ruin of sorts, with traps and monsters. I talked to a few people who knew fluent English and they told me it was actually quite easy-and the Monsters are lower leveled then some of the ones here in the field"
"Meaning we can gain exp without worrying too much" I finished, calming down.
"Arthur, I really didn't mean for that to happen" he apologized.
I turned to him, and had realized he meant it. I shook my head.
"C'mon then" I walked towards the less lucrative goal "I want to be back in the inn by nightfall"
The place in question would have been fun in an actual game; it had ruins, and monsters, and traps-the fantasy aspect in SAO never failed to wow me. As it was, we almost died twice. We were sitting in a safe area; well away from danger. I had just retrieved the cube from a walking bull man. You know, one of those two legged ones that held battleaxes and polearms.
"How often do you think this quest was completed?" I asked Ultor.
"Plenty of times" he answered "I think the more daring among us want to clear all the quests, for their bonuses and the exp"
"There seems to be a lot of guards here for a stupid cube" I sighed.
"They are lower leveled than most other monsters on this floor" Ultor was quick to point out.
"You've said this already" I sipped water from a canteen "What I mean to say is-don't you think this is a bit much for a floor 2 quest?"
"Arthur" he said, exasperatedly "This is a very easy quest, much better than that field boss"
"I'm not talking about difficulty" I retorted "This ruin is filled with mobs and traps-traps Ultor! We never saw anything like that on the last floor"
"No, but there was no need" Ultor looked at me "The death toll was enough of a scare tactic"
What he didn't tell me was that while many tried this simple quest in the beginning; they often just gave it up, as the reward wasn't worth the effort.
And if that was being said about a floor 2 quest, then it probably held some merit.
The quest itself took longer than I had expected, so after a brief discussion, we decided to rent an inn in Marome.
True to itself, the quest gave us no Col, so what we farmed in the dungeon was what we had. The experience obtained paled in comparison to grinding; indeed I was pretty angry at a day spent poorly.
Ultor explained excitedly that this was an entry quest for a chain that might take us further as the floors were cleared. I didn't care at the time, and I told him such.
The next day I was up before Ultor. After dressing myself appropriately, I headed out to pick up some supplies: crystals, potions, a few bits of food, and a check on the quest board.
The quests were all there, except for the field boss and that fetch quest. I thought nothing of it, considering this is the village to turn that quest in. A few people came up to me, and spoke rapid Japanese but I waved them off. I didn't want them to know I was a foreigner in this death trap, and one of them gave me an evil look when they talked to me. And that was not good for my mood, which had worsened since I overheard a rumor that a few players were already Level 12.
And I was only Level 6.
Ultor joined me as I walked back to pick him up.
"You could have woken me up" he groaned sleepily.
"Here" I shoved him his breakfast, that stupid black bread that tasted bland "We're eating on the road today"
"Why?" he asked, as those people from earlier came up behind us, but at a distance.
"Because I don't like the look of those people" I hinted at the group behind me "Once we're in the field they might leave us alone"
We exited the village, and those people still were following us. I looked at the journey ahead of me, and realized that they could potentially keep tabs on our location-this whole Floor was a damn Savanna.
"I miss coffee" I said.
The towns and villages were safe zones; at least I think they are anyway. Walk outside that, and you're fair game. These people didn't even try to be inconspicuous about it now.
"You-American" one yelled, to which I stopped moving "We want to talk, only talk-it be in your best interest to stay"
Okay so his English was a bit sloppy, admittedly. But just so you all know, I'm not racist, he really did talk this way.
I turned to the one with the broken English and saw that it was Mr. Evil Eye, from earlier. No that wasn't his name, it actually was Rida. Sounds girlish? I thought it did, but what do I know? Keep in mind who this guy is, you'll see him a lot, later on.
"What do you want?" I asked, to their collective amusment. These guys didn't have a hint of subtlety in them, in my opinion.
"Share that quest you received from that NPC and we'll be on our way" he said, smiling. The rest drew their weapons.
'You have got to be kidding me' was my thought at that moment…they were after that Cube quest chain. I thought it was insignificant at the time, just as I thought I could trust Ultor.
I was dead wrong on both accounts, and what I did next was the first mistake I had ever done. I almost wonder if they still had a chance to put their schemes in motion if I had died then. Well, they had Ultor on their side, at that point, so maybe…
I opened up the window and tried to give them the quest for Floor Three, to find a neutral Elf in Zumfut. News flash-Elves exist in SAO…yeah, that was definitely news to me.
I said tried, right? Yes I did. I showed them the window that popped up, a bit apologetically (there was no reason to hide the fact that I didn't know Japanese, as these guys knew I was an American) and their faces grew pretty angry.
"Sono amerikahito o koroshimasu" he screamed, and they ran at me. I knew instinctively that they were after blood, so I grabbed Ultor by the arm and ran for my life.
It wasn't my most shining moment, but thankfully it worked. We ended up cutting them off by dodging Mobs out for blood.
I didn't stop until we reached Taran. Too tired to really talk, I rented a room and told a seemingly scared Ultor that I wanted to just rest for a bit. I was angry that it was already passed noon, and I didn't get any leveling done, but mortified by the attempt at my life. And my stubbornness was clear; whatever pathetic quest this was, I was determined to complete it before those guys found a way to do so.
I noticed something was wrong when my in-game clock told me it was nine in the morning. I slept the whole rest of the day; and only barely noticed Ultor wasn't in his bed when I slammed the door to walk through the town.
"A whole day behind" I muttered, as I found him sitting at what looked like a bench. He didn't seem to notice me, as lost in his thoughts as he was.
"I can't get rid of that quest" he said, perturbed "And I can't ask why I can't…"
"We're going ahead with the damn thing" I put aside my anger for now, as it was important to think of why the quest was stuck with us.
"There are a lot of people that were talking about it" he continued "Some of them do speak English, and have written a newsletter about it" He took a piece of paper out of his inventory and showed me.
I don't remember what it said, specifically, so forgive me for the summary. Supposedly many people did get a better reward out of that stupid fetch quest, but that was it-no quest chain activated. A few people did get another quest, the same as we did…but they were unable to reach out, or flat out refused to talk about it. Others were told by the NPC to search out players that could continue and help them.
What an odd sort of quest, for a stupid cube…
"The newsletter is in English" I said, thinking.
"Apparently a sufficient understanding of the language is required to continue" Ultor said "And the quest to get the Cube disappeared after that group defeated the field boss"
"That doesn't make any sense" I said "This is a Japanese MMORPG, not an English collaborator"
"And last I checked, it wasn't a main quest" he finished, and looked at me "Which makes it even more mysterious"
"Ultor, how many English speaking people do you think logged on to play SAO?" I asked him, curiously.
"Last I checked, we are the only native speaking people" he replied "Which was why we were assaulted yesterday"
That was actually false; as Agil was another American-but I didn't know the guy at the time, and he didn't do this quest…just thought I would throw that out there.
"If we could potentially help them, why try to kill us?" I asked Ultor, unaware that I was the only one on their kill list.
He shook his head like he didn't know, which I thought was plausible at the time.
I forgot to remain angry at him, as he did feed me information that was credible, even if he wasn't. I was hungry, so I went to a vendor to eat breakfast, and when Ultor was ready, we ventured out into the field to level up and gain Col.
I'd go into that adventure, but it's not important. I gained a level, and almost died. Embarrassing if you think about it.
Suffice it to say, that was our routine until December 14th, which most people remember as the day Floor 2 was cleared.
I remember a very different day; because not being a member of the clearing group could literally leave you just as dead. And it almost did…if it wasn't for the woman I had saved that day.
I woke up the morning of the 14th feeling refreshed and ready. We were going to try the labyrinth that day, and since the clearing group found it just days ago, we were hoping for some loot they haven't found yet.
Coincidentally the town of Taran was close to the damn thing, which I found annoyed me because we could have slipped in and found more loot before they did.
Back when I cared for such things.
The woman in question was one I'm never going to forget; I'll even give you as much information as the fact that I fell in love with her, and it was mutual.
It, well-it didn't end well, and not for the reasons you think. That just happens at a much later date.
Her name was Arisu; well her player name anyway.
We found her in the Labyrinth; and her health bar was almost gone. She later told me that she was trying to reach the Clearing Group, as she was a part of one of the parties that joined the raid. Of course I didn't know that at the time-
"Ultor" I looked at him "There's someone in here by themselves"
He looked at me like he wanted to help, but sadly I was against it. I remember thinking that she should die for being in here by herself, and it was what I told Ultor.
"You can't just consider that" he told me "That's cruel, even for you"
"If we get in that, we could die!" I pointed out rather heatedly "Are you ready to give your life for something that might not matter"
"No, I'm not" he responded "But let me ask you this, if that was me, what would you do?"
"I would help you, of course" I lied, but he didn't see that "She's not you"
He looked at me with such horror, that I was almost compelled to help her. Unfortunately, the Mobs that she had cleared were respawning.
I sighed.
"Let's go, then" I said, drawing my sword "She's not going to last forever"
We charged into the fray; and myHorizontal Sword Skill took care of the biggest thing engaging her (more Bovine mobs). I parried the next attack, and Ultor took care of it with his Sword Skill.
She looked ready to collapse, probably from fighting for her life. I grabbed her by the arm, and the three of us ran to a safe area.
She really did collapse when we reached it, and I let her regain her health before I talked to her.
"What possessed you to come in here, by yourself, and fight groups of Mobs?" I asked her, angrily.
She held surprise on her face briefly before answering.
"I was with a group that came here to clear the Floor" she said in perfect English-well I shouldn't say perfect; it was accented a little, cute really…oh I miss her so much "And I was separated from the group. I don't know if they even noticed before the boss raid, but the good news is they cleared it"
"I didn't know they were planning on beating it today" I looked at Ultor, but he shook his head.
"Yes, it wasn't heavily advertised" she said "They didn't want people showing up who weren't prepared. Thank you, by the way, for saving me"
"You're welcome" Ultor said, not looking at me "Any time"
"So, what are your names?" she asked, eyes flicking between us.
"I'm Ultor, and this is Arthur" he gestured to himself and then me "What's yours?"
"Arisu" she said, proudly, extending a hand "Nice to meet you"
We shook hands, but I was still contemplative. I can remember asking myself if I was ready for the next Floor; there wasn't a need to overextend myself, and Ultor wasn't really that much stronger than me anyway.
But even as I looked at my blonde haired friend in leather armor, and the girl I just met with black hair and those blue colored eyes, I knew that I had to. If for nothing else than that blasted quest, which I had almost died for the other day…and speaking of which.
"What do you think?" I interrupted them "Should we move to the next floor?"
I was only Level 8 and he was only Level 9…probably not the highest we could be.
"Yes" he said after a while "I think we should"