Chapter 1 - Nightmare

"To fight in this world a player has to use Sword Skills. There is no magic and the only way to manipulate anything akin to magic is to find Relic Items or use certain Racial Martial Arts." ~ Seven Kingdoms Online: Combat

The year is 2022; recently the leap and bounds of technology have led to a new style of gaming. Virtual MMORPG's; it is a gamer dream come through as they get to experience the world first hand without the use of a controller nor a console, rather one puts a helmet upon their head and jumps into a world entirely different from the world they leave behind. This phenomenon has come to be called [Diving] by the gaming community.

The first ever Virtual MMORPG game to be released into Japan was a game developed by Kayaba Akihiko, it was titled [Seven Kingdoms Online]. Multiple interviews were made whilst it was in Alpha, with only staffs making the dive to test out the game. Then came the Close Beta, a random choice of over 10 000 players were chosen to play this game. It was unique in the sense that there was no magic whatsoever; or at least not in the common sense of magic. There were no spells to cast rather there was an unlimited number of things called [Sword Skills]. These were pre-determined attacks by the system that required players to activate the initial motion before the skill could be completed. However as the title of the game suggested there are Seven Kingdoms in which Players could choose their race from, some races had certain [Sword Skills] and [Martial Arts], unarmed attacks, that seemed to glow with fire or distort with wind when used. These of course were reliant entirely on the race with some items allowing users to draw from the elements around them at certain times. These were called Relic Items and were extremely hard to come across, most of the time having to kill a named mob to defeat it.

Each race in [Seven Kingdoms Online] could be said to be based off an insect and an ancient culture. Each had distinct features in architecture, design, weapons, mobs and even their starting region. The aim of the game was to expand your Kingdom so it became the strongest in the game world. The immediate area around each Kingdom is at first called [Unclaimed] and is [Claimed] when players enter it. This then extends the Kingdoms boundary and eventually the idea is that Kingdoms will clash for these lands. The more land a Kingdom has the more resources it gets, the more it can churn its own economy.

The game was heavily PvE in the beginning as there are 4 distinct stages to the game. The first is when a world even happens, this is when beings called the [Nephilim] invade every single continent that host a Kingdom. There is a certain time limit to defeat them as they expand. However if their home city is not destroyed by a certain time the second stage appears. It is where [Atlantis] rises forth from the sea and begin their invasion on the Players. Yet they would also fight the [Nephilim] if they have not been driven away yet. If they failed to clear the [Atlantians] within their allocated time period then [Aincard] is the third stage where god like beings come from the sky along with their floating castle. To defeat them a player must manage to get into the castle and fight over 100 floors to reach the boss. At each stage the max level is raised and new items are introduced from these new events. The fourth stage in the Beta was the PvP stage where all other three stages are cleared and players are now competiting to gain the most land. If players failed to defeat their enemies then the server was reset and everyone goes back to level 1. However one of the major game breakers was the fact that this game would portray a person as they were in real life, meaning a male could not play as a female and a short person could not make himself or herself tall. There was also the pain factor where damage dealt in this world had relative stimulations of pain to force players to be careful.

But what really drew most players in is the capability of flight in certain Races, yet those races that are often able to fly are the ones that are relatively hard to work in sync with skills and fighting mechanics. With that knowledge a single boy placed on his Nervegear, the only hardware capable of allowing a human to [Dive] into their virtual world. In the normal world he was the popular kid, the one that girls had crushes on; the one that had to deal with family problems that no one bothered to find out. In this new world it was where he was free from all his troubles.

"Link Start!" he activated the voice command as his world exploded in color. The various systems checking themselves as taste, smell, touch, sight and hearing were all enabled. His identification was verified before everything suddenly disappeared.

Everything was black, pitch darkness that no one could see into. Suddenly a sharp ping could be heard before a swirling of colour appeared. A single figured formed forth from the darkness with a glowing white hue. The person had an extremely feminine face with slightly long but neat black hair and dark eyes. He was of average height and was relatively tone. The soft ping of sound attracted his attention.

His name was Kirigaya Kazuto, a high school student. He had use to participate in the international stage of Kendo, easily winning the Junior Championships whilst giving even those in the Senior division a run for their money. Yet now here he was, one of the thousand Beta Testers for a game called [Seven Kingdoms Online], whom had returned after the first Virtual Online game had been officially released. The screen that had appeared before his eyes was one with simple words.

Transfer Data from Beta?

[Yes] [No]

He thought for a second before pressing the [Yes] that had appeared. Immediately the box swirled around him, all other screens that had appeared shimmering before changing. From what once had been a player race choice it was now multiple screens with his previous equipment: a coat, a blade, some boots, gloves, a belt.

Please select one item.

He shrugged before stretching out his hand and tapping over the blade screen. This caused everything to suddenly dart away when, before his eyes, a glowing white blade appeared before him. Everything about it was white. The blade, the hilt, the sheath.

Please Customize Blade.

His eyebrows shot up; looking to the side of the blade where a small virtual menu had appeared allowed a gleeful smile to appear on his face. He could even edit the stats to a certain degree. It took him almost an hour but he eventually manage to make a blade and sheath just the way he wanted. He had crafted the hilt with black leather, the cross guard was dark grey whilst the blade itself was as dark as midnight. It almost seemed to radiate coldness from the very core of, the soft outlines near the edge creating runes. The sheath was very much the same, black with the outlines of red. He had placed the stats evenly into sharpness, durability and weight allowing him to almost replicate the weapon he had in the Beta for this game.

Yet when he pressed the [OK] button a new row of circles appeared underneath the blade; each greyed out except for the very left which glowed gold. Each sparkling before another assortment of circles appeared to his left; each filled in with certain images. He stared in shock as a realization passed over him. The game was giving him the chance to select a perk for his blade. Immediately he searched the rows for the one image he had come to love in the Beta. [Soul Stealer]. It was a specific perk found only in his Racial Region in the game that had allowed the player to gain a single point bonus to a certain stat that weapon; it could be allocated according to the players choice, but that was for the higher level perk, the low level perk made it a randomized choice by the games number generator. He pressed the icon and dragged it into the glowing perk holder, reading the description to check for differences since the Beta.

[Soul Stealer V: Every two hundred monster kills allow the player to allocate a single point into the weapon used.]

Once he pressed [OK] all those screens disappeared and his adrenaline began to pump as his excitement for the game rose.

[Sword will scale into game, each level up will level the blade up/]

[USERNAME: KIRITO. ACCEPTABLE?]

[Yes] [No]

Irritated he quickly hit the [Yes] before watching as the darkness seemed to fade away, an invasion of colour rushed at him, as the world seemed to come into form. Although the knowledge of having his weapon level with him was certainly something he looked forward to. He grinned as he looked around once the bright colours faded away. All around him were huge ancient stone buildings that looked as though they had been built thousand of years in the past. Most buildings were covered in vines and moss; all around him players were already bustling to check out NPC vendors for starting gear; some he could see rushed out for grinding. Heavy treetops rose above the city like a roof and filtered the light down into a dim.

A screen suddenly popped up in front of his face, his eyes scanned over the message before a wide smile appeared on his face.

[Beta Thanks: As a reward for participating in the closed Beta of Seven Kingdoms Online you are given Enclosed Grimoire]

He immediately opened his menu with a down swipe of his right hand and looked as a new glowing function appeared on his character menu. He pressed on it, the words Grimoire disappearing as a new screen appeared before his eyes, the tutorial page.

[As thanks for participating in our Beta you are now capable of creating new Sword Skills and Martial Arts.]

"I'm back." He breathed, hand quickly closing his screen as to ensure that information was kept private.

He scrolled through the setting and turned off all assisting system for new players; especially flight. Immediately he could feel a caked layer of gel falling off his back, cracking like hard clay before falling to the ground and disappearing in a swirl of blue pixels. From his shoulder blades a great itch took place, he refrained himself from scratching it, then the relief came along with a slight pain. From his upper back two pairs of translucent black wings burst forth. They sparkled despite the darkness above him; he smiled before arching his back. The larger of the pair of wings stopped when they reached his knees whilst the second pair stopped at the same place. But just as he was about to launch himself forth, a voice stopped him.

"Hey you!" the owner of that voice wore a red headband over his crimson hair. He looked a few years older than the average player, and was wearing the typical cloth clothing with a black starting katana at his hip. He had a rugged jaw with a small hints of a beard there, "You are a Beta Tester right?"

Kirito just stared at him, confused and bewildered at the sudden boldness, "Yeah …" he replied carefully.

"My name is Klein. Please take pity on a new player like me and show me the ropes!" he begged, clasping his hands together and giving a formal Japanese bow.

That was how Kirito found himself showing the random player the ropes. They were in the thick forest that surrounded their nation, before them hanging off multiple branches were large snakes, each easily over a ten meters long; they were the level 1 mob known as Large Python. They had a large pool of health and had extremely quick attacks but a slow rate. Klein was sitting on his butt after being knocked back by a head swing. Kirito grinned at him even as he parried away the snake.

"That is one of the things that ensures this game is a head over everything else." He said laughing at the pained expression of Klein, "Pain simulation is just at 50%."

"That really sucks." The samurai wannabe groaned as he fell on his back, grasping his crotch.

"You just have to be careful." Kirito said shaking his head with mirth, "Come on, get up."

"In this world your blade can carry you across the stars. The primary fighting tool are the Sword Arts, these are powerful premade attacks that use the system to strengthen its attack and speed." He gave Klein an example as they found another snake that reared its head at them. He brought his blade to his side before it began to glow with wisp of black along with the streaks of red in it; suddenly he burst forth with speeds unparalleled, the snake ended up losing a large chunk of its health as his blade struck the mob, he froze for half a second before he quickly jumped back, just as the snakes head struck out with blinding speed.

"So like … this?" he asked suddenly swinging his weapon and only chipped away a small sliver of the mobs health.

"Not really; you have to input the original action and let the system carry out the rest for you." He said, trying to think of how to explain to Klein, "It's like, place it against your hip and when you feel it humming and see it shining, let it … explode."

"Explode …" Klein said, placing his katana against his hip. He watched as the blade glowed a tinge of green when he suddenly burst forward, the blade arched downwards and cut through the snake, causing it to explode in a shatter of blue polygons as the damage exceeded that of its yellow health, "Oh!" he exclaimed as a screen popped up in front of him.

"Good job." Kirito said grinning as he congratulated the new player, "Congrats on the level up."

"Thank you for helping me." Klein said bowing again.

"No problem." The boy clad in leather armor replied, "Want to keep going?"

"Yeah!" Klein exclaimed before rushing off into the forest swinging his blade around.

They rushed into the forest undergrowth, quickly over taking the areas where the Large Python spawned. Very quickly they had found themselves in the territory of Flying Leech. They were large pink monsters with six limbs that ended with five long fingers. There were large green sacs along each of their shoulders and back, two pair of wings protruding from their spines. They had long necks without any eyes; their mouths were large circles that had a singular long tongue twisting out. Klein originally had trouble against them, their quick jumping and fast movements causing him to miss a lot of his Sword Skills. Eventually they manage to get into a rhythm and soon the sounds of glass shattering accompanied with blue polygons fluttering into the sky were all that could be heard.

By the end of the day they had been grinding the game for over five hours and had leveled up from level 1 to level 5; along the way Kirito had created a few more new Sword Skills. Apparently to create a Sword Skill he had to activate the Grimoire and then swing his sword in the desired pattern with full accuracy before finalizing it as a new skill. It was interesting to see how they worked; now they sat against a tree watching as the darkness of night slowly threatened to overwhelm them.

"Well that was fun." Klein said, looking at Kirito out of the corner of his eye as he nodded in agreement, "By the way … How did you get those wings? Is it a Beta thing?" Klein asked.

"No, wings are randomly generated amongst the population and even then some races have a higher chance of having wings than others." Kirito explained to him.

"So how do I check if I have any?" he asked, trying to turn around and look down his back to see if he could grow wings or not.

"Open your menu and check the character page." Kirito said, showing him as he swiped his own finger down in the air, "See this check box? Do you have it?" he asked. Underneath the 3D spinning model himself there was a box that stated [Wings], he looked over to Klein's page and watched as the man ticked the box, and both of them watched in awe as his wings came to life. However unlike Kirito's wings, Klein's wings were smaller, stopping at about his upper thigh for his larger pair whilst the smaller pair only stopped at his buttocks.

"Why are mine so short compared to yours?" Klein asked, confused as he tried to make them move.

"Mine are made for flying and increased agility. Yours are made for increase in speed." Kirito told him, "Wing lengths, just like wing chances, are entirely generated via the number generator; those wings are still pretty good though."

"How do I make them move?" he asked, scrunching his face and wiggling his back as he tried to make himself hop even.

"That you have to learn yourself." Kirito said laughing, "I can't teach you that one. Sorry." He said with a sheepish look on his face, "But once you learn how to fly you'll love it, it's like a drug."

"Don't worry about it." The gruff man waved him off, "You've done more than enough, so thanks again. By the way, I have a bunch of friends from the other side coming on too, we're thinking of making a guild made for the samurai! Would you like to come?"

Kirito grimaced internally at that, he preferred to be a solo player, as most Beta Testers did, and disliked the idea of being tied down by people. His face must have twisted because Klein immediately took down his own idea.

"I mean if you don't want to it's fine. I'm sure we'll still see each other around." He said grinning as he raised his fist for Kirito to fist bump, "Well I better be going, I've got pizza and ginger ale coming at 5.30pm and it's already 5.25pm."

"Well you came prepared for a long dive." Kirito said grinning, "I'll probably keep going for a bit."

"Alright then. Thanks again for your help." Klein bowed before standing up and swiping his finger, scrolling through the menu options.

"Enjoy your dinner." He said smiling.

"It's not here?" Klein asked confused after a few seconds; his voice catching the attention of Kirito who had been checking his weapon durability.

"What do you mean it's not there?" he asked back, equally as confused as he was, his finger swiping down to check Klein's statement, "It's at the bottom right here …" his voice trailed off as he looked at the empty space where the [Log Out] button should have been.

"It's alright, I mean it's only the first day there are bound to be bugs right?" Klein said, laughing nervously.

"Yeah …" Kirito mused quietly, the implications of it not going missed by him.

"There isn't any emergency log out is there?" Klein asked, reaching up around his head as though he could lift off the NerveGear on his head.

"No. Whilst we are here our bodies in the real world are entirely paralyzed." He said, fear starting to seep into his eyes.

"How about calling a Game Master?" Klein asked as he started to spam the call button.

"Hopefully they're already looking into it." Kirito said, shrugging as he tried to banish the sense of un-easement within him.

Whatever Klein was about to say was suddenly cut off when a loud voice boomed across the game.

"Players of [Seven Kingdoms Online] I bid you welcome to my world." The voice was a deep powerful boom, sounding almost like a god talking from the heavens, "You may have realized by now that the [Log Out] button is missing, this is not an accident but rather a game function."

"What?" Klein asked, turning wide eye to Kirito.

"There will be no more revivals, when your Health in this world hits 0 the NerveGear will emit a powerful wave that will kill you. Any attempt to remove the NerveGear forcibly will emit this wave and, again, kill you." This was a nightmare, if they died now, they really died forever, "Already 217 players have died as a result of this, however as of this moment every news agency and reporting firm has spread the word of this; the fear of death from the outside should be nullified so that you can focus on clearing the game. You, the remaining5 million players must clear this game in it's three stages. When you defeat the final boss you will all be transported out of this world."

"Kayaba!" a scream somewhere else could be heard, anger and fear could be felt spreading across the game.

"With this I complete the official tutorial to [Seven Kingdoms Online] and I bid you good luck in this game." the thundering voice faded away, leaving a stunned world and sudden screams that struck more swift than any mob could ever dream of.

"H-hey Kirito … this is a joke … right?" Klein asked, his face slack with shock and fear.

"We're actually stuck here." Kirito whispered, his mind quickly racing as he thought through his survival method.

"Kirito …" the man said, his voice about to break.

"Klein listen to me." He said, grabbing Klein by his shoulders and shaking him a little, "I'm going to head out to the next outpost, within a few hours these lands will be picked clean. Come with me, I know the way there that is safe and –"

"I'm sorry Kirito, but I can't." Klein apologized, interrupting him, his voice was still caked and thick, "My friends, they're waiting for me. I can't just ditch them."

The Beta Tester's mind whirled, one person he could help but a few more? Impossible. He shook his head, as he looked at the friend he had gained in the last few hours.

"I can't Klein, I'm sorry." He responded sadly.

"It's fine. You've helped me enough." He said, suddenly slamming his right fist over his heart and forcing his voice to clear, "I'll help them from what you have taught me, thank you Kirito." He bowed.

"No worries." Kirito stammered out before bowing too, "Good luck Klein." He said, they looked up at each other before giving a single nod. The soft tears on the mans face shone despite the darkening sky.

"Good bye Kirito, and good luck." He said softly as the Beta Tester nodded and disappeared straight up into the sky; not once did either look back as they went their separate ways