SAO - Another's story

Chapter 1 - Trapped

My name is Sakashi Kuriyama. I am now a player of SAO, my username Sakayama.

I put my Netgear on and tell it to Start the Link. I close my eyes. I am now logged in to Sword Art Online. I am wearing a blue T-Shirt with a leather strap-vest over it to shield my chest. I'm wearing fingerless gloves and a scabbard on my back. I draw my longsword. It is made from a fine steel and glows without ware. I put away my sword and walk down to the Town of Beginnings market-place. To start of, I've got 30,000 Cor. Everything here is pretty cheap, but I still can't waste my Cor.

I buy some health potions and some antidotes. I even found a teleport crystal. When I get to the fields outside of the town, I hunt some boar to raise my level. My goal is to gain 4 levels, to get to level 5 before my next play session. I found a boar! I draw my longsword and swing at the boar, slashing it's left eye. It gets me on my back and charges. When it is almost on me, I kick it from the ground, putting it on it's back, and getting up. I raise my sword to the sky, and it glows a faint shade of red. A Sword Skill. I run at the boar and dig my sword into it. It collapses into millions of tiny lime-green shards. I have gained a level.

When I find another boar, I am teleported back to the Centre of the Town of Beginnings. Everyone is here. After 5 minutes of waiting, the sky turns a dark shade of red, and the sky starts bleeding like a slaughtered pig. The blood turns into a giant man in a mages robe. The game master, Kayuba Akihiko is the man. "Welcome, to the first ever VRMMORPG, Sword Art Online!"

Everyone starts mumbling to each other. "My name is Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of SAO and Nervegear! Anyway, let's get down to business! As you have probably noticed by now, the Log out selection on the menu is gone. Let me make this clear, this is not a defect. I repeat, this is not a defect. This is a feature of Sword Art Online."

"A feature?" A player a few metres away says.

"From this point on, there is no longer any way to log out of SAO, and if someone from the outside tries to log you out by taking the Nervegear off of your head, the Nervegear will send deadly Microwaves you your brain, killing you. Also, if you die inside of SAO, your real self will perish. The only way to escape SAO now is to clear the game, all 100 floors. Finally, I've got a little suprise for everyone! Everybody, there's a little present in your inventories from me" Everyone, including me, starts going through their inventories searching for the item. One by one, every player has a palm-sized mirror in their hand. Everyone starts glowing blue, and are transformed into their real selves. "This concludes the Orientation ceremony of Sword Art Online, goodbye, and goodluck."

People around me are burdened with despair, some are crying, and some have even fainted.

Floor 1 - 6:59 pm - Town of Beginnings

I cannot die, I will not let myself. I will clear this game, and set everyone free. First though, I'll need to level up. I've got to be a lot more careful if I'm going to survive. After a while of hunting, I reach level 13, and I call it a day. I stay at a quiet inn in the next town over, and I buy a new sword. The handle is navy blue, the hilt is made of cheap silver. The blade is about as long as my arm. I holster my sword and go to sleep for the night.

3 weeks later...

Floor 1 - 8:34 am - Town of Beginnings outskirts

Three weeks I've been stuck here, in SAO. I'm now level 28, I've been levelling quickly. It's all thanks to a rare item I found about a week ago...

There was a secret dungeon under the Inn I stayed in on the first night. At that time I was Level 18. I made it through the dungeon, making my way up to level 20. I then encountered the mini-boss, Scora the Goblin Lord. I drew my longsword. It roared and ran at me, drawing its own weapon, called: Arocs Fang. I parried his first strike, and countered with my own. It hit him in the upper chest, reducing his Health bar to half. He spun around, out of balance. I thought I had enough time to strike again, but as I began my attack, Scora spun with his Fang, and slashed me in the left arm. My health bar dropped to a single quarter. I was lucky that I had parried his first attack. I raised my sword to the ceiling and it started glowing a pale green. I slashed at Scora, but he parried my strike. Luckily, my Sword Skill hadn't stopped, so I struck again. This time, it hit his face. Scora screamed as the sword absorbed his health, and added it to mine. His health fell to 0, and he was dead.

Scora dropped a lot of invaluable items, and a bit of Cor. But he dropped the one item. It was called the X-Scissor enchantment. It was an enchant item. I could use it on one sword. It's enchantment granted swiftness, luck, and of course, double EXP for every kill. I am now at a meeting with a few people I met 2 weeks ago. There names are: Cora, Opilla, Harin and Swavé. Cora's blue hair matched her sparkling eyes, and her sword gleamed a pale yellow. Opilla was a man that you could trust, he was bald, had a small goatee, and he used two daggers instead of a sword. Harin was a sneaky guy. He used a curved sword, he called it his trusty razor. Swavé was a small boy, about 13. He wore a black robe, and he used a black one-hander and a shield.

"I think we should form a guild" says Opilla.

"Ya think?" Asks Harin, "I'm not sure I'm ready for that"

"I'm fine with it" says Cora, with a giggle. Swavé sat in a chair with his feet up on a table not talking. "All in favour, say I" says Opilla.

"Aw shucks" says Harin, "I!"

"I!" Cora says happily.

"I..." Says Swavé.

"I" I say, "First order of business, a name for our guild"

"what about..." Says Harin, "Harin's Dominion! Haha!"

"Or not..." I say with a laugh.

"How about The Diamond Blades?" Suggests Cora.

"I like it" I say.

"Me too" agrees Opilla.

"Ok, our first dungeon raid as a guild" I say, as I lay a tattered map on the table. Swavé sits up properly on his chair and begins watching. I point to a castle icon in the middle of a forest. A dungeon window pops up in front of every guild member. The window reads: Forest dungeon - Read more? Everyone taps OK and I read aloud: "The forest dungeon contains plant monsters levels 20-25. It is on Floor 1, and is south of the town of beginnings, in the origin forest. At the end of the dungeon, you will encounter the mini-boss: Drona the Hog King. Drona will drop 25 Cor for each guild member. After the fight, a door will unlock, and you will be granted access to the treasure room. The treasure will be kept secret."

We are now in the Origin Forest searching for the dungeon. The forest is inhabited by hordes of level 18 Boars. We make it to the castle. It is covered in moss and enveloped in vines. When we touch the giant gate, it opens, and we step inside. We are now in a room with a single chest. "Nice!" Says Harin, rushing over to open it.

"Stop!" Says Cora, "It's obviously a trap!" But it's too late, he's already opened it. The chest grows swords for teeth and starts chomping at Harin.

"A mimic!" I say. We draw our weapons and charge in to attack. Cora gets the first strike.

"Switch!" She says to Opilla. He rushes in to strike, and slices one of its sword teeth.

"Harin, Switch!" He says. Opilla steps back and Harin hops over his head. He digs his sword into the Mimic. "Switch!" He says to me. I rush in, and grab the mimic's lid handle. I stab at it with my longsword, "Swavé, give it the final blow!" He runs in, his black coat swaying with every step, and jump stabs the Mimic. It's health bar drops empty, it's dead. "This dungeon is gonna be a LOT harder than we thought. A secret door opens up on the wall and we pass on through.

On the other side of the door is a narrow room full of lizard warriors. We run through them, our weapons held out to our sides to strike them as we run. We run into the next room, excluding Opilla, who stays behind to finish off the Lizards. This room consists of a wall covered in chests, and a small black rabbit on the floor. "What's with the bunny?" Asks Harin.

"I don't know" Cora says, "but don't let your guard down"

We go searching through the chests, as there is a door with a lock on the wall. We are assuming there is a key inside one of these chests. "Found something!" Says Swavé. We walk over to Swavé to take a look at what he found. A golden key.

We unlock the door and proceed to the next room. "Wait for me!" Says Opilla, jogging to catch up to us. The rabbit slowly follows us into the room. When we are all inside, including the rabbit, the door shuts behind us. "Uuhhh..." Says Cora. There are no doors or windows in this room. We all stare at the bunny, wondering what it has to do with anything. When we have all lost hope on trying to find a way out of here, we sit down on the floor helplessly. "There ain't no way out!" Says Harin. "The Rabbit holds answers" says Swavé, "Bunny! Tell us everything you know!"

"Uhhh... It's a Bunny..." Says Harin. But Swavé is right. The Rabbit is part of the dungeon. It starts to grow bigger with a hunched back and talons. It's rabbit nose morphs into a dirty brown pig nose, and it starts snorting uncontrollably. It's monster description changes from Rabbit, to Drona the Hog King.

To Be Continued...