This is an AU where SAO is essentially the real world for its players, and they know nothing of their flesh bodies. I modified a few game rules (like the PK color and permanence of said color) to fit SAO being built as a permanent system from the ground up, but for the most part it will remain consistent with SAO.

On to the story!

I opened my eyes to find I was alone. That's not unusual

I'm Kirito. It's a combination of my given first and last names. I'm a swordsman of Aincrad.

I'm also in a lot of trouble.

"Shit! It's almost time for my update!"

I scramble to my feet and pinch my right thumb and forefinger together. A purple rectangle appears in the air, giving me a readout of several things I didn't care about just now.

"Where did I put my- ah, there it is!"

I sigh as the weight of my wooden practice sword drops on my back. Normally, unequipping it is considered bad form or suicide, depending on what level you're on, but I'm confident in my abilities.

I tap a few more buttons, over to family, and put a trace on mom. A glowing blue line appears on the map and I orient myself to head in the indicated direction.

The walk back is uneventful. Monsters haven't pushed down to this level yet, but dad says it's just a matter of time.

Mom and dad are merchants. They like to hang around town and trade for goods that are hard to find on these levels. Some of the stuff I've carried around for them was s-class quality, and only a few people could actually use them.

Our shop is located on the tenth level, only two levels from the monsters. Mom is constantly worried about it now, but dad says he's confident in the Clearers.

The Clearers are those people who put effort into driving the monsters back. At least, that's what they used to do before they started getting pushed back by hordes of nasties.

My whole life until this point, I've been training to be one of the Clearers. Most people nowadays would rather train in black-smithing, woodworking, or cooking or some other non-violent discipline. It makes for a low death toll, as well as a very vibrant city. My parents wanted me to train to be a merchant instead, but I always ended up back in the field with my training sword.

Thankfully, the creatures on level ten were all low level things not exterminated or controlled by the army. It meant that only level one or two creatures could attack me, and even a five year old could defeat one of those with their bare hands.

I enter the city and watch as the HP bar in the top corner of my screen disappears. It's not needed inside the city, seeing as the city has a magical protection from PKing.

I wander over to my parent's shop, called "The Sheep's Udder," which is completely ridiculous. Nobody even knows what a sheep is, but most suspect it's the white fluffy thing painted on the sign. Mom says grandpa named the shop before he died and gave it to her.

"I'm home!"

Mom looks up from the counter. "Hi, Kirito. How was hunting?"

I open my menu and drop all of the meat and hides onto the table.

"Hey! What have I told you about that! Just open a trade window, for god's sake." She grumps.

I shrug and head upstairs. There, I access my wardrobe and select my regular clothes. A red sweater with brown pants. Yay.

I walk downstairs and watch as one of my friend walks in.

"Hi, Lizbeth."

She smiles up at me. "Find anything interesting out in the forest?"

I roll my eyes. "It's been picked over from long before now. All I find are wild frogs."

Frogmeat is pretty good, in my opinion, but nobody else seems to like it that much. Still, something is better than nothing, even with e-class ingredients.

She makes a face. "I'm glad I don't have to eat the things."

Lizbeth is a blacksmith. She's sixteen, a year older than me, and has had her update for that year. She's also made quite the name for herself selling high quality weapons.

"You should try one, they're really pretty good." I coax. Liz was perfectly happy living inside the confines of the city, forging weapons (even if it was going out of style) and having a warm bed every night. Also, she was content to eat bread if that was all she could afford, not branching out at all.

"Yeah, not until you start paying me too. Anyway, happy update!"

"Thanks!" I give her a crooked grin.

"Any thought into what you're going to spec into?"

"I'm going sword all the way. I plan on staying with one handed swords, no branching."

She smirks. "Are you sure you don't want to spec into blacksmithing? I could use an apprentice."

"Sure! I'll be your apprentice if you agree to eat frog legs for an entire year and nothing else."

She makes a face before we both burst out laughing.

"So, one handed sword, huh. I picked up mace just in case, but I haven't used that skill in forever. Probably couldn't even activate my skills if I tried."

I shrug. "I'm not sure you can lose the skills-"

She bops my head lightly, to avoid getting a warning. "I mean muscle memory, duh."

I run my head where she hit me. "Right. Well, once I'm finally rid of this level 20 lock, I'll get stronger pretty quickly." I smirk. "I give it a month before I could beat you."

She looks about ready to (playfully) hit me again, but then Klein walks in.

Klein is a samurai. He's on the front lines along with the other Clearers usually, but since he's my friend, he came down to see me. He's about 19, and is my main inspiration to become a swordsman. Of course, samurai aren't really that powerful, focusing more on control. Klein's the leader of a guild even at his young age, and it's one of the few really successful ones.

"Hi Klein!" Lizbeth calls. "How's your Ziatchi?"

Klein grins and pulls up his menu. The curved sword drops onto the table in front of him. Lizbeth picks it up and examines it. "You haven't been keeping proper care of it! Its durability is in the red zone!"

Klein rubs the back of his head. "We got attacked last night, and I haven't had time to send you a message about it. I swear, it was green 24 hours ago!"

Lizbeth narrows her eyes in suspicion, but let's go of it. She keeps the sword though. "I'll have it back to you in two days."

Klein sighs. "Guess it can't be helped anyways. So, Kirito, you still going to be a swordsman?"

I raise my fist. "Hell yeah!"

He smirks. "Well, I've got a good position in my guild-"

"Uh-huh. I'd rather not be an item organizer."

Klein puts on a mock whine. "Aw, but I haven't had my crystals put in the right storage for months!"

Lizbeth rolls her eyes.

We continue to banter on until my menu pops open of its own accord.

"Do you want to update?"

Klein nods. "Just be warned, it's really weird when you update. I don't remember it too well, but I remember thinking that I was going to go insane."

I nod. I had been told as much by others. As I press the ok button, I look up at my friends, my last thought as they fade away is that I hope my height stat updates so I'm no longer stuck at four feet tall.

I have updated before. Everyone updates once when they are five, once when they turn fifteen, and once when they turn sixty, if you live that long. When you're five, you get knocked out first to avoid traumatizing you, so the first time anyone experiences an update is when they are fifteen. This update is the one that lifts all the parental controls, let's you carry a real weapon, and lets you choose a job.

I open my eyes to find a sea of blue. It even feels like water, but thicker. At first, I think that there's nothing else around me, but a glint of metal catches my eye. I start to swim toward it, but something suddenly tugs at my spine. I turn my head to find a myriad of tubes attached to it in a gruesome manner.

I swat at the tubes, and somewhere an alarm sounds, as if from very far away. I turn around to see blurry shapes moving around through to goop. I open my mouth to speak, but it's filled with the blue liquid. I don't seem to be drowning, though, nor did the air gauge pop up.

I decide that it was about time to open my menu. I slowly push my thumb and forefinger together and swipe downwards.

Nothing.

I do it again. Still nothing. What the hell?

The shapes through the goop start buzzing. One of them starts moving around erratically. The other two move closer and the buzzing becomes louder.

...Wait, is that speech? I could've sworn I heard something like...

What's sedation? It sounds dirty.

My vision blurs and goes black for a while. As if waking from sleep, color returns and I blink a few times as the familiar walls of my parent's shop come into focus. I barely have time to recover my bearings before Lizbeth tackles me.

"OW!"

She narrows her eyes. "What were you doing? We were all worried about you!" She's standing on her hands and knees above me, pinning me down.

"Huh?" I look at the clock in the bottom corner of my screen. "I've been gone four hours?!"

She nods. "We all got so worried when you didn't come back right away. Are you alright?"

I look down at my arm. "I can't check with you on top of me."

She blushes and stands up.

I open my menu from my position on the floor and watch as the purple box expands. "Let's see, friends list is still there, stats... stats are unassigned, for some reason. Hmm, I'll do that in a moment. Trace system is still there, map is still there. Oh, new equip options!"

I happily navigate all the new sub menus as Lizbeth pokes Klein awake and then goes to get my parents, who all quickly return.

"So many new options! Since all my skills reset, I'm going to put it all into useful stuff."

Lizbeth frowns. "They really reset? That's not normal. Show me your screen?"

I press a small button on the bottom corner and Lizbeth's eyes focus on the words as they become visible to her. "This is really weird. Good for you! Now you don't have to put points into useless things! Damn, this is a once in a lifetime event. Lucky!"

She slaps me on the back and a tiny bell sound rings as a purple warning window appears above my head.

"Oops." She smiles.

Klein pats me on the back slightly lighter, and he gets no warning. "Congratulations! Seriously though, if you need a job in a guild, just let me know. Even if we run out of openings, I can always recommend you to some other guild."

"Thanks. I'll look you up once I get some combat levels... Er, some actual combat levels, not just the ones I just assigned."

He smirks. "Jeez, so arrogant. You already wasted four hours in the ether, so you're officially four hours behind everyone else."

My eyes widen. "Oh crap! I need to get to-"

Klein laughs and taps my forehead. "Don't be in such a hurry. You don't even have a decent sword yet."

I grumble a bit, but he does have a point. Then I jerk my head upright as I realize. "I'm not going to be able to get any weapons! I put all my skills into one handed sword, so I'm useless at everything else!"

Klein laughs.

Lizbeth sighs. "Fine. I'll make you a weapon, but you're going to have to pay it off, alright?"

I turn to her. "Really?"

She nods. "I'd feel bad if you went out and died because nobody gave you a decent weapon..." She coughs. "I... May have made you a longsword already."

She opens her inventory before a black sword pops out of in air and lands on the table.

Mom mutters something about the durability of the table, but I ignore her. "Whoa! This is awesome!" I pick it up with ease.

Klein looks at the sword. "You specced strength, then. Otherwise, your hand would've lost its grip by now."

I nod. "I'll get some speed soon. After all, with a sword this good- Lizbeth! Are planning on turning me into a debt slave?" I turn to her in horror.

Her cheeks flush. "No! I wasn't going to charge you the market price, and, well, it is update day for you..."

"Oh, ok. We'll figure it out later."

I step into the center of the room to avoid smashing anything, and take two experimental swipes. Gasps are heard from the four gathered as both strikes leave blue trails.

I smile. "Practicing in the forest paid off after all, huh?" I swipe the sword back and forth in front of me once, then habitually try to slide it into my already occupied sheath. I quickly switch hands and open the weapons menu with my right, unequipping my practice sword.

The new sword slides easily into its sheath.

"So, why's it called Black Ice?" I ask of Lizbeth.

She shrugs. "I just make 'em. They get named by the system. It suits you, though."

I smile. Yes, it does. I check my clock again. "Hey, Klein. Have a backup sword?"

"Yeah. Want to go hunting to test out that new sword?"

Mom sighs. "Just be very careful."

I grin. "I'm going with a Clearer. It's not like I'm going totally unprepared either." I do sober up enough to think a bit before rushing off. "Klein, how much is a teleport crystal? I kind of want that as a safety net."

He grins. A trade window pops up in front of both of us before two teleport crystals appear in it. "I can spare a few for a friend."

"Awesome."

Lizbeth stretches and yawns. "I'm going to go now. Klein, come in Tuesday, and I'll have your weapon ready. Kirito, I want to see you as soon as you're back."

Wh- what was that wink for? Why is Klein snickering?

"Let's get down to the fifth level. We should be able to handle things down there no problem." Klein says after his little fit had ended. Don't worry, Kaguya, Sundancer. I'll bring him back in one piece."

Oh, right. Since only our chosen names (which can be customized once a month) are on display, he only knows my parents by their chosen names. Why dad chose Sundancer is anyone's guess.

I wave goodbye to them as I step out the door, and focus ahead as my blood starts to pump faster in anticipation.

Klein wastes no time in getting us down to the fifth level. He flashes his emblem at the army members standing watch, and they let us pass without any difficulty.

Oddly, floor five has some hidden nest of creatures that nobody could find. Consequently, nobody chose to live on five, but lived on six or four instead. Most people lived on one, but a significant portion had decided to move upwards.

Soon, we come to a cave. Klein stops and turns to me.

"You ready? Make sure you have your crystal in your pocket, and your sword drawn."

I nod and comply with his instructions. After all, he's the Clearer.

"Look, see over there? It's a cave spider. I know you know how to use sword skills, so I'm not going to go over that. Just relax. I'm here if you... need me..."

I flick the sword to get rid of the clinging shards of creature. "This is a nice sword! I'll have to give Lizbeth something nice in exchange."

Klein smirks again. "I'm sure you'll be able to think of something."

I ready my sword again and turn back to the tunnel. "So, what's at the end of this tunnel?"

"It's a queen spider. She's nasty, but if you can dodge her attacks, she's a pushover."

Another spider drops down from the ceiling. Before it even hits the ground, it's bisected with a one handed swing. "Geez, if they keep throwing enemies at me, I might end up leveling on my first day."

Klein shakes his head. "You're above average already. Most swordsmen don't come to this cave until they're level 6 or above. It's amazing that you've been doing this so handily."

I smile.

We continue to walk forward, and true to form, I not only level up once, but three times. I put each of those three points into speed instead of strength, because I could tell I was missing because of my strike speed. My strength was already enough to one hit everything that kept coming after us. Klein kept shaking his head. "You know, I might not accept you into our guild, since you're already way too powerful. You'll soon rival me!"

I double check for monsters, but find none. "Even so, you're definitely better suited to leading. Charisma pours out of your ears."

He scratches his head, his bandana slipping a bit. "If I was, I might have a little better luck with women, don't you think?"

I shrug. "How would I know?"

His face contorts in exasperation. "How do you not see-"

Suddenly, a low hiss vibrates through the cave.

"Well, here she is. Ready?"

I brandish my sword. "Yeah, let's get going."

We turn the corner.

"Gah! That's big!"

"And she drops a lot of col. You might be able to pay for that sword with just her." He grins. "Well, if you were soloing it. If I help, it'll be a lot less for you."

I look at my inventory. The spider queen seems to be waiting for us to do something, so it's safe for the moment.

"I could still pay for it with what I have now, since I've been effectively soloing this whole time anyways." I look at the queen spider. "So, how do we do this?"

Klein sheaths his sword. "Go for it. If you're in real trouble, use your crystal and I'll defeat it for you."

I narrow my eyes. "Yeah, right. If I need to teleport out, I'm coming right back as soon as I'm healed back up, and stealing that kill."

He grins and steps back a single step. "Good luck."

"Thanks." I lower my stance and feel my sword glowing. I yell as a charge forward, and the queen spider rears up as I approach.

Looking back on it, it was a thirty second battle. When I was actively fighting, my mind sped up so fast I was able to see just what the spider was planning on doing. A twitch of its left foreleg would signal a swipe, and it sinking backwards was preparation for a lunge. Each time it went for the lunge, it opened its head for attack, and I swiftly struck it each time the opportunity presented itself.

Soon, it bursts into streams of particles that drift to the ground, and a congratulations message appears above the corpse.

Klein claps as I sheath my sword. "Excellent. Jeez, run through here a few more times and you'll be ready to go for the front lines."

I smirk. "So, not too bad a job, huh?"

"If we had more people on the front lines like you, we would be on floor fifty already." He laughs, but stops abruptly as a chime sounds. His fingers deftly select the message.

His eyes scan it for a second or two and then he pulls out a crystal. "I need to go. Floor twelve is being attacked. Before you ask, don't follow. Teleport home right away." He grins. "It's not a major attack, but my second in command is getting worried. See ya!"

He then holds the crystal out in front of him. "Teleport, Anaheim!"

He disappears in a shower of sparkles.

I pull out a crystal as well. "Uh, teleport, Rockfort!"

My view scatters and coalesces as I appear on the pedestal back on floor ten. There, Lizbeth is waiting. "Hey, Kirito!"

"Hi, Liz. What's up?"

"How did it go? Klein wasn't showing off the whole time, was he?"

"Nah, he let me do most of the work, actually. I can see why people follow him as a leader."

Lizbeth smiles. "So, want me to fix up your sword?"

I open my inventory. "Let's see, I don't think it went down that much... Yeah, it's still at 94%" I blink. "Oh yeah, I can pay you back. I earned enough." I initiate a trade.

She quickly cancels it. "Let's do this back at my place, alright? It's getting kind of dark out."

I shrug. No reason not to, I guess.

Ever since getting a job, she has been living outside the city limits, in a mill house with a waterwheel. It's great property for a blacksmith, especially since the waterwheel can help with the work a bit.

She invites me inside and I glance at the one handed swords as I walk past. "So, you getting a lot of business?"

She shakes her head. "I've been getting lots of durability fixing requests, but new weapons aren't needed right now. The army is my main customer now." She twirls around. "So, you said you could pay me? I don't remember naming a price."

I scratch my head. "I meant I could pay the market value of the sword. According to my family's standards, I'm already rich."

"Ah, such is the life of those who try to get themselves killed or a regular basis." She says it lightly, but I can hear something behind her tone.

I open the trade window again. This time she lets me transfer the money over, as well as the sword, which she insisted on honing.

"Don't go anywhere, I'll fix this up while you watch."

She leads me back to the work area, and starts asking questions as she pulls out her gear.

"So, what level did you get to?"

"I got to level four. The queen spider gave me a whole level by itself."

"Get any good gear?"

I pick through my inventory. "Yeah, I got some greaves, a vastly inferior sword (she smiles) and a pair of boots."

For some reason, I decided to hide the last item I had gotten.

"Cool. So, no sheath or anything?"

"Huh. No, I think I'll be ordering a few more things from you before I leave again."

She smiles and lifts my sword up. "Done! Back to 100%. So... Well, that sword was supposed to be your birthday present, but since you paid for it, I'll let you have your pick of something else from my shop, OK?"

I take the sword back. "Do you have a black sheath? I think it would look good with the sword."

"Yeah, it would. Hmm..." She pulls open her inventory and flicks through a few menus. "How's this?" she says as a black leather longsword sheath appears. I carefully slide the blade of Black Ice into the sheath and it fits perfectly.

"Looks great. Thanks, for both the sword and the sheath."

She smiles. "Come back any time you need a new weapon, or need that one sharpened, OK?"

I nod. I was about to respond, but a message window pops up.

"Kirito, are you alright? We expected you back by now. Kaguya."

"Ah, mom and dad want to know if I'm alright. I need to message them back for a minute."

She nods and starts putting her gear back.

"I'm good, cleared mini-dungeon. Now at Lizbeth's, getting sword worked on."

The next message comes back with astonishing speed. "Come home now!"

I blink. "Fine, let me say goodbye to Lizbeth first, then I'll be right home."

No more messages come.

I turn to Lizbeth. "Parents want me home."

She nods, slightly dejectedly. "Yeah, figures. Come see me again tomorrow, got it?"

I grin. "Hey, maybe I don't want to need my sword sharpened again tomorrow. That would mean I've been using it too much, right?"

Something I said made her eyes cross and a blush appear on her cheeks. "Uh, r-right. So, see you when... See you."

"...Yeah. Take care."

As I leave her shop behind, I shake my head. "Girls make no sense."

It was starting to get dark, with the sun just below the edge of the disk. It would still be light on the lower most floors.

I walk along the path, drawing my sword. Not that there is a lot of monsters on this level, but... There are some rumors of some orange players recently.

Orange players are criminals. Thieves, mostly. Sometime players who roughed up other players too much, inside or outside a city's safe zone. Murderers got a red tag. Regular players are green, which is default. Orange tags eventually went away, depending on the severity of the crime, but red tags are permanent.

Soon I can hear voices. I round a corner of the path and see a girl with chestnut hair and red and white cloth armor warily looking at a group of three green-tagged men. I stop just behind the bushes and watch.

"Look, I said, I'm going home. Please get out of my way, now."

The girl has a nice, light voice, but still commanding. Suddenly, I recognize her armor as that of the Knights of the Blood Oath. The KoB are the best guild around.

That means the girl must be really powerful, to be in that guild.

I continue to sit behind my bush as the lead guy advances on her. "Don't want to."

"Yeah, I don't want to. I'd rather play with you a bit." A second guy licks his lips, which sends shudders down the girl.

She puts her hand to her hip and draws a rapier, and levels it at the guys. "I'll ask one more time-"

There is a sharp clang as the girl's sword goes flying through the air in my direction. The lead thug smirks as he withdraws his sword. "Right. Let's get her."

"Hey!" I yell.

The three men turn towards to me, still blocking the girl into the corner.

"What's you guys' deal? She's a member of the KoB!"

They laugh. "If she was, she wouldn't have lost to the likes of us, huh?" the leader sneers.

I lean down to pick up the girl's sword, intending to toss it back to her. Instead, one of the guys takes the moment to charge me.

I instantly knew what he was doing. If you have a sword in your hand, you can use sword skills. If you have two, you can't, because the skills assume you have only a single sword and blocks the movement of the other hand. There was a case where a guy cut off his own hand by attempting to duel wield. Since I picked up the girl's rapier, I suddenly lost access to my best moves, and this guy knew it.

Well, that's what should have happened. Instead, I draw back into a stance and hold both the now glowing swords in front of me. The attacker skids to a stop.

"Huh? What's-"

That's as far as he got before I lunged. My first strike disarmed the man, and the second pierced him, sending his health into the yellow. I continue running through the gap the man had left before the other two had a chance to shore it up. I stop next to the girl and hand her sword back.

"Don't lose it again." I say playfully.

Her ash white face nods.

I face the three thugs, one of which is in the process of picking up his sword.

"So, going to leave us alone? Your odds just halved."

The leader smirks. "So, you're an orange too? Why don't you join us in our little fun?"

"I'm not an orange-" I blink. "Oh, shit." My HP bar has an orange tag under the status window, which has been locked to green until today.

He smiles nastily. "So, what do you say?"

"No need to hold back then, at least short of murder." I shrug. "Thanks for pointing that out."

I brandish my sword and rush the three. The two subordinates take a step back as the leader heads in for a swing, glowing with a sword skill. I let the blow slide along the edge of the sword, sending a shower of sparks over the ground and slipped under his guard and decked him with my free hand.

Ah, maybe I should increase my unarmed?

He reels back, but I can tell it wasn't that much of a blow. His subordinates though, they look a little worried.

I ready my sword again, and wait for my sword skill to regenerate. The thug slowly climbs to his feet. "Kid, you just ended up in a world of hurt."

I smirk, and I toss the teleport crystal to the girl. "Take this back home. I'll hold them off while it takes effect."

She looks at the crystal, then back at me. "A-Alright."

I stand guard as the teleportation takes effect. I was focusing so hard that I missed where she teleported to. The thugs watch as their prey disappears.

"Aw, you ruined our fun." The leader snarls. "I'm just going to have to take all of your stuff instead."

His sword glows again, and I barely block the strike. I ram my shoulder into him, and he takes a step backwards to get his balance back. I swing my sword around and strike, watching his health bar sink deep into the red. He stumbles backwards and trips over a pebble.

Jeez, if I'm not careful, I'll end up killing them.

I look at the other two thugs, who look at each other and then run away. I look at the guy who is lying on the ground.

"I'd offer you a healing potion, but I don't have one. So, instead, I'm going to march you right to the city, and you better not try anything."

I wait for him to get to his feet before ordering him to march. He seems to have lost all his fight, and is willing heading to the city on my sword's tip.

Another message appears in the corner of my eye. Sorry mom, I'm kind of in a situation here.

Then another message. Then a third. And then a fourth. What was going on?

After five more messages come in, and five more minutes pass, I catch sight of the wall surrounding Rockfort. I march the thug right up to the gate. Two army members narrow their eyes as we approach.

"Hey! Who goes there?"

"Kirito. I found this guy accosting a woman on the path between this gate and the blacksmith's shop. I stopped-"

"He mugged me!" the man cries. "I don't know anything about any women!"

Wait, what? "Hey! I saved you! If I'd have left you in that state, you'd be dead!" I look at the guards. They both have suspicious looks on their faces.

The man gets on his knees. "Look! He's orange! I'm green! It's obvious who's lying!"

Uh-oh. The two guards level their weapons at me.

"Sir, we're going to need you to come answer some questions."