Hey readers! This is my first fanfic so I hope that you can all review, comment and favorite this so I can become better at this! I'll be including canon and non-canon stuff in this story, and hopefully if I have enough determination continue this story all the way through to the Excalibur Arc!
Also, another thing; I'm a terribly shabby writer, so I don't know how well this will go, but I'll do my best to listen to suggestions and incorporate advise into my writing!
Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online.
Now, without further ado, I present to you, ladies and gentlemen, Sword Art Online I: The Demon
Chapter 1
Location: In the suburbs of Tokyo
Date: November 6, 2022
Data saved.
All right! Today's the first day of the fervently awaited VRMMO, Sword Art Online! Thousands of people all around Japan have lined the streets trying their luck at obtaining the first release of this game! Only 10,000 copies of this game were released…
I turned off the TV and turned my attention to the shiny game cover of Sword Art Online. Since I was one of the extremely lucky 1000 beta testers that had the opportunity of playing the beta version of the game, I had priority access to the retail version once it hit the market. Luckily for me, the minute the game hit the online stores, my personal copy was shipped in to my mailbox so I didn't have to wait in long lines or anything like that.
Anyways, a little about me. My name is Koujou Akira, I'm currently 13 years old and 5' 5". I have dark violet eyes and pitch black hair, which explains why my two favorite colors are violet and black. I have a bishounen face, which annoys me greatly. I-
"ONII-CHAN! I'm going to practice now! See you later!"
Yes, now that she's marked her exit, I can properly explain. I have a little sister who's about 2 years younger than me, and she has the same features that I do. She's 4'11" and loves to do kendo, which I also do. My personality is easy to get along with but I have a slight affinity for being picky about my friends, so I only have 1—my sister. Everyone else seems to either drift away from me or I push them away, so… yeah.
Anyways, back to the game. Sword Art Online was the world's first VRMMO, or Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online game, and the first shipment of 10,000 copies sold out just hours after it was released, both online and in shops.
I quickly checked the time and realized that launch would be in 5 minutes. I quickly inserted the game, connected all of the wires and hardware together, and put the Nerv Gear on my head. When the headgear charged up, I smiled and said the initiative words.
"Link Start!"
Instantly bright rainbow colors appeared in my vision, and as soon as I passed through it a character screen popped up in front of me.
USE BETA DATA FOR KRYSTOR(M) ?
YES/NO
I selected yes, and I passed through a ring of electrical-blue color and appeared in the beginning city of Aincrad, The Town of Beginnings. I smiled slightly at the colorful sight in front of me as teleportation lights flashed all around me signifying other players' arrivals.
I clenched my fist and said quietly, "I'm back in this world."
Once I arrived in the game, I ran directly towards the best weapons dealer NPC shop that I knew in The Town of Beginnings. When I entered the shop, a chiming sound went off, indicating the entrance of a player. An elderly NPC man was sitting behind a counter displaying several choice weapons. He noticed me when I entered and smiled.
"Hello, welcome to my shop. Can I do anything for you?"
I noticed that the NPC was waiting for my response, so I spoke up. "Yes, could I see your store items please?" After I said this a menu of the shop's items popped up in front of me. It had various tabs indicating the different types of items. I pressed on the 'Weapons' tab and then 'One-handed Weapons'. As I scrolled through the list of weapons ranging from maces to spears to swords, I took note of a sword that seemed longer and sleeker than the rest. Its name was 'One-handed Longsword'.
Recognizing the beginners longsword that I had once in the beta, I smiled to myself and selected it for purchase. As soon as I made the purchase the sword appeared in my inventory, and my col balance depleted some. After I obtained a suitable weapon I went to the miscellaneous tab and bought a black leather jacket, a pair of black fingerless gloves and a pair of black boots.
Realizing that I only had about 10 col left in my balance I quickly thanked the NPC shopkeeper and ran out of the shop. I quickly opened up my play menu by swiping downwards with my right hand and navigated to my player status window.
Krystor: Level 1 HP: 500 Strength 5 Agility 5 Skills: N/A
Col: 10
I equipped my new change of battle gear and clothes and headed out towards the 'Great Plains' at the east gate of The Town of Beginnings. While I ran through the city I opened up my player menu again, this time opening the 'Skills' window. I saw that I had one available skill slot. I pressed on it and selected One-handed Sword. With my sword sheathed on my back I ran full speed towards the 'Great Plains'.
When I reached the field I saw my first monster. It was a Lv. 1 mob called a Frenzy Boar. An orange cursor hung above its head as it grazed the grass around it. In this game, all mobs were enemies, and defeating them gave a player col, xp and possibly item drops. Passive mobs initially had an orange cursor above their heads, and wouldn't attack unless provoked. Attacking a passive mob would turn it aggressive and turn the orange cursor red. Aggressive mobs attack players on sight and would have red cursors hanging above their heads.
I initiated a 'first attack' by throwing a little stone at it. The second the stone hit the boar, its cursor turned red and its level and HP bar appeared next to its faced me, pawing at the ground. I quickly drew my longsword and waited for its attack. When the mob attacked by charging headfirst at me, I simply sidestepped the boar's charge and raised my longsword above my head, activating the sword skill Vertical. Glowing bright hue of yellow, my sword slashed down onto the boar and its HP quickly decreased to 0. With a squeal of pain, the boar exploded in a shower of shining polygonal particles of light. That was death in this world- quick and instantaneous without leaving a single trace of life behind.
I quickly dismissed the rewards screen that appeared after I had defeated the monster and ran directly towards a section of the first floor where I knew I could level up quickly and safely. Although I knew that even if I died I would just respawn at the Black Iron Palace in the starting city, the first floor was huge, and I didn't want to waste any precious time transversing the floor again just because I made a simple mistake and accidentally died.
While I ran I activated sword skill after sword skill, slashing through mobs quickly and efficiently. By the time I reached my intended destination, the Linden Forest, my level was already up to 3. When I entered the forest, I immediately sensed the level difference between the mobs here and the ones outside. The first mob I encountered was the Dire Wolf Lv. 5, a mob that shouldn't have appeared until night time. It was an aggressive mob, so the minute it saw me it lunged towards me with its mouth wide open.
I quickly dodged the wolf's first bite and retaliated with a Horizontal, knocking its HP down to about 40%. While still stuck in the ½ second cooldown phase, the wolf bit me on the arm, lowering my HP down to about 85%. Growling with frustration, I slashed at the wolf with another Horizontal, killing it.
LEVEL UP!
I dismissed the rewards window and the system notification window and continued my way through the forest, heading deeper and deeper into its depths. Mobs continuously fell to my flashing blade, and soon I reached the end of the forest where the miniboss dwelled. I was now Lv. 8, and even I knew that challenging the Lv. 10 miniboss was not such a great idea. However, since I was driven by impulse, I stepped into the massive clearing and faced the miniboss.
A loud roar rippled through the air and a massive shape loomed above me. Slowly I glanced up at the massive wolf that shook its hairy silvery-white body and howled at me. A red cursor accompanied by 2 HP bars and a name Laycoan the Werewolf appeared above it. The wolf howled once more before pouncing on me. I swiftly rolled to one side and slashed at it with a Horizontal, but its first HP bar only decreased by 10%. The werewolf howled again and slashed its claws across my torso, lowering my HP down to 60%.
I swore. This monster just wouldn't give up. I activated a new sword skill that I had obtained, Vertical Arc. Two verticals chained together onto the head of the miniboss activated the 'Critical Strike' mechanism, lowering its HP down to one bar, and even then that bar was at 95%. Laycoan struck at me again, this time lowering me down to 20% HP. I gritted my teeth but jumped up to dodge another attack and activated Vertical Arc one last time on its head, smashing through its body on the way down and reducing the miniboss into a shower of polygonal fragments of light.
Another LEVEL UP! notification popped up, as well as a rewards screen that gave me 10,000 Col and a new coat called the 'Werewolf's Cloak'. I scanned the coat's properties and saw that it gave me significant defense buffs and increased my speed quite a bit. I quickly opened up my inventory and equipped the new coat.
It was a silvery-white color and had black lines going down the front of the jacket as well as a wolf's face imprinted on the back in a crimson-red outline. Deciding that this would be my primary armour until later floors, I opened up my player menu to logout.
It's not there!
I frowned. A missing logout button was surely going to affect the game's fanbase and popularity. If there was no logout button, all of the people currently logged in wouldn't be able to exit the virtual world, leaving us trapped in here until a GM let us out by shutting down the game servers.
Suddenly a bell tolled, breaking me out of my various thoughts. I closed my eyes quickly as a bright blue flash of light abruptly enveloped me and the world turned into a hue of sapphire.
When I reopened my eyes I realized that I was back in the arena of the starting city along with the other 10,000 players that logged in during first launch. Tidbits of conversation between players drifted through the air, and I only managed to catch some of it.
"H-hey, what's going on here?"
"I dunno, but it's kinda freaking me out a little…"
"Are we gonna be able to logout now?"
"I-I'm scared…"
"What exactly is going on?"
"Is this an event?"
After I understood the important pieces of information in the conversations, I tuned them out and instead refocused my attention to other places, trying to figure out what exactly had happened. Slowly I pushed my way through the confused crowd of players and reached the edge of the arena.
When I tried to exit the arena, however, something peculiar happened. My feet and hands touched some invisible wall and blocked my exit. I tried again, but like last time, my feet and hands met some wall and I was unable to leave the arena.
Exactly what is the meaning of this?
Various thoughts flew through my mind and the only explanation of this occurrence was that some game event was about to start, or a system announcement.
Just as that thought entered my mind, the bell tolling stopped, and a silence descended upon the crowd. Suddenly, someone shouted "Look! Up there!" and all of our eyes locked onto the single blood-red tile seemingly hovering in the air.
WARNING: SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT
Just then the single tile started blinking repeatedly and soon it duplicated itself across the virtual sky, covering all of us with a crimson sky of system announcement warning signs.
A seemingly dismembered blob of gooey substance started dripping down from the blood-red tiles, and some players whimpered pathetically as the blob formed into the shape of a massive GM uniform, with shadow covering face, parts of the arm, and feet. Two white gloves protruded out from within the sleeves of the massive and bulky GM uniform, and not a single inch of the figure looming above us seemed human.
"Welcome players, to my world." The GM raised his hands as he spoke to us.
'To my world?' I thought. What does he mean by that?
"My name is Kayaba Akihiko, and as of right now, I am the sole person able to change and manipulate this world."
Kayaba Akihiko! A gasp of surprise escaped my lips, and numerous thoughts raced through my mind at once. Kayaba Akihiko was a game developer and genius prodigy of programming. He was the main developer of the Nerv Gear, and Sword Art Online was the game that he developed himself. He didn't have many published interviews, but I had written copies of all the ones that were published.
A well-known genius at even an early age, Kayaba was the man who personally brought the game company ARGUS through a breakthrough in gaming technology and introduced the brand new VRMMO genre to the world. I was shaken out of my thoughts when Kayaba's ominous voice continued his speech.
"You all may have realized that the Logout button is missing from your player menus. I am here to tell you now that this is no bug or accident; it is a feature of Sword Art Online. I repeat, this is a feature of Sword Art Online."
What?! For some reason, my brain had a little difficulty comprehending what Kayaba just said. Feature of SAO? What could that possibly mea-
Cold dread filled my veins as I realized what this meant. Slowly, people all around me also began to realize what this meant for them. I had an inkling of suspicion of how the rest of the speech would go, but I hoped with all my might that I would be wrong for once.
"The only way for you players to be logged out is for you to conquer this castle. Once you have conquered this castle everyone will be free to leave."
My eyes widened in confirmation as I realized that my suspicions were about to be proven true. If this game really was what I thought it was, I needed to escape this crowd the minute the barrier lifted up. Kayaba was about to announce the worst part of the speech soon, I just knew it.
"In addition, any tampering, attempt to remove or break the Nerv Gear from a player's head will result in death. The Nerv Gear will emit high frequency waves directed towards your brain, frying it and thus ending your life. This information was disclosed to the public before this announcement, but some families have already attempted to remove the headgear. The result…"
I held my breath. Please don't say it please don't say it please don't say it…
"216 players have currently retired permanently from both worlds, this one and the real one."
Gasps of surprise, shock, anger and despair rippled through the unbelieving crowd. I just gazed up at the once-gallant creator of this game, and realized that logging into this game was the worst decision that I made in all 14 years of my life.
"These deaths have already been broadcasted through all of the social media and news sites, reducing the chances of this happening to you to 0. This will allow you the peace of mind to concentrate and clear this game. Also, I shall advise you all to be aware of your remaining HP. That HP amount is your remaining life force. There is no longer any way to revive a player once dead, and once dead in this world the Nerv Gear shall simultaneously emit powerful microwaves, frying your brain and ending your life."
Cries of protest and anger emanated from the crowd.
"Who the hell do you think you are?!"
"You're insane?!"
"Let us out already!"
"We're never gonna be able to clear this game!"
"Don't screw with us!"
I shook my head slowly. This situation was soon about to erupt into nothing but chaos if Kayaba didn't speak up. Many things flitted through my mind, but only one thought really stuck: WHY?
As if sensing my utter confusion, Kayaba continued his hideous speech.
"Now, you all may be wondering 'Why? Why would Kayaba Akihiko, creator of Sword Art Online do all of this? Is it for ransom? Is it for some kind of revenge?'"
I snorted unbelievingly at those reasons. Kayaba had enough money to live rich his entire life without working another day, and he had no reason to trap 10,000 random players for any sort of revenge.
"It is none of those reasons. My goal has already been achieved; that is, to create a world and meddle with it. One last little thing. I have included a gift from me to you in your inventories. You may go look at it now."
The chiming of player menus being opened resonated within the arena as 10,000 lives were about to be changed forever.
I opened up my inventory and found the extra item that Kayaba had mentioned before. Hand Mirror was its name, and the item description of it was completely vague about its use. I warily materialized the item and held it in my hand.
I stared down into the mirror, and saw my avatar looking back at me. Bloodred eyes peered back at me from a face that resembled an anime hero's, and I finally got a good glimpse at my avatar in first person point of view.
Suddenly, I was once more consumed in a bright blue light, and when it died down I was confused greatly.
HUH?!
The previously large crowd of dashing-looking males and beautiful females had changed into a large crowd of people in armor and clothes. The height, weight, appearance and gender of all the players had changed dramatically. For one thing, the number of females had decreased drastically, and the average girth of the players had increased by quite an amount.
Everywhere I looked, people seemed different than they used to be, as if…
Oh no!
I quickly looked into my own hand-held mirror, and beheld my own face, in real life! Now, dark violet eyes tinged with a hint of crimson stared at me from behind a few locks of pure-black hair that dropped down to my eyes. My bishounen face reflected the confused and surprised thoughts that ran through my already- befuddled head.
That item that Kayaba had given us before must have utilized the information about our physical stature and structure from the sensors in the headgear and the information gathered from the initial calibration process to replicate our real-life appearances and statures.
When the initial shock died down, Kayaba spoke up one last time.
"This is to remind you that this is not a game anymore for any of you. This is now your current reality, and if you wish to escape this reality, work hard to defeat all 100 floors and be granted the freedom that you all fought for. This concludes the grand opening of Sword Art Online. I wish you all luck, players."
With that final sentence, Kayaba's GM avatar dispersed into crimson light polygons, and for a brief time silence permeated the air.
Then, one handheld glass mirror fell and broke, shattering into countless tiny polygons. It was then that the chaos really started.
Ignoring the cries and shouts of the people around me, I hurriedly walked out of the arena and headed towards the northern gate, where the next town to the labyrinth was.
"Well shit, this all's gone down to hell…" I muttered. This was going to be one interesting adventure alright, but I doubted that it would be any fun at all. Right now my priority was to level up quickly and get the best equipment that I could to increase my survival probability.
I threw one last fleeting glance at the chaotic mess of people behind me and trudged into the sunset, my new cloak billowing out from behind me.
Several hours after I had left the starting city, the sun had descended and plunged the world in a dark asylum for dangerous monsters. I was almost at my destination, a little town quite some ways from the starting city called Horunka Village. If my previous information from the beta was correct, it was there that I had the chance to obtain the best longsword for the first 3 or 4 floors. However, due to its strength, it was a one-time only quest, so once the quest was finished and the sword awarded, no other players would be able to get the sword.
Spending time outside of a safe zone during nighttime was definitely a death sentence for novice players and such, but I was already an experienced elite- I was the player who had been ranked #1 out of all 1,000 beta testers during the beta, and at Lv. 26 on floor 10, only one player had come close to beating me. His name alluded my mind for a while until it came back to me. Kirito. Yes, his avatar name was Kirito. I smiled slightly to myself and recalled the end of the beta, when Kirito and I had just gotten to know each other. He was the second-best player in the beta, and he had an epithet, the "Black Swordsman," after his full-on black attire.
"I'll be in at first launch, so shoot over a friend request when I'm still on. We can continue this together, and be the first ones to clear all 100 floors!"
I smiled and replied in kind. "Yeah! Well, the beta's almost over and the GMs are sure to kick us off the server soon, but I'll definitely be seeing you around when the official game comes out. Be sure to not forget me, Black Swordsman-sama!"
Kirito scoffed. "Forget the demon who was able to defeat me in a duel? No way! I won't ever forget you!"
We teased each other some more, but soon an announcement rang out that the GMs were starting to kick off all remaining players still logged in.
The two of us grinned at each other, slapped hands in farewell and logged out.
I was brought out of my reminiscing when a Dire Wolf lunged at me. Without breaking stride I activated Vertical Arc and cut down the wolf.
It took me 2 months to get to Lv. 26 and for Kirito to reach Lv. 24, but I doubted that either of us would take half as long this time to get at least that far. Back then we had no knowledge about the game until multiple experiences of dying taught us important lessons, so leveling was extremely slow. Every boss fight wiped out at least ¾ of the raid, but back then no one had the fear of dying.
Now, with the situation mediating us between life and death, progress through the game was bound to be very slow and careful. I thought about sending Kirito a friend request to check up on him, but decided not to as he was probably currently dealing with his own problems.
A loud howling filled the air around me, and I paused for a moment to analyze my current surroundings. I was very close to Horunka, but not close enough to see the entrance gate. All around me, wolfs with glowing crimson eyes stared hungrily at me, lusting after my blood and my death.
There were approximately 20 Lv. 8 Dire Wolfs surrounding me, and I doubted that at this level I could take them all on at the same time.
I cursed at myself. Naturally, at nighttime more dangerous and high-leveled mobs came prowling around, and I had forgotten that they traveled in large packs as well.
If a player were high enough in level, such hunting at night could be very beneficial, as mobs at night dropped increased loot, col and xp, but the significant gains were backed by the dangerously high risks of getting killed.
Currently, I would have stayed within the boundaries of a safe zone until I was well above the average levels of the mobs to challenge entire packs of them, but right now I didn't have that luxury. 20 pairs of beady glowing eyes focused on me, and I realized that if I didn't bring them all down, I would go down first.
And I just couldn't let that be an option.
Screaming with an intense ferocity, I leapt directly for one of the wolves while keeping an eye out for the others' movements. Just as I suspected, the second I pounced on one of the wolves, the rest reacted in sync.
I cut down one wolf, dodged past the snapping jaws of 15 others, let 5 sink their fangs into my left arm, and cut down another wolf. I leapt out of the snarling fray to check on my current situation.
2 wolfs down, 18 left, my sword still intact, and my HP at 85% for taking 5 hits from the wolfs. Each bite only took away 3% of my HP, but that was still a lot to me. Back in the beta I was used to getting hit exactly zero times every time I fought against mobs.
I then leapt back at the pack, cutting down another wolf before back-slamming into the others, preventing them from attacking me and knocking them away. In their imminent confusion I cut down another 3 wolfs before backing up to survey the damage I had dealt to them.
Great. Now 6 wolfs were down, 14 were left and my HP was still at 75%. I rummaged quickly through my inventory and gulped down the one HP-low potion that I received since the beginning of the game. I made a mental note to myself to stock up on some potions in Horunka.
While my HP gradually filled up, I ran in and killed one more wolf, got bitten 3 times and killed off one more wolf when my cooldown time was over. By this time the wolves were tired of waiting for me to attack, and attacked me first. 12 snarling jaws snapped at me, but only 2 of them found purchase on my body. I took down 3 more wolves before retreating a bit to reassess my situation.
9 angry and irritated wolves remained, while my HP was nearing the 60% yellow zone mark. However, I could still see my remaining HP rise steadily, so I knew that the health potion was still in effect, but not for much longer.
I leapt in once more and didn't care how many times I got bitten until all of them were gone. 10 minutes later, I was on my back groaning and literally glowing red from all of the injuries that I had been dealt while fighting the wolves. All of them were gone, and my Col balance, inventory and xp swelled greatly from the rewards, but my HP was in the deadly red zone, with about 10% or less remaining. I had to get to Horunka immediately if I wanted to survive tonight. I ran all the way to the town without stopping, pausing only for a few seconds at a time to catch my breath before running again.
When I arrived at the town gate, I stopped for an instant to check my current stats.
Krystor: Lv. 11 HP: 10,500 Agility: 20 Strength: 10
Skills: One-handed sword, - Col: 15, 250
I quickly selected a new skill for my newly opened skill slot, Auto Battle Regen.
This skill was an important one to me, as I focused my build primarily on speed and only some on strength. When I had the chance to at Horunka, I'd buy two daggers and take up the skill Daggers once I hit Lv. 20. Since I was ambidextrous, I would be able to activate sword skills easily with both hands and execute them perfectly. In addition, I discovered that a new set of sword skills would become available to me once my Daggers skill hit a mastery of over 600. This new set of skills would only be available to players if the system recognized that the player was capable of using both hands with weapons, and the skills had massive combo attacks with relatively low cooldown times, the largest being a 27-hit combo skill with a cooldown of 3 seconds.
Anyways, the Auto Battle Regen skill would replenish my HP much faster than the slow system self-regenerate, so I wouldn't have to spend so much col on potions and health crystals to fill up any lost HP that I incurred through my battles.
I sauntered over wearily to the nearest NPC merchant selling his wares on the road and purchased 20 potions for 250 col and 2 two-and-a-half feet long iron daggers for 2000 Col before heading towards the only inn in the town.
The inn was empty of players excluding me, as was the entire town. I didn't expect any players to come in to Horunka until mid-morning tomorrow, even if they were beta testers. The only person that I knew who would come so early to Horunka aside from me was Kirito, but I doubted that he would get here until tomorrow.
I went up to the innkeeper and got a room for 20 Col a night before leaving to activate the quest that I was hell-bent on completing first. I went over to a little NPC-run house next to the inn and walked inside.
Inside the house was an old NPC woman tending a massive cauldron of boiling water. When I entered she looked up at me and got up at once. She came over to me and said in a worried voice, "Hello, traveling swordsman. I would normally welcome you in my house with a smile and some refreshments, but my little Agatha has fallen terribly ill and I feel terrible that there is nothing that I can do to help her. All I can offer you is a cup of water. Is that fine?"
I smiled warmly and replied, "Yes, thank you. Water would be fine."
I watched as the old woman gave me her gratitude for being so understanding and hobbled over to scoop up a cup of water for me from a wooden ladle. She handed me the cup and I quietly sipped at it as she informed me about her granddaughter's illness.
"My little Agatha's had this terrible illness for the past few days, and she's showing no symptoms of getting better. The only remedy I can think of for this disease is beyond my grasp, as it is hidden away somewhere in a forest a little ways from this town. Now, normally I would go ahead and search for this curing ovule myself, but it has been plagued by monsters for a while now, and I have no way of fending off the monsters myself."
She finished her little pre-programmed dialogue and a large, golden question mark appeared above her head. I approached her then and asked, "Is there anything I can do to help?"
These words triggered the quest and the old woman replied immediately.
"Yes! In fact, there is! If you help me and bring me back the ovule hidden in the monster-infested forest, I can reward you handsomely. Will you help me?"
I smiled internally and said, "Of course I will." The question mark disappeared and a large golden exclamation mark appeared over her head.
"Oh, thank you, traveling swordsman. Thank you very much."
I nodded my head slightly and headed out the door. I hurried over to the inn and entered the room that I rented. I would only be staying here tonight; tomorrow after I finished the quest I would head over to the next village to complete its series of quests.
I opened my player menu with a sweep of my hand and opened the Quest window to review the quest terms.
NEW QUEST! SECRET MEDICINE OF THE FOREST
DESCRIPTION: VENTURE INTO THE FOREST TO FIND THE OVULE. DEFEAT LITTLE NEPENTS IN THE FOREST UNTIL ONE OF THEM DROPS AN ITEM-LIKE OVULE. RETURN THIS OVULE TO NPC MARTHA TO RECEIVE QUEST REWARDS
I dismissed the window and collapsed onto the bed, utterly and completely exhausted. The clock at the lower right side of my vision said that it was currently 3:30 AM. I sighed. Today I gained 10 levels after almost 12-13 hours of nonstop grinding, but that carelessness almost killed me. Tomorrow I would have to exercise more caution when outside the safe zones. Deciding to sleep, I set an alarm for 7:30 AM so I could get the quest done by at least noon the next day, as I knew that the quest would take a lot of time to complete. I tapped on the light next to my bed and pressed on the POWER OFF button and drifted off to sleep.
The loud blaring of an annoying alarm woke me up harshly and I swatted blindly at an imaginary clock that wasn't there. Still half-asleep, I wondered to myself 'Where the heck am I? This isn't my bedroom; I had 2 large windows in mine, this one only has one!'
As my consciousness slowly came back to me, however, I remembered where I was and the dire situation that I was in. "A death game, huh…" I muttered quietly to myself for a while about how stupid this game was and such, but quickly recalled what I was waking up so early to accomplish.
I quickly equipped all of my battle gear and ate a quick breakfast of tasteless eggs and ham to sate my gnawing hunger and headed out to the forest mentioned by the old NPC lady, the Nepent Forest.
Aptly named, this particular forest was inhabited by large, leafy mobs called Nepents. Now, there were two different kinds of Nepents. There was the Little Nepent, which was exceedingly common in the forest and contained the ovule that I needed to complete the quest, and there was the Large Nepent, which was basically a larger version of the Little Nepent, and gave more items, xp and col for each kill. Unfortunately, Large Nepents were pretty rare and only a few spawned in the forest during the day.
I entered the forest and came across my first mob. A noticeable difference between this forest and the one I did before the dreadful announcement, however, was that these monsters had much higher level averages. Whereas in the Linden Forest the average monster level was around 3, 4 or even 5, the monster average levels here were at least 6, but never exceeding 10.
I slashed through one Little Nepent with a quick Horizontal, but it only caused the mob to lose half its HP. Growling with irritation at its toughness, I quickly cut it down with a follow-up Horizontal. Right as I finished up that mob, another leafy tentacle lashed out at me, missing me by a hair's breadth. I snapped my head in the direction that the tentacle came from, and saw Lv. 9 Large Nepent in front of me.
"Oh, boy. Look at my luck…" I slashed at it with a Vertical Arc followed up by a Horizontal before it dissolved into countless tiny polygons.
It was nearly 11:00 AM before I managed to track down a Little Nepent with a flower on it, but once I found one, I was hell-bent on not letting it escape. I must have destroyed hundreds of Nepents since I started this crazy quest, and although I enjoyed the amount of Col and items that piled up in my inventory, I knew that this quest had gone on far too long.
When I finally cornered the Little Nepent, I realized with a start that there was actually another Little Nepent guarding it- one that had a fruit on it.
Now, judging from the info I knew from the beta, the flower dropped the ovule that I needed but the fruit emitted a sweet smell that attracted a whole bunch of Nepents, both little and large.
I quickly snuck up on the Little Nepent that had the flower and killed it, obtaining the ovule, but when I slashed at the other Nepent I completely forgot that it had a fruit.
Suddenly, I was doing a running race between a mass of plant-like mobs and myself. Once I reached the outer edges of the forest, I turned around and faced off the 20 or 30 Nepents that had been gathered together because of the stupid fruit.
"Oh, boy. This is NOT gonna go well…"
20 minutes later, I stumbled once again into the town with my HP in the red zone, but this time it was more like 5% remaining instead of 10-15%. I felt like I fought for an eternity, all of those precious minutes wasting away until my HP fell to the red zone.
When that happened, there were 2 Little Nepents left and I honestly had no idea whether or not I was going to survive. I roared and did a Vertical Arc on one of them, reducing it to polygonal shards of light, but the other one managed to get a good, solid hit on me, bringing my HP from 10% down to around 5%.
Red lights were flashing in my vision and I felt a bit woozy, but after I got a hold of myself I slashed mercilessly at the nepent without using any sword skills, but my onslaught of attacks kept it from attacking me and slowly but surely the Nepent dissolved as well.
Right as I dealt the finishing blow to the Nepent, my Beginner's Longsword broke and dissolved, seeing as I used up all of the sword's durability and never had it repaired at a blacksmith's place.
Well, for now that was fine because I was about to receive a better sword as a reward for finishing the quest, along with other rewards.
While I walked over to the house where the NPC Martha was, I quickly drank a HP-low health potion to restore part of my remaining HP. When I entered the house the potion's effects wore off, but my HP kept steadily increasing due to my Auto-Battle Regen skill. In fact, that skill was probably the only reason why I was still alive now after fighting so many Little Nepents at once. Anyone else in my position back then would have been dead.
Nevertheless, currently I was alive and frankly, that was all that mattered now. Worrying about potentially dying could happen later, after I obtained the reward for this quest.
I walked over to the old NPC woman, whom still had the golden exclamation mark over her head, signifying that no one else had completed the task before I did.
"Hello again. I've brought you your ovule from the forest."
Those specific words triggered the reception of the item and the completion of the quest, and as I materialized the ovule and gave it to the woman, my insides filled up with an unspeakable joy and I eagerly awaited the rewards.
The woman gratefully accepted the ovule and put it in the large cauldron of boiling water. Minutes later after she stirred the water some more she filled a little cup with the medicine and brought it into a door next to the room I was in currently.
Honestly, I was kind of shocked, because back in the beta that door had been locked and stayed locked. Here in the official version, it seemed that once the quest had been finished, the door leading to the next room would be unlocked.
I followed the old NPC woman into the room next doors and saw a little frail girl sitting up in her bed.
I caught my breath. Truly, Kayaba did an amazing job replicating this little sick girl. If it weren't for the little white cursor above her head signifying an NPC and the lack of an HP bar, I could have easily mistaken this little girl for a player instead.
Anyways, the old lady walked over to where Agatha was sitting, and said, "Agatha, this young swordsman brought back the ovule that helped make this medicine. Here, drink this. It will make you feel better again."
The NPC Agatha accepted the cup and drank its contents. When the cup was empty, she handed back the cup to Martha and her frail face suddenly changed into a happy, smiling one. She turned and faced me, saying, "Onii chan, than you, onii chan. I'm so happy!"
The bright, cheerful face and grateful words rang in my mind, and suddenly I remembered a scene just like this one, only this was from the real world.
Kureha, my sister, had fallen severely ill one day when she came back from school. The doctor said that it was a difficult disease to cure, but he said that Kureha was sure to pull through in the end. He did say, however, that a little ginger tea would greatly reduce the pains that constantly racked her body.
Overcome with sorrow by what happened to Kureha, I immediately went to the kitchen to make some ginger tea for her. When I finished the tea and brought it over to her, she sat up in bed, smiled warmly at me, and said, "Onii chan, thank you, onii chan."
I was brought out of my memories as Agatha asked me in a worried voice, "Onii chan, are you alright? Why are you crying?"
I quickly wiped away my tears and smiled at her. "It's nothing, Agatha. Just a little personal matter. Don't worry, ok?"
Agatha's face brightened up and she smiled. "If onii-chan says that he's ok, then its alright. Good luck on your future journeys, onii-chan. Don't die out there."
I smiled warmly at the little girl. "Don't worry, Agatha. I won't die out there, because I'm very strong."
Somewhere during the course of our conversation Martha had gone back into the other room, and she emerged from the room minutes later. In her hands was a long wooden box, and two smaller boxes balanced precariously on it.
"Here, take these legendary items. It is the least I can give you for the help that you have given us. In the long box is the legendary Anneal Blade, a powerful sword that I hope will serve you well. In one of the other boxes is a pair of elongated daggers that we have carried down through our family for generations. They are named Shadow's Wrath, and are very powerful, even more so than the sword here. In addition, the other box is a pair of gloves studded with black diamonds, and its toughness is incomparable to other gloves offered anywhere on this floor.
Agatha got out of her bed and reached under her bed. "Onii-chan, for being such a kind and benevolent person, I offer you these."
She revealed a pair of shiny and sleek black boots with red outlines on them. "They used to be mine, but I think I'll be better off if I stay in this town and care for grandma instead. You can have them."
A screen popped up in front of me and my quest info updated itself. Quest: Secret Medicine of the Forest COMPLETED!
A rewards screen popped up in front of me later that read:
Col: 20,000
Anneal Blade
Shadow's Wrath
Lucifer's Gloves
BONUS ITEM:
Boots of Darkness
I received another level up from the quest, and I felt happy to have finally finished the tedious yet rewarding quest.
I equipped all of my new gear. My old black leather boots were replaced by sleek black metallic ones that felt lighter than my old ones, my old leather gloves were replaced by the black diamond-studded gloves and my new Anneal Blade appeared in my hands. I placed the sword on my back and strapped on the sword sheath strap. Finally I materialized my new amazing daggers. I strapped them to the back of my waist with the handles facing outwards, like the amazing heroes did in the animes that I watched.
Unfortunately, since I was currently only Lv. 14, I still had 6 more levels to go until I could get the Daggers skill set. Until then, I had to stick with either slashing at the enemy with weaker damage, or use my Anneal Blade until I reached Lv. 20. Either way, I was quickly reaching my floor 1 goal, and after that I would be able to get a headstart on my floor 2 goals. I thanked the NPCs for everything that they gave me and left the house, heading directly for the next village.
My final destination, however, would be the city Tolbana, where the 1st floor labyrinth was.