Town of Beginnings
"Klein, come over here for a sec."
Kirito grabbed the warrior's arm and made his way through the raving crowd, into one of the many streets that led out of the plaza.
"...Klein,"
The man in question still had a blank expression on his face. He's distracted. Upset, perhaps.
"Listen to me. I'm going to get out of this city and head over to the next village. Come with me."
Klein's eyes widened, and Kirito took that as a sign to continue.
"Soon, all the monsters around the Town of Beginnings are going to be hunted. You'll have to wait forever for them to respawn. Going to Horunka Village now would be better. I know the way and all the dangerous spots."
Klein continued to stay silent. The muscles in his forehead tried to tie themselves into a knot under his skin.
"But...but y'know. I said before that I stood in line for ages with my friends to buy this game. They would have logged in and most likely they'd be in the plaza even now. I can't...go without them."
He was most definitely hoping that Kirito would take all his friends with him. That was the implication.
"..." The quest, «Secret Medicine of the Forest» was an individual-only quest, where only one of the key item, Little Nepent's Ovule, would drop. While the spawn rate of the Little Nepent possessing the item is rather low, the player may boost their chances of encountering this specific monster by killing regular Little Nepenthes in the area and thus forcing the Nepenthes to re-spawn. With two players, the number that could be hunted down would increase accordingly, and with that, the chance of one with a flower should similarly increase.
However, with more than four players, this strategy would cease to be efficient if at least two wanted to complete the quest. Kirito would not be able to get the Anneal Blade quickly enough if Klein and friends wanted one as well.
Klein seemed to have read all these worries that had flashed through his mind.
"No...I can't keep relying on you. I was a guild master in the game I used to play. It'll be fine. I'll just make do with the techniques that you've taught me till now. Maybe there's still a chance that this was just a bad joke and that we'll all be logged off. So don't worry about us and go to the village."
"Well, let's part here. If anything comes up, send me a message. Good luck, Klein."
Forest West of Horunka
A rustling sound made Kirito turn sharply around.
It was not a monster, but another player. His defensive equipment were the light leather armour and buckler sold at Horunka Village. He wielded the standard starting shortsword is his right hand. The man, or rather, boy, showed an awkward smile, bowing his head down for a moment.
"S-Sorry, for startling you like that. I should have called out from the start."
"No, me too. Sorry for the overreaction."
The boy widened his faltering smile, and made some sort of gesture, bringing the fingers on his right hand up near his right eye. As he lowered his hand with embarrassment immediately after, Kirito realized that he must have worn glasses back in the real world.
"C-Congrats, on your level up. That was pretty quick."
"You're pretty fast yourself. I thought it would be two or three more hours before anyone reached this forest."
"Ahaha, I thought I would be the first to arrive too. The path to get here is rather confusing, after all."
A beta tester.
"You're doing it too, right? The «Secret Medicine of the Forest» quest."
Upon nodding, he grinned while shifting his hand to those unseen glasses once again.
"That's an indispensable quest to one-handed sword users, after all. When you get the Anneal Blade, it's good all the way until the third floor. This is a rare chance, so how about working together on the quest?"
"Sure, I could use the company."
The boy stepped up and offered his right hand.
"That's good to hear; well then, I'll be in your care for the time being. Name's Coper."
"I am Kirito."
Nodding to each other, they targeted a couple of Little Nepents grouped together nearby and dashed towards them.
...
"It's still not out..."
Coper's voice was tainted with traces of fatigue as expected. Over an hour had passed since they had started fighting. Although close to over a hundred and fifty Nepents must have been taken down, the specific Little Nepent had yet to spawn.
"It could be that the spawn rate since beta."
"That's true. So, what now? We did manage to level up considerably, and the durability levels of our weapons have dropped by quite a bit, so returning to town for the time being might-"
When Coper reached that point in his speech, a faint red light came to life under a tree, a mere ten meters or so away from them.
The two readied themselves as they gazed at the spawning. One of the Nepents had an enormous flower adorn the top of its stalk, glistening a toxic red even in the dismal lighting.
The one with the flower was the first to notice Coper's approach, twirling its body around. One of its mouths, snapping open and shut like a venus flytrap, bellowed.
Veering to the right, aiming at the one with the seed further within, Coper still held the attention of the one with the flower. Having gotten closer, Kirito took advantage of the opportunity.
The special Nepent had stats barely any different from the normal ones. Its defence and attack were slightly higher, but that deviation meant nothing to him, having gotten to level 3 after over an hour of hunting.
Kirito evaded the attacks from the Nepent's vines and piled up one attacks after another. Its HP gauge turned yellow and he started up a sword skill to finish it off. Its fleshy stalk was sliced apart by the blue arc of the single-hit Horizontal, letting out a creaking sound.
The shriek that echoed out too, was slightly different from the norm. The decapitated pitcher portion spun as it dropped to the ground, scattering away and the flower fell to the ground.
A fist-sized ball, shining faintly, tumbled out from its insides. Kirito picked up Little Nepent's Ovule.
Just right ahead, Coper, was skillfully handling the Nepent's assaults with his sword and buckler. Perhaps because he specialized in defence from the start, it seemed that he had enough control to turn in Kirito's direction, even in the midst of battle.
Something in his gaze caused Kirito's feet to halt.
PKing in Sword Art Online was high-risk high-reward. An orange player is attacked by the NPC guards upon entering safe areas, and the cursor will remain that colour after the fifth kill. However, killing players yielded much more exp than regular mobs.
Fending off a Nepent's vine attack with his buckler, as Coper broke off the bout and leapt, raising the sword in his right hand above his head. The blade glistened light blue. A sword skill was activated. That motion was that of the single-hit vertical slash, Vertical.
He's planning to hit the Nepent's seed, making it release an odour that would aggro the others. A monster PK.
Coper's Vertical strike struck through the seed and continued, slicing apart the Nepent's stem and cutting through its HP gauge. The monster soon blew apart, but the vague green fumes left behind in the air and a queer stench.
From every direction, The Little Nepents were drawn by the fumes. There was no mistake that every one of the individual beings that had spawned in this area were gathering.
But Kirito was gone.
He shouldn't have gotten twenty meters away, but his cursor had vanished from Coper's vision. There was no way he managed to buy a teleport crystal at the beginning like this, not to mention that the 1st floor had neither shops that sold it, nor monsters that dropped it.
The blade sunk into Coper's back.
In that case, there was only one answer. The special effects of the «Hiding» skill. Erasing the sight of the color cursor from players, and not drawing the attention of monsters. Kirito did not leave the second skill slot empty.
A twist and his HP dropped into nothing.
Upon hindsight, Coper's motive was clear as day. He intended to steal the Little Nepent's Ovule. If Kirito were to die, the item would drop right there from within his equipment, or the pouch it was in. After the mass of Nepents had dispersed, Coper could pick up the item, return to the village and clear the quest, as well as gaining a level or two.
His decision, to swindle, outwit and rob other players, for the sake of his own life.
Kirito couldn't care less.