A month had passed since the game had begun. On the outside, everyday more and more people grieved over the loss of loved ones that were trapped on the inside. So you could imagine the shock of the players in the town of beginnings when a scrawny teenager in complete starter gear popped into existence in the middle of the square. A new player has joined the game.

Ezra wasn't suicidal. He also knew just what he had gotten himself into. Given these facts, a lot of sane people would wonder why in the world he would jump head long into a death game that had already claimed the lives of a few hundred people. The answer? Because he had someone to find. And he had a message to give.

Ezra blinked and took in the sight of the city around him, noting the message floating at the top of his screen (was that the correct term? He didn't know.) that welcomed him to the town of beginnings.

Ezra was a scrawny teen at the age of fifteen with short light black hair and messy bangs. He stood at just over six feet tall, elevating his stone grey eyes to a comfortable hight to observe his surroundings.

There were plenty of people in the square, ranging from groups of people just sitting around to players walking around the items stalls with weapons and armor equipped. Some of the people who noticed him appear gave him questioning looks, the exact same look he got from many of the people who he had seen when he first went around visiting the homes of the players who were in Sao. On more than one occasion he was to late.

The memory of his purpose caused panic to rise in his chest and he opened up his menu, quickly checking his notes to see if they where still there. He let out a sigh of relief when he found the list of names and notes attached to each one. He would be devastated if those weren't uploaded with him.

"What the hell were you thinking? Do you have a death wish or something?" Ezra turned when he heard the bossy voice's accusation, curious to see who was the first person he got to talk to. The speaker was a girl with short brown hair and beautiful purple eyes, her cheeks puffed and her hands on her waist. "I thought it was widely known on the outside that this game was fatal."

Great. My first encounter is with a bossy one. Ezra thought to himself. He sighed and brought his list up again. "Name." He ordered, scrolling back up to the top.

"What?"

Ezra sighed again and flipped the list around and dragged it a bit lower so she could see. "You wanted to know why I came in here. Just tell me your name already."

The girl crossed her arms and looked at the list distrustingly. "Lizbeth." She told him, shifting in her weight to her other leg. Ezra brought the list back to him and began to scroll through it, scanning the names as he went along. He soon stopped when he realized that was probably her avatar name.

"Your real name." He told her, crossing his arms. For some reason she was really annoying him. "I doubt your family actually knows what your character name is." Lizbeth remained silent, further ticking him off. "Look, just give me your damb name! If you don't want to know if you're family sent you a message, fine, then stop wasting my time. I have a few thousand letters to hand out, and who knows how many of them won't be delivered because I don't get to them in time!" He tried to restrain himself, but this girl was really trying his patience. He couldn't help but yell a bit.

Apparently the yelling didn't have much of an effect on her attitude, but she begrudgingly gave up the information. "Are you really who you say you are?" She asked, looking away and fidgeting her foot.

"Yes." Ezra said, exasperated.

Lizbeth seemed to take a moment to think before she responded. "Pass me the list." She said quietly. Ezra obliged, tapping a few icons and gave her the list. He watched her closely to make sure she didn't do anything funny. Apparently she found herself because she opened up one of the files and sent it to herself. Ezra closed the menu remotely before she could do anything else.

His business with Lizbeth done, he was about to do the same thing with another player when a thought crossed his mind. "You wouldn't by chance know of a Kazuto, would you? He's a friend of mine from school."

Lizbeth shook her head. Ezra let out another sigh before he left her to continue his job.

As time passed, the number of notes Ezra had to deliver rapidly decreased. Word of his task traveled quickly and soon people began to seek him out, some desperate to receive word from the outside while others doubted his existence. On more than one occasion did he have to break a heart with nothing to deliver.

Time slipped by as he continued to give out messages and Ezra soon found that night had fallen. He was sitting on a bench after helping a poor fellow who broke into tears from a letter from his mom when his stomach gave a roar that could scare a lion. He apologized to the guy before he got up, only to quickly turn and ask if he knew of anywhere cheep he could eat. The man scratch at his red hair under his bandana as he thought.

"You can buy some simple black bread at just about any item vender. I'll have to warn you though, it will cost you if you want to eat anything that tastes good."

"Thanks for the heads up." Ezra said. "But I've only gained a meager amount of col from some grateful people." To empathize his point he opened his menu and showed him the measly three hundred cold.

The man took one look at the small amount of money and started to laugh. "Well, I guess it can't be helped. You did spend all day handing out messages from the other world after all." He smiled wide and offered a hand. "You've given me something far more valuable than a meal. I'm sure my friends and I could probably squeeze in an extra meal."

Ezra grinned and took his offer. "Thanks Tsuboi. I appreciate it."

"Oh, it feels like forever since I've been called by that name." Tsuboi sighed nostalgically. "Just call me Klein. It's my name now."

"Okay, Klein." Ezra corrected himself. The pair began to walk back to a pub where Klein's group was hanging out. "By any chance you know of someone I'm looking for? Fourteen year old kid, dark hair and black eyes. His name is Kazuto."

Klein scratched his chin, almost wandering into a brick wall as they turned a corner onto the main street. "I don't know anyone by that name, but I know someone who fits the description. He goes by Kirito."

Excited, Ezra questioned Klein further. "Great. Can I meet him?" His excitement faded when Klein shook his head.

"Nah man, we've been out of contact for a while. I met him on the first day here. Haven't really seen him since." Ezra was disappointed at this and it showed. Klein noticed and added some new information. "There's a meeting at the town of Tolbana tomorrow. Anyone who is willing to take on the boss will be there. Knowing him, he will probably show up."

Ezra thought about it, concluding that the Kazuto he knew would probably do that too. "Okay, I'll head over there tomorrow. Thanks again Klein."

That night Ezra did something rather rare for an Sao player. He slept like a rock. Most people would have the weight of the knowledge that their lives were now in peril keeping them awake. Not Ezra. He felt good knowing he had help a lot of people. He felt good knowing he was closer to finding Kazuto. He felt good that he had made some friends. And secretly, he was down right pleased to have been able to play sword art online. Not like anyone was going to know that.

Ezra didn't exactly have much on the outside. To his parents he was just something to grow so it would make money for them. His only friends was a scrawny teen a year younger than him and his sister that lived a block away from his house. He found school boring, the lessons too easy and teachers too plain. If he tried to skip his parents would beat him with a wooden plank, which he was pretty sure was illegal. So when he got a taste of sword art online when he was at Kazuto's place when it was still in beta, he got hooked. A life with no expectations and rules? And one that kicked the ass of any other game he had even played, skyrim included? Who would turn that down? So what if he died? The half the people who even saw him as a human were in here. Life was actually better for him now.

When Ezra woke up he found that half the party was already awake and downstairs at the bar that served as the first floor. Ezra greeted them on the way out and asked them to pass on his thanks to Klein. They agreed to carry his words.

The first stop Ezra had was at a simple weapons stand. Deciding since he was rather under leveled to be attempting a trip to Tolbana, he decided to trade in his sword and buy something with more of a reach. He settled with a base level spear since he was probably going to switch back later.

His next stop was at an items stand to pick up a supply of potions, eliminating the last of what little gold he had. With his bag slightly less empty he took to the field, using the large black tower to guide his way.

By now some of you have to be asking, if he was so worried why didn't he take the teleporter between towns? The reason is experience. Any gamer knows that your level is your strength, and in a game of death it also served as your life line. And Ezra was more than a little bit addicted to leveling up.

Ezra walked down the dirt road with his sneak skill active, gaining a little bit of exp. as he passed the random mob. Whenever he had the chance he would sneak up on a boar and attack it, first jabbing his weapon at it's neck before slamming it with the pole. He would then finish it by planting his spear pole into the ground whenever it charged so that it would run right into the business end of the weapon. It took a few tries and a level or two to get the hang of it, but he was able to kill the pig with ease after a while.

The real fun started when he came across a wolf. The beast caught him off guard when it spawned in the road behind him, knocking him off his feet. Ezra managed to roll and hit the wolf in the muzzle when it jumped at him again, giving him time to get to his feet. The wolf laid on the ground for a moment as it was caught in a tumble status so Ezra charged in and stabbed it with the spear. The tumble status wore off right before he landed the hit and the wolf bit into his arm before he could pull back, dropping his HP by an eighth. Ezra cried out in pain and kicked the mob, getting it to let go. He slashed it's side with the spear tip as he swung the spear in an attempt to hit it. He quickly spun his body with the attack and knocked the wolf away with the pole. The wolf stumbled then shattered as the spear was jabbed into its back.

Ping! Level up! "Ooh, another one!" Ezra opened up his stats window and checked his status.

Level: 3

Hp: 550

Str: 5

Agi: 5

Vit: 5

Available points: 9

"That's it?" Ezra asked, his eye twitching. "That's all they have? No luck, vitality, wisdom, intelligents?" Disappointment aside, he put his points that he had been stockpiling in and saved changes.

Hp: 700

Str: 8

Agi: 9

Vit: 7

Available points: 0

Ezra tapped on each stat in turn to check how they worked. "Hmm. 50 Hp per vitality point. Not bad. The one hundred per levels awesome." He commented to himself. He closed down the window and tossed his spear from hand to hand, seeing if his increased strength affected anything. It didn't seem to affect the feel of his power. "Must be directly connected to my carrying capacity and my damage." His mind wandered to the pitiful amount of stats and an idea occurred to him. He opened his menu and opened up his stats again and found a skill list when he scrolled down. He had three slots that he hadn't touched since he started the game.

Pole arm: 8

Light armor: 2

Sneak: 10

He crossed his arm as he tapped on pole arm skill. Just the basic description and a +.8 damage with pole arms. Not surprised with the results, he closed down the list. He was about to close the window when he noticed a skill list option. Curious of what he picked up, he opened it. It contained two sword skills.

Jab: a simple jab attack. Cool down 5 seconds.

Horizontal slash: a simple slash. Cool down 3 seconds.

Ezra casually checked how to use them before he closed the menu. He didn't like cool down feature, so he decided he could go without using them if he could help it. His task done, he continued his trek to the tower.

By the time Ezra walked through the gate of Tolbana he was thoroughly exhausted, had broken his spear, and was a level 4. On more than one occasion he was nearly killed and had been taught the valuable lesson that leveling was a slow and dangerous job. It helped greatly when you killed things twice your level though.

"Damb plant monster. It's not like I wanted my spear anyway." He grumbled to himself as he kicked at the dirt. "To think I'd lose to a sunflower." He approached one of the first players he came across and asked for directions to the shopping district. He had obtained a decent amount of col from slaughtering every mob he came across, only stopping when his flimsy stick broke. The man pointed him in the right direction before continuing to talk with his companion. Ezra just remembered to pass on their letters before moving on.

The weapon shop had a selection of just about any weapons class available and stronger gear than the first town, many of them well out of his price range. He was debating on selling off his armor to afford a particular nice pike when some moron with spiky hair started yelling at the AI store owner.

"What do you mean I can only get 900 col for this? It's classified as a rare item!" Ezra came to the counter, curious about the low priced rare item. He couldn't see it as it was blocked from view by the spiky haired man's companions.

"Why would you want to sell a rare item?" Ezra said, his thoughts accidentally coming out of his mouth. The men parted aside so that he could see the man who had been yelling. He had spiky brown hair and brown eyes and wore plated armor. He had a large sword strapped on his back.

"Well, just look at it! I'm obviously a sword user, not a pole arms user! Hell, I've never even seen a spear like this." He stepped aside and gave Ezra a view. The weapon had a long red pole with a golden trimming at the head. Instead of a spear head, an elegantly curved blade was attached at the top. A small circular piece had been removed from the base of the blade.

Ezra approached the counter before he paused. "May I?" He asked. The man gave a disgusted grunt before waving him on. Ezra tapped the weapon to examine it's stats. "The Red Claw. Interesting name." The weapon had really nice damage and durability, and it had a moderate weight that was relatively reasonable. It had no level requirements, but...

"It that requirement. You can't use anything else till you either break it or until you find and finish some quest called ancient repentance." The man snorted in disgust. "I asked an info broker. Apparently it's on the second floor. My party's not going to do it, and this guy won't even give us a good price to get rid of it."

"First, I don't think the AI will change the price no matter how much bartering and yelling we do. There is no speech skill." Ezra sighed, remembering his level 72 speech skill in skyrim. "What I would give for that skill. But anyway, where did you find this?"

"We got it in a random chest in the labyrinth, why?" Ezra thought for a moment before opening up his menu.

"I'll triple the shop's price for it." He stated, bringing up a trade window. "What's your name?"

"It's Kibaou." He said aggressively, puffing out his chest and straightened up. Ezra internally rolled his eyes at his alpha male act. Didn't exactly work when he was half Ezra's size. "Are you sure you want this thing? There is a good probability that you will find a better weapon before you can get rid of this thing."

"Yeah, it's fine. Besides, I kind of need a new weapon anyways." Kibaou put his hands up in resignation. They completed the trade without a hitch, meaning nobody on Kibaou's side had equipped it. "Before I forget, what's your real name?"

Apparently that was the wrong question. Kibaou's eyes turned distrustful and he turned his intimidation on. "What's it to you?" He growled. His hand reached back and rested on the handle of his sword.

Now Ezra was on the defensive. "H-Hey now, let's not rush to violence." He backed away a few steps, searching through his menu screen for his notes. "You might not believe me, but I just got here yesterday. I was only allowed in because I offered to bring messages from your families."

Kibaou starred at him as he tried to get a read on him. Ezra was getting ready to dodge an incoming attack. The situation was thankfully defused when one of Kibaou's party members recognized him.

"Oh, so your the mailman!" Everyone turned to the man and Ezra let out a sigh of relief. "Yeah, I heard of you. Did you really come in here just to give us all some peace?"

"Yeah, I did." Ezra replied. The atmosphere suddenly turned warm again, the tension eased. "Just something I thought was necessary. But I admittedly really wanted to play the game too. On the outside Sao is a really touchy subject. So I took a hero role and the game. Fair trade."

The group stared at him as if he was from another world. "You wanted to play the game." Kibaou said slowly. "Even after the whole death thing?"

"Yeah." Ezra said, giving a quick nod of the head. "But I'm not in liberty to tell you why. That's classified information that only a select few can know." Feeling a bit uneasy from their stares, he went through his menus and equipped the weapon. "This is called a halberd by the way. By the way it's forged, I believe they used the Chinese style on for this build. It's the least I can do to give you guys your mail in return for such a magnificent weapon."

They eventually got around to handing out the messages and they went their own way. Little did Ezra know that he and Kibaou would be on opposite ends of many conflicts in the time to come.