Disclaimers: I do not own and neither am I affiliated with in any way Sword Art Online or its author or publishers, nor do I own any non-original characters within this story.

Honoka and all other OCs are owned by me! You cannot take them without proper permission! So think of your own OCs!

My first ever fanfiction story, so please, any criticism would be nice. Obviously I'd prefer if it were not in the form of flames, but knowing how the internet works, that's about as likely as all of us dying in a few days(For future readers, this story chapter was written Dec 19, 2012). Anyway, I sincerely hope you enjoy my first ever story.

Continuing, this story is going to be a floor by floor story that follows Kirito and his path to becoming strong enough to survive in this death game. Floors that were told in the Light Novels or in the anime will not be included, so no Floor 1, 28, etc I will likely skip a few floors here and there just because writing nearly 70 Floors worth of content in a dizzying prospect for me, but I should be writing about at least 20 of the non-story included floors. I don't actually know if I'm allowed to do this because apparently the same thing is actually already happening canonically by the author, but I have yet to read those as I'm not living in Japan, so I cannot purchase the books, and even if I could purchase them, I am unable to read Japanese anyway, and the site I read the SAO Light Novels on have not yet translated them into English.

Sword Art Online: Floor 2

Kirito was busy trying to level up. His current level at 14, he felt a few more levels couldn't hurt, and as such, he continued to farm the monsters that appeared. The monsters were all low level creatures of course, but being that the clearing group had only made it to floor 2, they were decently strong.

The monsters looked like little goblin like creatures, maybe about 3 feet tall each. Their skin colors ranged from a pale green reminiscent of warm summer grass, to a dark green similar in color to the leaves on Evergreens(1). Their faces were covered in boils, and they each carried a small dagger with light, leather armor. They did not look threatening, but Kirito, having played many other RPG games, had learned that while goblins themselves were not terribly powerful alone, in groups, they could be highly dangerous.

Quickly defeating each goblin with the low level Sword Skill Horizontal(2), he watched as his experience steadily filled up enough to reach level 15. A few goblins managed to hit him with some weak attacks, but having 2900 HP and each of the goblin's attacks doing only 100 damage per hit, he felt no need to be worried. A few minutes later, a white screen appeared in front of him stating he had reached level 15, and so he decided to head back to a small cottage he had rented. Having played the beta, he knew of extra areas besides for inns where he could spend a few nights at(3).

Walking into a large clearing where several guilds were busy hunting, he walked down a dirt road that led to town. Looking around at the numerous guilds surrounding him, he couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt and sadness. It wasn't easy being a solo player. No one to talk to, no one to help you when you might need it, no one you could call a friend. But after he had left Klein the way he did on the 1st Floor, he was not willing to forgive himself and join a guild. And besides for that he was also a beater. No guild would want him, he would simply bring them terrible publicity.

Heading into the town to grab a bite to eat before going to the cottage on outskirts of it, he went down the crowded street to an NPC restaurant. The food that NPCs made was rather bland, but it was a heck of a lot better than what he could make with no cooking skill whatsoever. Taking a seat in a corner table, he waited for the waitress to come over while looking at the menu. Lifting his right hand, putting his thumb and pointer finger together, then quickly pulling them apart, he opened up the menu screen(4). Deciding on a simple order of a salad, soup and bread, he gave the waitress his order, and gulped down the water she had brought to his table when coming over.

Waiting for his food to arrive, his thoughts wandered back to a certain orange haired girl who had been a big help in defeating the first floor boss. He wondered if she had joined a guild yet, and if she had, which one had she joined? So early in the game, the top guilds had yet to be established, but he was sure she would be able to instinctively tell if the guild would be strong or not. His thoughts broke as his food arrived.

Wolfing down the rather bland food, he left quickly and headed down a darkened road towards the cottage he had rented for the past several days. In order to be able to rent out the basement area of the cottage, which consisted of two queen size beds, a full size bathroom and small kitchen area, one had to complete the "Save Dog" quest. Already knowing how to do it, and having been the very first player to reach Floor 2, he immediately headed there after opening up the 2nd Floor to the rest of the players.

He had learned during the Beta Test that the feel of water was not reproduced to 100% authenticity by the NerveGear, but he still decided to take a bath anyway, as it had become part of his nightly ritual after renting the cottage's basement. Unequipping his clothes, he stepped into the bath and let his mind slip away from him. He just let his troubles for the moment melt away and his body responded lazily, letting himself lay at the bottom of the tub.

Finishing his bath, he went over to the small sofa plopped down in the middle of the room with a small coffee table in front of it where he left his latest issue of MMO Weekly on. Scanning the virtual screen for anything important, his mind wandered to a serious article, a rare treat as MMO Weekly was just usually filled with gossip and popularity polls.

The article was a help request by a player named "Honoka". In it the player was asking for help to save his friend who had gotten trapped in the second floor dungeon. So far, no one had replied. Deciding that it wasn't his problem, Kirito turned off the virtual screen and headed towards his bed. Turning the lights off, he lay in his bed, waiting for sleep to overwhelm him. But his mind kept wandering back to the help request h had seen. He had told himself it wasn't his problem, but it kept bothering him. Finally, his breath steadied, he found a comfortable position on the bed, and he drifted off into a deep sleep.

1- What is usually used for Christmas Trees if you don't know what an Evergreen is.

2- I took a page from the Alicization Arc where the player must be both a high enough level and have a strong enough weapon to use higher level sword skills, so no Vertical Square just yet.

3- I assume there would be extra areas to spend nights at, I mean, why would they have only inns they could stay at in such a complex game? I'm pretty sure there would be extra little things like this a game like SAO.

4- when watching the SAO anime I don't remember ever seeing them actually having menus when they were at restaurants, so I assumed it was simply the white screen menu that pops up.

Well that's the end of Chapter 1 of my first ever fanfiction story. I hope you enjoyed it. I should be able to have Chapter 2 up by tomorrow, if not by Thursday at the latest. So hopefully the few of you guys who actually read this can wait that long for Chapter 2.

Thanks again for reading my first story. Criticism will be listened to, but please try to keep it not flamey. That would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!