Apologies in Advance; I only watched the anime, and I barely remember details from that, so if some of my info about Aincrad areas or certain aspects of the game is completely different from the books or show, don't judge too harshly! I will try to post a new chapter at least once a week; write reviews to keep me motivated! ESPECIALLY bad ones; nothing works me up like trying to prove someone is wrong about me!

DAY ONE, FLOOR ONE: Comrades

"Hey! Shou! Did you manage to get a copy?!" Noah asked, as he entered the booth of the cafe where his friends were waiting.

"All three of us managed to, foreigner." Haruka replied, using the nickname they all used whenever he was being annoying.

Shou smiled, "Yeah, cousin, we all got copies; how's the beta going?"

Noah's face fell, "They just closed it down; the Official Version is gonna be out soon, though!"

Quietly, Takumi spoke up, "Another two weeks, correct?"

"Yeah, but you should know that; it's all over the internet!" Noah replied.

"Just…checking." Takumi replied, tonelessly.

"I'm gonna miss our accounts on Freedom, though." Haruka said, gloomily.

"I hear SAO knocks Freedom out of the MMO park; and not just because its VR." Shou declared.

"I know it does." Noah said, smiling.

"So; when the game starts, what are we naming our Guild?" asked Shou.

"The White Ravens!" Noah and Haruka shouted back.

"Just like in Freedom…idiot." Takumi interjected.

"Hey, that reminds me; have any other people from the guild managed to get SAO?" Noah asked.

"No, no one else we know has." Takumi replied.

"Alright, then! I actually have to go; it's Lynn's birthday, I'm gonna surprise her with the copy of SAO I bought (but obviously don't need)!" Noah declared, running off.

"See you in a few weeks, then…" Haruka said, as Noah went through the door.

*TWO WEEKS LATER, NOVEMBER 6th, 2022*

"Can you believe how real this feels!?" demanded Shou, as he charge a boar, smashing it to pixels with his hammer.

"No way!" replied Lynn, Noah's sister, as she fought off a boar with her short dagger.

Meanwhile, several yards away, Noah, Takumi, and Haruka were fighting a large pack of wolves, moving with the type of synchronization a team can only get after years of fighting together in MMO games, and maybe every now and then in real life.

"Be back in a bit! I need to grab a snack!" Lynn declared, she waved her hand, calling up the menu. After a few moments of confusion, she called over he brother, "Noah, where's the log-off button?"

He finished off a wolf that was going for his neck, and while the other two covered his back, he went over to his sister.

"Look closer, dummy, it should be right there…" he paused, looking over her shoulder. He couldn't see it either.

"That is so weird…" he said, as he called up his own menu. It took a few minutes to finish off the nearby enemies, but soon all five of them were gathered around, looking at their menus in shock.

As they started to panic, Noah kept them calm, "Hey, don't worry about it, guys; there were all sorts of funky glitches in the beta, I'd have been really surprised if nothing went wrong today."

Then, they were summoned to the starting point by Kayaba Akihiko, and they heard his shocking declaration along with everyone else; none of their avatars changed when Mirror was used, however, since they always played with avatars as similar to themselves as possible.

As Kayaba's ominous figure disappeared and the force-field vanished, Noah was the first to spring into action, "White Ravens, come with me!" he turned, running into a side alley.

They followed, too numb to question his orders.

"Alright, team; supplies are gonna be running out quickly, we need to head to the next village, and fast."

"Hold on a second!" Shou exclaimed, hand on the sword slung across his back.

"Yeah?" Noah said, as he turned to leave.

"How can you be so calm? Did-did you know this was coming?"

"Don't be a moron, Shou!" Lynn shouted.

Noah held out his hand, silencing his sister, "Of course not; but I've played this game before, and though I suspect it's different from the beta in many important ways, I know pretty soon, when the shock wears off, people will be snapping up the best items; we got some decent training in earlier, and I'm about 85% of the way to leveling up, so if we move quickly and efficiently, we can get through the Dark Woods with only a little difficulty."

"…We really should go." Takumi said, and the group ran out of the city.

As they reached the edge of Dark Woods, an little girl NPC ran towards them.

"Help, help; my family's caravan is being attacked by wolves!" a screen appeared in front of Noah, who was the guild and party leader.

WILL YOU ACCEPT THE QUEST "WOODLAND RESCUE"?

He selected YES.

"What are you doing? I thought we should be heading for the town!" Takumi demanded.

"This is a unique quest; we should go on every one we come across!" Noah said, drawing his sword.

"If you say so..." Takumi said, clearly unconvinced.

They all drew their weapons, running in the direction the little girl indicated.

Soon enough, they reached a clearing with two wagons in it; two NPCs, one an old man the other a young boy, were fending off wolves with torches, but dealing no real damage and clearly getting tired.

"Everyone, charge, but be careful!" Noah ordered, activating a Sword Skill that made his cutlass glow yellow; he cut down two wolves in a single strike.

Pretty soon, they had cleared the enemies away, and were given 500 Col as a reward. But howling was coming from the woods around them. A screen appeared in front of all of them.

SPECIAL EVENT TRIGGERED "THE WOLF PACKS OF AINCRAD"

Suddenly, the NPC Caravan drove off into the woods, leaving the White Ravens alone in the clearing, with wolves howling in the trees all around them.

"Make a circle formation!" Noah ordered, and the five of them did, weapons held out.

Suddenly, wave after wave of wolves appeared, charging the team and easily falling to their attacks.

After a lengthy amount of minutes, the wolves broke away, staying in the safety of the tree-line, but not giving the guild any chance of exit.

"After killing all those wolves, how many times did you guys level up? I'm already at 3!" Shou declared, grinning evilly.

"5." Noah replied smiling.

"Only 2," Takumi said, "but I noticed guild funds just increased exponentially; and no one is seriously injured…"

"Right then, let's wait here; either for the wolves to attack, or to leave, or until the sun comes up." Haruka said, swinging her longsword in anticipation.

Then, four wolves sprang from the bushes, larger than the others, all marked at level 4, compared the level 1 of the other wolves, with fur of pure snow-white. Behind them, a humanoid wolf labeled WOLF-LORD RUKO, LVL 5 appeared, swinging a rusty dagger at them.

"I heard about this!" Noah exclaimed, "Take care of the wolves, I can hold off Ruko at least until you guys can back me up!" he charged, locking blades with the wolf-man.

Takumi moved, lashing out at the wolf closest to him with his poleax, while Lynn kept close behind him.

"Switch!" he shouted, knocking the wolf's feet from under it.

She darted forward, stabbing it in the heart with her dagger. It exploded into several shards of violet light, and she leveled up, reaching level 3.

She and Takumi engaged another wolf, while Shou and Haruka began work on their second wolf; Haruka sustained 67% HP damaged, but they killed it, while Takumi and Lynn both finished of the remaining two wolves.

They all watched as Noah fought, none of them seeing any opportunities to intervene, as Noah expertly lowered his opponent's HP to 40%, while only losing about 10%.

Suddenly, the strength of the wolf-man drastically increased, and it knocked Noah several feet back before lunging in to kill the Beta-Tester.

Shou jumped in, knocking the rusty dagger away with his hammer, but leaving himself open to long yellowed claws. Before Ruko The Alpha finished off anyone, however, Takumi came up behind it, swirly beheading it with his poleax. The wolves at the edge of the clearing all ran away, leaving them to their EXP and Item rewards. Takumi got the rare item Wolf-Skull Helmet as a kill bonus, which he immediately equipped (he also reached level 4), while everyone else got the item Wolf-Claw Necklace; which did nothing but looked sort of cool.

They soon reached the first village.

"This is a great place to train up practical skills AND impractical non-combat skills, on a basic level; I think Lynn should learn some crafting-type abilities while the rest of us train in the surrounding woods; that OK with all of you?" Takumi asked (she had, in previous games, always been the support character; item repairer, healer, etc.).

"Yes." Lynn replied, while everyone else nodded.

"Maybe one of us should stay as a body-guard, though; if I recall correctly, PVP is enabled out here…" Noah said.

"Alright then I'll get first body-guard shift, we'll switch out as we gain levels." Takumi replied.

"Let the games begin, Comrades." Noah said, as dawn finally came.