"What the hell?! Come on log out log out log out!" A man screamed as he tried everything to get out of the game.
"It's useless." His party member groaned.
"Just accept it and move on." A girl said. She was sixteen and was currently wearing a black cloak.
"Yeah... Who are you?" The man started. "I'm Richter." He continued.
"Dark." She replied.
"You wanna party up?" He asked.
"No, you'd probably get ridiculed and outcasted. I can't do that to a new player." Dark replied.
"Wait, you're a beta tester?" Richter asked. Dark nodded and walked away. "Hey wait a second!" He yelled before she turned the corner.
"I don't have any tips or tricks that aren't in the guidebook. I'd teach you what I know but you're level Five, I'm only level Three right now. So long, I'll be seeing you." Dark said, raising her hand in farewell as she left the square.
"Need a weapon?" The NPC vendor asked. Dark just opened her trade menu and looked through his wares. She still only had the starter gear and she never really liked shortswords. She looked through the special menu and found something that caught her eye.
"Are you sure you can handle that? It's two levels higher than you are." The vendor said.
"I'll take it." Dark said and accepted the purchase. It had taken her all day to grind lots of boar meat and hide to sell. Most people leveled their skills, but Dark had learned that better gear early is better than leveling.
"Transaction completed, enjoy your new weapon!" The vendor acknowledged the completed transaction. Just to make sure, Dark opened up her inventory menu and checked its specs.
"Whoa, that's the town of beginnings rare weapon. How in the world did you save up for it already?" Someone asked her, reading it's stats over her shoulder.
"Grinding misc items to sell." Dark replied without looking at him.
"'Dragon's Talon' is a rare weapon... I hear it's supposed to level with you or something." The man continued. She exited her menu and started walking.
"Hey, wanna party up?" The man asked.
"No." She replied and kept walking.
-Floor 2, Main village, two months later-
"Where are you going?" Someone asked Dark as she walked towards the Dungeon.
"I need to level." She replied.
"Wait, nobody's even mapped it out yet you can't go alone. Only idiots go solo." The man continued.
"I can handle it. I have a teleport crystal." Dark said and continued walking.
-Floor 2, Dungeon-
"Hey, there's already a player here?" A group of people said to themselves.
"Well yeah, you think our maps updated themselves? I'm surprised she's soloing though." The woman of the group said.
"H-holy shit." The leader said when she turned the corner. Dark was standing in the middle of ten insect-type enemies. They looked like ants. They all charged her at the same time, though they saw no HP bars drop when they all dogpiled her. In fact, they didn't even see her cursor.
In a flash, a shadow flew around the area and the creatures' HP bars all dropped to 0 one by one. Dark appeared back in her previous position, but this time holding a battle scythe.
"Whoa, what level are you?" The woman asked.
"Level seventeen." Dark replied.
"Whoa, we're only Ten. How long have you been here alone?" The woman continued.
"A few hours. I'm heading back into town, here." She said, opening her menu and sending a trade request to all of them. They all accepted and were surprised to see a few uncommon weapon and armor drops appear.
"Wait, you're just giving these to us?" A man asked when she accepted it without asking for something in return.
"Yes. I farmed most of the easier monsters and grinded a lot of the higher Cil drops. I'm a Beater, but I can't let everyone get screwed over because of me. I'm giving most of the stuff I got away to make up for it." Dark said.
"Whoa, these are some really uncommon drops." Someone said.
"I don't need most of them and sell values aren't too high on them. I'm going to keep going for a bit. I won't join your party, but if you want to tag along I won't stop you." Dark said as she locked her trade menu.
"Thank you so much. I'll tag along I guess." The woman said, immediately equipping the weapon and pauldrons she was given.
"I'd love to, but if all of the easy stuff is dead the rest of us will just stay back and catch the respawns. We won't get nearly as much XP or Cil like that, and there won't be rare drops, but we're not strong enough to handle anything above it." The Leader of the party said.
"See you later then, Tiro." The woman said as she quickly caught up to Dark, who had already started walking. She was wearing black samurai armor, though a much weaker version of it's normal counterpart, and the black spiked pauldrons Dark had given her. She had previously been using a longsword, but she had the Katana that Dark had given her equipped now.
"So, what is your name?" Dark asked.
"Kira." The woman replied.
"Dark. Do you know how to use a Katana or would you prefer another weapon?" Dark asked.
"I'm fine, your generosity is already more than anyone could expect in a place like this. If I might ask, why do you refuse to party with anyone?" Kira replied.
"I am a Beater, as I said before, so I don't want to ruin possible reputations. I also don't want to be held responsible for anything that goes wrong, my conscience wouldn't be able to handle it easily. Perhaps if you show enough skill I'd consider partying up with you, but as of now I know nothing." Dark answered. "And now my turn, why were you out here so early? We had only just beaten the boss last night." She asked.
"I'd like to ask you the same thing, but that can wait. We were mainly taking out the helpers so we didn't get much out of it, nor were we too exhausted, so we thought we could get some early leveling. We're a bit too underleveled to do anything more than farm respawns. Anyways, why are you here?" Kira answered.
"I'm a solo player, I don't have a party or a guild to worry about. I helped take out the boss, but I wasn't exhausted either. And besides, if some of the more selfish players got here first then the players that take longer to move out would suffer for it." Dark replied.
"I see." Kira said. After a few minutes they were caught by five lizardmen, creatures that could be anywhere and matched the levels of the floor they're on.
"Uh, are we ok? I heard Lizardmen are pretty tough, even if you outlevel them." Kira asked, drawing her Katana slowly.
"They could three shot you, five shot me, but their attacks are slow. Don't block, instead, dodge and counter because their blades have high durability and will most likely break your weapon if you block too much." Dark advised as she drew her scythe.
Kira nodded and the Lizardmen charged them, as if on cue. Kira jumped to the side and lashed out with her new weapon and was surprised when nearly half the creature's HP bar dropped. With her old weapon, it would have taken three times that. She caught a glimpse of Dark behind her two opponents, she had yet to strike.
Dark was waiting until her opponents got into the right position, jumping around them and trying to instigate a simultaneous charge. It didn't take long, the three Lizardmen soon lined up and began gathering power for a strong lunge. Dark stopped and held her Scythe out in a strange stance. It seemed as if she was just standing, but with the scythe in her slightly outstretched right arm. She held it just above the bottom of the handle, with the blade facing to her right as it resting on the ground five feet in front of her.
The Lizardmen lunged, and she sidestepped while simultaneously spinning. The result was nearly a complete spin and the enemies' momentum being used against them as their upper halves were cleaved from their lower halves. It was just a single sweep, yet it dispatched the three enemies. The scythe left behind a dark blue trail, signifying that it was a skill.
"Pay attention to your own battle." Dark suddenly said. With a yelp, Kira barely managed to dodge the lunges aimed at her. She rebounded off of the ground and leapt into the air, doing a spin and slammed into the ground, aiming straight for the injured enemy. She cleaved it in half and, as the Katana gained a golden glow, did an impossible spin to take the legs off of the last Lizardman. The sweep was followed up with a vertical slash, taking its head off and finishing the battle.
"Good job." Dark praised the girl.
"Not as good a job as you did." Kira shrugged.
"I've got seven- six, levels on you now. For your level that was well above average." Dark said, noticing that Kira's level up screen was telling her she was now level 11.
"I guess... Did you get anything neat?" Kira asked.
"Only one thing of real interest. A new cloak." Dark answered. She opened up her inventory and removed her current one and looked for the new one. While this happened, Kira got a good look at her.
Dark, contrary to what her username suggested, had pure white hair. It was in a thin tail and was nearly down to her tailbone. She had piercing blue eyes and wore light plate armor, obviously rare drops. As Dark gained a thoughtful expression for a second, a set of pauldrons appeared on her shoulders. They looked exactly like the ones she gave to Kira. After a few moments a new cloak appeared around her.
It wasn't a full body cloak like the other one, it clasped at the neck and chest. Kira guessed she had put her pauldrons on now that they would be able to be seen. The cloak itself fell around her and looked slightly worn and ragged. When she stepped towards Kira, the cloak easily flowed around her.
Kira herself had a lighter shade of blue eyes and sportedblack hair in a short tail.
"The 'Reaper's Cloak'. It's an uncommon drop from Lizardmen. They don't use the item themselves, and they're not rare, but I had one in the beta and it sort of grew on me. Here." Dark explained and tossed her old cloak to Kira.
"If you already have something better than keep it, but all cloaks add at least +5% to your stealth parameter. That one adds 8% and reduces debuff durations slightly." She explained.
"Uh, thanks. You seem like you're very well equipped, you have rare armor and I've never even seen a battle scythe. Are you a GM?" Kira asked.
"No. I told you i've been here a while, this set can't be found. You need the carapace of those bugs you found me killing and metal harvested from the scythes of mantis monsters. The weapon is a rare weapon that was in the beta. In the town of beginnings, if you gathered enough Cil then it would appear in the weapon merchant's wares. I was going to take it and destroy it, it was so overpowered it made everything too easy for the tester who got it, but it was balanced to level with the player wielding it this time so I kept it.
There are more battle scythes in the game, it's just that it has it's own weapon skill tree that will only become available if you own one, so most people don't even know about them. I've been spreading the word, though." Dark answered.
"So they're a unique weapon type? Are there any other types that are hidden?" Kira asked, intrigued.
"A few. There are thrown weapons, war picks and many others. Those were the only two I discovered." Dark replied.
"Don't put your hood up, please. You're really pretty." Kira suddenly said. Dark stopped halfway from pulling said hood up, shocked by the sudden compliment.
"Um... Alright. How old are you?" Dark asked, slowly letting the hood drop back down.
"Sixteen, you?" Kira replied.
"Same. Let's go back to the village, My main goal for this morning has been accomplished and I can't be late for the player meeting on the first floor." Dark said.
"Fine by me." Kira replied.
-First floor, Town of beginnings.-
"Alright, we have a big issue. Yesterday, floor 2 was unlocked. Almost everyone came back here to rest and recuperate, but some kept going until the town. This is fine, we need a clear path to the safe zone, but some people went into the dungeon." A man who had assumed leadership of the meeting announced as the sun just began to rise.
"Hey, a lot of hard working players barely got anything out of that boss fight. Some of us needed a little boost." Someone from Kira's party protested.
"I know, most of us know that. But instead of staying back and grinding off of the lower leveled respawns, someone went and cleared an eighth of the dungeon and looted almost all of the rare and unique item drops. A single person." The man continued.
"It's that damn Beater, Kirito, isn't it?!" someone yelled.
"No, he's still at the inn. He nearly died during the fight so he's recovering." The man replied. He was about to continue, but Dark stood up and walked down to him.
"If that's all you want to discuss I might as well come out with it. I was the one who did it. Line up and I'll share anything I don't need." Dark said.
"Wait, you're the one who did it? If you did then why just give away stuff for free?" The leader asked. Nobody got up.
"I went so far because I knew of a Lizardmen encounter, the first one in the game. I wanted this cloak, and that was the only selfish reason. I had other reasons, though. As you know, there are lots of greedy players who will simply take everything for themselves. I took everything that I could so I could help out the less fortunate players." Dark explained.
"Hey! She's a beater! She did all that for herself!" Someone yelled. His partner smacked him on the head though.
"Idiot! She just explained why she did it!" The other man hissed.
"Come on then, line up." Dark repeated. Cautiously, everyone lined up in front of her. One by one, she initiated trade requests with all of them and gave them items based on how they were doing.
"What?! Just a shitty jewel?! You gave that last guy armor and a weapon!" One of the more greedy players yelled in her face.
"You are level 15, you have well enough armor and weapons to survive in the second floor. You're low on Cil, though, and that gem sells for a good amount. Next." Dark said.
"Fine then! I'll fight you for your best weapon!" He yelled, sending a duel request.
"You do realize that I've got two levels on you, right?" Dark warned.
"If you can't even think to spare a single weapon then I think all of your good gear was destroyed while you were grinding." The man said with a grin.
"Whatever." Dark said, accepting the request and waiting for the 60 second waiting period ticked down.
"So, what is your best weapon?" The man asked as he drew a claymore. Dark answered by pulling her hood up and deactivating a stealth skill, hide weapon. It was prohibited outside of safe zones, but inside it was perfect to avoid duels for gear. She pulled the scythe out of it's holder and entered a stance identical to the previous one, but the blade pointed upward instead of sideways.
With 20 seconds remaining until the duel started, the man didn't look so confident.
"What the hell is that?" He asked.
"Wait, I was in the beta test and that thing was the most overpowered piece of shit there was." The leader commented.
"I rushed to get this weapon so I could destroy it, but when I looked at it's parameters I found that it was balanced. It's starting parameters are that of an uncommon floor 1 monster drop, but it scales with you. Do you want to just surrender?" Dark explained, finishing as the counter hit 5 seconds.
"Heh, hell no. If I can get my hands on that thing I'll be like a god!" He exclaimed. Dark would have facepalmed if the duel didn't start. This guy was trying to make himself seem like a bad guy, it seemed. Kira had seen the Lizardmen do the same thing, but her counter to the charge was different.
Instead of doing the spinning sweep, she swung the Scythe in an arcing cleave. If the village wasn't a safe zone, the man would have been split in two. Since it was, though, he merely received a large gash on his back that dropped his HP to red; ending the duel.
"Next." She said, sheathing the weapon and opening up her trade menu as if the duel had never happened.
"Whoa." Everyone said in near unison.
-Floor 2, boss room, two weeks later-
"Alright Kirito! Finish it!" A player named Egil yelled.
"Already on it!" The boy known as Kirito yelled back as he was already charging his attack on the massive goblin that was the 2nd floor boss.
'Congratulations!' appeared as the boy struck the finishing blow. This group wasn't nearly as big as the one that fought the first boss, more players were high powered so it was possible.
"Hey, Dark. Catch." Kirito said, tossing three helmets at her. She caught them and examined them. She found one was pretty much just for selling, but the other two were rare items.
"Why?" She asked.
"You deserve them. I made the killing strike on this boss, too. That means I got all of the XP and most of the Cil. You took out one of its three life bars on your own, so you get a cut of the loot." Kirito explained.
"I guess that's fair." The other seven party members agreed. Dark nodded in thanks and left the party. She then followed the boy where he opened the next floor, as did the rest of the party.
"Hey there, Dark. Long time no see." Kira said, catching up with the girl.
"Hello, Kira. You've been getting very powerful." Dark commented.
"I followed a lot of the advice you gave me and I started doing what you did, give out items to players who need them." Kira said with a smile.
"I hope it hasn't inconvenienced you too much, you don't have a borderline-overpowered weapon to help you." Dark said.
"I've gotten my skills up enough so that I can handle myself, don't worry. Say, I could use a friend on this floor and I just got new armor for that fight so I'm low on Cil. Mind sharing a room at the inn and partying up for a bit at the next village?" Kira offered.
"Hm... I'll share the room, but I want to see how you handle the third floor a bit before partying up with you. Deal?" Dark responded.
"Sure thing." Kira agreed.
