"What I love about SAO is that the story builds itself. The NPCs are all programed by a computer, so repetition is able to be avoided, and the players playing the game always make different decisions, so things are new every day."
(Takeshi Akihara, SAO Programmer The Evening Interview)
Chapter 2:
It was a long, but enthusiastic walk to arrive in Urbus. The first stop the team made was to make sure to activate the teleportation gate in the center of town. To Kirito's surprise, and the surprise of the few other beta testers in the guild, the gate was already in function for all of them before they even entered the city. According to the raiders who chose not to join the guild, it activated for them when the first person that arrived touched the keystone. After speaking with the local NPCs, it was discovered that, unlike the beta, whenever a boss was defeated and the teleportation gate was activated, the entire game was able to advance to the next floor. The conclusion was soon reached that it meant theoretically only one player needed to beat the game in order for everyone to be set free.
The second priority was to form a guild. Which seemed easy. However, it was chaotic organizing the money together to pay for a guild. Kirito found himself just short, and many of the guild members didn't yet trust him with their money, so Kirito found himself mostly splitting the tab with Agil. It took only a short talk with the NPC known as the "guild keeper" to find out the price to found a guild was set at a high 25,000 Cor. Even Kirito didn't expect quite as hefty of a cost. He only joined a guild once during the beta, and it was only because they asked him for help on a few quests. Even then, he only stayed for a few days before leaving without a word and continuing to play on his own. The thought that he would be running the first guild on the official game would've stopped him dead in his tracks.
The menu popped open in front of Kirito. A thought went through his mind when he looked at the first tab that opened. "What's our name going to be?" he asked unprofessionally. The other players looked clueless. They slowly started to come up with names.
"What about Dungeon Destroyers?" Most people shook their heads to that proposal.
"Snake Spiral!"
"Unstoppable!"
"Nameless!" Nothing seemed to fit, no matter what they came up with. The team spent nearly five minutes giving off suggestions. Some seemed to get ground, but didn't gain enough momentum overall.
"Hey, maybe we should name it after Diavel?" one of the players suggested.
"Yeah!" another agreed, "Like Diavel's Army! Kind of like in Harry Potter!" Many players began to agree with the idea of honoring their fallen leader.
After consideration of many names stretching from "The Shadow of Diavel" to "Diavelites", it was Agil that gave the final choice name.
"Perhaps we name it Diavel's Legacy?" he proposed, "I think it fits us pretty well." Most of the other members of the guild agreed, or lacked a better name themselves.
"Then it's settled," Kirito said as he typed the name in, "Welcome to Diavel's legacy." He pressed the enter tab, and the guild was formed. After the tedious process of inviting every player to the guild, and finalizing the settings, the players dispersed into the local inns and took their long deserved nights rest.
About a week later, Kirito found himself in the small meeting room in the guild house with his advisors to discuss the raids on the new dungeon. As soon as it was revealed the second floor was open to everyone via the teleportation gates, word spread like wildfire. WIthin just a few days, thousands of players were exploring the newly opened territory, and Diavel's Legacy was joined by hundreds of other guilds.
"I'll say it again, we find the boss room on our own, just as we did the one for floor one," Kazehi suggested. Most of the others groaned. Only a few years older than Kirito, he had invited her to be an advisor because she was a fellow player in the beta. Her ideas usually were more aggressive than the others in the group, so she often seemed reckless to the rest at the table.
"That strategy took us nearly a month!" Night objected. "At that rate, it'll take us eight years before we're out of here." He sulked into his chair. Night, or NightmareRider as his username in full, wasn't a very skilled fighter in combat. However studying abroad from America for his degree in government and politics, he was fairly talented at keeping track of the negotiations and economics of a guild, so Kirito invited him on the council.
"I agree," Agil, whom Kirito had appointed to second in command, "If every guild works individually, we'll be here forever."
"I'd say we just wait until one guild finds the boss room, and then rush and defeat the boss first," Kibaou sat with his chair dangerously close to collapsing. Originally, Kirito had no intention of giving him a seat at the council, but he had managed to talk his way into creating a large enough following, that Kirito didn't have much of a choice on the matter.
"This isn't a competition," Night reminded him, "We don't need to be the first ones there."
"I think that coat the old captain is wearing begs to differ," Kibaou motioned to Kirito. Kirito didn't like the fact that everyone admired his coat so often. Had it not been so powerful and the only one of two mementos of Diavel, the other being the ring he kept on his right hand since the day of the boss fight, he probably would've sold the item off for a high price to another player.
"He's not wrong," Kazehi agreed, "That coat is one of the best pieces of equipment so far. If we got the last hit bonus on the next boss it would boost our guild's power dramatically." It was found that many events that had been individualized in the beta, such as boss spawning, were set to the whole server when some other guilds went to grind for experience on Illfang, only to discover that the Kobold Lord was nowhere to be found.
"If we give the coat to another guild then they'd be more likely to help us in future battles," Night suggested, "I still say we need some allies if we want to win."
"Then who do we work with?" Kazehi asked him.
"We could go work with Indivisible," Kibaou offered, "They're pretty powerful."
"What about the Silver Bolt? I met a few of them, they seem like they'd be willing to work with us." Agil said.
Kirito began to lose focus on the conversation after that. He rarely ever worked on a team in MMOs, unless it was absolutely necessary. It was already difficult for him to focus on one guild, and the thought of working with others was too much for him to think about without a break.
"Alright," he finally spoke up, "Right now, all we can do is keep exploring the dungeon until more news comes up." He rose from the table to conclude the meeting. "All of you get some rest, we can continue this debate tomorrow." Kibaou, Kazehi, and Night all left the meeting room. Agil instead went over to speak with Kirito in private.
"We can't keep dancing around this issue forever, you know," he warned Kirito. "You are the leader, so it will have to be you who makes the final decision in the end." Kirito sighed in acknowledgement.
"I know, I know," he agreed, "I just need some time to think about this." He stood up and walked to the door.
"You going into the dungeon again?" Agil called after him. Kirito nodded. "You need someone to go with you." Kirito simply waved a back hand.
"I've been a solo player most my life," he laughed, "I'll be fine." He left without another word.
Kirito enjoyed his time alone in the dungeons. It was the one time he didn't have to deal with anything else. He had made a point of making sure not be highly recognized by other players when he went out in public. Even though the guild was highly noted at the time for clearing the first boss, whenever someone represented them in public it was usually Agil or Kibaou.
It was late at night when he entered into Urbus after completing all the quest in his quest log. The guild headquarters was located to the east in the town of Llyne, and he lacked the strength to make his way there against all the night roaming monsters. Instead, he chose to stay in one of the local inns.
Kirito was eating his dinner in the inn tavern when a familiar player entered inside.
"I thought I saw you here," Argo exclaimed as she sat down at his table. "I haven't seen you since those two guys tried to buy your sword off of you. Where have you been?" Kirito let out a deep sigh. He wasn't expecting to find the whiskered information broker any time soon.
"I've been around," he answered. Kirito didn't fully trust Argo. Most rumors were that she would give out any info for the right price, and that wasn't something he wanted happening to him.
"Come on, you can trust me," Kirito still made no response. Argo frowned. "Fine. Can you at least say what happened at the boss raid? I heard you guys used the guide for strategy. Did it work? Was it useful?" Kirito contemplated not answering, but decided to explain what happened. If he didn't say, someone else would. He explained up until Diavel's death because of the change in the game, and the increased difficulty of the fight. Argo listened closely, pleased about most of what happened, until she learned about the update in the game.
"Wait," she asked, "They changed the boss fight? The guide book was wrong?" Suddenly, she was really passionate about the issue.
"It was minor. There wasn't much anyone could do about it," Kirito assured her, but she still seemed concerned.
"Diavel," she thought back, "He was the leader of the whole plan. They named their guild after him. He must have been important." Her tone seemed regretful. "Wasn't he also the one who tried to buy your sword?"
"Yeah," Kirito shrugged, "But he was actually fairly nice." Argo looked down at the table.
"I'm sorry," she said, "He must have been really great. I wish I could've done more." She got up from the table. "I'm going to bed. It was nice talking to you Kirito." She slowly walked to the door. With one final turn, she told him, "If you ever need some information, let me know. For you, I'll let it be free." A friend request popped up in front of Kirito. "Just send me a message."
It was a few days before any more progress was made in finding the boss. Kirito was talking with Night in the meeting room when the guild received a visitor.
"Kirito," one of the other members of the guild asked, "A player wants to see you. He says it's urgent." Kirito glanced at Night, who just shrugged.
"I'm fine with it," he said. Kirito gestured to let them in. A girl who seemed to be around the age of seventeen walked into the room.
"Are you the leader of Diavel's Legacy?" the girl asked.
"I am," Kirito answered, "What do you want?" The girl opened her inventory to reveal a map of the main dungeon of the floor.
"My name is Nabiki Saotome, in game name IceQueen. I'm the leader of the guild Iron Wall, and I'm here to report that we've found the boss room for the second floor. I request help from your guild in fight." She set the map down on the table, and pointed to the exact location of the boss. Kirito checked her map to make sure every matched what he had seen so far. As soon as he finished he turned to Night.
"Go find Kibaou, Agil, and Kazehi," he told him. "We have a raid to plan."
