Chapter 2 is here! I hope you enjoy.
The White Fox
02
Blacksmith
I brought up my dagger to prepare for the use of one of my Sword Skills; Rapid Bite. It was one of the first Sword Skills a One Handed Dagger user would learn, so it wasn't anything too special, but it did manage in doing a fair bit of damage to the 1st Floor monsters.
My dagger shined a brilliant blue colour as the ram began to charge forth. I stepped forwards and thrust with the dagger, a sudden momentum making my entire body take off with speed and meeting the ram in the middle of the open plain. My dagger connected with it, and I continued moving for a few moments before finally coming to a rest around three metres from the point of connection.
Due to the short Post-Motion, I was only able to hear the ram burst into fragments. A large set of text popped up.
Congratulation!
LV UP! Blanc
2 ▶ 3
A smile made its way onto my face as I dismissed the notification to reveal another window.
Result
Exp: 40
Cor: 35
Items: 1
Battle Ram Hide
I dismissed the translucent window and turned to Lisbeth, who was also with a readout in front of her, "Did you get what you're looking for?" I asked.
"Yeah," She responded, closing the window and signalling for me to follow her, "I can finally do it."
The date was November 15.
It had been a little over a week week since the game of Sword Art Online had become a reality, and, from what I had heard, three hundred people had already been killed. A statistic that did nothing to fill the ten thousand trapped in the game with hope.
I decided that it'd be best to not actively think about those who died. Sure, it sounded a bit cruel and heartless, but it was a reasonable way to aid me in keeping a level head. After all, a single mistake could cost me my life and I wasn't willing to risk it by having a clouded mind.
For the past few days, Lisbeth had suddenly started to take charge in our little party.
She began to drag me around in search of specific items, but she wouldn't tell me why. Or, I'd never ask why.
Either way, I didn't actually know what she was planning to do, and that was probably a problem.
We were currently in a somewhat forested area, relatively flat in terms of elevation and with grass of a healthy green. It was around midday, which bathed the area plenty of light.
I had to admit, Sword Art Online was very beautiful. The landscapes were all breathtaking and vivid in colour, buildings were of an architectural mastery, and the effects were stunning to look at. If only we hadn't the constant fear of dying looming over ourselves with every given second, many people would have likely spent hours upon hours just taking a scenic tour around Aincrad.
Lisbeth led me through to the end of the forest and we eventually entered the nearby town of Horunka. Not many people had made it to here, so the population of players currently within the town was quite low.
We entered a smithery of sorts, and she quickly scuttled over to a furnace that was no exception to the medieval stylisation that Sword Art Online had.
"What are you planning to do?" I asked, standing and watching her with curiosity.
"I'm going to try and smith something," She opened her menu as she answered. pressing a button and bringing up another window.
"Oh?"
The next part was quite a sight. A dark grey metal of some sort appeared inside the furnace and instantly began glowing a brighter and brighter shade of red. Within minutes, it was a very bright yellow. Lisbeth materialised a large pair of tongs and grabbed the molten metal, walking over to a black anvil and placing it down. A window popped up in front of her and she selected one of the options. I wasn't able to read it though, since it was mirrored from my viewpoint.
She began pounding away at the metal with a hammer, and it slowly began to morph into the shape of a weapon of sorts. A couple of whacks later, and an end product was formed. It was a basic looking dagger, with a dark grey blade and a black hilt. I glanced over to Lisbeth to see a large grin on her face.
She looked to me and continued her answer to my question, "My parents own a small retail business, so it kind of became my dream to open up a shop of my own. Now that we're stuck in SAO, I can't exactly do that any more, can I? But then I thought, 'What if I open up a shop inside SAO?' and decided to become a blacksmith. It's a great idea, isn't it?"
"Yeah, it is," I responded. With that look she gave me, there was no way I could have not said yes. Though, it was a good idea anyway.
"And..." She donned a somewhat sombre face for a moment, "... It'll help me deal with the fact that I'm stuck in this game."
A solemn atmosphere suddenly grew between the both of us. Her way of thinking was good, since having a goal to work towards would likely increase your odds of survival. If you felt you had a purpose in life, you'd want to keep that life. But, it was also true that we were unable to leave. We couldn't go back to our real lives and families. That thought always saddened me.
"U-um... a-anyway," Lisbeth spoke up awkwardly, "I want to give this to you."
She grabbed the dagger and handed it to me, a feeling of discomfort quickly arising in me as I looked down at the dagger she held out.
"Are you not going to take it?"
"A-ah, I am," I reached out and accepted the dagger she presented, "But are you okay with that? Shouldn't you have made something for yourself?"
Lisbeth shook her head in response to my questions, "No, I want you to have it. It's my first attempt at weapon crafting, so it's probably pretty bad, but I want to make my own smith shop with the intention of selling high grade weaponry to other players."
I once again looked down to the dagger. Aside from colour differences, the general shape of it was not that different from the Iron Dagger I currently possessed. I strengthened my grip on the hilt, "... Thank you."
"It's called Initial Dagger, because I couldn't think of anything, but you'd better treat it well," It sounded like an order towards the end.
"I will."
The first full month of life within Sword Art Online was about to pass. It was now December 2, and both Lisbeth and I were closing in on reaching level 12. Or, at least I was. Lisbeth had been focusing on her Smithing Skills as of late, to the point where she had ended up a level behind me and was instead nearly reaching level 11.
The total death count within SAO had reached two thousand players. At this point, the task that had been set by Kabaya Akihiko was looking impossible for most.
However, a massive discovery within the last few days may have set in motion what we needed to rekindle our hope.
The 1st Floor Labyrinth had been found.
A message was sent to every living player, informing that meeting on how to defeat the Floor Boss was to be held today.
I hadn't actually noticed the message when it was distributed, though.
The only reason I now knew about it was because of Lisbeth.
She had come to me to discuss the message. Or, to be more specific, she came to ask if I was going to respond to it.
"Hey, Blanc!" Lisbeth's voice called out from behind as I was taking a stroll down a dirt path near Horunka.
I turned around in response to my name to see her running over to me, "What is it?"
When she reached me, I noted that she held a strangely serious look.
"Huh? What's wrong?"
"You got the message, didn't you?" She asked somewhat hurriedly.
"Message?" I repeated in confusion.
"The message from a player called Diavel."
I continued my questioning glance, before swiping two fingers down to bring up the menu.
"Eh?"
She was right. My Communications tab was flashing, signifying that I'd received a message.
I pressed on the flashing icon to open the message, which read:
To the top players of SAO, we invite you to a meeting located at the town of Tolbana. We have recently discovered the location of the 1st Floor's Boss room, and intend to confront the Boss soon. To attempt to prevent possible casualties, a Strategy Conference will be held at 16:00 Aincrad Standard Time.
We hope that you choose to accept this invitation, as we need as many players as we can get. Thank you, and we'll see you there.
Diavel
A feeling of interest piqued up inside of me as I read the message. I closed it afterwards, and looked to Lisbeth.
"16:00 Aincrad Standard Time... that's only a few hours away, right?" I asked, "So we should start going?"
She gave me a strange look in response. If I had to describe it, it'd be a look of... worry...? Or... fear?
"U-um..."
"It... sounds dangerous," Her look this time was definitely a troubled look, "We shouldn't go," Though it wasn't necessarily an order, she had an authoritative tone to her words, "Besides, they'll clear the floor without us, anyway."
"But we could help. They said themselves that they need as many players as they can! We could help prevent casualties!"
"Not if we get added to the list!" Our dispute was quickly growing in volume.
"Lisbeth, we should help."
"The risk is too great!"
She forcefully grabbed onto my shirt, bringing the original distance between us to only a few centimetres. I looked directly into her dark pink eyes, which carried with them a worry of much weight. In a way, it was soothing. Not in the sense that it calmed me down, but in a way that made my thoughts waver.
"W-we won't die..." The words came out rather unconvincingly.
"But what if we do? What if one of us dies?"
"..."
I could tell I had lost.
My original interest had died down to the point where I couldn't formulate a counter to her argument.
"... Fine," I frowned, "We won't go."
In an opposite way, she smiled.
For some reason, the entirety of that argument contained 'we' rather than 'I' or 'you'. It was obvious that I didn't actually need to listen to her and that I could have gone by myself, yet I chose to oblige and to not go.
In fact, up until around three-or-so days ago we'd been doing most things in I's and my's, then it shifted to we's and our's without mention.
Maybe it was because we, after having spent almost a whole month without being separated from each other, had developed some sort of camaraderie.
Maybe we had begun thinking as a pair rather than us and someone else.
Though, this was just speculation on my part. It could just have been me over-thinking things.
Lisbeth released my shirt and took a few steps backwards.
"Well," I sighed, "What'll we do, then?"
"Hm..." She brought up a hand to her chin in thought, "How about we... go do some exploring of our own?"
I raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"
I sat on the fountain within the town of Tolbana, the location that the meeting was to be held, and looked down at dagger Lisbeth's first crafting attempt had created. She was not with me.
When we received the message, I had said to her that we should go.
After that was a small argument about whether we should go or not, leading to us reaching a decision not to go.
But, even so, something was compelling me to participate.
Sure, there may have been little reason for me to go. After all, my presence was most likely going to make little impact to the end result.
It may have been pointless.
But the possibility that I was needed was still there, no matter how slim.
I wouldn't be able to rest knowing that people might have ended up dead because they lacked just one person.
And, because of this, I ended up sneaking away from the small two person camp Lisbeth and I had set up in a relatively nearby field when we decided to rest for a while.
I left her a message to inform her that I had done so.
Probably not the best way to tell her when I thought about it.
She was going to be very angry when we'd meet each other again.
"I'll face her wrath when I get there..." I muttered to myself.
If I were to be honest, I was sort of relieved that she wasn't with me.
Lisbeth was definitely strong enough to take care of herself, and her not participating meant that I knew she'd be safe.
Even so, there was a lingering feeling of loneliness with me as I toyed around with the dagger. We were with each other for a whole twenty eight days, only separated for hours at the most, and even then we weren't that far away from each other. It was just... strange, her not being with me.
Through my musing, I could feel multiple sets of eyes staring at me. Glancing upwards, I watched as around twelve heads quickly averted their gaze.
"..."
I let out a sigh.
They were probably staring at me due to my unnatural pure white hair colour. It wouldn't have been strange if there were a way of customising one's hair colour dyes or something, but, as there was no such method of doing so that was known, it definitely stood out from the sea of blacks, browns, reds and yellows.
There was scientific reasoning behind my white hair and red eyes, though. Apparently it was this disorder known as 'albinism', which turned one's hair white and their eyes red, both features that I possessed. It also gave eye problems, but I had somehow managed to dodge that part.
Anyway, I had gotten used to the staring by this point, so I ignored them and returned to playing with the dagger.
Everyone present was eventually called into an open Greek styled amphitheatre.
Two loud claps echoed from the centre of the stage, causing the murmuring of voices to die down as a blue haired man began the meeting.
"Okay, let's get started, people! Thank you for coming today," He brought up a hand and tapped his chest, "I'm Diavel, and my class is Knight!"
The crowd broke out in a laugh, "You meant Hero, right?" I heard one call out.
Diavel continued.
"Well then, the active front liners, or rather, the top players of SAO, the reason for gathering you all here is clear. Today, our party has made it to the 1st Floor's Boss room! We'll finally use our power to defeat the boss! The time to open the door to the 2nd Floor has come! At this point, even though we took a whole month... we must spread the message that this game of death will end one day. It is why we gather here today! This is the duty of us high-level players! Isn't that right, everyone!?"
People began looking to each other, a murmur of assent growing in volume as they began clapping in response.
"All right, then let us begin our planning," Diavel announced, "First, divide into parties of six."
A gasp escaped my lips.
That was a problem.
Everyone else was quickly forming parties, leaving no room for an outsider like me to join.
Diavel's voice sounded over the players as they discussed their parties.
"An ordinary party has no chance against a Floor Boss. We'll need to form a raid group using multiple parties."
Okay, I needed to do something.
I frantically scanned the amphitheatre, and noticed a cloaked girl sitting by herself. It appeared as if she had been left out, too. I scooted closer to her, and opened my mouth, just about to suggest partying up, before a black haired boy beat me to it.
"You both got left out, too?" He asked.
I was about to agree only to get cut off once again, this time by the girl cloaked in a brown cloth.
"I wasn't left out. I just stayed out of it because everyone seemed to know each other already."
"... I was left out," I mumbled, though only barely at an audible level.
"Solo players?" The boy asked. I wasn't in a party any more, so I guess it was true. I hesitantly nodded in response, "Then, want to form a party with me?"
The girl turned her head to face him, and he continued.
"He said we can't beat the boss on our own. So just for this fight?"
We both nodded in silent agreement, and the boy sent an invite to both of us. I pressed the blue circle to accept, two green health bars appearing in the top right of my vision, the upper with Kirito and the lower with Asuna. From the names, I made the assumption that Kirito was the boy and Asuna was the girl.
"Okay, have you formed your parties? Then—"
"Just a second!"
All of the heads within the amphitheatre turned to face the new voice. A man, with some sort of a orange coloured cactus hairstyle, jumped down the steps, with a delinquent look on his face. When he reached the stage, he faced Diavel and pointed to himself.
"My name is Kibaou. I wanna say something before we take on the boss," He then turned his attention to the crowd, "Some of you need to apologise to the two thousand who have died so far!"
My eyes narrowed at his comment.
"Kibaou-san, are you referring to the beta testers?" Diavel questioned.
"Of course I am!" Kibaou responded, "On the day this stupid game started, the beta guys ditched us beginners, and they all disappeared. They took all the good hunting spots and easy quests for themselves, so only they could get stronger. And then, they just ignored the rest of us. I'm sure someone here was in the beta!" He yelled, raising his fist to the crowd then pointing, "They should get on their knees and apologise, and give up all the items and money they've hoarded. Otherwise, we can't trust them to protect us as party members, and they shouldn't trust us!"
His demands were getting more idiotic as he spoke. I, in turn, was getting more annoyed. How was this our fault? What made the deaths of two thousand players our responsibility?
I couldn't say for other beta testers, but the first thing I did was help out a new player.
"May I speak?"
The deep voice cut through my thoughts, and a dark skinned man rose from his seat. He made his way down to Kibaou, revealing his towering height in doing so.
"My name is Agil," He said, "Kibaou-san, tell me if I have this right. You're saying that because the beta testers didn't take care of them, many beginners died. That they should take responsibility, apologise, and provide compensation. Correct?"
"Y-yeah," Kibaou stuttered in his response.
Agil reached into his pocket and brought out a small brown book. For some reason, it looked familiar...
... Wasn't that the guidebook that one of the beta testers made? Argo-san, I think her name was.
"You got this guidebook, didn't you?" Agil questioned, confirming my thought as he did so, "It was provided for free at the item store."
"Sure, I did... why?"
"It was compiled from information given by the beta testers."
Surprised and disbelief rose from the crowd, "Seriously?" One asked in astonishment.
Kibaou gritted his teeth, and Agil turned to the crowd and continued.
"Listen. Everyone had equal access to this information. And even still, many players died. I thought the topic of discussion here was what we could learn from their deaths, and how that could help us defeat the boss."
He looked to Kibaou, who, with a visible face of displeasure, grunted in indignation and stormed off to take a seat. Agil followed suit and sat beside him.
"All right. Then, can we resume?" Diavel asked after the interruption, everyone nodding in consent, "The latest edition of that guidebook was just issued, and it contains information on the boss. According to it, the boss's name is Illfang The Kobold Lord. He is guarded by assistants known as Ruin Kobold Sentinels. He is armed with an axe and a buckler. He has four health bars, and when the last one enters the red, he switches to a curved sword-type weapon called a Talwar. His attack pattern changes, as well."
Muttering in the crowd slowly rose in volume as he read from the guidebook.
"Wow..."
"Amazing."
Diavel closed the guidebook, "This concludes the briefing. Lastly, items will be automatically distributed. Exp goes to the party that defeats the monster. And whoever receives an item keeps it. Any objections?"
Without a response, he gave his final words.
"Okay, we leave tomorrow, at ten in the morning. See you there!"
The group of players who were now the front-line fighters began to leave in all directions. Some stayed, though most left, presumably to prepare for the upcoming battle.
I turned to face the two others that made up my party, only to find that the girl had already left, leaving me and Kirito by ourselves.
As no words seemed like they were going to be spoken, I stood up to leave, stopping at the edge of the seat when I decided to ask him something.
"Kirito-san... Weren't you the guy who called out back at the start of the game?"
"Huh?" He gave me a confused look for a second, then realised what I was talking about, "Oh, yeah. Why do you ask?"
"Ah, nothing. I just wanted to know."
In all honesty, I was really trying to get a conversation going. It didn't really work, though.
I inwardly sighed at my failure, beginning on the direction to exit the amphitheatre.
The next few days were looking to be eventful, that was for sure.
Thus ends the second chapter. How'd it go?
Within only two chapters, this has a higher total word count than both of my other stories.
Maybe that could be considered a good thing because it means I've increased my overall chapter length, right...? Who knows.
Anyway, I hope you'll be here for the next chapter!
