"The damned boy is useless. He can't learn a thing, keeps making the same mistake over and over again." Fighting, again. They're always fighting. "It's your fault. He takes after you."
Usually she would be silent, staring at her feet, the sides of her dress gripped tight in her fists. I can understand why. If you keep quiet, he stops faster. 'Yes, sir,' is all he wants to hear, but she won't humor him this time.
"All he wants is some sort of affection." She says quietly, looking up at him. "If you actually cared about this family, you wouldn't distance yourself from him so much. He's just a little boy. You can't throw your own family away."
"I never wanted this!" He's tossing his hands up, shouting. I flinch, dropping my head below the top of the couch and closing my eyes. "I never wanted a god damned family! But you had to get knocked up! This is your fucking fault, you useless piece of shit. Why did I ever have to meet you? You ruined my life!"
I crouch, sticking my head between my hands. 'I don't understand,' I quietly whisper to myself. 'Why am I so horrible?'
But no matter how many times I ask myself this, I never find an answer. The fighting doesn't stop. Neither of them notice me crying.
o
August 31, 2023 – 39th Floor – 139 Days after the April Incident:
My alarm blares, ignominiously jolting me from my sleep. I swear to myself as I sit up in bed, opening the system menu and disabling it. I fall back, staring at the ceiling of my room in silence. Outside, I can hear the early hustle and bustle of the waking city. There's more movement than usual. Today's a boss day, so everyone have a slightly nervous air about them.
Today is also the first boss fight in a long time that I wouldn't be participating in. I feel odd, almost like I've turned my back on my clan. Boss fights usually need as many people as possible, within reason. As a ranged attacker, I usually prove valuable in taking them down. I can attack the boss without pause because I don't have to worry about switching out like melee fighters do.
Confliction crosses my mind for just a moment. Perhaps clearing the floor truly is more important than finding Steffana. However, I remind myself, they don't necessarily need me. They'll be fine on their own, though I may get chewed out by Armand for not showing up.
I sit up, equipping my armor and weapons. I suppose I'm unconventional by using a bow and two daggers. In SAO, many players opted towards defensive classes – a natural reaction to the fact that if they die here, they die for real. Thus, heavily armored people are very popular. Archers like myself are uncommon among regular players for a variety of reasons, including its general lack of defense. It's also considered a "dishonorable" class. Generally speaking, archers are very good at ambushing and killing people, leading it to being a useful class for PKers. As a result, many seem distrusting of me when they see my weapon.
The exception, however, seems to be this Eri girl.
"I haven't seen an archer for a long time." She remarks when I join her downstairs. When I join her she's leaning out a window, feeding virtual birds with something from a pouch hanging at her waist. "Everyone's all serious about being heavily armored, like it makes a difference. It's pretty cool, I think, that you're different. Still, don't you archers have a low survival rate?"
"We lack defensive abilities, so sneaking becomes a must for archers." I say, walking to the counter to pay the NPC for the night at the inn. "In the beginning, not a lot of people knew that, so a lot of people trying to be archers died really quickly due to silly mistakes. Most of the rest were scared into being swordsmen or other close-combat warriors for some reason or another."
I motion for the door and she nods. We're going to be heading North from the town, towards where I fought the PKers. Eri claimed she can trace my steps back to the ambush site, then track down Steffana from there.
As we exit the inn, she bites her lip and speak, "You know, Cyril, you never asked me what weapons I used in combat," She maintains a slightly coquettish tone in her voice. I find it curious, but I suppose that, as one of the few attractive females in the game, she can easily get a lot by flirting. Briefly I wonder if I've been affected by it, but I discard the thought quickly. Ever since I parted with my last partner I've felt no such interest. "We might be fighting together, since we're dealing with PKers. Shouldn't you know as much about me as possible?"
"I already know how you fight." I respond. We're walking side by side towards the lone gate in town, people rushing along at our sides, preparing for the boss fight, hardly noticing us. I chuckle inwardly, thinking about how when the game started, people couldn't help but stop and stare at the more attractive players. Now, however, people care more about simply surviving the day. Admittedly, our chances seem to grow smaller every day.
"Oh?" I can tell I roused her curiosity. I glance over at her to ensure I have my facts straight. She wore light armor, like myself, but only has a single dagger at her hip for a weapon. However, the bag of feed hanging from her belt is the key.
"You're a Beastmaster." I said, confident of my choice. "You also specialized in Tracking, assuming I can believe the reason why I hired you for help, so you seem like a rather supportive class, rather than offensive."
"Clever, but how'd you figure it out?"
"That bag of feed at your waist is high quality. Pricey. Only a beastmaster would bother to buy such a thing." She pauses for half a second after I said this, effectively proving that I'm right. "The only problem is that you don't have any sort of monster with you, so I'd have to assume that either you let it free, or it died."
She says nothing for a long while, and I wonder if I've been a little too brusque. Beastmasters, while rare enough as it is, are known for becoming very attached to their familiars. "About a month back it died when I is attacked by PKers. I still have the feed from back then. Don't really have much to do with it now, and I can't really sell it because so few people need it."
"Ah, well, I'm sorry." We walk in silence for a little while, but the conversation picks up again after a little while. Even so, I avoid the subject of her lost pet.
o
"This is the place, Eri." I stop. We've been walking for about an hour, so I can still see the town in the distance. I can't help but be surprised by how close I would have been to escaping without fighting. We stand atop an arid plateau stretching out around us. In the distance I see the forest where I was captured the night before. Beyond the forest, the dungeon spiraled ever-upwards, the key to our salvation.
"Hmm," Eri opens her menu, activating a skill. A light purple tint covered her eyes, similar in color to her hair, which I still think is incredibly unusual. "Three people died here not too long ago, probably around when you escaped. Wow, I didn't realize you were so good."
"I didn't kill anybody when I escaped, but I think I know what happened." I say. "The leader of the PKers had seemed incredibly angry at my escape. It's possible he killed the other three last night." Inwardly, I wince. In a way, I'm responsible for their deaths. Even though they tried to kill me, it's not an easy thing to bear. I try to push it out of my mind, which I suppose is easier to do now than it used to be.
"Luckily, whoever survived didn't teleport back. He backtracked along your route, so it should be twice as easy to follow." She has a hard look in her eyes. "Player killers disgust me. They think that just because they're in a game with no real legal system they can do whatever they please. It's sickening."
"The Army has set up a prison for orange players, and the game itself has severe penalties for sexual harassment, but you're right. There is no true legal system." Eri starts forward, walking quickly towards the forest line.
"We'd best hurry up. The longer we wait, the more work it takes for my Tracking skill to work." Eri calls. I follow.
o
December 31, 2022 – 5th Floor – 103 Days before the April Incident:
I stretch my arms as I exit the inn, preparing for another day of solo leveling and questing. Around me is the city of Warthus, the major city on this floor, and it was bustling with people, as it was a mere two floors down from the front lines. For some reason, the current top floor of the game was dubbed the 'front lines', though it doesn't really resemble a warzone.
People mill about the town square around me, talking, partying up, heading to their clan headquarters, or otherwise. It's full of life, and the streets are packed. It isn't long before my attention is grabbed.
"I'm telling you, my contact is right." I hear a fairly deep voice say, pronounced by its calm and tranquility. "There's no way we can damage that boss with our weapons. We're all melee. We need a ranged attacker." As I turn towards the voice, I see it's a man in a low-level robe with a staff on his back. He's with three others, a young kid in yellow and brown leather armor, a gruff and mean-looking twenty-something man with black steel armor and a greatsword, and an older teenager in light metal armor.
"What ranged attackers exist in this game? All I've seen are whips." The young one stamps his foot impatiently. "Are those even ranged weapons? Let's just go fight the boss again already!" I smile at this exchange and walk towards them.
"Azaj, we'll probably die if we-" The teenager says, but I interrupt him.
"If you're looking for an archer, I'll join up." They all look at me for a moment, and the teenager, who looks like their leader, cracks a smile. He's probably younger than me, with black hair and bright gray eyes.
"Well, isn't that lucky. Sure thing, we can use ya." He opens his menu, sending me a party invite, which I accept. I get a more detailed look at them. Judging from their equipment, they all seem to be around the same level as me, and I notice the leader uses a sword and shield.
"I'm Cyril." I smile, sticking my hand out to the leader. It's my first time in a party, and I'm determined not to make a bad impression. The youngest of them, the dagger user, seems like he's only 12. My stomach twists at that thought. For a child to be trapped in a game like this is severely traumatizing, as I had seen from the ones in Starting City. However, as I learn later, he seems to be the brightest and most cheerful of the group, despite everything.
We head out of the town around noon, and I find myself enjoying their company greatly, despite the inherent risk. Due to the dangerous nature of the game, there is a great deal of trust needed to form parties. People can easily ambush you by tricking you into trusting them, then stealing your items or even killing you. However, these four seem decent enough. Apparently they had all happened to be teleported near each other when the incident was first announced, so they decided to stick together to keep alive.
"I mean, we never would have met in real life." The leader, Sebastian, states some time after we had set out. "But now I guess this game is partly a good thing. I've never had such a close group of friends. I'm even thinking of starting a clan."
"At one point, we were even on the front lines!" The young one, Azaj, seems proud as he says it. "Although they've overtaken us by now. They're hardcore players up there."
"Why haven't you guys formed a clan yet? It will put you on the map for the front line players again if it's that close." I ask, curious. We're almost near a forest. To either side of me, the grasslands spread out. I can almost make out the hazy tower that connects each floor together in the distance, on the other side of the roughly-center town. I'm walking in the middle of the group, with Sebastian in front.
"Costs a bit of money, which we don't really have." Sebastian says, almost sheepishly. "That's kind've the reason why we're out hunting this field boss. According to some information I bought, it has a decent chance of dropping fairly rare items."
"Yeah, but when we fought it yesterday, we could hardly scratch it." Azaj explained, "Apparently it's got huge resistances to melee attacks, so archery is the only thing that can really damage it."
I nod. The other two haven't said much to me since we started out, merely introducing themselves. The staff wielding guy, John, seems pretty awkward, not really contributing to what conversation is going on, but he seems to be trying. The other one, Saul, is always focused on someone else. They make me slightly uncomfortable, but Azaj's happy demeanor and Sebastian's friendliness distract me from that.
"Are you a pure archer?" Sebastian asks me, tossing a look back at me. "I only see a bow and arrow on you. What other weapons do you use?"
"Nothing, I'm a pure." I said, and Sebastian chuckles.
"That's kinda foolish. You need some sort of close-range weapon. Your bow isn't infinitely versatile, especially if you're fighting a person. If they get too close and you can't run away, they can tear you apart." Sebastian almost seems to speak from experience.
"You fight a player before?" I blurt out, not thinking. Azaj flinches, but stays quiet.
"Yeah, back in the first month, someone tried to PK me while I was out hunting. I was only level five." Sebastian explains calmly. "He was an archer. Caught me by surprise with an arrow in my shield arm. I... killed him. It wasn't an easy fight, and by the time it is over, I was almost dead."
"Ever since then, we all made an agreement never to go out fighting alone again." Azaj adds, his eyes downcast.
"I'm lucky he was alone, but I still can't figure out why he'd just attack me like that. He didn't have a close-combat weapon, which is the primary reason I won, and he didn't seem desperate. He wasn't even orange at the time. Attacking me turned him orange."
We walk in silence for a ways. As we enter the forest, a dark and grim thing with great amounts of tree coverage, even Azaj diminishes in cheer. After an hour or so of walking with sporadic conversation, Sebastian holds up his right arm to stop us. He points ahead before turning his back to a tree. We all hide as well, while I try to Detect what's up ahead.
"It's the boss," Azaj says with certainty, crouching next to me. "Gotta admit, I'm still kinda nervous, even though we've got a good chance of winning with you."
"Let's get him!" The leader yells, diving out from cover and waving his weapon, charging into the clearing ahead. We all follow, weapons brandished.
o
August 31, 2023 – 39th Floor – 139 Days after the April Incident:
"Stop!" Eri whispers harshly, ducking behind a bush. I slide in after her, my high stealth skill masking the sound. "My Detect skill is picking up a few oranges a hundred feet or so ahead of us. There's a green with them."
"Steffana..." I breathe. Eri has a higher Detect skill than me. I can't see anyone. I think briefly, before focusing ahead.
We've been walking for a few hours now, following the virtual trail back to the ambush site and then Steffana's path through the woods. Eri kept silent most of the way, focusing on the trail instead of talking, which surprised me. We ran into a few monsters, and she proved how skilled of a dagger user she is. Despite her lack of a longer or stronger weapon, Eri proved quite capable, and her dagger is able to inflict both Paralysis and Bleed effects, which can be incredibly deadly.
I find myself wondering what kind of circumstances would make a person choose merely a singular dagger for a weapon. Further than that, why would Eri even play this game? She is a fairly social girl, attractive, yet she chose to be one of the 10,000 who immersed themselves in a virtual game. Another surprising aspect of her is how she isn't actually as talkative as I originally thought. During the walk from the town to the plateau, she practically wouldn't stop talking, but as soon as she started tracking, she fell silent. I couldn't figure out why.
"I can see them talking, but they've put up a stealth field and my Listening skill isn't high enough to hear what they're saying. One of them must be fairly high leveled," Eri whispers to me, "I can't really see the green one, which I think is your friend. If only I grinded my Listening skill, I could figure out what's going on."
"How many of them are there?"
"Six, including your friend. That matches the numbers you gave me if we count the three dead I detected back at the plateau."
"We can count on Steffana helping us once we free her." I say, slightly nervous. "Three against five is decent odds." But still very dangerous. Eri is silent for a little while, so I quickly add, "You don't have to fight, Eri. I paid you to get me to Steffana, not to help me free her. I can deal with the dangerous part."
"The dungeon isn't far from here, and there should be a group of people marching there to fight the boss. Why not ask them?" Eri asks. She glances up at me as I grab my bow from my back. I shake my head. "No? Why?"
"Armand is singularly focused on clearing the game, more so than most of the people I've met so far." I bit back my anger. "He wouldn't be willing to 'waste' men to save a clanmate. Not when there's a boss to kill."
"There's another green in the clearing, a kid, looks like. He just ran in." I look, but still can't see anything. "And he's gone again. It seemed like he was given orders by one of the oranges."
"I'm going to go in for an attack." I say, moving out from behind the bush. In front of me, I can see the breaks in the trees for the clearing they are talking in. I rush forward.
"Wait! Cyril!"
Ignoring Eri, I burst through the edge of the clearing, reaching for an arrow. I launch the first two in quick succession, both burying into the back of the nearest of the oranges. He falls, his health in the red. The other four oranges turn towards me, surprised. One of them is familiar, the blonde with the piercing eyes who attacked me. So I guess he killed my other three assailants after all. Psycho.
Inwardly, I'm grateful that green players are allowed to attack orange players without going orange themselves, so I don't have to be worried about being branded a criminal. Orange doesn't distinguish from a thief or a murderer, which can lead to a wide variety of assumptions.
I notch another arrow, letting it loose into the throat of another player. He falls back, virtual blood spewing from the grievous wound. I grimly realize that I hit a critical point, and his health falls to zero. He shatters, giving pause to the other oranges.
"Now, now, Cyril, maybe we can come to some sort of agreement." The leader smiles at me, lowering the sword he's drawn. Behind me, I hear Eri appear out of the underbrush. Why does he know my name? I glance over to Steffana, who lays against a tree, unarmored, her arms behind her back. She is silent, but looks relieved to see me.
"Release her, and I won't kill all of you." I spit out, anger rising inside me. How dare they assault my friend!
"Tough talk, but your hateful speech doesn't really sway me." The man smiles crookedly. For some reason that smile seems incredibly familiar, but I can't place it. "You're just as bad as us, you know. Killing that man right there," He points at the spot the man have just vanished, "That's murder."
"Shut up, bastard," I can feel my stomach turn, but I ignore it. "Just give me Steffana."
"No." His grin grows wider. "In a few moments, a contingent of soldiers headed by Armand, your clan leader, is going to arrive, investigating the claims of an associate of mine. Of a kidnapping and a murder."
I pause, letting my arrow slide slightly. What the hell is he talking about? But still, my purpose here is clear. I pull my bow taut again, then let loose an arrow. The leader dodges it and runs toward me. The arrow hits the shoulder of the man behind him. The man grimaces as I nock another arrow, letting it loose into his forehead. He falls backwards, and as his health hits zero, he shatters.
By the time the second arrow is loosed, the leader has closed in on me. I toss my bow aside, which automatically returns to my inventory, and draw my daggers. His sword comes down towards me and I parry it with my right dagger, my left slashing at his chest. It cuts in, lowering his health somewhat, and I roll to my left. Kicking off from the roll, I charge at the other bandit, who is bent over the fallen one with low health. He notices me and his eyes go wide. He stands up too quickly, falls backwards, then scrambles into a run, vanishing into the trees.
I pivot, centering my attention on the leader, who has locked blades with Eri. He glances behind and sees me, then jumps away, placing himself in the center of the two of us.
"It seems this is getting dangerous for me." He chuckles. I walk around to the side; he follows the rotation. Soon I'm between him and Steffana, who have been watching the battle intently. "Time to split."
He throws something at the ground and a cloud of smoke erupts around him. Shielding my eyes, I see something dark dart off into the forest to my right. I swear in frustration at him getting away, but suddenly I feel like I have no energy.
Another two people dead by my hands. Somewhere in real life there are two people getting their heads microwaved by the Nerve-gear. Somewhere there might be two families soon to be informed of their deaths.
I may be laying next to them in a hospital right now. The family may not even know that I killed their son, their father, their brother. Oddly enough, I feel sick. For a moment, I can't help but be surprised by how SAO can replicate nausea so accurately.
I raise my right hand, my dagger still in it. It's shaking, somehow. Just earlier I was thinking of the PK leader as a psycho, but how am I any better? I shake my head. I have to be better. I don't just murder people randomly. It's warranted, right?
Is it really? The other oranges may have been thieves, not murderers.
Somehow I wound up on my hands and knees, staring over the orange who failed to escape or die. He is the first one I caught with arrows, which had paralyzed him, probably because I managed to collapse his virtual lungs.
"Cyril..." I can hear Eri call out to me. I stand slowly, looking down at the paralyzed man still. He has shaggy shoulder-length brown hair. I can't see his face, since he is lying on his stomach, but it was likely scared, waiting for death at any moment. "Cyril! Behind you!"
I turn and find myself disbelieving. Steffana is charging towards me, a sword in her hand. I thought she was bound. What?
Things are going in slow motion, yet I find myself unable to react. I stand awkwardly, unsure of what's happening. Steffana is my friend. Why is she attacking me? Paralyzed by confusion and indecision, all I can do is stumble over backwards, falling over the bandit.
"Dammit, Cyril!" A flash of purple, and I see Steffana lurch sideways. I try to speak, but find I can't. Eri buries her dagger deep into Steffana's side, tackling her to the ground.
"No!" I shout, but it's too late. The Bleed and Paralysis effects on Eri's dagger take effect as Steffana's health is diminished far into the red zone. Steffana wasn't wearing armor, only clothes, so the damage done is massive. I run forward, towards Steffana's side, barely registering Eri's cursor turning orange. "Why?" I implore her, confused.
"Con...fused?" Steffana grimaces, but there is some sort of light in her eyes now as she whispers to me. I can barely hear her. "This whole... thing... This friendship... It was nothing to me." I flinch, taken aback by this. I vaguely notice her health ticking down, the bleeding effect taking its toll. Somehow in my stupor I remember I have no health potions. "You... took him away... from me. This... is my..." Her eyes roll back for a second. I shout at her, and she speaks again. "Revenge."
Her health ticks down to zero and she shatters. I sit there, shocked, unable to even think. Off to the side, I see a few people enter the clearing, I turn my head, recognizing them.
"There they are!" Thomas points at me, talking to Armand, my clan leader. A band of warriors emerges out of the clearing with him. A boss party. "I told you, that purple-haired woman was attacking Steffana and Cyril didn't help her! I ran as fast as I can!"
Armand seems speechless, but eventually he speaks "I don't want to believe it, but how can I deny what I've seen. Cyril, sitting over Steffana's dying body, her murderer just feet away. You're both being jailed for this, bastards!"
"Wait, wait!" I stand up in complete disbelief. "This isn't what it looks like! I didn't kill her!"
"No, you didn't. You're not orange." Armand says, clenching his fists. "But you didn't bother to stop that woman from murderingSteffana."
"No, you've got it backwards!" Eri cries out, clutching the sleeve of my coat. She whispers to me, "That boy, he's the one I saw talking with the bandit leader. I'm certain of it!"
"Look at them! They're planning something!" Thomas shouted, his voice full and panicked. "You have to stop them, Armand!" Bastard!
"Arrest them!" Armand shouts. His boss party charges at his command.
"Run!" Eri yells, dragging me backwards. I stumble briefly before picking up my pace, following Eri into the forest. Behind me I can hear the shouts of my pursuers. I can't even dare to look back behind me.
What the hell is happening? Steffana is dead, killed by Eri to save my life. And now Eri is a murderer, and I'm accused as an accessory? Why was Thomas with the bandits? What the hell is going on? My thoughts are racing, uncomprehending. One word keeps repeating itself over in my head.
Why?
Author's Note:
Congratulations for getting through chapter 2! I feel like I should explain something. This story will cover two different time periods. The main one, where the main character is with Eri, will have the bulk of the attention. The second one is supplementary, diving into what happened in the earlier days of SAO with Cyril. Also, I may throw in dream sequences and memories, like the start of this chapter. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed chapter 2! Please, if you have something to say, review! I need reviews. D;
Oh, and if you see any errors in the text, like formatting errors or the like, let me know. My word processor acts weird when its stuff is uploaded to this site.
Edit: I decided to clean up any and all errors in this chapter that I could find as part of my ongoing effort to completely correct this fanfic.