so phew made it in 1 day, I got a lot of free time atm which is awesome so ill make as much as I can :D. Enjoy.

The rainbow of lines shooting past me was quite a shock but nothing compared to the pure white world behind it forcing me to squint to preserve my eyes from further pain.

•Please Enter Desired Username•

'Drake' I typed in without pause, I had spent hours of my time thinking of a name best for me and I found it while slaying a dragon in a lvl 80 raid group. As I was delivering the finishing blow with my mages fireball the name just came to me. Drake was what I ended up with after spending more hours refining it and It suits me pretty well because, well Drake-Jake are kinda similar.

while I was standing there proudly the window disappeared and mirrors materialised out of nowhere and surrounded me. Lots of little windows labelled age, gender, weight, height, facial features and so on were dotted around me.

I clicked on the windows and they opened to show sliders, some had only one while others had hundreds flying out at me. After opening every single last window I stood there in the midst of a horde of sliders all labelled with different things. I smiled to myself, this is going to be fun.

-page break-

once again It seemed like I was chucked down a tunnel of rainbows but this time at the end an obelisk came into view and it was not alone. It was placed on a orange cobblestone floor with medieval style buildings keyed next to one another in a bending line. I blinked once, twice and then I knew this must be it, not a dream but the Starting City.

Sounds of people grew from whispers to a noisy, bustling town as my ears adjusted to the sound. The smell of cooked meat wafted past me giving me a small whiff of it as it went past. I brought my hands up and squeezed my fists then touched my face.

"whoa" escaped my lips as It felt just like a face should feel like. I tentatively take a few steps my smile growing wider with each one until it is a full blown grin. At that point I'm so ecstatic that I just jump out of joy earning me more than a few strange stares from onlookers but many knowing smiles passed across their faces. I jump as high as I possibly can and feel the impact as I fall down rising up my legs to my shoulders.

Grinning like a kid at Christmas I set off in the general direction following the flow of the crowds. Talking about the crowds I notice that there are a huge amount of people where I am and there are just so many different types of people. There are blond goddesses walking in line with 6 foot giants as well as some surprisingly average looking people. I sigh inwardly as I spot a trio of purple haired women their chests bursting from their padded clothing; sadly most gamers are guys so the number of women avatars that are actually women is pretty low. Although the eye candy is always a pleasure.

Ingeniously I look down and see that yes I am wearing the same padded clothing and torn trousers, I guess everyone's a beggar at the moment. however apparently I look pretty cool in my clothes because I catch the eyes of a couple of the ladies/guys who give me a wink before the crowd forces them onwards. as I'm walking through the crowds I stop at a shop window to have a look at my reflection.

I am a man, even though the female choice was fun and I miss the feeling when I jump I ended up as a guy because I'd rather not be one of the lady/guys. I changed my hair to be a couple of inches longer and slicked back the ends sticking horizontally out. It was also a dark blue matching the new colour of my eyes; dark blue as well. my height changed the same because even though I'm only 5'6 I'm 5'6 of awesomeness. Gave myself a more defining jaw and also toned my non-existent muscles so I don't look like the weedy gamer I am. Apart from that I ended up keeping my avatar as close to me as possible because there were way too many choices, took me a whole 30 minutes to just do this.

"looking good Drake" I wink and point at the mirrored version of myself before the crowd pushed me back into line.

the town that I could see/hear over the hordes of players was impressive to say the least. The npc's were all friendly and interacted to a certain extent, the buildings were nice to look at while not being flashy and the town was generally a huge bustle of people doing things of all sorts.

one shop that caught my eye while I was strolling and enjoying the view was a blacksmiths of a muscly npc with a thick brown beard and a balding head. The npc did not interest me so much but the array of different weapons definitely caught my eye. I sauntered up to the shop already bustling with activity and squeezed into the crowd. There was a large range of weapons from simple swords to big mauls and particularly a large silver battle-axe with a leafless tree ornately carved on its head all the way down to black leather handle. I caught the attention of the smith and asked him for the weapons name.

"Ah she's a fine blade she is, The Silvered Splitter she is, and only 2400 col a bargain." came his deep, hearty reply.

"hmm" I mused to myself as I tried checking my pockets for this col, which is the currency SAO uses but found nothing.

"swipe your right hand down in front of you" came a light Irish voice from my left

I looked at the speaker: true to his accent his character has frizzy orange hair but the likeness stops there. His face is well structured making him seem in his late 's also around 6'4 which was kinda scary to look up at. mildly confused by the statement and surprised at his avatar I stood there in shock/thought for a second before swiping my right hand down. I was quite shocked to see the menu appear.

"aha, there we go. Thank you"

"No problem, just helping the newbies" he states as he waves a goodbye and disappears into the crowd.

a noob huh, well I guess that's what I am in this game, I mean I play a lot of MMORPG's but this is something completely new to me. Drake the newbie, I gotta right that quickly. I turn back to the smith and ask him if he needs help with anything. As I suspected an exclamation mark appears on his head and there is a little ping as a quest screen appears before me: collect 15 boar tusks for the Smith, Rewards: 1 Boar's Blade, 250 col and 130 experience. I accepted the quest and went back to my previous train of thought.

I fiddled around in the menu checking out the map, my backpack and my character himself. I carried 3 'weak healing potions', a 'home teleportation crystal', my shirt and trousers, 1 loaf of bread, a flask of water and a 'Beginners Sword'. I also carried around 0 col, understandable but still sucks. My character profile was quite interesting as I looked at my stats:

Strength: 5

Agility: 5

Dexterity: 5

Perception: 5

Vitality: 5

Luck: ?

Using my knowledge as a veteran gamer I compiled some ideas on each stat. The strength and agility being obvious as to what they are. Dexterity should help with speed of my attacks, perception would be useful for spotting things like traps and hidden loot and such. Vitality is health of course and luck well that's self explanatory but the question mark made me wonder if everyone started with different numbers. To be on the safe side I should find a guide of some sorts to explain these in more detail.

feeling satisfied with my menu exploration I equip my sword which materialises in its sheath and all around my waist which was pretty cool if I do say so myself, then shut my menu and headed off.

-page break-

I did not think of finding a route to the exit of town so I was forced to consult my map after a short while of wandering aimlessly in the crowd. Thankfully it led me towards a large open gate with green fields covering little hills behind it. Cracking my knuckles I marched out the gate.

as soon as I went past the gate another ping with a window appeared this time saying leaving safety zone. Nice to know that I can't be PK'ed in towns. I sprint, well it ended up being more like a slow jog thanks to the system, for a few minutes until I see a medium sized blue boar with yellow eyes materialise a few meters away from me. Stopping in my tracks my breath oddly enough still there since apparently running did not leave you breathless. I draw my sword to get a good look at it: it's as the name suggests, very basic iron sword with a decent durability, for beginners. I place my sword in front of me, widen my stance and grin because normally I would be behind a computer screen wielding a mouse but now I'm standing right here doing all the work myself.

"Yaah" I release my battle-cry as I charge the boar sword raised and crash it down onto its head knocking off a little bit of the green bar on the side of the boar, it's Hp bar I believe. Its eyes immediately flare red and its right tusk strategically placed between my legs comes straight up into me as I stand there causing me to shout pain as I fly a meter back. I see on the top left of my view another hp bar with Drake on the side move down around 5%. Ouch. I wince in pain on the ground but notice that actually I can't feel anything but that still doesn't stop me from giving another cry of pain as the boars tusk smacks me in the neck this time. 10% more down! a critical! better watch my neck then. This time instead of laying vulnerable on the ground I jump back up and dive to the side of the incoming boar tumbling in the grass before picking myself back up again quickly.

I once again dodge the charging boar while wondering where my sword is. that is quickly answered as I see it embedded on the head of the boar.

"Oh great so I gotta somehow collect that..." I groan as an idea flashes into my head

dodging easily, just sidestepping this time I widen my feet and squat down facing down the boar as it charges towards me squealing in rage. I wait patiently as a single sweat drop makes its way down my face. I see it's face contorted in anger coming closer and closer filling up my view with nothing else but it's angry face. It's tusks are an inch away from me and I then jump, which was not the best idea as I should have jumped a bit earlier as my feet were barrelled into, flipping me in the air. At least I got ahold of my sword and managed to rip it out causing another few bits of damage to the boar. after once again slamming into the floor with an "oomph" I jumped back up and out of the way of the boar.

With sword now in hand I'm grinning with pity for my enemy. It charges me again and again but I sidestep slashing at its sides which do around half of what I did in my attacks on the head, around 2%, head is a critical then. I repeat the action of sidestepping and slashing at the flanks of the beast for around 4 minutes before it finally stopped in midair and exploded into millions of tiny blue polygons which disappeared along with another ping bringing up a loot window for me. 45xp, 14 col and 1 boar tusk.

I sigh as I realise I might have to kill another 14 of them. Another 14 of these boars, well at least I understand their fighting pattern but my Hp is regenerating so slowly, it's barely moved up 3% a minute. I idly stand by watching many boars materialise in the distance and after my Hp reaches 100% I head off to the closest one.

-page break-

An hour and a half later I find myself splayed on the grass huffing and puffing because I can, and also because after repeating the dodge, slash method around 50 times a boar for 20 boars is quite tiring. Im not that good at maths but that's a lot of times, 1000 times jesus. On the bright side though I muse to myself, at least after the 7th boar I stopped getting smacked around by them every so often.

I open my menu to check what I got so far: 900xp, 236 col, 16 boar hides and 14 boar tusks. Man, I'm one short. I sluggishly stand up and take out my sword, well sword is what it used to be. At the moment it looks like a beaten up hunk of iron with bits of the blade missing. at least it does it's job so I don't really care for its looks. As long as it kills boars for me then I'm happy but I'd really like to upgrade it to that battle-axe though.

Cracking my knuckles I head towards the closest docile boar and charge it slamming my sword down on its head for 4% damage before stepping to the side of the now raging boar as it charges. I use my repeated and rinsed method hacking away at it health staying happily away from its tusks.

This one sided battle progressed perfectly until the boar was getting close to red and I slashed my sword on it's side as normal but midway through it's flank my sword broke off at the hilt the rest shattering into a million polygons in front of my shocked face.

I stood there shocked staring at my hilt of the beginners sword when the boar barrelled into me knocking me into the dirt while it tried to gore me while I was down.

I dropped the hilt grabbing the boars tusk pushing them away from my body but it was stronger and managed to slowly push its tusks into my body. In frustration I started punching the boar between the eyes as it wriggled its tusks around my body. I watched my health bar plummet down to 70% within a few seconds and it's bar only hitting red under my flurry of blows.

Changing tactics I grabbed onto the boars face and ripped its eyes out shattering them into polygons reducing it's health by half and as a bonus made it squeal in pain and loosen up on me. However by doing so it slashed it's tusks up my body and neck causing my health bar to drop to 40% with the double critical.

Using the boars easing up to my advantage I pushed sideways causing the boar to fall over and bring me on top of it where I gave it a feast of fists. my blows took tiny slivers of its health slowly reducing it until after a few minutes of mercilessly beating at the helpless boar until it had a tiny, tiny sliver left. I then brought my hands up together and smashed them down on its face quieting the squealing beast once and for all by shattering it into polygons.

upon this victory I roared fiercely to the heavens my hands aching and my hilt lying useless on the ground close to me. A window appeared with a ping after my roar ended as if the system itself waited for me to finish the celebration of the survivor. 45xp, 19col... No tusk. no freaking tusk. I'm going to have to do that whole thing all over again, all over again. I'm going to have to beat a boar up with my fists again...

"Oh c'mon" I scream to the heavens

a pair of laughters answer me from one side. I turn towards the sound to see 2 players sitting under a tree with their starting loaf of bread and water. Sitting on the left is a woman, quite a short woman with long, curly brown hair and twinkle in her silver eyes as she giggles at the display. The other is a large muscular man with a young face and long scruffy golden hair accompanied by his black stubble. He too laughs and as I turn scoffs the rest of his sandwich, stands up and claps slowly.

"That was quite a show" came his almost rumbling voice giving an insight that he is probably older than he looks.

"Yes I never would've thought to ever see that kind of bloodbath even in my dreams" replied the lady as she too stood up and clapped. Her voice was decently high pitched and not quite mellowed into a full woman's voice yet.

"It was a brilliant battle, made my day" said the man as he walked towards the kneeling me.

As he neared me I could see his features more clearly: his jaw was chiseled and laugh lines were indented heavily onto his face. His eyebrows were a thick black suiting his dark brown eyes. He wore the starting gear but the sword on his back was a large two-handed sword, though it just looked like a bigger version of my, I glanced to the handle on the ground beside me, sword.

He offered me a hand which I gripped and he lifted me off the ground. Once I stood we shook hands.

"The name is Kane, it's a pleasure to meet you"

"And I'm Gwynevith and I enjoyed the show!" Said the little lady as she bounced up to me with a grin plastered across her face. Her clothes were also the starting ones. They fitted well unlike many others which made them look scantily clad as she had little bust for the clothes to go around but the sword she carried also a two-handed seemed a lot bigger on her than on Kane.

"Drake, and thanks for not stealing the kill, but for future reference if you if you see someone beating up a boar with their bare hands you might want to give them a hand" I replied back with a cheeky grin

"Duly noted" they replied Kane sounding as if it were an order while Gwynevith accompanied hers with her own cheeky grin.

"Say, would you like to party with us?" asked Kane in a polite tone

"Huh?"

"I mean, it looks like your trying to collect the boar tusks and as it happens so are we, so why don't we party and collect them together."

"Also it looks like you can...handle yourself" added in Gwynevith with a sly grin.

"You should see me with a sword I look much more...sophisticated when I use that" I replied back

"Oh from street thug to butcher, you've made progress" she restored with her childish grin.

I was about to battle this one out when a window pinged in front of me with a invite to Kane's party. I accepted and saw their names with their own hp bars under mine.

"Shall we start with our slaying?" Interjected Kane as he unsheathed his big sword

-page break-

The boar squealed in agony as Kane's sword slashed the flank of the boar followed up by Gwynevith doing the same on the opposite flank causing the already badly beaten boar to go down to a tiny amount of health. I had charged the boar as it ended its charge and I met it once it stopped delivering 1, 2, 3 blows in it's face. I shouted "Triple Combo Punch" at the polygons floating and disappearing into thin air. 15xp, 4 col...1 boar tusk.

"I GOT IT" I roared absolutely thrilled at the others who then roared in happiness too as we gave multiple high fives to each other in victory while dancing around the spot.

"Finally" said Gwynevith as we finished frolicking on the boars grave.

She plopped herself down onto the grass and breathed in the fresh scent of nature. We followed suit throwing ourselves and their battered weapons to the ground.

"That took longer than expected" commented Kane quite neutrally

"We only had to get 31 boar tusks, only 31" I continued

"We were doing fine until that last one" added Gwynevith

"Yes my one"

"For some reason it took us 12 boars, 12 of them to get that tusk" she exclaimed in wonder

"Don't forget about the 42 boars beforehand, that makes 54 in total for all our tusks" sighed Kane as he added it up

"Jesus" said Gwynevith and I together

I checked the time on my menu and it said 7:48am. Took us almost 2 hours, wow. I swiped through my menu to see what I've collected so far: 1725xp, 522col, 15 boar tusks, 33 boar hides. it filled around 42% of my carrying capacity. Not bad.

I shut my menu and looked at the others. Gwynevith was staring out into the sunrise that after 5 hours now rose up to greet the world of SAO. I think it was nice that the sunrise was frozen in place for the first day so that many could leave the city when they logged on due to normally at night the monsters getting harder. Kane was lying with his eyes closed as if asleep but his constantly switching feet said otherwise.

"This has been hell of a morning" I said to no one in particular

"Yes it has, I mean I got to see this young man with slick blue hair beating abboar to death with his fists." Her sly grin accompanying the sentence.

"Ah yes but let's not forget the 2 butchers lying here with me, they really showed me how to butcher something properly" I answered back as I mused over their fighting style.

It was as I said, like butchers. When we first partied up Gwynevith boasted about their teamwork. They showed it for the first couple of boars before I taught them my way. It was in a sense teamwork but quite strange: one would get charged by the boar and use their sword to put it in a deadlock while the other would hack away at it furiously until their foe burst into polygons. It worked fine until the deadlocked, mostly Kane was pushed back by the boar causing it to gore him of 40% of his health in around 6 seconds. After a few punishing gores I took them to one side and taught them how to kill without being gored to pieces every so often. The rest of the time went by smoothly with us making our way round the field killing off boars 1 at a time.

We met a couple of people as we were 'slaying' and they were all having their own adventures with these boars: some were blazing through them while others were having a hard time but nothing as brutal as my fist only battle. we never saw the boars win their battles but we saw many people heading back to town with tattered clothing, battered weapons and shields however a gleeful smile always plastered on their faces as they had inevitable had accomplished some goal in one way or another.

After recalling my day I let out a relieved sigh and thought deeply about something for a second.

"Hey can I friend you guys?" I asked trying to sound chill but my voice betrayed me just at the end there

"Sure" they answered in unison, Kane had a smile creeping on his face while Gwynevith already had her full blown grin out as she turned onto her stomach, rested her head on her hands and looked full to bursting with anticipation.

I swished open my menu to find the Relations tab, opened it and sent a friend request to Kane and Gwynevith. 2 pings sounded by me and another 2 as both 'they accepted' windows popped up.

My belly rumbled and I took that as a sign. With a last deep breath of the sweet smell of wild grass I stand up offering hands to both my companions.

"I believe we should head back to town so we can get a nice meal and well..." I looked down at myself and to the sword hilt I kept for some reason "get some stuff to make us look a lot less like beaten up beggars"

"Right that is a good idea" Kane stated plainly as his eyes snapped open and he stood up leisurely

Gwynevith stood up also, looked me right in the eye and I saw the grin spreading across her face.

"Are you offering to buy us dinner?"

"Do I have a choice?" I asked with a raised eyebrow

"Nope!" She giggled and bounced down the field towards town with a c'mon.

Kane yawning audibly strolls after her and I walk by his side enjoying the landscape. It is truly marvellous with it being akin to real life, except for the no pain and no physical tiredness of course. Also the polygons gave it away as a game and the fantastical setting of being able to see different lands on pedestals far and close by. But apart from that this world is truly marvellous to experience, from the smell of nature to the sounds of the wind whistling through the grass.

We walked for barely a few seconds when an ominous bell rung it's sound filling the earth and drowning all other noise out...the landscape around disappears as a light blue light surrounds me.

phew finally. Well hopefully I've been able to build a little on Drake(Jake) and on Kane and Gwynewith (her name gave me so many typo problems). Can't wait for next chapter because it's gonna be a good one: the Announcment!

-ChazRay out