Chapter 2 The First Skills
Haxs laughed at his best friend and took his dagger out. He started cutting large branches from the tree until he had a considerable amount of them, he jumped even more to get a few vines. He used his knife to turn the branches into sticks and he impaled the five largest ones on the floor. He pulled their tips together and used one vine to tie them together, then he pulled the large cone he made and placed it on a side. Grabbed a bunch of large leaves from the same tree and covered the cone, using vines as thread to keep the leaves in place. He placed more branches all over the structure, then he lifted it using four more of the branches. He placed some large stones around the randomized hut and finished covering the sides using large leaves.
"Use this." Haxs walked away, leaving Dani looking at the small hut he made.
She looked at it and smiled, Haxs was always caring for her before anyone else. Anyone who'd look at them would say they were a couple, which is not true. And that left Dani wondering, what was Haxs waiting? Was he in love with her, or someone else?
John was creating more weapons, mostly primitive ones, with a pink haired girl. She was pretty good at making weapons and he could tell he remebered her from somewhere. They talked for a while until John remembered the pieces of iron ore in his inventory. He knows weapon crafting, but his knowledge on forging is lower than Haxs chances with a girl (thats what he thought).
"Do you know how to make weapons using iron Lisbeth?" John asked, hiding the fact he had some.
"Yes i can, John-kun." She replied happily, and then she groaned, "I said you could call me Liz!" She pinched one of his cheeks.
"Aaw oow ouch! Stop it! Sorry LIZ" he enfatized her name "do you have everything you need for crafting weapons?" She let him go and he started rubbing his red cheek.
"Hai." She vowed her head, "but i dont have any ores to do so...do you have any?" She asked, getting closer to him.
"U-ugh yeah..." He rubbed the back of his head "im willing to gift you one piece if you can teach me how to craft weapons." He smiled at her, stretching his hand towards hers. She shook his hand with an affirmative and they went off to a campfire, using a stone hammer and other tools for crafting weapons.
The night passed while Haxs looked at the distance, Mei sleeping on his arms. They were both over a large branch on a tree Haxs used as an improvised camp. A chilling wind flew by and placed Mei's hair over her face. Haxs looked at her sleepy face as she tried to pull the hair away from her face.
"Shhh shhh, go back to sleep." Haxs smiled and moved the hair out of her face. She muttered something but Haxs wasnt able to listen at it. Haxs placed her by his side and he faced downwards. From a small hole in the hutt he made, he could see Dani's face, she looked completely amazing. He felt he could stay looking at her for all the night.
Thats when she opened her eyes and looked directly at Haxs', he turned to face somewhere else with his face blushed, but he could still hear her soft giggling. Dani smiled at herself and she fell asleep, just like Haxs.
—-—-—
"They're gone!" John opened his eyes and quickly scanned his surroundings, last night he fell asleep near the randomized forge he made with Liz "the SAO survivors left!" The player yelled in anger "how could they?!" A crowd of players formed near the center of the camp. John walked his way towards where Haxs, Dani, and Mei where.
"Calm down," a new player stepped in front of them "we dont need them to survive." He gave them all a comforting smile
"And who are you?" Another player from the crowd spoke.
"My name is Eulsam," the man walked forward until he was apart from the crowd of people "and i know how to protect you."
Many players argued with him, many wanted to take the lead by themselves, and the argue ended when Eulsam told them he was in the SAO beta. John pulled his group away, and when they where far enough from the crowd he spoke.
"We are leaving." Everyone agreed with him and they silently walked away from the crowd, leaving the group in charge of this "Eulsam" character. The crowd of players looked at the new leader in admiration, not noticing the small group of players sneaking past them.
John walked his group towards a less populated zone, close to where He found the iron ores. In their way they found no signs of life, and that gave the group John, now with knowledge on forging, thought it would be a good idea to be near a source of weapons and armor, but he didn't think about the attack that was going to happen. Haxs scouted the areas around the small mine John found, and when he found nothing, he came back. John celebrated in his mind and stated the fact that he learned forging.
"Haxs, take Mei and Dani to train against the wolves. Level them until they are at least one level below us." John said, Haxs nodded and turned to walk towards the 'hunting ground' as John called it.
John handed Dani her dagger and Mei his Fang Blade as they walked past him. John opened his window and from his inventory took out a bunch of tools he packed since the day before, but before he closed it to begin crafting, he noticed a blinking light in the skills option. He tapped it and a screen appeared in front of him. "New Skill Tree Unlocked!", John clicked again and a series of skills appeared in front of him "Vertical", 'Horizontal',"Slant","Impale", and a last one called "Master Blade". John clicked each of the skills to learn how to start them, vertical was just as it name says, a vertical slash. Horizontal was just a regular horizontal slash with charged energy on it. Slant was actually a slash from the left to the right, going upwards a bit. Impale consisted on four impaling hits and one slash. And then he clicked on Master Blade, it was blocked. It said he needed to be on level 45, and he was on level 4.
-—•
"Dont let him escape!" Haxs yelled, following a larger than normal wolf.
"Im not planning to lose this one!" Mei jumped on the wolf's back as it dashed past her, she stabbed his back with her dagger, making the wolf howl in pain.
Behind them, a threesome of wolves stalked them, circling around them. Dani was to focused on the wolf "boss" to notice the wolves behind her, and in a matter of seconds they attacked. The three wolves jumped at her, giving her less than a second to react, but one second was enough for Mei.
Mei jumped off from the charging wolf and jumped over a normal wolf, she gripped the dagger tighter as she stabbed a wolf in the neck, critical hit. The wolf bursted into a bunch of shining polygons, distracting both of the girls. That gave the other wolves a chance to strike, one of them slashed Mei's back with its claws and the other one attempted to bite Dani's head off, but instead bit Haxs' knife. It slashed its head open, killing it in one shot. Haxs turned towards the next wolf and threw his dagger straight at its head, the wolf fell to a side with the dagger impaled on his head.
"You girls okay?" Haxs said, noticing the 'You reached level 5!' sign in front of him. Dani nodded and turned to look at Mei, she gasped and covered her mouth. Mei was thrown on the floor, with bloody marks of claws in her back. Her HP was at seventy and was slowly draining "Mei!" Haxs exclaimed, he took one step towards her and ,out of nowhere, he felt himself being suspended mid-air. He panicked and faced all directions until he felt a piercing in his torso. He faced to a side and noticed the Wolf Boss had him on its mouth, "Patch her up! I'll meet you in camp!"
Dani quickly did as told, taking Mei with her. Haxs raised a fist to punch the wolf, and when he was bringing it down, his fist exploded on the wolf's face. The wolf let go of Haxs and he fell to the ground. The wolf's HP was at seventy five from just one hit.
Haxs stood there in confusion and remembered his conversation with John a day earlier. He probably level his Hand to Hand combat skills allowing him to use fighting skills. Haxs glared at the wolf, who was doing the same, and quickly ran towards it. The wolf raised its left claw in an attempt to hit Haxs but instead hit the ground. Haxs countered quickly, delivering an explosive uppercut at the wolf's head. The wolf fell backwards from the hit, its HP at fifty one, giving Haxs the opportunity to take the sword John crafted for him the night before out of his inventory.
The big wolf raised its body from the floor, towering over Haxs. Haxs cursed under his breath and positioned himself. The wolf brought a claw down to hit Haxs, who tried to block with his sword but instead received a slash at his chest. The wolf quickly swiped Haxs with his right claw and threw him aside. Haxs HP was now at its yellow zone.
The wolf ran towards him as he stood up, the wolf tried to swipe his claw at him again, but this time Haxs simply pointed his sword at the coming claws. The wolf self inflicted some damage by piercing his paw at Haxs' sword, and Haxs twisted his blade, cutting the paw off the wolf's arm. He ran side ways and activated a sword skill. He slashed the wolfs left arm off with one swing as he kept running around the wolf. He slashed again at its torso and took most of the wolfs HP, and thats when he finished it off. He started cutting all over the wolf's body until its HP reached zero.
The wolf exploaded into a bunch of crystal polygons while Haxs just stood in front of it. Another level up window appeared in front of him, now on level 6. He had 10 stat points to spend and he placed them all in order, placing one more in strength. His skill option was blinking, just like John's. He tapped it and a screen appeared in front of him 'New Skill Tree Unlocked!'. He had six skills, 'Vertical', 'Horizontal','Slant', 'Impale', 'Square slash', 'Explosive Punch', and 'Roundhouse Kick'. Square Slash consisted on making four slashes around an enemy's body to form a square. Explosive punch was the skill he used against the wolf boss, and roundhouse kick was just like its name says, a roundhouse kick.
Haxs smiled at his new skills and quickly remembered Mei. His face drastically changed to a worried one, and he swiftly ran through the forest. He evaded a group of monsters by simply jumping past them, not giving the monsters enough time to react.
Back in the camp.
John ran from side to side, slashing at the wave of invading monsters. The group of monsters consisted of giant cyclops wielding maces. John had a clear advantage on them, but the fact that he was alone lowered his chances. He slashed the hand off of an attacking cyclops and stabbed his sword at its belly, John dragged his sword towards a side and the cyclops bursted into polygons. John smiled at himself and looked at his sword. It was an exact twin of Haxs' sword, but this one had an extra 'something'. A big hit on his side sent him flying towards a big rock, his HP now entering the yellow zone.
He quickly got up and faced the monsters, seven cyclops, three of them in red and the rest green. He ran towards the weakened cyclops and jumped over one of them, he stabbed its eye and then jumped towards the next. His sword shined blue as he impaled it in the cyclops' eye four times and then he slashed its head off. The next one swinged at John, but John dodged backwards, the swing was received by another cyclops, who died in the impact.
"Stupid cyclops! Dont you see I can kill you all?!" John yelled, giving some space to the cyclops "You stupid monsters cant even kill one player! Surrender now, or i'll kill you all!" John knew the cyclops were only monsters, so they couldnt answer.
Instead of answering John, the cyclops stopped their attacks. John looked at all of them, each one was different from the other, some were bald and a few of them had hair, but John noticed all of them weared different clothings. With a dirty smile on his face, John grabbed a rock and posed so a throwing skill would activate, and as he did, the cyclops returned to their attack. John threw the shining rock towards the eye of the closest cyclops, it hit him perfectly in the eye and it fell to the ground dead.
The rest of the cyclops continued their attack, one of them grabbed its long mace and raised it over him, with all of his force he pulled it down to hit John. It hit him straight in the head. John's HP fell dangerously on the fifteen percent mark, the remainding four cyclops readying their attacks. All of the cyclops stood in the red mark as well, but how things looked, they had the advantage.
In less than seconds, the group of cyclops bursted into shiny polygons, behind the place where they died stood a single player. She had long blonde hair that fell all the way towards her hips, she was as tall as Mei and had a great body with a beautiful smile adorning her already beautiful face. John remained in the floor, his mouth a little open. The player walked towards John, and in the way, she swung her weapon.
It was a long stick with sharpened rock sticked on a side, a stone axe. She stood in front of John and placed a hand on her left hip.
"I think i just saved my damsel in distress." She said, a sweet tone on her voice revealing sarcasm "You okay?" She extended her hand at John.
"I'm better now that my knight in shining armor came for me." John smiled and took her hand, with a pull he was up by his side "damn you're fast, and stealthy as fuck." She giggled softly at this "whats your name?" John extended his hand towards her.
"UnicornGirl, but call me Ashley." She shook his hand "Your name?"
A couple of bushes near them started shaking, like if there was something hidden inside them. John placed a finger over his mouth and withdrew his sword and posed himself, Ashley did the same but with a more aggressive stance. When they reached the bush, a branch in the taller trees snapped, and the couple turned to look at it. A rock was kicked behind them, followed by the sound of footsteps.
John pulled Ashley closer to him as the footsteps revealed a pair of shining red eyes. The eyes blinked and dissapeared, suddenly behind them, in a tall branch, the leaves rustled. John and Ashley turned to face the thing in the high branch.
"UnicornGirl? What kind of name is that?" John and Ashley both focused on the player but they could barely notice his red eyes.
"Who are you?!" Ashley exclaimed as she threw her axe at the branch, the player jumped down and the axe missed by much. John laughed at the player "whats so funny?"
"He is my best friend." John signaled Haxs and he came out of the shadows, his left arm bleeding and a small scar on his left cheek "that was hell of a scare you gave Ashley, what level is your stealth now?"
"Four, i did that without the aid of the system." Haxs said as he extended his hand towards Ashley "im Haxs, but call me Haxs." His hand was tightly squeezed and he released a tiny 'yeep!' Noise.
"Dont you dare do that to me again!" When she retrieved her hand she noticed it had blood on her, "you're bleeding!" She quickly opened her window and scrolled through her inventory, she took a small cup of something and placed on Haxs' lips "drink this."
Haxs placed a hand on the cup and slowly drank the liquid, it tasted like medicine. He looked at the cup he was given and tapped it with his index finger, it read 'Cyclops' tears'. Haxs kneeled in front of Ashley and with a soft movement, he grabbed her hand.
He pulled her hand for a kiss and he looked up at her like a gentleman "Thanks milady." Ashleys cheeks became crimson red at his act and she retrieved her hand.
"Y-you're welcome." She placed both of her hands over her cheeks, covering the red from them.
"Im gone for three damn minutes and you're already with another girl." The three players released the same "yeep!" Sound as they turned towards the couple of girls that were entering the small gap in the forest, by gap i mean a place with no trees.
Mei stomped her way towards Haxs and quickly pulled him on a hug, his arms softly embracing her "thats how i like it!" Mei pulled him apart and looked at Ashley "he is my man, so go find another one."
"Since when did i became your property?" Haxs asked, pushing Mei towards John.
The group laughed at each other as the night passed. Dani, Mei and Ashleupy were discussing near a randomized campfire as John and Haxs stood in guard. John at the far left side and Haxs at the far right side. They had perfect biew on the girls and each other so they decided their positions. They exchanged messages like they used to when using the social networks in real life.
-what do you think of the blondie?- Haxs
-i think she's cute, but she's not Dani, and hell she is stronger than she looks like- John
-how so?- Haxs
-if it wasnt for her I would've been killed- John
-got anything good? I got the wolf boss' claw, i figure if i clean it and take all the meat from inside it i can make a claw type weapon.- Haxs
-cool, i got a mace from the largest cyclops and a bunch if those tears that blondie gave you- John
-mind if we trade? I got a bunch of meat from that last encounter- Haxs
-how much?- John
-twelve chunks, five T-bones, and four steaks- Haxs
Haxs opened the trade window, and gave John all of his meat. When John was about to send the mace he was stopped. Haxs had already closed the trade when John retrieved the meat.
-you should also train with the mace, that way you'll be fully prepared.
They kept on talking about the game and the mechanics they though about for the rest of the night. The girls fell asleep near each other, while John and Haxs weren't. John smiled at his large group of col and took a second review of his skills, he was on level 9 but most of his skills unlocked at twelve and ten. Suddenly, on a tree from a distance, a hooded player spyed on the small group.
"Easy prey." He let a small grunt sound and smiled.
