Chapter 1: The New Ally

Chapter 1

I'm sure I wasn't the only one who was waiting until the time we could log into SAO when it goes online. I was eagerly counting down the minutes from 12:30 until 1:00. Ideas about how to make my character look, what kind of sword I wanted, if I wanted to join a guild, anything and everything popped into my mind. Finally, it was time, it was 12:59 and it was time to turn on the Nerve Gear.

"Link start."

I started to customize my avatar, I kept the height basically the same, and changed my facial features a tiny bit, there wasn't really much thought put into the creation of my avatar, so I logged into SAO as soon as I could.

After logging into Sword Art Online for the first time, I looked around and found myself inside a town square. Hmm, this must be the Town of Beginnings. I thought. I decided that the best option was to head to the fields for some training, gain a few levels, stuff like that. I don't really care for other people, so I was fine going the fields solo. If you die, it's not like you lose your actual life. That's just a part of MMO's, if you're unlucky, you die, maybe drop some currency and a weapon, but your actual body won't die.

A couple hours of training and I felt like it was a good enough stopping point for now, so I decided to log out. I flicked my right hand down to bring up the menu to log out. After searching for a couple seconds I couldn't find the button. Confused, I looked around to see if there was anyone else. I wanted to ask if they had any problems, but out of nowhere, a blue light started to glow around me. I had no idea what it was, but I figured that it must have been some event that was going on because of the launch.

I closed my eyes because the glare of the light was too intense. When I opened my eyes again, I was back in the Starting City's central square. I looked around and noticed that I wasn't the only one that was teleported. Before I could ask anyone about what was going on, I heard someone shout out that there was something in the sky. I looked up and saw a blinking message of some kind. By the time everyone had noticed, it had quickly expanded to fill the sky. Everything around us had turned a bloody shade of red, and some sort of liquid started to drip down from the message announcements. It had finally finished dripping into a glob, and then finally formed itself into a shape of a robe. There was no face, just eternal blackness.

"What's going on?" "Is that a GM?"

I heard from the people around me. A few seconds after the robes appearance, the mysterious figure raised its right hand as if to silence everyone. It seemed to work. It spoke in a low rumbling voice, "Welcome to my world. My name is Kayaba Akihiko, and I am the only who has any domain in this world."

"Today, I have imprisoned you. Why? Because I can. Because I want to see how far this world will make it. Because when thrust into life and death situations there could be so much to learn from humans if they're left to their own devices." Kayaba kept his monologue going. "I say life and death because if you die in this world, then you die in the real world. Should any of your family or friends attempt to pull the Nerve Gear off your head, then you will also die. There have already been 300 confirmed deaths of this cause."

He waved his right hand again screens popped up around him. Various news stories of deaths cause by the Nerve Gear filled those screens. I heard gasps of horror around me. Some people shouting out that this had to be some cruel joke. "Worry not, citizens of Sword Art Online, I am not cruel enough to keep you in here forever. If you clear all one hundred floors of SAO, then you are free to log off."

"That's a load of bull!" "That's too much!" Complaints this time, coming from all around me. It was then that I shouted. "Do you know how long that will take?!"

"Now that I have explained the rules, it's time I leave. Before I go, take a look in your inventories, I left a little gift for you to use." He opened both his arms as if to welcome us to SAO and started dissolving.

Almost collectively, everyone in the square opened the menu, in it was an item named "Small Hand Mirror". I tapped the item's name and it started to appear in the air before me. I cautiously grabbed it, thinking something would happen at the moment I touched it. I was relieved when there was no reaction. I looked around me and saw others that had taken out the mirror.

Just as I was teleported to the town square, a bright white light surrounded me. And just as quickly the light vanished. I looked around and saw that nothing had changed. Nothing, except the appearances of the people around me. Where there had been at least an even number of female players had (to most people's dismay) turned to an almost 90% male population. I looked into my mirror and found that my face had changed too, it appeared that it changed me to my real life appearance.

"What? But…how?" I exclaimed aloud.

The other players were stunned silent, none could think of what to say. I heard a voice to my left talk about the Nerve Gear having a full face scan at the beginning calibration, and another voice answering him that he had to touch various parts of his body to get the actions right. I turned toward their voices and saw a red haired man with a very ugly bandanna and a younger, black haired kid speaking. The younger kid looked around before grabbing Mr. Bandanna's arm "C'mon Klein, we've got to get outta here."

"Ah, Kirito, wa-" before Mr. Bandanna could get more than three words in, he was pulled away. I tried to shout out to them but I was too late. They were already out of the square and out of my sight by the time I tried to call out.

I had to force my way through a crowded square full of shocked people, not really an easy feat. After reaching the outer gate, I figured I should do some hunting, gain a bit more skill before everyone came to their senses. After about fifteen minutes, I notice more players coming out of the city. Knowing that they will start hunting the monsters out here as well, I start heading toward the road, hopefully to another town.

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A couple hours later

"Oh great, stuck in a forest, nothing to eat, and monsters appearing left and right. On top of that, I'm pretty sure I'm starting to go crazy. I'm starting to talk to myself, and I think I see hallucinations of another person in the woods behind me. How much longer can I take this? I don't know. But if I don't see an actual person soon, I might just go crazy." I start complaining to myself.

Before I can continue my thoughts, a giant wasp like monster pops out at me. "Oh hey look, you again? Can you just go away?" I say, taking out my initial sword. The wasp charged towards me, I take my stance and my sword lights up. I let my body relax as the Sword Skill takes over my body. I used the beginner Sword Skill Vertical, which, as the name suggests, is just a vertical strike. Not very fancy, but I decided not to go all overkill on the beast, knowing that a multi-hit skill would be too much to take out one lower levelled monster.

The wasp monster's body starts reeling back, and stops extremely awkwardly, finally shattering into pieces. I then get a message saying that I leveled up. "Oh hey, something new." I tap the "O.K." button and allocate the new points into the skills of my choice. I put most of the points into the "One Hand Sword," along with the rest of the points into "Searching," as there are only two skill slots available to a now level three player.

Now that my "Searching" skill was higher, I was able to detect that there actually was someone in the forest with me, and not hallucinating it. "Anyone other than me show yourself! I really do not want to have to use my sword!" I shouted out to the other person. As soon as the unknown pursuer was found out, they came out of the shadows. They were close enough that I could see a health bar, which was full. I also noticed that the cursor above them was still green, indicting the person hadn't attacked anyone.

One of the things I noticed about my stalker, oh ho, I have a stalker, what a weird ring to it, was that they were about 5'6. Another was that they carried two daggers instead of the usual one. Hmm, double dagger user huh? Interesting. "So, how long have you been following me?" I asked the shadowy figure. Without a word, the tiny body brought up the hand and pointed with the thumb to the way we came.

"Since the fields outside the Town of Beginnings." Came the short reply. It wasn't surprising to me that the voice was feminine. She lowered her arm to her side and continued to wait for my next question.

Not able to stand the silence anymore, I give my reply. "Well, if you aren't planning on stabbing me in the back anytime soon, why not join me? I'm heading to the next town, see if there's any good quests open." I'm usually opposed to partying up with someone unless I know them, but I knew that my acquaintances from the real world wouldn't have been able to get a copy yet, so I thought this would be the next best thing to do.

She silently nods her head, and I bring up menu and tap the "Invite to Party" button. She taps the accept button, thus actualizing our party. "My name is Slasher, pleased to meet your acquaintance." I say, bringing out my hand for a shake.

"Alice." Another short reply, ignoring my hand. Oh well, I'll get her to open up a bit more one of these days.

After a while of silent walking, we reached the next town. We try to find an inn to little success. "I guess the next best thing would be a B&B right?" I ask my usually silent partner. She just nods her head and continues to walk with me. After searching a few minutes we come across a rather good chance. It would've been harder to not notice that this seemed to be a quest giving house, so we knock on the door and ask if we could go inside for a rest. The woman who answered the door accepted and invited us in.

"So what brings you to this little town?" She asked us, heading back to her stove.

"Well, my friend and I come from the Town of Beginnings." I'm not sure how to answer, so I just go with the truth. "It took us a couple hours to actually get here, but when we finally reached the edge of town, we were getting pretty tired." I skipped over most parts of our journey, mostly because there wasn't much to talk about. And that's because there wasn't much talking going on anyway.

"Oh, are you two thirsty? All I can offer is a cup of water." She starts heading towards her cupboard and gets two cups out, one for each of us.

"I'm a little parched, thanks." I say with a smile. My partner nods silently. I give her a quick look to speak up. She just looks straight back at me before talking in a small voice.

"I would like to have a glass of water as well please." I think I felt my body freeze a bit after she looked at me. It must be my mind.

After getting our water, the woman returned to her stove again. After a couple seconds we heard muffled coughing from the adjacent room. The woman's shoulders slumped a bit at the sound. "Miss? Is there anything wrong?" I ask her.

"My daughter." She says in a low voice. "She seems to be infected with a deadly illness. I've taken her to a doctor, but they said that there wasn't much we could do. The only cure for her comes from a beast called the "Little Nepent". I'm not a swordswoman, so I can't do a thing about it, but I figure, if you two would accept my offer. Please get me the final ingredient to help out my daughter." She has tears in her eyes as she tells her story.

"If that's the least we can do, I'll be sure we get it tonight." I accept her quest. I thank her for the water and Alice and I head out of the house and back into the forest. After a while of silence again, I ask Alice "So, how hard do you think it'll be to find this rare breed of 'Little Nepent'?"

"It could take us all night." Came her curt response. She was searching around, looking for any signs of life. She stops in her tracks and calls out quietly. "Slasher, over there." She points to a little clearing in the forest. In it lies a weird plantlike monster. It actually reminded me a bit of a game my father used to play a lot when I was a kid. Except this monster had a bit more of a beefier body and a more realistic looking head. We moved in closer while trying not to get noticed. The curser above it was red and its name popped into our vision. "Little Nepent". This was it. But it didn't look like the same type as the one we needed. "Are we taking it out?" Alice asks me.

"We may as well, at least we'll get experience out of it." I take out my sword and get into a readying stance. Before I could do anything Alice speeds out there in the blink of an eye. I almost miss her taking off, she's just so fast. "Wow, she must put everything into Speed and Dex." I mutter to myself. She quickly strikes the monster and starts up one of her skills.

After her skill is finished, she calls out, "Switch." Not even in the heat of battle does she yell out. Her skill left a bit of leeway where I could go in and start attacking the monster. I go in guns…well, swords blazing and strike the monster relentlessly. I end my attack with the 4 hit combo "Square", finishing off the Nepent's health.

"Well, that was easy." I say, sheathing my sword. "Shall we continue searching?"

"After you." Alice's curt reply. "Here, you should have this" She said, handing me a small healing potion. It was then that I noticed my health bar had dipped a little.

"Oh, sorry, thanks." I accepted the potion and downed it pretty quickly. "You know, for a game that boasts that it has no magic whatsoever, what the hell are potions doing here?" She gave me another ice cold stare.

"Are you really joking right now? You heard what he said. If you die in this world, you die for real." Alice started to scold me. "Do you really want your last words to be a joke?"

"Well, yeah, if I can get your mind off of what Kayaba said today, than that means I'm doing the right thing. I want us to live in this world like we did in the real…well, except for the monster killing thing, that's like that only difference" I said, almost sure that I was about to get hit.

Other than getting hit, I was expecting to get some sort of "Wow, I never thought of it that way!" type of reaction. All I got was a shrug though. Oh well, the next best thing I guess. We kept walking deeper into the forest, trying to find more "Little Nepents".

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And so ends chapter 1. What will the next chapter bring? Who knows (well, other than me)? Find out next time on the Chronicles of John Smith! No but seriously, how'd you guys like this chapter compared to the old chapter? I think it turned out much better yeah? Anyway, favourite the story, or me if you so want, and leave a comment, either critiques or whatever. Until next time!

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Slasher: Welcome back Alice!

Alice: Thank you Thr-Slasher.

Slasher: Yeah, it's been a while since I had to go by this name eh?

Alice: It's definitely weird.

Slasher: Yup.

Oh my god, can you two not be more awkward? I should end this here before things get worse. Until next time you guys.