Chapter Three

Lucy's POV

The inn was rather small, deserted, and comfortable. All four of us sat around a small wooden table in silence. I stared down at the table, hands folded in my lap.

"What does this mean?" I asked no one in particular. "What will happen to us?"

"I'm sure that we'll clear the game, Lucy. However, we beta testers didn't even make it higher than level 10, so it will likely take a while," Erza answered softly, and I glanced around the table. Everyone had serious expressions, even Natsu.

"Okay, so how do we clear it?" I asked, gazing around at them hopefully. "If we can do that, we can go home."

"Well, first they need to find the boss room for this level. We need to gear up for that, though," Gray rubbed his chin and his eyebrows knit. "We should go to the next town, the hunting grounds around here will be wiped clean."

"Good idea," Erza nodded and turned to Natsu. "What do you think?"

He just grunted in agreement and looked away. I raised an eyebrow, but Natsu didn't look at any of us. Gray cleared his throat. "Well, we better get a move on. We'll need weapons."

"What about our skills?" I asked curiously. "We can use those, right?"

"It's good to have a weapon just in case," Erza answered for Gray. "And my skill requires weapons and armor."

"Oh, I see," Geez, why am I such a noob? "Well, let's go, then."

Gray stood up, somehow having lost his shirt. I sweatdropped, "Gray, your clothes."

"What about my- ack! How does that even work?!" he yelled, looking down and finding his shirt had disappeared. "I thought I was safe!"

After Gray had gotten his shirt back, we followed Erza out the door, making our way through the winding streets and finding the weapon shop. There were hardly any players around, and some that we encountered were just sitting in the street, staring off into space. The weapon shop was packed. Players were milling around, waiting in the long line of players buying weapons.

"Let's split up, we'll find what we need faster that way," Gray suggested.

"Right," I muttered and tried to find an empty part of the shop. And then I saw it.

A whip hung in front of me, it was brown, completely covered in small rhombs, and possessed a notably large handle, in comparison to the thin rope part. It ended in a distinctive, heart-shaped cracker. Something drew me towards it, although it did not look particularly special. I tapped the space in front it, and an item name came up.

Fleuve d'étoiles:

The River of Stars

15,000 cor

I knew what I wanted. The River of Stars… It fit my Celestial theme. I turned around on one foot, and, spotting Natsu in the crowd, made my way over to where he was checking out a sword. "I know what I'm getting."

"Mm, that's nice Luigi," he muttered, flapping a hand in my direction.

"Really?!" I scoffed and a tick mark appeared on my forehead. "It's Lucy! You know that!"

"Yeah, okay Luce," he stopped staring at the sword and glanced up. He looked… worried almost. "Let's go."

"Uh, okay," I stepped back and watched him closely. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he assured, flashing a quick grin. "Let's go find Erza and Stripper."

"Right," I followed him through the crowded store, finding Erza looking at a collection of swords that each had blue wings on the blade, and white wings protruding from the hilt. A ruby was set in each one.

"Do those all go together?" I asked her and she looked over with a happy expression.

"Yes, these will come in handy for my skill," she glowed and went back to caressing the hilt of one. "Do you know what you're buying?"

"Yeah," I answered, glancing over to where the whip was hanging.

"I'm not gettin' anything," Natsu proclaimed and Erza and I looked over at him in surprise.

"Really? Don't you want some sort of backup weapon?" I questioned. Erza nodded in agreement with me.

"You could die if your power ran out," Erza supported.

"Like that'll happen! Besides, I don't need it," he huffed and put his hands behind his head.

"Okay, if you insist," I shrugged and looked around. "Where's-"

"EEEP! WHY ARE YOU STRIPPING?!" I heard a girl cry from the other side of the shop.

"There he is," I muttered and struggled past the crowd in the weapon shop. I emerged suddenly, which caused me to stumble forward without the support of the my other players. Then I looked up.

The shoppers had given my friend a wide berth, and a girl was pointing at him with a look of terror, which was probably because he was only wearing boxers. I stood up straight and sweatdropped.

"Look, it's not what you think-" Gray put his hands up, but I slapped a hand over his mouth before he made this any worse.

"I'm sorry, my friend here has a stripping habit, which was developed in a very traumatizing experience. I'll get him some clothes," I apologized shortly to the girl and opened my menu. A shirt and pants popped into existence. "Here Gray, I picked these up for you."

"Thanks, Lucy," he thanked as he pulled the clothes on. The crowd still gave him some space, but the girl looked better, like she wasn't about to run away. When Gray finished dressing himself, I wrapped my hand around his cold wrist and dragged him off to Erza and Natsu.

"We're heading to the next town," Erza was saying. "We'll need to get there before the others so we can get more exp. and money."

"Sounds good," Gray interrupted before turning to me. "So, Lucy. What kind of trauma did I experience this time?"

"I count your crazy family as traumatizing," I shivered at the memory. "No offense."

Gray shrugged it off, "I've known they were crazy for a long time."

"We have to focus," Erza declared. "Did you buy your weapons yet?"

"Oh, I completely forgot about that," I snapped my fingers. "Wait for me."

Without another word, I raced over to the shrinking line and opened my menu. I have 20,000 cor from killing all those monsters with my keys in the hunting grounds when we first got here… I shivered at the memory. The only key I hadn't used was Aquarius, so I decided to just test it, but she was… less than pleased. Focus! The River of Stars was 16,000, so I'll have 4,000 cor left for other things.

"Next in line?" the NPC called. I stepped up to the counter as a trade menu opened in front of me.

Please select which item you would like to trade for.

The River of Stars

16,000 cor

Are you sure you want to make this trade?

Yes

I saw The River of Stars appear in my inventory and the window closed. I stepped back, but my foot hit something other than floor. It was someone's foot. "Eh?"

I slipped back, crashing into the person behind me, arms flailing. My head connected hard with the floor, and I winced before remembering that it didn't hurt. The person I fell into muttered a curse and I felt my arm being pushed off. I propped myself up on my elbows and gathered my legs underneath me, pushing off the ground so I was crouched on the floor. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry."

"I'm fine," the boy behind me grunted and I recognized the boy from before, Kirito. I quickly stood up and turned around on one foot.

"Hey, you're the guy who knocked me over before," I accused. "I recognize your voice!"

"Oh, that was you? Well I guess now we're even, huh?" Kirito joked and rubbed the back of his neck. He had short dark hair and black eyes with a slightly girlish face, and looked to be slightly younger than me, maybe 15 or 16.

I eyed him before answering,"Yeah I guess."

I moved out of the way for him and he stepped up to the counter. I walked over to where my friends were, but I cast a curious look over my shoulder. There's something else familiar about him. The way he held himself…

oOo

"You okay, Lucy? You look distracted," Erza commented as we walked along the path. The field spread out on either side of us, the moon was the only thing illuminating the way in front of us. Armor and swords clinked, and there was little conversation.

"I'm fine," I assured before going back to my thoughts. Kirito's aura… Erza, Natsu, and Gray had it too. Wait, was he a beta tester?

I was wrenched out of my thoughts when a growl ripped through the quiet night. My hand went to my side where my keys were and all four of us stopped. Light bloomed as Natsu lit his hands. I pulled out Loke's key and held it in front of me, staring into the shadows around us.

Light flashed and a pair of red gleaming eyes shown for a moment before the monster growled again. And then a creature leaped from the darkness. It was a wolf, with white legs and a white face, while the rest of the creature was covered in thick brown fur. It landed on all fours in the pool of light surrounding us and growled again.

"It's a Dire Wolf! The stomach is it's most vulnerable part," Erza called out a rushed forward, sword in hand. The wolf leaped away as she thrusted forward, but she followed after, just as two more wolves jumped into Natsu's light.

Gray went after one, putting his hands together and yelling,"Ice Make: Geyser!"

Natsu jumped at the other one with,"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"

Gray pressed his hands to the ground and a geyser of ice erupted from the ground, effectively freezing the Dire Wolf and killing it. At the same time, Natsu slammed into the poor wolf with a flaming fist, killing it with one hit. Just then, a third wolf came into my vision.

Brandishing Loke's key, I summoned my strength and called,"Open, Gate of the Lion! Leo!"

Loke, as he told me to call him, burst into the fight. The golden glow disappeared as Loke jumped into action, fist aglow as he called out,"Regulus Impact!"

Golden light shot from his hand as he slammed it into the wolf's face, moving so fast a trail of light was left in my vision. The wolf exploded in a burst of pixels, and the fight was over.

"Thanks, Loke," I smiled at the spirit before his gat closed. "Although it looks like we didn't need that weakness information from Erza."

"No problem, my Lucy," he flirted before disappearing. These spirits acted like real people, AI or something. Loke was a complete flirt, but it was harmless.

"Let's see what we got," Erza suggested as she joined the rest of us.

I swiped my fingers and navigated to my inventory. I got 40 cor from defeating the Dire Wolf. There was another item there. Dire Teeth. "What're Dire Teeth for?"

"I think you can sell them for 20 cor," Gray answered and closed his inventory.

"C'mon! I wanna get to the next village before sunrise," Natsu urged us along as we resumed our walk as if nothing happened.


Stay tuned for more and thanks to:

A Sleeptalking Demigod

Rhianna Park

kaseylee135

Skyline1912

theothergy

for reviewing Chapter Two!

Update 1/8/16:

The last part was just added.