Chapter 3
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Japan, November 7th 2022.
"Kazuto, I'm off to practice, I'll see you at…oh, that's right." Suguha was leaving her house and notifying Kazuto just like any other day. "Old habits die hard, I guess." Thought Suguha. It had become custom for her to shout up at Kazuto's room when she was leaving, so at least Kazuto knew he was alone. Whether or not he cared was a different story. In this case, no one was there for Suguha to shout to. Something that would take her getting used to.
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1st Floor, Horunka Village, Aincrad. November 7th 2022
Kirito awoke just before sunrise. He thought he had slept surprisingly well, all things considered. The NerveGear full dive captured the human experience completely. Although sleeping and eating wouldn't do anything for him in real life, the feelings and effects of food and sleep were simulated. He retrieved a bread roll from his inventory and devoured it. He usually wasn't too hungry in the mornings, but today was an exception. He set out to the forest just North of Horunka, the tree line only a quick walk from town. After breaching the tree line to no event, he finally encountered what he came there for. On a large pine tree ahead of Kirito crawled down a massive spider. It's eyes not breaking contact with him as it was moving. Kirito glanced up for its' info. The spider appeared as a normal Bark Spider and he observed it was a level six. Kirito, still sitting at level two, knew this would be a tough fight, but the experience reward would be well worth it. The spider began the fight by spitting a ball of web at Kirito, which he easily dodged. Kirito leaped into the air, slashing at the spider and landing a minor hit, but the spider was unfazed. The spider turned around and began to charge at Kirito with its front legs raised up. Kirito charged straight back at it, landing a more significant hit. Kirito looked back to see the damage he had done. The spider was missing a leg due to the blow Kirito had connected with.
"Whoa, that can happen?" Kirito thought. He didn't know the system simulated body parts to the extent of being severed, let alone simulating individual limb damage as well. He figured it was true for players, but not NPCs. He checked the status bar of the Bark Spider. It's health bar was in the red, and was not going down over time like he began to suspect could have been a possibility. "No bleed damage, good to know." Kirito thought. He made one last thrust towards the spider and the beast was slain. "That wasn't too bad." He thought. Kirito watched his experience bar tick up a significant portion, almost to another level. "Well, it only gets easier from here." He continued onward, deeper and deeper into the forest.
"Rise and shine, guys!" Shouted Klein towards the rest of the inn. It was already late morning and he couldn't find any trace of his friends. He hadn't seen anyone else check in, so he figured he wouldn't be disturbing other guests. A few minutes later, Klein's friends began to meander out of their rooms, some still half asleep. First Soma, followed by Lis and Haro shortly after.
"What time is it?" Yawned Haro.
"It, is eleven in the morning, lazy bum." Replied Klein. "Grab your gear, and let's get out of here!"
"Alright sounds good." The three said in unison. After a brief time, the group was ready, and set out to forest North of Horunka. They walked through the woods, with not a creature in sight
"Damn," Said Klein. "I thought there would be monsters here we could face. But it's dead. I never saw anyone else enter the forest. Is it really this sparse?"
"Let's just keep going, I'm sure we'll find action somewhere!" Lis smiled. She was eager to learn more today, to prevent another "wolf incident" from occurring. The group continued through the forest, with not a living thing in sight. They arrived at a mountain side. They had reached the end of the woods.
"Well, I guess we better turn back." Said Klein.
"Wait," Started Lis. "Do you guys hear that?" The group went silent, and a feint howling could be heard in the distance. The howling was constant, so it wasn't coming from wolves. "Let's go check it out!" Lis shouted as she ran off. The rest of the group followed her. They eventually arrived at a cave entrance.
"Oh, now this is what I'm talking about. I'm sure we'll find some monsters in here to fight!" Said Soma, excitedly.
"Alright guys, let's go in, but we must be very careful. Remember, we all have to come back." Replied Klein. The group marched onward into the cave.
"Man, still nothing." Remarked Haro. The group had been wandering the cave for twenty minutes, and couldn't find any signs of life.
"We shouldn't waste our time here, let's go." Ordered Klein. The group made their back through the cave, and could almost see the entrance.
"Look, we're almost the- "Soma had been cut off. Lis watching him from behind saw him fall through the floor. Klein and Haro looked back.
"H-he fell through the ground?" Lis said, pointing to the hole where Soma once was.
"Soma, can you hear me? Are you alright?" Shouted Klein.
"Yeah, I'm fine! I think I'm in some sort of den. There are tons of webs around here." Came the reply. Soma observed his new surroundings. In one of the corners of the room, he saw beady eyes staring back at him. "Guys, I'm not alone down here!".
"Hang on, we're coming!" Klein said, jumping through the hole. Lis and Haro followed.
All landing with a thud, Klein, Lis and Haro all joined Soma in the pit. As they looked around, they saw the same set of beady eyes Soma had seen. From the shadows, it appeared. Arana, Queen of the Arachne. Level 10. Thousands of tinier spiders began to spill off her back, and scurry across the room. They were harmless. Arana reared up, and began her attack, charging at Soma. Soma held his sword up in a defensive posture, and absorbed the brunt of the attack, but skidded back on his feet due to the force of the charge. More sets of eyes could be seen in the shadows, before revealing themselves to be Arana's workers, here to defend their queen.
"This isn't good!" Shouted Klein. "Haro, Lis, try and pull the other spiders away from the queen. Soma and I will handle her!"
"Got it!" Lis and Haro both shouted back. They began to run around the lair, distracting the workers by scratching them with their swords. Lis and Haro were faced with a horde surrounding them.
"I hope these are easier than the wolves we fought earlier!" Exclaimed Lis. She looked over to Haro, who was wiping out masses with singular strikes. The workers didn't have a lot of HP, just relying on overwhelming numbers, and were weak even compared to the level one players. Lis began her charge. She felt a strange feeling while striking, but was still unable to initiate any full attacks. "Once more." She thought and charged again. Lis felt the same strange feeling and on a whim added more power to her attack. She was greeted with the sight of her sword glowing as she attacked. She looked back at the spiders she struck, their health bars had all dwindled to zero, and the flurry of polygons could be seen rising from the corpses.
"Nice job Lis, you did it!" Shouted Haro. "But, there are still plenty more!"
The two continued their battle. Klein and Soma were barely managing Arana. Barely able to get attacks in between dodging her attacks. Even when they did attack, Arana's health bar would barely shrink. She was almost too strong for them, Klein and Soma knew that due to the difference in level, a single attack landing from Arana would send them to the grave. Arana went to charge at Soma.
"Watch out!" Warned Klein.
"Don't worry, I got it!" As Soma leapt to the side. He noticed his health bar tick down a slight bit. Klein noticed the same thing, and looked over at him.\
"She must have nicked me. I'm alright though!"
Haro and Lis had disposed of the workers, at least for the time being, and went to join Soma and Klein fighting Arana.
"How's it going over here?" Asked Lis.
"Not good!" Replied Klein, dodging an attack. "We've barely put a mark on her." Lis looked at Arana's health. Klein was correct, Arana's health bar looked like it had barely moved. The four continued the fight, making slow progress. It was much easier to get attacks in with four of them fighting Arana. Lis looked up to check Arana's health.
"Hey guys, her health is in the yellow now!" The others looked up and confirmed. Arana seemed almost surprised at this as well. The spider queen leapt up into the air, and free fell with all her legs extended.
"Don't get pinned!" Screamed Soma, running from the falling mass of spider. Soma looked through the cloud of dust created by the impact. "Klein, no!" Soma looked over and saw Klein pinned under a tip of Arana's leg. Struggled as he may, Klein wasn't going anywhere. Noticing she had caught prey, Arana focused her attention to Klein. The spider queen began to pull back to thrust with her fangs towards Klein to kill her entrapped victim. Klein closed his eyes, waiting for death to take him. He would be free from Aincrad after only a day, but he wasn't ready yet. He wanted to wake up in the hospital bed, thinking it was all a bad dream. He wanted to make coffee for Lis again. He wanted to survive Aincrad, but now, he would be free after only a day.
There was a flash of light, and a splatter of blood. Klein opened his eyes to see a figure in front of him, sword drawn. He looked down to his abdomen where the spider had him pinned. There was a piece of leg sticking out of him, with no spider attached. Klein felt a huge wave of relief wash over him, and looked up at the figure again. "Kirito!" Exclaimed Klein.
"Stay back, I can handle the rest of this!" Kirito replied, charging forward for an attack. His sword strikes were illuminating the lair, each more aggressive and damaging than the last.
"He's so quick." Thought Lis. "I've never seen someone so adept. Has he really only been playing for a day?"
Arana's full attention was now on Kirito, as the rest of the group had ceased their attack. Kirito went in for a sprinting strike, severing one of the fangs. At the end of his stride, he caught the fang and wielded it in his left hand. Kirito made a final leap into the air, and drove his sword and the fang into Arana's head. Her body went limp and collapsed, before dissipating into the beautiful polygonal array all creatures did. More polygons released with her than any other enemy Kirito had seen killed.
A menu box opened to Kirito. "Congratulation!" exclaimed the box. After the message flashed the menu contained the description for an item. Breastplate of Silk.
"Kirito, what are you doing here?" Asked Klein.
"I would ask the same of you." Kirito replied.
"Well, I took your advice and decided it'd be best for my friends and I to get to the next town, like you said you were doing. We stayed at the inn for the night and went out into the forest to try and get leveled up and hone our skills. But we couldn't find anything besides Arana."
Kirito glanced up at Klein's level, Level 3, and assumed that was only recently achieved by the death of Arana. "It was foolish for you guys to tackle this at your level. Even if there were four of you."
"Well, we tried to level up, but couldn't find any creatures in the forest or the cave. Soma here fell through a trap and into this lair here. We jumped after him, and well you can figure out what happened next. I assume the lack of creatures is due to you?" Klein asked, glancing up at Kirito's level. Level 6.
"Yeah, I killed most of the creatures in the forest and the cave. I left the inn just before dawn. I was resting when I heard fighting going on from below me in the cave. I wandered around a bit, and found the entrance to the lair."
"Well, thanks anyway. Wait a minute, do we get anything for killing Arana? Was all of that work for nothing?"
"No, you got experience. Check your levels right now." Klein Lis, Soma, and Haro all checked. Level 3. "But, the piece of gear dropped from Arana only goes to the person who dealt the killing blow. Look here." Kirito equipped the breastplate that dropped. "The experience is split by those who were in combat with her. We all got an even portion. My bar moved a bit, but yours completed at least twice. Klein, please be more careful. This isn't just a game anymore." Kirito began to walk away to the exit.
"Wait, Kirito-" Just as Klein said that, Soma dropped to the ground. "Soma!" The four rushed over to him. "What's wrong?"
Soma could only manage a cough, trying to speak. Kirito glanced to Soma's health. It was gradually going down, and was already in the red. Over the red, Kirito could see it, a feint purple tinge around the health bar. Hard to see around the fog and darkness of the cave. "
"He's been poisoned. Did he get hit during the fight?" Asked Kirito.
"Yeah, he got nicked by an attack and didn't think much of it. His health only ticked down a little bit."
"That attack must have been with one of her fangs. They were laced with poison. He must not have noticed due to the excitement of the fight. His health has been going down this entire time." Kirito held up Soma's arm, revealing a seemingly minor scratch. "This must be the hit."
"Well, what do we do? We can't just let him die!" Lis said distressed, tears beginning in her eyes.
"Does anyone have an antidote on them?" Asked Kirito. The three of them all looked around puzzled. "Then there's nothing we can do. I'm sorry Klein."
"Kirito, you don't have an antidote on you?" Asked Klein.
"No, I never picked one up at the inn. I figured I didn't need it as long as I didn't get hit."
"Damn it! Soma, I'm so sorry…" Klein began sobbing.
Haro and Lis put their hands around Klein and Soma. "Klein, please keep the others safe. P-please, put an end to this world. Put an end to Kayaba." Wished Soma, taking his last breath. Instantly Soma disappeared, dissipating into the polygonal ash signifying death, leaving Klein and the others holding air. All they could do is sit on their knees, defeated, where Soma once was...
"Klein, I'm sorry." Said Kirito, walking off into the darkness of the cave. Kirito didn't want to show it, but he was deeply saddened by the death of Soma. He never knew him, but regardless, the death of someone in front of you has an effect. Kirito hoped to never have to experience that again, by means of being solo as much as possible, he thought would be the best preventative measure. "It's only the second day, and this world is already unforgiving." Kirito thought. "I'm not dying. I will fight to the end, relentlessly, and put an end to these people's misery. Even if I have to do it alone."