Robert Williams

My Time in SAO

Chapter 3

(Note: Last chapter, the date was November, 12th. Not December, 12th. Just to avoid confusion)

December 6th, 2022, Town 5, Floor 1, Aincrad.

It'd been a whole month by now. A total of two thousand players had died in what was slowly becoming known as the death game. By this point 'Rogue and I had pushed our player levels as high as they could go on Floor 1, and were sick of hearing that no one had found the boss room yet. Thankfully, the Aincrad Times newsletter had come up with a very interesting headline that morning. "Top player meeting: How to find/defeat Floor 1 Boss!" How convenient. I thought to myself, and told 'Rogue about it.

The meeting was to be held in a small, open-top theater, in the fifth town, at high noon. It wasn't that far from where he and I were 'stationed', but we still had to be quick. Once we got there, it looked like the place was already full, so we just hung back in the shadows, yet still within earshot. There was a tallish man with long, straight blue hair, and mid-level gear standing on the theater floor, while everyone else was seated together in various groups ready for the briefing.

After a few minutes, the speaker clapped his hands twice, and began his spiel. "Ok people. Now that everyone's here, let's get this meeting started. So anyway, I want to thank everyone for coming, good to see you. My name is Diabel, [Dee – aww – bell] and in this game, the job I rolled is knight."

There was a round of snickering and laughing from the crowd, and someone on the bottom row shouted, "Dude, there's no job system in this game!"

He resented that remark, as well as all the snickers, and continued on. "You guys want to hear this or not?" He asked, and everyone quieted down. Suddenly, Diabel's smile was gone, and a cold chill filled the air. "Right, so anyway here's the deal: Our party found the boss room at the top of the tower today." Everyone was shocked, and began talking again for a brief moment. "First, we need to defeat the boss, and make it to Floor 2. The next step is, we need to tell everyone waiting in the Town of Beginnings, that it is possible to beat this game! Fact is: It's our duty as the most capable players here. Do you agree, or not?" He asked, and another round of murmuring came from the crowd, as well as most everyone nodding yes in agreement. Then, a long round of clapping, whistling, and cat-calls came from the crowd.

"Ok, glad to hear you're all with me on this. Now, let's figure out how we're gonna beat the boss. First off: we'll team up into parties of six." He said, "A typical party won't stand a chance against the boss. We need a raid group, made up of multiple parties."

'Rogue and I looked at each other. "Do you think it's ok with him, if we just stick to us?" We asked in unison, and then chuckled a bit.

"It seems ok for those two. I said, directing his attention towards a couple up on the higher steps. They seemed to be getting along quite nicely, and didn't look to be worrying about anyone but themselves.

"Alright," Said Diabel again after a couple of social minutes had passed. "Looks like everyone's teamed up. Now then-"He was suddenly cut off by another voice from the top of the theater steps.

"Hold up a sec." Came the voice, and a male player with spiked ginger hair came bounding down the midway until he stood facing Diabel. "My name's Kipau, [Ki – pow] got that?" He asked. "Before we take on the boss, I want to get something off my chest. We all know about the two thousand people who've died so far, yeah? Well some of you need to apologize to 'em right now!" He said, pointing a finger at his audience.

Diabel spoke up again. "Kipau, I think I know who you're referring to. You mean the one's who're ex-beta-testers, right."

Kipau sounded offended when he shouted, "'Course I mean them! The day this stupid game started, the beta-guys just up and vanished, right? They ditched all us beginners! They snagged all the good hunting spots, and they grabbed all the easy quests too. They were the only ones gettin' stronger in here. This whole time, they've ignored us like we're nothin'. Hell, I bet there's some of 'em here!" He accused, once again waving a fist at the audience. "Come on out beta testers! We should make 'em apologize to us. And we should make 'em all give up their money, and the items they got!" He proclaimed, before folding his arms and stating, "They can't expect the party to trust them when they don't trust us. Why should we?"

I looked around, and from where I stood, quite a few people were sweating a little too hard. About to snap, I'd say. But then, someone else spoke up, a taller, bald black man, seated in the middle of the audience. "Can I say somethin'?" He asked, before being the third person down on the stage. When he came down to face Kipau, I could tell the ginger was intimidated by his larger size and stature.

"Hey, my name's Agiel. [Egg – ee – ell] Kipau, right? I want to make sure I'm on the same page. You say the ex-beta-testers should be blamed for the rookies' deaths because they didn't help 'em, and you want to apologize and give up their winnings. I leave anything out?" He asked.

"No, you didn't." Kipau said, once again feeling offended. Agiel reached his left hand into his pocket, - his elbow coming dangerously close to the battle-axe, openly swung around his shoulders – and pulled out an easily recognizable, small, brown hard-cover info book.

"The item store hands these out for free." He explained, showing it plain as day to Kipau. "It's a guide book. You got one, didn't you?" He inquired.

"Sure I got one. So what about it?" Kipau asked curiously.

"You know who was handing these out?" Agiel questioned. "The ex-beta-testers, that's who." He paused for a second, then turned around to the audience. "Listen up. Everyone had equal access to this information. Even so, lots of players still died. Now I didn't come here to point fingers at anyone. I'm here cause I want to learn from those players' deaths. I'm here because I want to find out how we're gonna beat the boss." With that, Agiel, turned back around to face Kipau, who gave him a disapproving look, then plopped his sorry behind on a step, folding his arms and looking defeated.

Once Agiel too, had sat back down, Diabel started back up again. "Ok. Can we get back to the meeting now?" He asked, and received another round of nods in agreement. "For info on the boss, it's all in here." He said, holding up his copy of the guide book. "The latest issue of the guide book you just heard about." He flipped to the middle of the book for reference. "According to the book, the bosses name is: Eilfang [Ill – fang] the Kobold Lord. Also, he'll be surrounded by his minions: the Ruined Kobold Sentinels. Eilfang carries an axe, and a buckler." (A buckler, if you're wondering, is a roundish, shield type item that can be used offensively, as well as defensively.) "He has four health bars, and when the last one turns red, he switches to a curved, sword type weapon, called a Tulwar. He can change his patterns of attack too."

He closed his guide book. "That's it for the briefing. As for the distribution of loot, money will be divided equally among everyone. The party that defeats the boss, gets the XP. And, whoever gets an item, gets to keep it. Any objections?" Thankfully, none came up. "Good! We leave tomorrow, at ten in the morning. Meeting adjourned, people!" At that, some people stood up to go, whilst others sat and discussed strategies, and the three speakers in particular were discussing apologies amongst each other as far as I could tell.

'Rogue and I just nodded to each other, and walked off, ready for lunch. We found ourselves at a small, NPC-run café in the heart of town.

"So," I said as we started chowing down on some expensive, K-class food. "You ready for the boss tomorrow?" I asked as we were already half way through an otherwise silent meal.

"Yup." He stated bluntly before taking another bite. "I mean, we've done everything we can on this floor. It's only logical that our next move will be to advance." He finally said.

"Alright Spock, finish your food and let's go." I said, after chuckling again for a brief moment. We ate our food rather quickly after that, then headed back to what we were temporarily calling our home in the seventh town, until the boss was cleared, and we could move on.

To Be Continued …?