Kirito opened his eyes. The first thing he noticed were that his clothes were soaking wet, and then he remembered the storm Asuna pointed out the night before. Speaking of her, she was still fast asleep on the grass next to him. Kirito nudged her arm. "Hey, wake up. We still have a lot of walking to do."
She lifted her head off the ground; a blade of wet grass sticking to her cheek. "What?" She said half asleep.
"Get up, we're not even halfway to the town yet."
She stood up, rubbed her eyes, and equipped her boots. Kirito slung the scabbard for his sword over his shoulder, and the two continued their walk. They walked for nearly thirty minutes before Asuna finally started a conversation. "So, what are you going to do once we get there?"
"I'm getting something to eat. I'm about to start taking damage from this." Kirito had a love/hate relationship with hunger in the game. It was certainly realistic, in the sense that if it was depleted your character's health bar would start to go down, but it was also very annoying.
Asuna broke into a wide smile. "I could make something! My cooking skill is really high."
Kirito grinned. She was cute, had a nice personality, was great in combat, and could cook? "...But you wouldn't have anywhere to cook unless we bought a house. And even with the huge amount of money I got from killing the boss, I'm still several thousand short for that."
Asuna frowned. "Oh."
An idea hit Kirito. "Hey, how's your sword doing?"
"I don't know, I haven't checked since before the boss fight." She opened her menu and navigated to the equipment section. "It's only at one-third durability."
"I could give you some of that money so you can buy a new sword."
"What? No! I couldn't ask you to do that. I'm perfectly fine."
"It's okay. I'll still have plenty left over for me. I'll just half it." Before she could protest, Kirito opened up his menu and shared half of his 7,000 credits with her. Asuna received the notification that a new item had been added to her inventory.
She sighed, knowing that arguing with him further was pointless. "Fine. Thanks for the money."
"You're welcome."
"So, how do you think the players will react to seeing you? You being public enemy number one at the moment." Asuna said.
Kirito hadn't even thought of that. "Crap. I guess I'll have to change into my old armor when we get there."
"Smart. Even then though, there's no guarantee. If they do recognize you, how bad do you think it will get?"
"If I were being optimistic, then they would probably shout insults at me and throw rocks. Maybe swo-" Kirito stopped himself as he saw three, no, four people in the distance, approaching them. Instinctively, Kirito grabbed Asuna's arm and ran for the trees. He found one about a meter in thickness, and then crouched behind it.
"What are you doing?" Asuna whispered.
"They could be bounty hunters. It's a small group, and they're heading away from the town." Asuna nodded as the players came into view. They were all in black cloaks, and each of them had an assortment of knives, plus a longsword at their hip. He noticed they all had the same emblem on their shoulders, a demented smile painted onto a wooden coffin with an arm coming out of its side. Laughing Coffin.
Kirito tried to listen in on their conversation. "We should head back. There's no way the stupid kid could be this far back." He heard one of the players say.
"ZaZa's right. No one's back here."
The player in front of them sighed. "Fine, we'll head back to HQ. Pussies." They continued to walk towards the first floor. Finally, they were out of sight.
"Watch out for anyone dressed in black." Kirito whispered to Asuna as he stood up and got back on the path. Asuna nodded, and took her place at his side. "Anyways, in case there are some of them in the bushes on our way..." Kirito opened his menu and equipped his old armor.
THIRTY MINUTES LATER
The town was finally coming into view. Kirito checked the time. 12:30 p.m. They had been walking for two and a half hours. "Alright, I'll meet you..." Kirito looked around for an easy spot to find. "...there." He pointed towards a three-story inn.
"Alright. Meet you there!" Asuna took off running, straight for a weapons shop. Kirito, on the other hand, ran for the nearest restaurant. Fortunately, there was one right near the entrance. Kirito burst through the door, everyone in the room looking at him like he was crazy. Fortunately though, none of them got up and drew their sword. He pushed his way right to the front. Frantically, he opened up the 'For Sale' icon floating above the counter. Without a second thought, he bought a rack of boar ribs, a basked of bread, and two slices of pie.
He turned around and tried to make his way back through the line of people, every single one of them giving him a dirty look. He sat down on a bench right outside the restaurant. With every bystander giving him a disgusted look, he wolfed down all of the ribs, three of the five pieces of bread, and one slice of pie. With each bite, Kirito couldn't help but thinking of how great it tasted; how it tasted like something he would never get to have in real life. With his hunger meter fully restored, he started for the weapons shop.
Once he got there, he could already tell he was going to walk away satisfied. A girl his age, and bubblegum pink hair with a red and white blacksmith's apron was standing in the store, a huge smile on her face. The girl was surrounded by rows upon rows of weaponry.
"Hello! My name's Lisbeth, how can I help you?" Her cheery attitude almost caught him off guard. She wasn't an NPC; the green marker normally above a visible player's head was clearly there.
"I was wondering what I could get for this sword." He took the sword out of his scabbard and handed it to her. The weight of the weapon almost seemed to throw her off balance.
"It's a stock weapon, and at three-fourths durability."
"So... what's it worth?"
"I'd say... about 200 max."
"Alright. Good enough for me." With a few flicks of his finger and the press of a button, the sword disappeared from his inventory, 200 credits were added, and the scabbard for the weapon disappeared from his back.
"Anything else for you?"
"What's the best one-handed sword you have?" She looked at him like he was insane.
"Well... I do have this one sword, but I don't think you can afford it. Besides, your strength stat may not be high enough."
"Well, what is it?" Kirito persisted.
"This." She pressed a button on her menu, and a large longsword sheathed in a black scabbard materialized in her hands. She handed the weapon to Kirito.
"Anneal Blade..." Kirito read the name of the item as he looked at the weapon under the scabbard. The hilt was completely black, and the guard was just enough to look cool, but not necessarily flashy. He put the tip of the weapon on the floor and held the hilt to his chest. The sword was far too long to draw from the back.
"It costs 3,550. It was a field boss drop from the last floor, and it's good as new; no one I know has the strength stat to wield that thing." Kirito looked at the weapon. Required Strength: Lvl 40. Kirito checked his stats. Strength Lvl: 42. He was just strong enough.
"I'll take it." Lisbeth's jaw dropped. He opened up his menu, and bought the weapon. 3,550 credits disappeared from his inventory. Lisbeth still had a shocked look on her face. "Thanks for the help!" Kirito said as he walked out the door, fastening the weapon to his belt.
Kirito could already see Asuna waiting outside the inn. She was admiring a shiny new rapier in her hand. "What'd you get?" Asuna jumped, surprised to see him.
"I got a new rapier. It cost me just about all of my money though."
"What's it called?"
"It's called the 'Wind Fleuret'. What'd you get?"
"This." He drew the sword from his side, an action that would take some getting used to. He held up the blade in the sunlight, Asuna gawking at it. "It's called the 'Anneal Blade'. This thing cost me all of my money, and I'm just barely strong enough to use it." Kirito backed away, preparing to swing the weapon for the first time.
In a single swift motion, he raised the blade above his head and swung downward, powerful enough to cleave a boar in half. Kirito turned his wrist slightly, putting himself in the perfect position for a second strike. He swung the weapon horizontally, the weight of the weapon giving him a harder time than he thought to stop the momentum. He swung again, this time upwards, and finally brought the blade down as hard as he could, the edge of the weapon tapping against the ground; causing the 'Immortal Object' notification to appear in front of him.
"Where'd you learn that one?"
"Just a little combo I came up with a couple weeks ago." Kirito said, grinning.
"Could you teach me?" Asuna sounded so eager.
"Sure. But it won't be much with a rapier. Those are mainly stabbing weapons."
"I kno-" Asuna stopped herself upon hearing the crowd of people around them fall silent. The people steadily began to back away from Kirito and Asuna, who were both looking quite concerned.
A man... in a black cloak... was slowly approaching them. The man spoke with a deep, almost malevolent voice as he drew a sword, covered in spikes and serrations.
"Kirito... you're time has come."
