Disclaimer: Need I still stay it? I do not own Sword Art Online or their characters. I only own Monica and Enzo, who –

Monica: You're not allowed to spoil the chapter! D=

Chapter 3: The first day, and the first boss

November 6th, Aincrad 1st floor, Starting City 8:30pm

When Klein and I neared the central plaza of the Starting City, we saw a blonde man running towards us. I realized it was Enzo on closer look. He was screaming something nonsensical, as if he was in a trance.

"We got to follow him… He might be planning something crazy…" I nudged Klein as I started to chase him.

We had a short chase before I saw Enzo did something that scarred me for the rest of my life.

Enzo jumped off the castle, yelling 'freedom' to his death.

I watched Enzo's figure disappear before my eyes, his polygons scattered in the wind.

"What… just happened…?"

I ushered those words out of my mouth as Klein stared at the spot Enzo was, eyes wide open as well.

"Oi, Oi… Is he crazy or something!? If we die here, we die in real life!"

Klein ranted on as I continued watching the place Enzo's polygons originally were at, trying not to believe he died. My vision became teary and my face started feeling wet.

"Monica."

"What…?"

"Let's go… we need to find my friends and prevent as many people from committing suicide."

"Ah… Un…" I could barely force my voice out now. Klein pulled my hand along, about to guide me towards to central plaza.

When we turned around, we saw a crowd gathering around us.

"What happened to that man?" On hearing that, Klein closed his eyes.

"He's dead… the system killed him…"

"What! He said that we would get disconnected if we jumped off! Are you lying?" One of the men had shouted at him. He made his way to the iron fence and peered down…

"Where is he?"

"I told you just now! He's dead! He's not coming back!" Klein yelled at him.

"LIAR! He got disconnected, right? He's out of the game! He escaped, didn't he? He said he helped with the programming!" The blue-haired man screamed back at him. He started climbing the fence. The sound cleared up my thoughts, and I roared at him.

"We're telling the truth!"

"Whose words are you going to listen to!? Some strangers we don't know!? OR a programmer's word!?" That man announced to the crowd.

"Hey, Joker! Don't do that! It's suicidal!" Someone in the crowd shouted at him, his friend?

"Nonsense! It's the easiest way to escape! Come on, we can get out of this game!"

"Don't!" That was the last thing he heard.

He jumped… and scattered quickly within minutes.

The crowd had gathered at the fence. Mutters of 'Did he escape' and 'did he die' were heard from them. By then, I had recovered from my shock.

These people, who jumped off from the castle, could not take the pressure of this death game… I can't save them…

"Klein… Let's go find your friends…"

"Hah…? But—"

"We can't save them… They've made up their mind…" I now pulled his hand along, away from those fences and all their deaths…

November 6th, Aincrad 1st floor, Starting City 9:00pm

"Good to see you, Dale!"

"You too, Klein! You finally got yourself a girlfriend?"

"Wish she was… she's only interested in clearing the game…"

I felt out of place with Klein's entire group gathered for their reunion. Proclamations of good health and jokes were exchanged between them while I leaned on a wall, watching it all…

I highly doubt my 'gaming friends', as I sarcastically call them are even interested in the Nerve Gear Machine. They constant mock me for playing games that no one knows.

What they didn't know was how advanced in their game I was that I had gotten quite bored of it. The companies of those games had begun to get repetitive during their updates, slapping fancy words for the 'new' systems and classes.

If I recall correctly, the game they are playing now is Blade&Soul… a game recently popular with them a few years back, but started at least a decade ago. I had reached the level cap before they got in and moved on to virtual reality games. They started making fun of me, thinking that virtual reality games did not exist. Those idiots… they never watch the news… Or maybe fortunately for them since they aren't stuck in this death game.

"Oi… Monica…"

I snapped out of my daydreaming when Klein waved his hands in front of me.

"Huh? What is it?"

"All of us are here have added each other to our friend list… do you want ours as well?"

"Oh. Sure."

By the time I had their names, it was already 9.45pm. They had agreed on meeting up tomorrow to go hunting. Once they've separated, I went to my skill list to select my second skill.

At the start of SAO, you had two skill slots to choose your skills. While today I had selected the skills for my main weapon, I still had an empty slot. Scrolling through the list, one in particular caught my eye.

Battle Healing

It's a skill that lets you regenerate your health points every ten seconds. At level one, it would recover ten hit points per ten seconds; I noted when I added the skill to my second slot. Wanting to level it early, I sent a message to Kirito.

Kirito,

There's a skill called Battle Healing that recovers health points over time. How do you level it?

Monica

After sending the message, I realized that Kirito might be sleeping. How foolish of me! I chided myself. I got out of the city to try to find a way to level it up. Outside, I then received Kirito's message.

Monica

Battle Healing gains experiences as it heal you while your HP is in the red zone, around 25% of your HP. After healing a certain amount of HP, it will level up.

Kirito

Looks like I know what I'll be doing tonight.

November 7th, Aincrad 1st floor, Gates to Starting City 8:00am

I yawned as I arrived at the designated place that Klein and I had agreed on. I only had about three hours of sleep, the rest of last night spent on leveling Battle Healing to level 9 as well as my level to 2. I ended up sleeping outside the Starting City since I was too tired. Klein noticed me coming from the outside.

"What were you doing outside the Starting City? There are dangerous monsters out there!" Klein whined.

"Oh shut up, Klein. You and I know that the boars outside the city don't retaliate unless attacked."

"That's not the point! What if a monster we've never encounter before appeared? You could have died."

"I'm alive, that's all that matters, right?"

Truth to be told, while grinding to level 2 on the Frenzy boars, I encountered a Great Boar Lord there. I managed to defeat it there after my health went into the red zone. Remembering the message from Kirito, I had decided to level my Battle healing skill as much as I could before anyone starting killing other players. More than eighty percent of the players are holed up in the inns, waiting for the government to rescue them. Five hundred players could not take the sudden change and jumped off the castle, leaving us with around a thousand players who are moving throughout the 1st floor, and less than five hundred players training on the Frenzy Boars outside the city.

Klein guided us to the spot that he and Kirito trained the day before, the spot sparsely populated with people due to the low concentration of Frenzy Boars there. On the way there, he recited all the information that he received from Kirito regarding sword skills. I quickly got the idea since I had some experience with it. The others had some problem since they were not used to moving their body, and I thought about the other players who had no one to guide them.

"Klein, you and your friends focus on leveling now. I'll go guide those players here that are training here."

"Eh? But—"

"I reached level two yesterday, so don't worry about me"

"I guess I can't stop you, huh?"

I smiled at Klein while holding a peace sign with my free hand.

"Nope!" I giggled as I ran off.

3rd December, Aincrad 1st floor, Illfang's tower, 20th floor

It's been three weeks since SAO started, two thousand people are dead, most of them from the mobs. In those three weeks, I spent two-thirds of it trying to help the other players get ready to clear hundred floors of Aincrad.

Currently, I am slightly below the average level of the majority of players, level four. Of course, I could had reached higher levels had I not tried to help the new players. During those times, I made many new friends. One of them was Egil, the intimidating foreigner who uses a two-handed battle axe suddenly became a merchant. That actually surprised me since I would have thought he would have gone for blacksmithing. Another one was Silica, a young girl who looks barely at the age of 12.

"Something on your mind?" A voice in front of me asked. It came from a man with bluish-cyan hair; I recalled that he introduced himself as Diabel.

"No, just wondering about my friends." With two-thousand players gone, a large number of beta testers are also gone, which meant that most likely, of the three hundred beta testers who actually climbed Aincrad, less than a hundred might be alive. While I know Kirito and Klein are alive, that means their level are also higher than mine.

"Diabel, look out!" Another man had shouted. Instinctively, he raised his shield to block the strike from a Ruin Kobold Sentinel, one of the strongest monsters of the first floor. Leaping over Diabel, I unleashed a Sword Skill Rapid Bite. The skill hit the sentinel on the head and caused it to stumble.

"Diabel, switch!"

"Roger!" Diabel replied as he dashed past me, sword glowing in a yellow tint, and unleash his own skill Rage Spike. The skill forced the sentinel a few more steps back.

"Midnight, switch!"

I stood up and watch them take care of the last Ruin Kobold Sentinel in this area. While I did join the party a few days ago, they were easy to get along with. Their teamwork was quite well and they seem to celebrate anything that they considered an achievement.

"Monica, switch!"

"Got it!" I replied as I charged up the sword skill Thrust towards the Sentinel. Releasing it, the Katar pierced through the Sentinel's armor, effectively killing it.

"That's the last of them." I sighed in relief as I placed the my Katar into it's sheath. Looking at the items that I got, I notice a new Katar that I could equip.

"Silver Fang huh? Its stats seem to be higher than my Bronze Katar, and it can upgrade seven times too."

Equipping the Silver Fang, I tested it weight with a few practice swings, the new Katar had a longer blade, which made me worried about its weight. Luckily, I still could equip it.

"Hey! You guys! Look at this!" Midnight yelled at us. Behind him stood a gigantic door with a forest design.

"Where do you think it leads to?" He yelled excitedly.

"Maybe the Kobold's Treasury, where else do they get the weapons from." I jabbed back at him with a smile on my face.

"Well, whatever it is, we're going to find out." Diabel said as he pushed the doors wide open. It revealed a wide, empty room…

"So much for treasure..." I muttered dejectedly. Midnight shakes his head in laughter.

"Whoever… said that there was a… Kobold Treasury? They are monsters, you know?" He moaned in between his laughs. I angrily stared at him.

"From the looks of it… I would say something big would happen here… who wants to go in?"Imperius, another party member of Diabel noted.

"I will." I declared as I strode in

The empty room reminded me of a throne room. Symbols decorated the red flooring from the door to the throne. There was a figure sitting on the throne and a Giant Battle Axe behind it. The figure's eyes glowed red…

"EH?" I screamed in surprise as the figure jumped into my view, his red skin reminding me of the Kobold's we faced earlier. His name was then revealed to us.

Illfang the Kobold Lord

The first floor boss has been found.

"Re-retreat!" I cried in terror as I scrambled to get out of the room. Our entire party ran as far as we could away from the room.

After a minute of catching our breath, we looked at each other in joy, knowing what we just found.

Now… we just need to find a way to organize a raid party to clear the first floor…

A/N: Posted Slightly earlier than usual… Cause I have something on tomorrow. I know that Battle Healing requires one to take an enormous amount of damage to level up, but I don't really understand it. Thus I changed it to level up by healing a certain amount of damage while your hp is red.