Chapter 3 – Rank

"Morning," said Kirito as he yawned and sat down at the table with his breakfast.

"Good morning," said Asuna who was already seated, the two exchanged a smile and there was a stifled giggled as Merlin whispered something in Klein's ear.

"Alright, so what's the plan for today?" asked Agil as he got seated with his food as well.

"Before we begin, I would like to say something," said Klein as he cleared his voice. Everyone around the table looked at him and at the corner of Kirito's eye, he could have sworn Merlin's face was showing more excitement than usual.

"Kirito, Asuna, Merlin, Agil…I just wanted to say that…" Klein kept breaking as he tried to stifle his laughter. "I just wanted to PROMISE you all that I will keep you guys safe." His statement instantly turned Kirito and Asuna's faces bright red as Kirito turned to give a death glare at Merlin.

"Merlin, do you PROMISE to protect me?"

"Uh huh, uh huh," said Merlin as she nodded enthusiastically.

"Agil, do you PROMISE to protect me as well?"

"I guess so…Isn't that what tanks are supposed to do?" said Agil, confused at what was going on.

"What about you Kirito, do you-" Klein couldn't finish his sentence before Kirito got up and dragged him out of the inn.

"It wasn't me, it was Merlin's idea!"

"Kya, how dare you accuse an innocent high school girl of doing such a thing," said Merlin as Klein got dragged out.

"What just happened?" asked Agil, still confused as hell.

"Nothing," said a bright red Asuna that looked like she was ready to burst.

"Uh oh," said Merlin as she looked away from her and a bead of sweat rolled down her head.

After their anger was dissolved, the group sat back down at the table with now a dead-silent Klein and Merlin who were no longer laughing. "Now that that's sorted," said Agil as he paused and watched if there were any other taboo words he should avoid. "Where are we going next?"

"Mole Town, it's a place with some lower level quests but it's going to serve as more of a waiting room for the player meeting that's happening in three days," said Kirito.

"Finally, some down time from all this grinding," said Klein relieved that they finally get to have a bit of rest from the non-stop questing.

"By the way, did you guys see the message that the system sent out last night?" asked Agil as he pulled it up from his Inbox.

It was a list showing the top 20 players in SAO.

"LET'S GO! I'M 11th on the ladder!" exclaimed Klein as he fist pumped the air.

"Looks like at the bottom of this group," laughed Agil. "I'm 16th. It also says here that the top 10 players get a unique title showing what rank they are."

"Wow, I'm higher ranked than I thought," said Asuna as she scrolled up the list. "I'm Seventh!"

"Sixth," said Merlin, everybody then proceeded to turn towards Kirito, the highest leveled player among them.

"I'm…Fourth," said Kirito as he tried to feign enthusiasm.

"What's wrong Kirito? Were you expecting to be rank one?" teased Klein.

"You did say the EXP share was going to be impactful if we got more than four members for our party," said Merlin reminding Kirito what he said when she suggested gathering some help.

Asuna realizing that she was the last one to join, quickly apologized. "Sorry Kirito, because I joined, you couldn't get rank one!"

"It's okay," said Kirito as he laughed a little. 'All things considered, it was definitively better that Asuna joined us.'

"Let's see those unique titles that you guys got."

"Look at them now but I don't think it will be a good idea to have it showing when we're at Mole Town," said Kirito, "doing so will paint a huge target on our backs. We would basically be telling everyone that we have some of the best items available and that can attract the wrong kind of attention."

"Wasn't planning on using it anyway," said Merlin.


After breakfast, the group got on the road once again and made their way towards Mole Town. The walk was no longer an eerie silence but instead, was a peaceful chat as each member shared things about themselves from the real world. After a couple days of questing together, the group has grown closer. The wolf incident showed that they were people that cared about each other and wouldn't abandon each other easily.

"By the way Asuna, where did you get that heal spell?" asked a curious Merlin since she couldn't find any other spells for sale other than the [Fireball] spell she has.

"Oh, it was being taught at the church in the city. I was wandering around and just happened to find it," said Asuna as she turned her head and caught a glimpse of Kirito watching her. She quickened her pace and dragged Merlin up with her.

"Do you think Kirito actually does mind that I was the reason he couldn't reach rank one?" whispered Asuna.

"Why do you think that?"

"It's just that…he doesn't seem very happy and he keeps looking at me," said Asuna discouragingly.

"Maybe he's looking at you because he likes you."

"What?! You think so?" said Asuna with a tint of red on her cheeks.

'Oh no…I'm not going to end up as the person that gives these two relationship advice, am I?' thought Merlin with a blank face.

'I wonder what I can talk to Asuna about after last night,' thought Kirito as he looked at Asuna who was walking ahead of him. As he thought about it, she turned her head and looked at him briefly before quickly turning away and speeding up her walking. 'Shoot did I get caught staring?'

"Kirito?" The sound of Klein's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

"Huh?"

"Who were you staring at there buddy?" teased Klein as he wrapped his arm around his shoulder. "Was it the beautiful and graceful Asuna or the cool and calm Merlin?"

"I wasn't looking at either of them," said Kirito as he laughed nervously.

"Oh c'mon, we're all guys here, you can tell us! Agil will even give you some advice!"

"Wait, what?" laughed Agil.

"You're married in real life, aren't you? You can teach young Kirito here the ways to getting a woman's heart!"

"Kathy and I just had many shared interests, she was one of the first few customers I had for my coffee shop-bar and our personalities just seemed to click," said Agil as he recalled his memories. "But I guess there isn't a better-shared interest than to clear a death game, is there?"

"Well if you pair up with Asuna," said Klein as he looked at Merlin. "Maybe I will get a chance with Merlin."

"Not a chance," said Merlin without even turning around which caused the whole group to laugh.


Night of November 4, 2022

The group arrived at Mole Town, it was small old western style town, like the ones in cowboy movies, with all the shops lined up. It was situated at the base of a mountain, away from the forest, where its inhabitants mined precious minerals. "It seems like we weren't the only one who wanted to wait here before the meeting," said Klein as he noticed how lively the small town was.

"Oh by the way…" said Kirito before he was interrupted by a voice.

"Hello, adventures! Are you tired from your traveling? Want a place where you can relax? Then why not head down to the 'Tipsy Cow' for a drink?!" The group heard the voice but weren't sure where it came from until they looked down and saw that it was actually a dwarf!

"A monster?!" yelled Asuna as she went to draw but was stopped by Kirito.

"Hey! I don't appreciate you calling me that, little miss!"

"Don't worry, these are friendly NPCs, they are the inhabitants of Mole Town and their race are usually some of the best blacksmiths NPC you can find," explained Kirito.

"Forget all that, did you say a drink?!" said Klein excitingly.

"Damn straight, walk down and it's the third shop to your left! You want something, we got it!"

"Guys, can we please go? I haven't had a good beer in so long!" begged Klein.

"I'm actually in the mood to drink a little as well," said Agil as Klein's eyes glittered even more.

"Yeah let's go!" said Asuna enthusiastically.

"Asuna?"

"What? Do we have anything better to do?"

"I…guess not," said Kirito. 'I wanted to go to the blacksmith shop here but I guess that can wait.'

They made their way to the bar, and as soon as they saw the entrance Klein ran in without missing a beat. Agil followed and immediately felt a sense of familiarity as he was greeted with the bar atmosphere. But when the last three members tried to enter, they were stopped by an invisible barrier.

"What is this?" asked Asuna as she put her hand against the invisible wall.

"Ah that's the age restriction barrier," said a dwarf at the entrance. "You youngsters aren't at the legal drinking age of 20 and therefore can't enter."

"I don't get it! Why do the laws of real life still apply here?!" said Asuna angrily as the three of them walked away.

"Um Asuna…did you really want to get drunk or something?" asked Kirito, slightly afraid of the girl at the moment.

"Yeah!" said a red-faced Asuna as she turned around and faced her two companions. "I'm stuck in a death game, is it wrong to want to get a little drunk?!"

"No, nothing wrong with that," said Kirito immediately.

"Actually, ther-" said Merlin before her mouth was covered by Kirito.

"Plus I never even got to have that experience."

"Well when we get out, we can all go and get drunk at Agil's bar, right?"

"I don't think Agil wi-" said Merlin before her mouth was covered again by Kirito's free hand.

"What's that? If you want a drink young lady then why don't you come drink with us?" said a stranger as he wrapped his arm around Asuna. He was in his late twenties with long wavy brown hair and he was with two other men with the typical hoodlum looks. "Nice to meetcha, my name's Skrill. Has anyone told you how great of a body you have?"

'Skrill?'

"If you don't move your hand," said Asuna seriously as she instantly drew her rapier out and flashed her rank title as the Roman numeral seven popped up above her head. "You're going to lose it."

"7! This girl is the 7th strongest in SAO right now?" said two men behind Skrill.

"Got a little fight in ya, I like that," said Skrill as he got a hard elbow in the stomach. "Ouch, now why did you have to go and do that? I was only being nice." He tossed away the beer bottle in his hand and drew out a dagger.

"Give me one reason I don't fry you right now," said Merlin as a huge burst of flame appeared in her hands.

"Wait, wait," said Kirito as he got in-between them. "We'll let go of that inappropriate comment you made, and in turn, you let go of our companion here elbowing you. Fair?"

"We'll what?" exclaimed Merlin, amazed that Kirito actually settled for a negotiation rather than a show of strength.

"I don't thin-"

"Or you could try to fight me, Seventh and that mage, who's Sixth, at the same time," interrupted Kirito as he had his blade already half drawn.

Skrill paused and considered his options, the atmosphere was tense as the six players got ready to act as soon as they hear his answer. "That doesn't sound very fun, I'll take your earlier offer then," said Skrill as he sheathed his dagger and walked past the trio. "Have a good night!"

"I hope you have a terrible hangover tomorrow morning!" said Merlin and turned to Kirito. "What was that? He harasses Asuna and you just 'let it go'? You're Fourth, you know?"

"Yeah," said Kirito as he watched Skrill walk away, "and Skrill is First."

"That trash is First?" sighed Asuna, "How disappointing."

'Eh?'

"How did you know?"

"I remember the name from the list we checked this morning," said Kirito, "he's only three levels above me so I knew he would be reluctant to fight the Sixth and the Seventh at the same time. I just gambled that the two with him weren't Second and Third."

"Let's hope the rest of the top 20 are not people like him, especially Second and Third."


At the bar, Klein was having a blast as he told other players about his adventure so far while Agil shared a couple of tips and items with some of the tank and craft players.

"Thank you so much Mr. Agil, I'm not brave enough to go on the front lines and fight monsters but I'm going to try my best to support them with my blacksmithing!"

"These plants are amazing! I don't think I would have ever gotten a hold of these by myself, thank you so much Mr. Agil! I'm going to become an alchemist to make sure the front line players always has a good stock of quality potions!"

"No problem and just Agil is fine."

"Agil? Rank 16 Agil, right?" asked one of the men sitting beside him. "You're the highest ranked tank right now, do you mind sharing some tips?"

"Wow, I didn't know that," laughed Agil. "Let's see…the key is knowing the limits of your DPS members so that you can pull the right amount of aggro off of them. This increases your chance of survival while helping out the damage dealers as much as possible. Drawing all of the aggro this early on can get you killed easily."

"I'm telling you, the pain was unbearable but I had to endure it or else we would have been eaten alive!" said Klein as he retold the wolf incident story.

"Dammit Klein you've told this story like five times already," said one of the listeners which got the whole crowd laughing, Klein included. The atmosphere was good and the spirits were high until one player kicked open the revolving bar door as if he owned the place, then everything went quiet as the players turned their attention to the new guest.

"So this shit hole is the only bar in town huh?" said the man as he walked in with his friends. The man was around Agil's size, looked like he was around 40 years old, had long black hair and a goatee. He had an x-shaped scar on his forehead but what attracted more attention was the title above his head, X, Tenth.

The man walked up to the bar counter and everybody sitting there got up, except one young man who was still eating his food obliviously. He looked like he just had his twentieth birthday, had a fair, pale complexion and a slender jawline. He had brown eyes and hair in a spiked ponytail with his own hair securing it. He was wearing a light blue Chinese monk style outfit and had a conical monk hat resting on his back. His shoulders were broad and well-muscled but his overall build was toned and agile.

"Welcome," said the bartender.

"A shot of vodka," ordered the man.

"I'm sorry sir but we don't serve vodka here."

"Hmm…," said Tenth as he looked at the young man who was still eating, "that's strange, then what is this man drinking here? Water?"

The young man finally stopped eating and looked up without a hint of fear. "Ah, this? This is baijiu," said the young man as he took out a small white glass bottle. "It's too bad they don't have vodka here, so why don't you have some of my drink? Careful though it's some pretty strong stuff."

The man looked at the small bottle for a second and smashed it with his fist; the glass shattered and the drink spilled all over the young man. "Do you see the title that I have, boy? Tenth! I am currently the tenth strongest player in this world right now! A small bottle like that isn't going to satisfy me."

The young man stayed quiet for a moment and then finally sighed. "Look at that, now the floor's wet. Hey bartender, do you have a mop?"

"Maybe you should start to worry about yourself instead of the floor," said Tenth as he drew his sword out.

"Huh? Why would I need to worry?" said the young man without batting an eye, and that was the final straw for Tenth.

'Hey, are you serious?' thought Klein as he was about to stop the young man from getting himself killed.

Tenth swung his sword at the young man's neck but a few centimeters before the blade made contact, a red barrier stopped his strike.

'No Combat Zone'

"Tch saved by the system," said Tenth as he sheathed and walked out the bar. "Why don't we take it outside?"

"Why would I go outside? It's cold out there," said the young man as he simply continued eating as if somebody didn't just try to kill him.

"Damn coward," said Tenth as he finally walked away.

"The hell was wrong with that guy!" said Klein as he walked up to the young man. "Are you okay, man?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," said the young man as he laughed. "That guy was so serious, but he got me pretty good. That baijiu was a rare drop and now it's all gone before I even got a chance to enjoy much of it."

"Dude, weren't you worried that you were going to die?"

"Die?" laughed the young man as he raised both arms and flexed jokingly. "I'm pretty strong you know. I'm actually…" Before the young man could finish his sentence he fell off of his stool and collapsed on the ground.

"Are you okay?! What happened?!" Players crowded around him to see whether he was actually injured or not and all was quiet once again as they tried to listen for a heartbeat. Instead what they heard was the sound of him snoring and the tension dispelled as the group began to laugh at how weird the situation was.

The sound of their laughter drew another player into the bar and once she found the source she quickly ran over. "Jax, there you are! I've been looking all over this area for you!" said the female player as she propped Jax on her shoulder. The female player was quite attractive, with long flowing black hair and amber eyes. Her build was slim but she was clearly stronger than it suggested. "I apologize if he caused you guys any trouble," said the girl as she bowed and got out as fast as she came in.

'Jax? Where have I heard that name before?' thought Klein to himself, but the alcohol made it hard to think so he just decided to ignore it for now and went back to having a good time.


In the meantime, Merlin decided to go back to the inn early to wake up for the meeting on the next day. "I'm going to need all the rest I can get if I'm going to sit through a conversation with Skrill so I'm going to sleep."

"Alright I guess we can call it a day then," said Kirito as he missed the obvious setup by Merlin.

Merlin sighed. "No you guys don't have to follow, go and…walk around or something."

"Are you sure? Don't you think it would be safer if we went with you?"

"Yes…I'm sure," said Merlin as her patience for Kirito's cluelessness was growing thin.

"Alright, stay safe then," said Asuna as she mouthed a silent 'thank you' with which Merlin responded with a thumbs up.

The pair decided to go walk around town for a bit, it was no longer the beautiful forest green surrounding them yet the tall mountains and the endless desert had its own unique charms as well. "By the way…what did you mean when you said you were disappointed with First?" asked Kirito carefully.

"Hmm? I meant it was disappointing that the strongest player ended up being such a jerk," responded Asuna.

"Ah okay, good," said Kirito, confusing Asuna in the process.

After a while, they decided to get away from the town and settled on a little cliff where they had a better view of the night sky. "So how was spending your first week in a virtual death game?" asked Kirito jokingly.

"Not as bad as I thought since I was with you," responded Asuna which made Kirito pause and blush as he was taken aback by her forwardness. Asuna realizing what she had just said quickly added in, "a-and everyone else, of course! Everyone has helped with keeping the morale high and stuff."

"Right, yeah, definitively," said Kirito as he tried to recover from her previous statement. 'Of course, that's what she meant…'

'Gah Asuna why do you suck at this flirting thing?' thought Asuna.

"Well…I'm happy that you joined our party," said Kirito as he looked over at her and seeing a surprised look on her face, "s-since you're so skilled, it made clearing the monsters a lot easier and everything!"

'Well, I just failed the school of flirting,' thought Kirito.

The two fell into an awkward silence as both of them kicked themselves mentally for backing out of where they wanted the conversation to go. Finally, both of them steeled themselves and said at the same time. "Actually, what I meant was-"

Before they could finish their sentence, a shooting star shot across the night sky, leaving its luminous stardust along with the rest of the twinkling stars in the ebony sky. "Quickly, make a wish!" said Asuna as she closed her eyes and put her hands together.

Kirito quickly followed suit. 'I wish we can quickly clear this death game with everyone getting out alive and well…maybe except for Skrill, it wouldn't hurt if he got his ass kicked a few times, and…' Kirito opened one of his eyes as he looked over at Asuna, 'if I could get some luck with her, that would be nice too.'

"What'd you wish for?" asked Kirito as they both opened their eyes.

"I-I can't tell you!" said Asuna as her face grew red. "You're supposed to keep it a secret or else it won't come true!"

"Alright, what were you going to say before then?"

"N-nothing…" responded Asuna as she looked away. "You?"

"I…forgot," said Kirito as he faked a laugh. 'We'll have to leave this to the higher beings for now…'


Author's Note: I know this chapter didn't have a lot of action but I promise that the next one will have lots of it. It was intended to act as a filler to introduce some characters that are going to be important in the next few chapters. If you guys were wondering what I had in mind when describing Jax; his looks were based on Nezumi from No.6. I also wanted to start off Kirito and Asuna's relationship as a bit awkward at first (because let's be honest that's like the majority of teenage relationships) rather than have them suddenly kiss in the heat of the moment or something like that. Thank you for reading, if you enjoyed it or have any suggestions, comments or questions please leave a review! I appreciate every single one and it really makes my day when I read them!

I'm also just going to address some things that were brought up in the reviews:

Balancing Kirito – In order to demote Kirito from god status I decided to make the game in general much harder so you won't see Kirito soloing any Floor Bosses

Magic – I'm sorry but magic is going to be a part of this story and so is healing :/ The reason for this inclusion is that I want to portray many elements of MMORPGs that were clearly left out from the original SAO. It also opens up many more options in terms of fighting, player no longer have to hack the boss to death and can engage with different strategies

"But everybody is going to be a support…" – Whoever wrote this comment, thank you so much! You've given me so many ideas XD