Don't own Sword Art Online.
"There we go." The small area flashed slightly before returning to normal. "All done."
"Great, now let's get going before they get the good stuff."
"Okay, okay. Geez, you're worse then my sisters."
"Sisters? Lucky." She pouted.
"Only child?"
"Yeah."
"Any reasoning?"
"No." She said defensively.
I raised my hands, yielding the point. "Okay. Forget I said anything."
"Sorry." She immediately replies.
"It's alright. I shouldn't have asked."
"Let's..." She motions with her head. "Let's just get out of here."
"Got it. Follow me, I know a good hunting spot." I start jogging, Mako following close behind. I can hear the teleport gate being activated, and we'll be seeing people here soon. We'll need to get as much XP as possible before players wipe out the surrounding area. We're heading southwest and spend a day getting experience before we head to a quest.
It takes a few minutes before we reach our destination; an open savanna. We can see buffalo type monsters in the distance, but those may be a bit too hard to go after now. Best start smaller.
"What is that thing!?" Mako literally jumps back.
What the two of us were staring at was a earthen black bee monsters with green stripes and an ice pick-sized stingers. It was around 50 centimeters in length, so it would be the largest insect in existence if it were reality.
The creature didn't seem to mind our presence, so long as we kept our distance. All it was doing was buzzing around.
"It's a Wind Wasp. This is the monster we'll be farming."
"Ugh! I hate bugs!"
My jaw almost dropped at that. What? "You're afraid of insects, but you just took down some weird demon creature less than half an hour ago?"
"That's different! Bugs like crawling all over things, and they crawl in garbage and on your skin and...ugh!" Mako shivered violently.
I roll my eyes. "Oh, quit being such a baby. You're not going to let it crawl on you, you're going to kill it. Won't killing it make you feel better?"
"Maybe?" She didn't seem very sure.
"Not maybe, yes. It will make you feel better. Because that's one less bug that crawls on you." She shivered again at the thought. "All you have to do is hit it. Hit it enough times, and it dies. When it dies, you kill another one."
"Okay, okay. I get it." She seemed a little irritated now since I was explaining things to her like a child. She pulled her axe and walked closer to the wasp.
"Weakness in its abdomen. It curls up to sting and opens it's mouth to bite. Five second delay for each."
"Got it." She twisted her hands on the haft of the axe when the wasp turned to her and buzzed angrily. Its body straightened as it opened its mandibles. It flew at her, though she avoided the attack easily. She swung the axe at its weak spot, and in that single swing, the wasp shattered into glass.
"Wow. That was a heck of alot easier than I expected."
I chuckle. "Good thing though is that they give fairly high XP."
"Was that intentional?" Mako asked as she checked the experience gained.
"I've no idea. We'll keep on killing them for today. Tomorrow we'll go to the south. There's a quest there that I really want." I point in said direction.
"Okay." She breaths, possibly feeling more at ease now that the monster is gone.
"Mind if I join?"
We both jump at the new voice behind us. We turn with raised weapons, only to find chestnut-like hair and hazel eyes, and a small smile, one I actually didn't think possible on her.
"Oh, it's only you." We lower our weapons and I breathe out sharply. "Damn it Asuna, don't scare us like that."
"You scare that easy?" She was smirking now. This was also new.
I give a grunt, then shoulder my weapon. "So what brings you here? I thought you were going to stay on the first floor for a little."
"After seeing how badly some of them reacted to you, I found I felt dirty just standing in the same room as them."
"Huh. What about Kirito?"
"He left after he announced he was a beta player."
I coughed and gave her a strange look. "That's...uh..."
"Why?" Mako says from behind me.
"I don't know." Asuna frowned. "He said he was a beta, left the party, and just...walked away."
"Maybe he was...I don't know...inspired?" Mako looks at me.
"I didn't do anything noteworthy."
"I mean when you weren't afraid to say you were a beta tester. Or that fact that you defended Agro when they accused the information without a second thought. Maybe Kirito just got inspired and finally said something." She shrugs.
"You knew he was a beta?" Asuna looked at Mako.
"Alto introduced us. Though he used another word when in public, so no one would make a connection."
"So, you wanted to join in on the farming?" I asked.
"Sure." Asuna noded.
"Than I hope you like bugs, because that's what we're farming."
She immediately dropped her smile, her eyes widening, and her body became stiff.
"Is...is that what she was..."
"Complaining about?"
"Yes. Yes it was." Mako finishes, groning.
"Too late to back down now. Now come on, you need to level up. When we've done that enough times, we can take on the non-insect monsters. So all the more for you two to pick up the pace."
They both nodded vigorously, fairly eagre to finish with the bugs and move onto the other beasts as they withdrew their weapons and began scouring the area for monsters. My only reaction is a chuckle as I follow.
"Damn it! Stop aiming for my back you little bastards!" I swat at one of the wasps as it dives on me, body curved and stinger forward. This one I dodge easily, then kill, only to drop on my knees as another flew at me from behind, zipping past me. Said wasp died from a lightning quick strike from Asuna.
"Why'd you have to mess with the nest Mako?!"
"I didn't see the damn thing!"
"It was hard to miss considering it's larger then your bloody head!"
"Screw you!"
"Guys! Maybe if we took care of the problem in front of us before you try beating each other!" Asuna cut in, lunging at another wasp.
"Yeah, yeah! On it!" I shout back as I toss my glowing shield and a foe, killing it before my shield returned to my hand.
"I want one of those!"
I at least give Mako a glare before parrying a sting from the front, only to get attacked on my rear. Now you'd expect that these little guys would have venom for something, but you'd be wrong. They did have a chance to paralyze you for five second if they attacked you from the rear though. My health didn't deplete much, and thankfully their paralysis they're known for didn't affect me. Still, I was sore from the boss fight, and their stings and bites just agitate it, which agitated me, and then I get on everyone's nerves.
"How many more!?" Asuna shouts. Immediately after she cries out when one wasp stings her in the stomach.
"I count eight! Just a little more!" Mako seemed to be faring worse than us since the wasps favored her after what she did. Her health was getting dangerously close to turning red.
"Don't die on us Mako!" I toss the shield at one that was gearing up for an attack on Mako from the rear.
"Thanks for the advice!" She released a whirlwind attack, cutting down three in one go.
"Nice!"
"Four more!"
"Make that three!" Asuna called as another wasp shattered.
"Two!" One from me.
"One!" Mako shouted again, another wasp shattering.
"Last one's mine!" I scream as it charges. As it closes in, I rear my sword back as I hold my shield in front of me. The sword takes on a blue glow before I lunge forward, covering the two remaining meters between us quickly. When I reach the wasp, the sword digs into its abdomen, but before the the creature shatters, my body spins, my shield striking the wasp, which then shatters.
"That was a little overkill." Mako said.
"Eh. Just one time. I'm not making it a habit." I say as I sheathed my sword and placed my shield on my back. "Now, did you disturb more nests?"
"I said I was sorry!" Mako shouts back.
"Well," Asuna speaks, trying to break the argument. "At least we got more XP than we would have."
"True. True." I nod. Mako seems to calm down since she loses some tension in her body. "Let's head back to town. It's getting dark, and I'd rather not be caught in the dark against these buffalo type creatures."
"What's so bad about them?" Asuna.
"They're strong. Some can even be considered mini bosses in terms of difficulty. And they won't stop chasing you until you're dead, it's dead, or you reach a safe zone. I've had to do both when fighting them. Most of it came down to running though."
"Ah." Mako made a weird noise. "T-then let's get going."
"Don't need to tell me twice." I grunt as we make our way out of the small mini forest we had found ourselves in. The town's only a few minutes, and that's good. Like I said before, I don't want to deal with those crazed cows.
"Ah!"
All three of us pause, first taking a glance at each other and, after confirming it wasn't any of us, looked to our right. You couldn't see anything unusual, but that scream came from that direction. We were just behind a small hill, so the likely theory was that they were on the other side.
"You hear that right?" Asuna asked.
"Let's go!" I respond and take off in that direction.
"Alto! Damn it!" I hear Mako curse before two pairs of feet are running behind me. We make it over quickly and find the source of the scream.
Two players, one male, one female, were trying to defend themselves from a five meter tall behemoth of a cow.
"Son of a whore!" Of course it was a Trembling Cow. The ones I said were treated like mini bosses.
Now I could do one of two things: I could help them or walk away. Personally, I was leaning a little more towards walking away. A dick move, I know, but I didn't feel like dealing with a monster of this magnitude. Mako didn't have anymore healing potions and was in the low yellow, Asuna wasn't much better, and I only had one potion on me, with health that had just started getting into the yellow. My virtues won out however. I couldn't just let them die.
"Mako, Asuna, stick behind me. Don't try to attack the thing, okay? Not unless I tell you to."
They merely noded before we pulled our weapons. We sprinted forward, raising my shield and tossing it at the Trembling Cow, which took the hit in the face. It groaned in agitation.
"You two!" I point to the players. "Get the hell out of here! Get to town! Now!"
They didn't question, and took off as fast as their legs could carry them. The cow didn't chase after them though, because her attention was on us.
"Ah, damn. Run!"
I tossed the shield once more as Asuna and Mako began running, this time aiming for one of it's legs as it began to charge. The shield struck it's legs hard, and a yellow light lit up above it's head as it tumbled to the ground. I had stunned her.
I wasted no time catching up with the others. We would have a few seconds of a head start, and we needed to take advantage of that. These things could close the distance quickly.
It was a good thing we were close to town, because by the time the cow was closing in, we were just a dozen meters away from the town, with the two players just entering the town, with other players either staring at the commotion or running back into town at the sight of the monster cow behind us.
"Get back to town!" Asuna shouted at the top of her lungs as the [INNER AREA] sign lit up in our vision. We come to a stop quickly, looking at the Trembling Cow that was now stomping around like crazy on the outskirts of the town, apparently angry that it couldn't get us. Seeing as any other players weren't in sight or were in the safe zone, the cow gave a huff before turning it's back on us and charging back to the plains.
"Ah." I breath. "Whew... That was close."
"Aye yaye yaye." Was Mako's response. Asuna just gave a huff.
"Okay." I turn to the two players we had rescued, who were currently sitting on the floor, breathing heavily. "You two alright?"
"We're...we're fine." The girl said.
"Thank...thank god you...were there." The boy said next, looking at us. "If you hadn't been there...we would have..."
"Died." I state rather bluntly.
"Y-yeah."
"How can we repay you?" The girl asks.
"Well," I start. "I wouldn't mind a drink."
"Wait, that's it?" Both players look at me like I'm crazy.
"Yeah. Why?" I raise an eyebrow in question.
"We...we were expecting something like money, o-or items. Something."
"In a game like this? No. I'm not cruel. All I ask is you treat me and my two companions to a drink and it's settled. Done. Repaid." I smile slightly.
"Where have you been all my life?" I hear the girl mutter as she fixes her hair. I just give a laugh.
"You just didn't look in the right places. Now come on." I offer both of them each hand. They accept it, and I quite literally throw them back to their feet. The boy almost eats it and Asuna has to grab his shoulders to stop him.
"Uh, t-thanks."
It was really quiet in here.
When we neared the local tavern, you could hear talking and celebration. Probably for the successful boss raid. That changed when we came through the door.
When I came through the door, everyone turned to see who it was. Once they caught sight of me, all noise ceased. All eyes were one me, and I took the time to look around the tavern. Most I hadn't seen in my life, but a few I recognized, most from the recent boss raid. Some looked on with silent awe, while others showed contempt in their eyes. None said a thing. I think everyone in the raid group had gone about telling everyone else about the boss battle.
"Please." I say bluntly as I spread my arms slightly. "Take a picture. It'll last longer." I then roll my eyes and walk deeper into the building, spotting an empty table on the far end of the tavern. My words seem to snap everyone out of their trance. They all seem to shake their heads before giving me one more look and returning to their earlier actions.
"Idiots." I mumble as I take a seat, my four companions following suit. An NPC quickly came and set about giving us our drinks.
"What was that all about?" The girl asked.
"They've just never seen someone so good looking before." There's no hint of loftiness from before in my tone as I mumble into my mug.
"They've just never seen a beta tester before." Mako comments while glaring at the people still staring. "What are you gawking at?"
"You're a beta tester?" The boy looks at me in awe.
"Yup. Though I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not."
I reply.
"I'd say bad considering everything I've heard from people." The girl says.
"Let me guess; we abandoned everyone and look out for only ourselves, right?" I deadpan and give her a rather bored look.
"Pretty much."
"Hm. No surprise. They'll keep saying that for as long as we stay here, and beyond then."
"So, who are you two?" Asuna asked.
"Well, my name's Neo. This here is my sister Hita." He motions to the girl next to him. "Not our real names obviously."
"Oh, siblings. Well, nice to meet you. The name's Alto. This here is Mako and Asuna respectively." I motion to the girls, with Mako giving a small wave and Asuna a nod. "You guys mind telling me what made you think you could take on a mini-boss?"
"We didn't think it be so large." Hita grumbled as she looked to her left.
"We didn't charge it like idiots. We were trying to see if we could take it, but it charged us way before we got close." Neo replies.
"Those monsters have a long range. If you enter it, they know you're there and attack until you die, or it does."
"We found that out the hard way."
"Least you're alive to learn from it." Mako now.
"Yeah."
"So, how'd you guys end up here?" I ask.
"Where, here?" Neo asks.
"I think he means here." Hita glances at her brother.
"Oh."
"My brother here stood in line for days to get this game. He somehow scrounged up the money to get two NerveGears and convinced me to join him. It sounded appealing, truth be told. A game where everything looked and felt real."
"But then we were trapped in here." Neo looked down at the table. "And I just had to convince my sister then."
"You need to stop that. Just because I decided to join you doesn't make you responsible for this."
"She's right." Asuna and Mako say in union.
"The only person you need to blame is Kayaba. That bastard is the one who did this." I state simply.
"Yeah..." Neo didn't seem convinced.
"So what about you guys? How'd you end up here?" Hita asked.
"I won this game and a set of NerveGear through a contest. That contest was also the reason I was a beta player. Came with the prize." I reply. "Mako?"
"Hmph." She starts. "A friend of mine let me try out her game when I was over at her house. She wanted me to get a feel before she took over. Zip ide doda, and here I am. Kind of glad it's me in here and not her though." Mako looks out a window. "I don't think she'd survive. Asuna?"
"The game was my brothers'." She sighs. "He had to leave for work and couldn't play. I got curious and decided to try it out. Hence, I'm here, and a little green when it comes to MMOs since this is my first one."
"Really?" I turn to her. "The way you were handling yourself during the raid said otherwise."
"I just got lucky."
"Mhm. Yeah. Lucky." I mumble into my drink, clearly not convinced.
"This was my first too." Hita sighed. "Hell of a way to start. But Nobuyuki's been helping me."
"Oh, so that's his name."
Hita's eyes widen slightly, then she looks at her brother. "Sorry."
"It's alright."
"Where you guys from?"
"Kawaguchi." They reply.
"Oh, not too far from me. I'm from Niiza. Mako, Asuna, what about you two?"
"Wako." Mako.
"Setagaya."
"What about family?"
"You ask a lot of questions. You know that?" Mako gave me a sideways glance.
"What, it's just friendly conversation. I want to get to know them better. That's alright with you guys right?" I actually attempt to give them a face that would resemble what a dog would make to convince someone. Both siblings laugh in response.
"It's fine." Neo says, smiling.
"Here, since Mako said something, start us off."
She gives mana glare. "I'm an only child living with my parents."
"I have two younger sisters. And two dogs." I say next.
"I have an older brother." Asuna.
"Neo's my baby brother." Hita.
"I hate it when you say that."
"But it's true." She pats his head. "You'll always be the baby, no matter how old you are."
"You sound just like my mom." I say.
"She's just like our dad." Neo stated dejectedly.
"Oh, quit being such a baby." Hita slapped his shoulder. He groans and and slams his head on the table.
"Don't hurt yourself." Mako said through her smile. I was chuckling.
"Screw you guys."
"Oh man, what a day."
"You're telling me. We beat a floor boss, clear a wasp nest, save some players from a mini-boss. By far the most interesting day yet." I throw myself onto the couch in the living room.
After having our drinks in the tavern, we all decided to bunk together for the night. I had found an NPC who was renting out a portion of his home to travelers, and it was cheaper than paying for separate rooms in the inn. One of us would be sleeping on the couch though, which I decided before hand would be me.
"Are you sure you want the couch?" Hita asked once more. "One of us can-"
"Nope. I'll be fine. I've slept in safe zones before, and even out of those. This couch is just fine." I wish she'd stop asking. It gets a little annoying when you ask five to six times. "Mako, please don't-"
"If you say 'run into a wasp nest', I'm going to stab you in the eye."
"What? No. I would never." I say dramatically, a smirk on my face. Her response is to give me the bird.
"That's why you guys were there?"
"Yup. Guess that was lucky of her to run into a wasp nest."
"Damn it Alto." She growls from behind her room door.
"Go to sleep Mako." I chuckle. She sticks her tongue at me in response before closing the door.
"She's weird." I say.
"You sure it's safe to annoy her that much? She has an axe."
"Ah, I'll be fine. She's harmless, at least to me."
"Uh!" Her muffled groan could've heard through the door.
"Alrighty then. Night everyone." Hita announced as she made her way to her room.
"Night." I settle myself into the couch, getting as comfortable as one could in one. Once in a desired position, I opened my menu. I wouldn't go to sleep until I was satisfied with every item I had.
I went through medical items first, finding I had at least one health potion. I'll have to get some more. My weapons were next, checking the integrity and such on all of them: my two swords and the shield. The shield, from what I could tell now, was either very durable or straight up indestructible. Everything on it was a hundred percent. I'd have to find out later.
Last was my armor. My clothes were relatively fine. My armor itself was just above sixty percent. Not surprising since it did take a fall damage from the boss earlier. I'd get that done as soon as possible.
And after five minutes of contemplating it...
Maybe now.
I'm a paranoid, need-to-get-it-done-now kind of guy. I was in the real world, and that's not changing anytime soon.
"Ah." I groan as I pick myself back up and equip my items. I head over to Mako's door and give it a knock.
"Mako? You awake?" I ask in a low voice. It's a minute before she opens the door.
"Yeah. Why?" She raises an eyebrow.
"I'm just letting you know I'm going into town. I need to stick up on some items."
She stares at me for a good ten second before walking out of her room. "I'm coming with. Might as well get my stuff done too. Let's just let Asuna know."
After she tells Asuna where we're headed to, we exit the house and head into town. The little house the were staying at was a little out of town, on it's own plantation. Sugar cane and apples. It was a ten minute walk to town.
"So were you as paranoid as I was for items?" Mako asks.
"Yup. Probably more so. I need more potions, and I need to repair my equipment. I just had to get it done now."
"Well, that's not a bad thing. We probably should have just brought everyone with us I say." Mako nods at the market.
"Ah well. We'll have to bring them here before they get going tomorrow."
We quickly got what we needed done. My potions were now up to ten, as was Mako, and we find a blacksmith to repair our weapons and armor back to a hundred percent.
"There we go. Good as new. That's more like it." I say as I look down my blade.
"You know you can't tell the difference right?" Mako laughs slightly.
"Yeah, but I'm a do it anyways."
"Help!" I hear a voice in the distance.
"What the hell's up with our timing with these things?" Mako asks before we both bolt towards the person who's shouting. A little dude who looks ten, but might be older. He sees us responding at runs to us.
"Please! You have to help me!"
"What's wrong?" I ask.
"My brother! He's been attacked by a Trembling Bull! He led it away from me! Please!"
"Take us there! Now!"
He nods and books it, Mako and I following close behind. We pass through the town quickly and into the fields, though this area also has clusters of trees littered around it.
Mako and I are looking in all directions, trying to find a sign of the kid's brother. He's also looking, but seems to know the general direction of where they took to.
After another minute, he stops completely. We pass him up since we weren't expecting it. When we stop we turn to him.
"Kid? What's wrong?" I look at his face. He has his eyes close, but his lips are in a tight frown. When he opens them again, I see...regret? Guilt?
"I'm sorry." He says before he takes off to the direction we came from.
"What?" Mako frowns in question.
"Shit. Mako, weapons out." I tell her as I draw my sword and shield. She does the same.
In the cluster of trees we're near, we see a silhouette of a person, then another, and another, and another. They already have weapons drawn, and start walking around us, two for both Mako and myself.
"It's you again." I recognize the scimitar user in the group, from the boss raid. It's rather obvious why he's here with his friends. "So you found yourself a posse."
"Rather obvious isn't it," He glances at Mako. "She's free to leave. My quarrel is with you, not her."
"You have another thing coming if you think I'll leave Alto to fend for himself." She growls in response.
The scimitar user sighs. "If you want to die with him, that's just fine!" He charges, his three friends following suit.
Mako and I get two opponents each, with the scimitar user out for my blood. He's putting as much force into his blow as he can, but my shield is taking it without a problem. I want to deal with the knife user who's trying to get around me.
After one of his more ferocious attacks, I use a simple slash and slam my shield into him, knocking him to the floor a few meters away. With him out of the way, I concentrate on the knife user, who's moving around quite nimbly. I thrust my sword at her once, and she dodges it easily. That attack is actually enough of an opening for her to dance around to my left and slash me. The only problem for her is that my heals drops to ninety-five percent.
She looks startled at the revelation, and if I were one to judge, she was a few levels lower then I was, which would explain the low damage. She takes a glance at me, while I raise a tired eyebrow, as if saying, 'Really?' In response, I attack her, slashing her twice in an X before using the shield to push her back. When she falls to the floor, she drops her weapon and just lies there while covering her head, waiting for my next attack.
I look over to Mako, who has already dispatched her opponents. Both were on the ground face first, weapons out of reach, all covering their heads. Their health was in the red, but she's not poised to attack again, only to defend if they get back up.
"Well, that was interesting." Mako comments as she steps closer to her former foes, who in turn become tense. "Want to try it again?"
"No! No!" One of them say.
"W-we give up!" The dagger user says next.
"Idiots." I say next. "You're lucky we didn't kill you. That we don't like doing th-"
A red light fills my vision, then a burning pain on my chest that makes me cry out. The scimitar user used a slash attack on me while I wasn't looking, and his did some damage. My health was now at seventy-three percent.
He prepared another attack, this at Mako. She was preparing to charge him, but my body moved on it's own. My shield in front, sword reared behind me. They took a glow before I was launched forward towards the scimitar user. He had just enough time to see me close the distance before my sword buried itself into his chest.
He gave a pained and surprised gasp, quite possibly not expecting this to happen. And for a split second, the world freezes. It's only me and the scimitar user. I can see his face: the pain, the shock, the anger, the betrayal. But the most prominent is fear. Because he know's what happens next. What I do and what happens to him.
I realize that a little too late.
The sword rips its way out of his chest as I spin, and this elects a cry from him. But it's silenced when my shield comes back around, slamming into him.
And then he shatters.
We all watch as the crystal shards fly high into the sky, and before six seconds, they all disappear. Leaving no trace of the man who once stood here.
I don't know what the others are thinking, but only one thing crosses my mind.
'I've taken a life.'
...
'I've just killed a man.'
'I...'
"Get your weapons and get out of here! Go on! Get!"
I hear Mako shout, presumably at the other three. I don't see them leave though. I'm too busy staring at the place a young man use to stand. There wasn't a trace of him anywhere. Not the ground, the air. No body, blood, clothes, weapons, items. It was as if he hadn't been there just a minute ago, that maybe he wasn't there at all.
As if he hadn't existed.
Nothing...
"Alto? Alto? Come on, answer me."
I take a look at Mako, who has worry painted on her face. She sees something wrong with me, but judging by her face and body, she's not too sure on what to do.
"Are you okay?"
I stare at her for a moment, then look back at the place the man once stood, a window before me, telling me the items I had gained from the kill.
That was the only evidence of a person standing in front of me.
"I...I don't know."
This didn't ease her concern. She takes my shoulder and gently drags me in front of her before leading me away.
"Let's get back to the house."
I don't remember walking to the house. The only bit I remember is Asuna meeting us at the door, talking to Mako about where we've been. I don't listen though, and just walk past them in a daze to the couch, numly removing my armor and weapons before quietly getting comfortable.
"Alto? Are you okay?" Mako asks again.
"I'll...mmm...let you know tomorrow."
They leave it alone, but I'm sure they'll touch on it later.
Truth be told, I'm not sure how to feel about it. I'm numb, but...I don't have a feeling. Or maybe I do but can't come up with the words for it. If I could describe it I feel...I don't know, nothing. That's a feeling right? Nothing?
Maybe I'll feel something tomorrow.
...
...
...
I don't like feeling numb.
I've made it where if you do kill players you gain only get the weapons of the player they slayed, so it depends on how many weapons they carry. They don't get EXP from player kills though.