Note: Phew, this chapter ended up being a quite a bit longer than I intended. Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Aincrad Floor 1 Fields
The wind rushed through the trees as the moonlight filtered through their branches, casting shadows on the ground. The silvery light caused strange shapes to appear in the areas that the rays from the queen of the night could never reach. I had to keep reminding myself that this was not the real world, that I was in a perfect replica of my body, not my actual body. I tried to tell myself that any enemy that appeared would have a cursor over it, but I was unable to relax my tense body because all my instincts were screaming to be alert; telling me that I'd die if I relaxed my guard for a single moment. The soft moonlight refracted, shattering off my blade of my drawn greatsword that had been at the ready for the past 15 minutes we'd been traveling.
Unlike most games, where you could kill monsters several levels over you, the SAO level system was very strict. During the beta it was nearly impossible to find a player who could solo a normal monster three levels over his own level, and Sinon and I were the only players who were known to be able to solo kill monsters four levels over our own, but that was only in the best scenario. Every level in this game meant a nigh-insurmountable gap, one that could only be bridged if you were the best of the best.
At lower levels it was even harder to bridge level gaps due to the lack of skills available. At our peak in the beta we were each level 41, having unlocked seven skill slots. These skills gave us a myriad of sword skills and a million different strategic combinations that allowed us to overcome opponents several levels above us, and we became nearly unbeatable when our skills were combined, the whole being far greater than the sum of the parts. Sadly, with our limited skills right now, it was impossible to recreate such teamwork, each of us having only [Hiding] in addition to our weapon skills that hadn't even reached high enough level to unlock more sword skills.
Knowing this, you'd probably agree with me that we're idiots for heading into a territory with level 3 monsters, barely being at level 2 ourselves. Sadly this was from necessity. There was a limited quest for the strongest sword on the first three floors that could only be run 50 times. This meant that barely 0.5% of the players would manage to get their hands on this sword, the ««Anneal Blade»», and I was determined to be one of them.
Strength was the only thing that mattered in this hellish world, and I was going to become strong. Neither I nor Sinon were the type to sit around, hoping for someone to clear the game. We would do it ourselves, even if no one stood by us. That was what we did best, after all. We were both loners, but loners that worked together with a chemistry that was unique in this world. A girl who was shunned by everyone and a boy who never wanted to be with others struck an unlikely friendship and created a duo as terrifying as it was unlikely.
"Careful!" I yelled in alarm as our first target appeared through the trees: a «Little Nepenthes». We were attempting to complete the «Secret Medicine of the Forest» quest that required an extremely rare drop from a specific «Little Nepenthes» that rarely spawned with a flower atop its head.
The reason I decided to do this quest, aside from necessity, was because I was confident in our ability to deal with the very basic attacks of this plant monster. Although our physical reactions were, to a great extent, augmented by the system, that was a mere correction instead of the full system assist that sword skills used. To explain it slightly clearer, the DEX, or Dexterity stat, gave the player a system-assisted hand-eye coordination and body movement correction, so the higher the DEX stat, the smaller the discrepancy between where you think you're moving your body and where your body actually moves is.
So this stat is influenced by the coordination of your real body. The NerveGear had you do a series of calibration movements to figure out what your real life coordination was like. During the beta test this could be recalibrated at any point, but I guess we won't have to worry about that during the official release. Both Sinon and I had extremely good coordination in real life, so it was far easier for us to dodge at the early stages of the game than it was for most players.
Sinon and I easily dodged the initial attack of the «Little Nepenthes», which was a simple overhead strike from its two arm-like vines. 'After this comes a rapid double strike from the right and the left that will be targeted at one of us. At this point the other will drive in, dealing as much damage as possible before it recovers from the attack missing.' All monsters had a period of immobility if an attack was blocked or dodged. This period had a lot of variables, but I knew for the «Little Nepenthes» it was 1.8 seconds if dodged normally, 2.5 seconds if blocked by a greatsword, and 3 seconds if blocked by a shield. You can get an idea of how many of these monsters we've killed to have their movements calculated to a tenth of a second.
Take that number you have in your head and multiply it by 10.
Then multiply that number by 100.
Then you'll be at almost half of what we had to kill to get the one with the flower to spawn.
I have crap luck, ok? Yeah I'm entirely aware of it.
As the movement calculations of the monster shot through my head, a second passed where we both remained immobile, waiting for the monster to select its target. Indeed it did so, aiming at me. Losing no time, Sinon leapt into the gap created by its attack, launching a rapid 'Flurry' at its side. 'Flurry' was a basic skill that dealt 4 hits in less time than it took to deal a single hit, but was hardly ever used since each strike dealt 1/10th of a normal 'Horizontal' or any of the other skills that would soon be used as basic attacks.
However, in Sinon's case, this skill was a terrifying weapon due to the DoT effect her dagger dealt. In the 1.8 seconds I managed to deal a 'Horizontal' while Sinon managed to land her 'Flurry' and three more basic attacks that hardly dealt any damage but succeeded in stacking the poison from her dagger. I almost continued attacking the monster as I knew its next attack to be an overhead strike that could easily be blocked, even at level two with starter gear, but its movement seemed slightly off for an overhead strike using its vines. Suddenly my instincts screamed at me to get back, and I quite literally felt death looming over me as I hurled myself backwards with all the strength I could muster. A cold sweat broke out on my brow as the «Little Nepenthes» bent down, biting at the place that I had been standing less than half a second ago with a mouth larger than my body and an attack that I'm sure would have insta-killed me if I hadn't dodged.
'What the hell? That attack wasn't in the beta!' "Careful!" I shouted frantically at Sinon. "We don't know what else could have changed from the beta." We took the rest of the fight extremely carefully, moving away every single time it began a new attack and carefully dodging that attack, only attacking ourselves when the monster was in its immobility period from an attack missing.
Thankfully none of the monster's other attack patterns changed, and Sinon's dagger's DoT made this fight far easier than it should have been. As a plant-type monster, the «Little Nepenthes» had extremely high regeneration, which made it a pain to fight as you not only had to try to deplete its already large HP pool, but you had to fight against the flow of its rapidly regenerating HP. The poison from my partner's dagger, however, not only eliminated its HP regeneration, but even reduced its hp by about 1% every 3 seconds, meaning it would die in 5 minutes if we did nothing, proving the strength of poison against certain plant-types.
Killing one «Little Nepenthes» took nearly two minutes, which might sound bad, but is actually pretty good considering we were fighting a monster stronger than us, and our lives were truly at stake. We continued this pattern for nearly seven hours, Sinon reaching level 4 and I reaching level 3 by the time a «Little Nepenthes» with the flower spawned.
One week into the game, barely any progress had been made toward finding the first floor boss. In fact, players hadn't even made it to the labyrinth yet, let alone began clearing it to try to find the boss lair on its 20th floor. Sinon and I were hunting «Dire Wolves» in the fields, gathering ««Soft Wolf Leather»» to complete a quest that would reward us with our preferred leather armor.
When we returned to the quest location, which was a small unnamed hamlet near village of Horunka, we met a small whiskered figure that neither of us had expected to see here. "Kii-bou!" the small figure yelled while jumping at me, latching onto me by wrapping her arms and legs around my torso, entirely immobilizing me. "A-Argo? Is that you?" completely taken aback, I asked the most obvious question in the world, as no one else in this game would refer to me as Kii-bou, other than the whiskered information dealer known affectionately (or not so affectionately in some cases) as the Rat.
When Argo had come flying toward me her hood that she always kept up had fallen back, revealing her short, slightly curly blonde hair. After a few moments she released me from her death grip, pulling back and redirecting her attention to the girl at my side. As Sinon got the same treatment from Argo that I had gotten a few moments previously, I was able to register and admire the small girl that I now knew the real life appearance of. Her real body was even smaller than her already small avatar was during the beta, standing at around 150 cm. Her beta test avatar had apparently retained her true eye color, as when we made eye contact after she withdrew from hugging Sinon, I saw a pair of faint green, almost yellow eyes looking back at me with an excited gleam in them.
We stared at each other for a few moments in a blissful silence, the three of us wordless with happiness at this reunion. As Sinon mentioned previously, Argo was my only friend I had made in Sword Art Online during the beta, our relationship as business partners being as deep as our real friendship. "Ya know, with an avatar as bright and colorful as yours was, Sinono-chii, I didn't expect your real life appearance to be so muted." Sinon just mumbled something in response, not knowing how to deal with the exuberant blonde. Back during the beta, even with her avatar, Sinon wasn't very good at dealing with Argo, but she'd become even more timid in her real body, making a strange contrast to Argo, who's transformation into her real life body seemed to make her even more rowdy.
I pulled the small bundle of energy away from Sinon. I was about to comment on how she was even shorter in real life than her avatar was, hoping that I'd be able to get to her with a short joke, but I stopped abruptly as a small mail icon appeared in my HUD next to the clock. I got a bad feeling as I opened it up, knowing it had to be from Klein as he was the only person on my friend's list who wasn't with me right now. I opened it up and saw four obviously hastily typed words. "Help aneal blad PK" Argo and Sinon turned to me, the former's teasing of the latter abruptly cut off as they both heard me swear quietly. "We need to go, Klein is in trouble. I'll explain as we go." Argo looked at me, a slightly surprised look on her face. "Klein? That scruffy faced guy who looks like a thug? If he's in trouble I'd better come along and help then, I don't want to lose a well paying customer."
I was briefly surprised that Argo knew Klein, but I dismissed that as it was no use thinking about it. The three of us set off at a run with me leading the way toward the woods near Horunka Village where the «Little Nepenthes» spawned. "Yesterday I told Klein about the ««Anneal Blade»» and the quest to acquire it, and apparently today he headed over there to see if the quest was still available. I assume the quest was still available and he managed to get a ««Little Nepenthes Ovule»», but got caught by a group of PKers before he was able to turn the quest in. He didn't even have enough time to spell his words correctly."
When we reached the entrance to the forest it was obvious what was going on, a group of 3 green players was surrounded by 8 orange players. "Damnit, just how many crystals do you have!" An orange player yelled at the three players in the center of the circle as they send another wave of attacks flying at the players in their center. "KLEIN!" I yelled as I saw the familiar red-haired man in the center, desperately fending off attacks from three players at the same time, his hp dropping dangerously low. I activated 'Rage Spike' and lunged toward the players attacking Klein. Sinon quickly followed me with a simple 'Dash' movement skill, taking some pressure off of Klein's two guildmates. With a growl that seemed out of place coming from such a petite body, Argo lunged at the two players that were in the back, preventing them from confusing the battle by joining their comrades.
As the PKers were unwilling to die, they ran away as their hp hit red. Several had obviously used their HP restoration items, as those who still had potions or crystals left used them, unwilling to be caught. Klein and his party regrouped with my party, forming a united front that faced the five remaining members of the PK party. I pointed my ««Anneal Blade»» at them. "It's 6 to 5, only an idiot would take a fight like this. If you leave now we'll let you off; your want to survive is just as great as my want to finish this game without committing murder. However we WILL take you on if you want to fight."
The orange players hesitated, obviously considering taking me up on my offer to flee, but the leader of the group simply called out to his players. "HAH, 6 to 5 they say? Those three players in the back are probably useless. What are the chances we'd run into players stronger than ourselves here? Only those stupid beta testers would be able to beat us, and what beta tester would help out newbies like this? Everyone knows they only care for themselves." The three of us simply smirked at the assumption of their leader. "Then come at us if you find yourselves so overconfident as to try to take on a fight that you're obviously at the disadvantage."
I took a strong stance, hoping to discourage him, but it did the exact opposite. At my words, the leader lunged at me with his colleagues closely following behind. I stepped into the arc of his sword, countering his 'Vertical' with a 'Slant'. His ««Anneal Blade»» crashed against mine with an all too realistic screech. My higher strength overpowered him, deflecting his blade and disrupting his stance as we both were put into an identically long Post-Motion Period. But there was a fatal difference: as soon as I recovered from my Post-Motion I launched a blow at his torso which landed dead on target due to his inability to dodge as his sword skill being deflected had thrown him off balance.
While I was fighting the leader, similar scenes played out as the other members of the PK party clashed with my party. Each player on the opposite side chose an opponent, but due to my side having one more player than their side did, Sinon unfortunately ended up without someone to fight. Unfortunately for them, that is, as she took out her anger at being ignored on the three players attacking Klein's party.
Apparently the player who had attacked Argo had expected her to be an easy target due to her small figure, but BOY was he in for a storm. With her terrifying claw skills, Argo could give even me a fight during the beta. Since claws weren't available until the 4th floor, Argo had to settle with a dagger; but although her skills couldn't be compared to Sinon, there probably weren't even ten players in this game that could defeat this deceptively weak-looking girl.
Unfortunately for the man who attacked her, he wasn't included in that ten. Argo simply deflected his sword skill and countered with a sharp thrust that didn't even have a sword skill attached. However, the dagger remained in his avatar while she twisted it, inflicting a terrifyingly strong bleed effect. Although normal attacks were far under sword skills in damage, daggers specialized in applying status effects, so not even the strongest player could entirely ignore basic attacks from daggers.
In under 15 seconds the battle had been decided. Three of the players immediately ran, the leader and one members standing their ground for a moment. The man standing beside the leader tugged on his sleeve urgently. "Come on PoH, let's get out of here. These aren't people we can deal with. We better take them up on their offer to let us go."
The leader, whose name I now knew as PoH just stared at me with dead eyes. I met his stare, doing my best to not be intimidated. I caught a gleam in his eyes as he turned away, walking off wordlessly. My entire body relaxed as they walked off, making me realize the strange fact that nearly being killed and nearly being forced to kill created similar amounts of stress. 'What was that look in his eye?' I found myself wondering. 'Happiness? Anticipation?' I shuddered at the thought. No matter the cause a murderer had to look at me like that, I was sure it wasn't a good one.
I walked over to the red-haired man who was exhausted both from the fight and the near-death experience and slapped him lightly on the shoulder. "C'mon man, let's turn your quest in and get back to a safe zone. You all desperately need some rest." He looked at me and nodded, thankfulness spread across his entire face. "Thanks man, we would have been dead if it weren't for you two-" he cut off the word as it finally registered that there was another figure aside from Sinon and I here.
I saw a mixed expression of fear and confusion on Klein's face as the small blonde girl approached him. "Heya there, Klein my good buddy!" I saw an expression of infinite pain on his face as the small girl leaned close to him. Sinon and I both smothered a laugh at his reaction; it was a comfort to know that we weren't the only ones unable to deal with the constant teasing that seemed to be Argo's only way of communicating with those she was comfortable around.
I was the only one who could deal with Argo reasonably well, so I reached over and pulled her away from the obviously highly disturbed Klein. I could practically feel his sigh as I rescued him from the short demon. My age-old hypothesis was proven by Argo, as she was living proof that short girls are just bundles of condensed energy and sarcasm.
Argo pouted as I pulled her away from her victim "Aww, let me have some fun, Kii-bou. He's just so much fun to tease that I can't help myself." I gave her a light rap on her head. "Come on Argo, tease him after he's recovered. In his current state your teasing is liable to reduce his HP and cause him to die. You don't want to kill a perfectly fine victim*COUGH* a-ahem, customer, do you?" Sinon rolled her eyes at our interaction and moved over to Klein. "Kirito's really the only one who can deal with her, I don't understand how he does it." Klein nodded emphatically at Sinon's comment.
"I heard that!" both of them cringed as a yell came from Argo. "Let's head back to the village already, Klein and his party need to rest. If we ran into another PK party we'd be in no situation to deal with them." The friendly banter between the three that had filled the area quickly died down as I brought them back to reality. A tired mood quickly filled the group once the adrenaline wore off, and we set off back to Horunka Village.
Note: Sorry there was a bit of an info dump in the beginning of this chapter, but I hope that I managed to make up for that in the second half! Klein getting some more attention and the introduction of everyone's favorite info broker, Argo! I'm really not sure how much Argo will be in this story due to the plot being directed by our OC Isuca (who you haven't met yet, for anyone wondering if they missed anything) but i'd love to hit as much Argo into this story as i can because she's an absolutely amazing and utterly underrated character. Also i'll apologize in advance if Argo seems OOC, but that's because I have barely the slightest idea of how Argo actually acts, but hey! i'll at least give it a shot.
I'll attempt to release a chapter on both Saturday and Sunday, but no promises since i'll also be cleaning up the grammar and spelling on the past six chapters. Just remember that if anyone has questions, suggestions, complaints, ideas, or any input of any sort, i'd be extremely grateful if you left me a review or shot me a pm!
Thanks for reading and hope to see you next chapter ;)
