Chapter 10- The Second Floor

Umairi had much on his mind, mostly what would come next.

(Normal Line Break)

Floor 1

December 5th, 2022

Umairi stepped forward into the Teleport Gate and shouted "Urbus!" He had overheard a few people explaining how to use the Gates and did as they said.

A brief feeling of weightlessness followed and everything In his vision changing. Umairi saw the 2nd floor for the first time.

Floor 2

It was beautiful in a peaceful kind of way. For has far has the eye could see, there was grasslands and flat top mountains. Everything seems to have an orange tinge to it. The large city of Urbus seemed to be located in a circular valley, almost like an impact had happened here. It felt like being in a Savannah, the weather was certainly warmer than floor one.

"Woah, that was strange." Umairi heard someone speak to his right, he turned his head and spotted Haruto.

"Like the ride?" Umairi jokingly asked.

"Yeah, I bet your mom did too." Haruto replied with a smirk.

Haruto lurched forward slightly, as if someone punched his back, which someone did. Yoko stood behind him, her fist extended where Haruto's back used to be.

"Ow." Haruto complained while rubbing his back. "What was that for, Yoko?"

It was Umairi's turn to poke fun at him "You can't feel pain, man up."

Haruto scowled and crossed his arms while looking away.

The group of 3 took their first few steps on the second floor.

(Break Line)

Umairi stood slightly slouched while observing the NPC's stock. He didn't notice anything of value to him or anything particularly useful so he closed the buy menu and walked back to the mainstreet. Haruto and Yoko were slightly ahead of him, viewing all of the vendors wares.

Umairi jogged slightly to catch up with them.

"Find anything you like, Uma?" Haruto asked him has he gingerly walked forward.

"Nope, I'm fine in gear and equipment has it is." Umairi replied while shrugging. "So...What should we do?"

Haruto put his hand to his chin and hummed for a seconds. "Want to explore the floor?"

"I don't care." Umairi answered "Yoko, is that fine with you?"

Yoko simply nodded (has always).

"Well, I guess it's settled, let's explore." Umairi said while clasping his hands together.

Umairi started to walk towards the exit of Urbus while passing by quite a few players. It seemed a lot of people had the same idea since the main gate was pretty crowded. Once out, they finally started their journey through the Savannah.

(Another Line Break)

Haruto pushed against the ox while holding his two-handed sword vertically. "Switch!" he cried and Yoko and dived in, holding her new sword. She got a quite a few hits in until the ox exploded into blue particles.

The results menu popped up showing how much Exp, Col, and extras the group had gotten. Umairi didn't get much since Yoko practically did most of the damage, but he did a couple of useless objects. Well, he might be able to sell some of this stuff.

Haruto sheathed his two-hander and released a sigh. "Man, the weather is so nice here. Not too hot, not too cold."

Umairi nodded and stated "Yep, can't wait to see the next floor. It's hard to believe this is all just a game."

Haruto simply nodded and the 3 sat in comfortable silence admiring the gorgeous game.

They started walking again, deciding not to talk. After about 5 minutes, Haruto spoke up. "Yoko, this game is beautiful, isn't it." She nodded.

"Hey Umairi, have you accepted the game yet?" Umairi was completely thrown off by his question.

"What do you mean?" Umairi asked confused.

"Do you know about all the people still in the Town of Beginnings."

Umairi nodded, confusion written on his face.

"They don't want to accept this has a reality they're stuck in. We have though, we want to finish the game. They want to live...like cowards."

Umairi stopped, not knowing how to react to Haruto's statements.

Umairi shrugged it off and caught up to Haruto "What the hell was that about, man." Haruto didn't give him a direct answer but instead replied "I hate cowards...all of them are cowards."

Umairi was obviously annoyed by this statement and was going to pressure on but was cut short by a rather large ox.

Strange Haruto switched back into normal Haruto and shouted "Ox!"

Yoko pulled out her sword and got ready, so did Umairi.

The 3 prepared themselves the same way they dealt with the other Oxen. Umairi couldn't tell, but they looked to be pretty close to a town near the dungeon.

Has they approached, Umairi noticed that this ox was considerably larger than other oxen. He had to be at least 4 meters tall. Before Umairi could realize who the ox was and warn the others, it was too late. Haruto had accidently stepped into the ox's aggro bubble.

The giant ox roared and the letters Bulbous Bow appeared over its head, coupled with 4 health bars. Umairi gulped, they were screwed.

A/N *Gasp* cliffhanger! Well that ends this chapter. Our protagonist have finally made It to the 2nd floor (after 9 chapters, lol). Kinda had to make the boss part AU for plot and story reasons though it's not a big deal. In the canon, a scout raid group fought the boss, not a small guild. I do want say, while browsing the SAO wiki, double checking all my times ect., I noticed that I had gotten the boss meeting and boss battle dates wrong. Derp move me. I'm pondering If I should write the next chapter after I upload this or wait. FYI, Friday will be my last full day to write till I leave for camp so I'm going to write as much as possible till then. P.S. When I was reading about the field boss on the SAO wiki, it never said how many health bars the boss had so I kinda had guess...please tell me if I'm right or wrong. This is the god damn 10th chapter and only 1 review (besides me). Come on SAO community! Review faster (350 views? I had over a 1000 on my other story by chapter 4, lol). I am really excited for the Christmas part of the story cause I have a cool idea for it, also, we should be hearing references to Argo in a chapter or 2. Thanks for reading and remember to Favorite, Follow, and Review you attractive beta-testers. Bye!