Thank you for the support while my dad wasn't doing well. He's alright now. Now for what I plan to do, I'm going to change my storyline from what it was originally supposed to be. I think it'll turn out to be a better story overall than the previous one (I also changed the story a bit already so it's too late to go back to the original). So without further ado, here's the next chapter.
P.S. nothing you need to go back and check on but I changed some of the levels of the characters in previous chapters. Thanks to Skie89 for pointing out that the levels were unrealistic and I agree. They've been changed to a more realistic number.
[Max's POV]
Another day another dungeon. That's what it's been like for the past week. The ones prior to this were to help members of my guild to level up, but today is different. Today was leveling with friends.
"Ha!" A spear sliced through a lizardman, turning its body into digital dust. DJ rested his spear on his shoulder. "Glad we're fighting monsters that people our level should be fighting. Lower level monsters were starting to become boring to fight." Silica had one of her hands on her knees while leaning on DJ for support.
"I know you guys said I was ready for this but I really don't think I am. I'm tired after one monster."
"You'll get better. These monsters can't be beaten by just using the basics. Advance maneuvers have to be used. It's tiring at first but if you do them enough it'll feel like basics to you." I told her. She stood up straight still leaning on DJ.
"Can I sit the next one out?"
"We'll just wait for you to catch your breath." Not far from where DJ, Silica and I were, Kirito, Asuna and Nina were fighting some other lizardmen. They were making short work of them as well. All of us decided to get together and level up as a group. At first, we weren't going to bring Kirito. None of us thought we could convince him to come with us, but Asuna somehow did. When they finished killing their group of monsters, they looked over to see how we were doing.
"Silica going to be ok?" Asuna asked with concern. I nodded.
"She's just tired. Not used to dealing with monsters that have complex attack patterns. Just let her rest for a bit." Kirito was making a map of the dungeon and was making sure that it looked accurate to what we explored so far.
"It's crazy that you guys have unique abilities. First, your impenetrable skill, then Nina's duel wielding, now DJ has an elemental spear. Although that is more of a rare weapon than a unique skill but still."
"Did we tell you? We found out that his weapon levels up on its own as well. So no matter how far we get his spear will be able to compete with the monsters."
"That's so cool! And don't worry, no one else knows but me." Asuna found it odd that I blocked that monsters attack knowing that it nearly one shot some of her guild members. Silica also let it slip that she and Nina were in a secret dungeon with another girl. They never told her name, though. Needless to say, Asuna wanted an explanation. I told her about Nina and I having unique skills and not long after that DJ got his. We asked if she could keep quiet about it and so far she's kept it secret. She hasn't even told Kirito. We plan on letting everyone know when the time is right. Silica regained her composure and jumped up and down for emphasis.
"Alright, I'm ready to go again." She twirled her knife in her hand.
"Alright, let's move forward then." We all continued further into the dungeon. The next set of enemies appearing not too far from where we previously were. This time we split up into three groups. Nina and I were together. DJ and Silica were together. And lastly, Kirito and Asuna were together. Kirito and Asuna fought with lighting fast speed. Switching constantly to keep the enemy off balance. DJ and Silica fought similar, except DJ stepped in to redirect attacks away from Silica. She was ready for higher floors level wise, but skill wise she could use some work. What better way to learn than from experience? Then there was Nina and I. I took the front, blocking any attack that came my way, and Nina came in to deal blows then the enemy was attacking me. They stop attacking, I start attacking. Thanks to Nina's duel wielding she can deal twice as much damage as she normally can which made fights a breeze. After the fights, we all looked at Silica.
"How do you feel now?" Nina asked her.
"I'm starting to get the hang of it." She said enthusiastically. We went further into the dungeon with ease. The synergy between all of us allowed us to fight without much communication. We reached a big door that just screamed 'boss room'. All of us looked at each other knowing exactly what we had to do, except for Silica. DJ took the liberty of explaining the situation to her.
"We're in front of a boss room right now, we don't know if it's the floor boss or not so we're going to open the door to take a peak." He gave her a teleport crystal. "If we're forced to fight after opening the door, teleport out without hesitation. It shouldn't happen but there are times where it has." Silica held her crystal close to her.
"Ok." She responded. I was up front at the door and Kirito was next to me, both of us with teleport crystals in hand. We slowly opened the door to reveal a room that looked like a tomb. As soon as the door opened, a bunch of torches lit up the room in a dim light, revealing a huge ram like monster in the middle. It was kneeling for a second before it snorted and started to stand. Its sword was the length of its lower body. The four HP bars appeared above its head along with its name, Gleam Eyes. After its dramatic appearance, it gave a guttural roar directly at us. Knowing that we've seen enough, we ran out of the room as fast as we could and did not stop running until we were sure that the aggro wore off on the monster.
"That was a floor boss!?" Silica exclaimed. "You could feel the power resonating from that beast."
"Hate to break it to you, but that floor boss is on another level than the ones we've fought before." Kirito said.
"We're going to need a squad of dedicated tanks to block the attacks that thing can dish out and even at that getting close enough to hit it will be a nightmare in itself. It's very agile." Asuna commented.
"On the bright side, we got something to report to the assault team." Nina said trying to find a silver lining.
"True, but that can wait. Let's keep leveling for a bit. Away from that monstrosity." DJ commented. No one saw any problem so that's exactly what we kept doing. We were at it for about an hour before we decided to take a break. Asuna brought some food with her so we could have lunch.
"This is delicious!" All of us said in response to Asuna's amazing sandwiches.
"Glad you guys like it. Silica helped make them."
"Yeah, but I didn't do more than help dress up the sandwiches."
"No, you did more than that. You helped cut the meats and helped make the sauces."
"Awesome job… Silica… the sauces taste… just like mustard… and soy sauce… IRL." DJ said in between bites. Silica's cheeks turned red at his compliment.
"Thanks, but it was Asuna's recipe." Kirito looked at Asuna.
"How did you figure out how to make these?" Asuna showed a bunch of papers with detailed work on it.
"A year's worth of studying and experiments. Mastering cooking helped as well. This can be made by anyone with the right ingredients, though." The amount of work she did to figure out how to recreate real life flavors was astonishing. It really showed how much Asuna loved to cook.
"You should sell these." Nina suggested.
"Absolutely not!" DJ, Kirito, and I exclaimed together.
"Why not?" Kirito answered for the group.
"Because, there won't be any left for the rest of us." The girls got a chuckle out of that.
"Honestly do you guys think of anything but food."
"Yeah, we think about the game a lot too. For instance, we still haven't found the floor boss on this floor." I countered.
"The Knights are working on it. We're pretty much the only ones in this spot because I was able to convince Heathcliff to let me form a party to come here."
"What about that guy that was assigned to give you protection? Shouldn't he be here with you?" Nina asked.
"Ugh, don't remind me. Kirito had to scare him off so I could do this. Hopefully, he doesn't tell Heathcliff about it and we can continue leveling in peace." The 74th floor was no joke. At this point in the game, the AI is so complex you would think you were fighting another person. An experience that all of us, unfortunately, experienced at one point or another.
"Yo Kirito." We all looked up to see a player that we're not too familiar with outside of raids and his guild.
"Hey Klein, how's it going?" Kirito got up to greet him. Klein saw that Kirito was hanging out with a group and pulled him into a semi-private conversation. And by semi-private, I mean he just turned Kirito away from us but still spoke loud enough for us to hear.
"So, Kirito, when were you going to tell me about these hang outs you're having?"
"Klein we're just out leveling. It's not like we're out having a… picnic." Kirito facepalmed after he said that. Probably because that was exactly what it looked like we were doing.
"Relax Kirito, I'm just teasing. Besides, I think it's good that you're finding friends to hang out with." I decided to interrupt.
"Hey Kirito, mind introducing us? Outside of raids, we don't know this guy."
"Yeah sure. This is Klein. He's been with us on our boss raids…"
"We know that dingus, tell us how you know him. Clearly, he knows you outside of raids." DJ said out of the blue. Have no clue where he got the word 'dingus' from.
"Oh, well he was the first player that I met when the game first launched."
"He taught me the ropes. Pleasure to me you guys by the way." We all introduced ourselves to Klein and his guild. I even told them that I was a beta tester and that Kirito and I played together a lot at that time.
"Another beta tester huh? Not something you normally want to say when you introduce yourself."
"Normally I don't but you don't seem like the type of guys to judge someone like that. I mean you are friends with Kirito who, no offense, is probably the most notorious of us all." Kirito shrugged it off. He knew what I said was true.
"Yeah you're right. By the way, what's the relationship status of you guys? I couldn't help but notice the same number of boys to girls here." He put his hand under his chin and gave a sly grin when he asked that.
"Klein, we're just a group of players trying to level up. Our relationships aren't your concern." Kirito said rather sternly. Klein put his hands up in defense.
"Ok Kirito geez, it was just a question." When Klein said that I noticed that a group of players was coming from behind him. The players were all dressed in dark gray and black armor with helmets that covered their eyes. They were lazily marching towards us with most men in the group grunting and groaning with every step. Everyone else at this point noticed them and watched as they continued getting closer. When they were right behind Klein's guild the guy leading the group, who I assumed was the commander, said 'at ease' to the players behind him. Immediately, all players dropped to the ground gasping for breath and wiping the virtual sweat off their foreheads. The commander walked up to us and introduced himself.
"Hello everyone, my name is Kobats, Lieutenant Colonel of the Aincrad Liberation Front." Silica tapped my shoulder.
"What guild is that?" She whispered in my ear.
"It's a guild that's a lot like The Knights of the Blood Oath. At least, they used to be. They tried to take on a floor boss with just their numbers and got slaughtered as a result. They retreated to the first floor to regroup but we haven't heard from them since. Until now that is." She nodded her head and went back to DJ's side. DJ didn't know about the group so he probably told Silica to ask me if I knew. Now she's whispering in DJ's ear, probably relaying what I just told her.
"I'm wondering if you guys have any intel of this dungeon. If you do, you should give it to the ALF." I heard rumors that a guild was bullying people on lower floors to help them out because of their guild name and motive. I'm starting to think that these are the guys. We all looked at each other, debating whether to give these guys any information. Kirito steeped up to the guy.
"I have a map, you can have it." We all wanted to stop him. Calling out to him saying that he could sell the map for money to an info broker or to players who needed it more that these guys but he continued. "It's not a big deal, besides I can just make another." After exchanging the map the commander showed his thanks and went back to his group. "You're not planning on going to take the boss on, are you?" He didn't respond to Kirito which only confirmed that he was. "There's no way you can beat him with the players you have right now! Look at them, they're exhausted just from getting here."
"Nonsense, my men are tough as nails. C'mon boys! On your feet." He shouted at them. All of them grunted as they got up. Some looked a little weak kneed but they tried to hide it. "We continue forward." He led the group further into the dungeon.
"We have to follow him." I said.
"Duh. If we don't history could repeat itself." Asuna said.
"Then what are we waiting for?" Klein exclaimed. We started to follow behind the guild but unfortunately for us monsters started to spawn again. Thanks to Klein and his guild helping, clearing the monsters took less time than before. When we got to the front of the boss room door, it was closed and had no sign of anyone being inside.
"Maybe they teleported out?" Nina said with uncertainty. Then there was a scream which threw that idea out the window. Our group ran towards the door, while Klein's group was stopped by fresh spawning enemies. We pushed the door open and what we saw was not good. The monster backed the players into a corner. Most of the group was on their knees, too tired to put up a fight.
"What are you guys doing! Teleport out." Kirito yelled at them. One of the soldiers responded.
"We can't, the crystals aren't working." The Gleam Eyes struck the group again, sending some players flying into others. "Kobats get your men out of there! This is a losing fight."
"That's what you think! C'mon men, lets show this monster who the real boss is! Charge!" His group charged the monster, swinging their weapons wildly with the hope of landing a hit. With a guttural roar and a mighty swing of its sword, Gleam eyes stopped the attack. Kobats was sent flying through the air, landing in front of the boss room door where we were at. The damage was enough to eliminate his helmets durability and thus his helmet turned to digital dust.
"It can't be." Was his last words before he burst into two triangles. We were all stunned at his death and was almost oblivious to the rampage the monster was going on players were yelling in the midst of confusion.
"What do we do!"
"We have wounded over here!"
"Someone help us!" The screams were starting to get to us, and it was only a matter of time before someone cracked. And the first person who did, was Asuna.
"NNNNOOOOOO!" Asuna screamed while charging headfirst at the beast. Using her speed to her advantage she got a bunch of quick jabs in and got away from its counterattack. When we saw her charge in we snapped out of our shock and focused on helping her. Even Klein finished his fight with the monsters we ran past and started to help by removing the injured and tired from the fight. I focused on keeping the boss busy and let everyone else get their licks in. Unfortunately, Gleam eyes was way too fast for me to block effectively. I'll cover for one person and by the time their attack is about to land Gleam eyes attacks again and the player must dodge or block. It was too fast for a small group to do anything to it. If we did land an attack it would barely scratch it. At the rate this was going we were going to tire ourselves out before we could finish it off. I heard Kirito yell in the background.
"I can beat this thing, just buy me ten seconds!"
"You got it Kirito." I decided to damage the enemy myself. The first attack exposed me and my shield but I used the force of that to give more power into my strike. I was able to take a chunk of health away but nothing too significant. When it attacked again had to use my unique skill to avoid letting the attack go through me and hit Kirito. I put my all into it, doing my best not to move an inch. Then there was a pain in my chest followed by a warning appearing on my screen about my increased heart rate. It was happening again. I was having another attack. I knew I had to hold on for a little longer but my shield unfortunately gave out and the attack went through and did full damage to me. I was sent flying to the wall of the arena my HP dropping drastically. It kept dropping from yellow, to red… to nothing. My screen went black and a 'you are dead' prompt appeared in front of me. It was the end. Nothing could save me.
I woke up on a couch that I quickly recognized as Asuna's part of me thought I was dead, but I saw my HUD in front of me. To confirm I swiped my hand down to open my menu and it worked. I was elated at the fact I was still alive. I looked around to see if anyone was there but there was no one. I would have thought that Nina would at least be by my side until I awoke. Asuna walked passed the door to the living room and saw that I was awake. She quickly turned around and yelled behind her.
"Guys! Get up! He's awake!" She came into the room and kneeled next to me. Kirito and Silica flooded through the door that Asuna came through to confirm what happened. "How are you feeling?"
"A little out of it but other than that I'm fine. How am I still here? I died, I saw the prompt."
"Klein had a revive item and used it on you. It was from a holiday event from almost a year ago, I was surprised he hadn't used it before." Kirito told me. I was astonished. I didn't even know that there was an item like that in the game at all. I figured that if there was though it would be through a one-time only event. One question still lingered though.
"Where's Nina and DJ?" I could hear Asuna gulp next to me and Silica looked down on the brink of tears.
"Nina and DJ were…" Kirito swallowed and with a shaky breath said. "… Killed."
My laptop crashed twice while making this so I apologize for getting this out later than I wanted it to be. Nothing more to say, until next time this is Ragmanthemadman, signing off.