November 9th, 2022
1000 JST
"Oh my fucking god!" Kirito shouted, to nobody in particular. He had just realized something quite distressing; he had five free stat points that could have given him the edge necessary to defeat Illfang the Kobold Lord. If he had just put them into strength before the battle…!
There was nothing to be done for it now, unfortunately. Well, not unless he wanted to restock and go back to fight the First Floor Boss, but now that he was on the Second Floor, there didn't seem to much of a point. The Last Attack bonus may be cool, but in a few Floors, it would become mostly irrelevant. So, he made use of the points now, putting them into strength and raising the total to 37.
Grumbling to himself in irritation, Kirito left the inn he had spent the night at, hardly acknowledging the NPCs on his way out the village of Urbus other than to avoid bumping into them. Right now, the only important NPC was the old man out in the middle of fuck-all who gave the Quest to receive the Martial Arts Skill. After he got that, Kirito would punch the ever-loving shit out of every single monster on this Floor, level up a bit, then rush to the next Floor. Stagnation was the murderer of progress, and the death of progress would lead to his own death.
"So, you come seeking the secrets of Martial Arts?"
"Yes," Kirito growled, not really in the mood to humor the AI. Luckily, NPCs were unable to pick up on that sort of thing, or this interaction might have turned sour.
"Very well. However, my teachings are not to be taken lightly. You must prove yourself worthy by breaking the large boulder outside my house, using nothing but your bare fists. After all, what use is learning Martial Arts if you are going to use a weapon?"
Ping!
New Quest available! Learn from the Martial Arts Master?
Reward: 500XP, Extra Skill: Martial Arts
Tapping the blue circle, Kirito practically sprinted out the hut, and threw himself at the massive boulder with a gold cursor above it. Channeling his rage at failing to beat Illfang, his entrapment by Kayaba Akihiko in this game, and his separation from his nearly-estranged family, Kirito began pounding away at the rock, silently thankful that the Nerve Gear didn't perfectly recreate the sensation of pain. That would have sucked.
It had been hours. The virtual sun had long since set, leaving Kirito in darkness save for the digital moon. During his monumentous task, he had shown discipline only seen in cheesy action films, where the protagonist spent years training in the mountains with monks, learning to survive only on dew and meditation. Punching with all his strength and speed for the entirety of his tenure, Kirito learned just what the results of hard work were.
Absolutely nothing!
The damned rock hadn't even chipped, or cracked, or been damaged in any type of way to indicate that he was making progress! More pissed off than he was when he had started, Kirito kicked the stupid boulder, then fell backwards. He could continue in the morning, since there was no time limit on this Quest besides when the player decided to quit.
Just as he made his decision to let sleep take him, Kirito heard a deep rumbling, which sharpened into a vague cracking, then transformed into the familiar shattering of tiny polygons which accompanied the destruction of any item in Sword Art Online. Shooting up into a sitting position, Kirito was greeted by an empty patch of land where his stone punching bag had been.
A shaky, demented grin stretched across Kirito's face, as he climbed to his feet in a daze. A message popped up in front of his face.
Congratulations! You have completed the Quest "Learn from the Martial Arts Master!"
Return to the NPC to collect your reward!
"YES!" Kirito shouted, throwing his hands in the air, and once more falling on his back. This time, however, it was out of relief rather than exhaustion. That simple notification had filled him with energy, and he knew exactly what to do with it.
In hindsight, perhaps cows weren't the best way to test out his new Martial Arts Skill. Sure, it was fun to punch the walking hamburgers in their ugly noses, but it was a bit dangerous, considering how close it put him to their razor-sharp horns. He would have to wait until the next floor, when the humanoid enemies came out to play. It would be much easier to grapple with one of them than a Trembling Ox which was twice his size. He definitely wasn't trying it on a WIndwasp- those things were nasty.
Kirito reluctantly unsheathed his Anneal Blade, and set to work carving the Trembling Ox into metaphysical steak. It went much quicker, since his sword had a higher base damage, further augmented by his Level 25 One-Handed Sword Skill. With a sigh, the boy finished off the bull, making it shatter into thousands of rainbow polygons. He checked the loot; some XP, some Cor, and a Trembling Ox's meat. Probably an ingredient to be used by players with the Cooking Skill, but Kirito would just end up selling it.
Who would be crazy enough to learn the Cooking Skill when they could be grinding?
Back on the First Floor, in the Town of Beginnings, a mopey girl with chestnut-brown hair sneezed.
Hours later, when darkness once more claimed Aincrad, Kirito stood in front of the Second Floor's portion of the Labyrinth. He had been killing monsters the entire time, gaining three levels for his troubles. Ten stat points were put into agility, and the remaining five into strength, bring the total up to 60 and 45, respectively. He had also gained another five levels for his One-Handed Sword Skill. With the base damage of the Anneal Blade being 1000, adding in the damage buffs from his stats and skill, Kirito could now deal 1240 damage minimum. It didn't seem like much, but every bit helped when one was fighting for their life.
Walking into the Floor Dungeon, Kirito immediately scanned the area, looking for monsters. There were none, at the moment, but they could pop out from anywhere, sometimes even spawning right behind the player if they triggered a trap. Speaking of traps, he would have to tread carefully, and use his Searching Skill to its limit. In the Beta, there hadn't been any that were an insta-kill, but given his encounter with the First Floor Boss, that knowledge may be compromised. It was irritatingly slow, but better than tripping and falling down a kilometer-deep pit. That would be an embarrassing way to die.
He finally stood in front of the massive steel doors of the Boss Room. Kirito dungeon-crawled through the night, speeding up with every room cleared until he was sprinting nearly all the time, throwing caution to the wind. He gained two more levels, and put all ten points into agility, bringing the stat up to 72 points. He would need it to rush through the room.
Pushing open the door, Kirito immediately broke into a sprint. He remembered this room actually had two Bosses; Nato the Colonel Taurus and Asterius the Taurus King. However, Asterius only spawned when Nato, who was much weaker, was nearly defeated. In the Beta, it had served as a tactic to lull the players into a false sense of security, and nobody was expecting a second, more powerful Boss to spawn when the battle was almost won. Many died within the first seconds, as they had been hit by Asterius' paralyzing lightning breath, then beaten down by both Minotaur-like monsters. There were also some who were so distracted by Asterius that they forgot about Nato, and paid for their slip.
Nato also had a paralysis-inducing attack, but that was a slam, and had a much shorter range. So long as Kirito did not engage- which he had no plans of doing in the first place- he would be fine.
The gamer kept moving quickly, but nearly stumbled when, as he was approaching the center of the room, saw that there were two figures spawning. They were about the same size, which confused him, since Asterius had been much bigger than Nato. Taking a moment, Kirito used his close proximity to observe their names. One of them was Nato the Colonel Taurus, as expected, but the other was a surprise; Baron, the General Taurus.
Kirito was stunned for a moment, and simply stared at the extra Boss, before realizing that he was in a dangerous position, just 50 meters away from the both of them. Fortunately, they were still running through their introduction sequences, so he had plenty of time to barrel past them, his 72 agility allowing him to eat up the distance like it was hardly there.
He heard the two bull-men roar, but ignored them. They could be someone else's problem. The boy finally reached the spiral staircase at the back of the Boss Room, and began to climb them two at a time. In moments, he had reached the zenith, and pushed through these doors, shutting them on the enraged bellows of the walking steaks.
Slumping down with a sigh of relief, Kirito leaned against the door for a moment, giving his virtual heart a few seconds to stop hammering in his digital chest. For all the shit Kayaba Akihiko had put them through, nobody could deny that the man's work with the Nerve Gear was absolutely brilliant, and Sword Art Online was the perfect example… If you ignored the whole death trap thing.
Kirito straightened up, and began to make his way to the main village of the Third Floor, Zumfut. It was an odd name, but it wasn't like he chose it, so he didn't really care. He could see the Forest of Wavering Mists, and wondered just how he was going to complete the massive Quest which spanned multiple Floors. Could he go back down without the Teleport Gates? Something to check another time.
Right now, he had some elves to meet.
Stats:
Level- 17
Strength- 47
Agility- 72
Stat Points- 0
Weapon- Anneal Blade +0
Skills:
One-Handed Sword, Level 37
Martial Arts, Level 1
Searching, Level 15
Hiding, Level 2
Yay, working on this story now. No clue if I'll go hard like I did with some of the other ones, but you'll get what you get, and nothing more :P
K bai :D