Chapter 5

I fought my way through countless quests in those next two weeks. I upgraded my armor again and again, bought a new sword, and eventually, made my way to the city of Tolbana, far off to the north. I explored that first floor a lot in those two weeks- and honestly, that was the most time that I ever spent on that floor. I spent another two days in that village, eventually making my way to Horunka, and trying to complete whatever quests were left. Most people were busy fighting some kind of predatory plant deep in the forest, and I rapidly moved on to look for something else to level up with. I could tell a lost cause when I saw one, and most people weren't completing the quest due to the number of people trying for it.

So, I made my way to the lakes region, on the eastern side of the first floor. I fought seemingly endlessly, and eventually it became...kind of routine. I saw a lot of people die, those first weeks. I leveled up quickly, and after three days in Horunka, I joined a party that wanted to work it's way to Tolbana, by way of the lakes region. A party that contained the first person that i would ever see die.

That first person, I remember them clearly. It was shortly after I'd joined that party, right when we set off from Horunka, swords in hand, to cross the first floor. We traveled as a group of six: Me, a woman whose name I don't remember, Maro, our scout, Sika, our appointed and unofficial leader, Ausben, our tank, and Banto, who was generally good at fitting in wherever we needed him, like myself. We'd been traveling for about a day, and were getting close to the lakes. We were also getting hungry.

"Hey, Jean- you care to get a fire going to roast these boar strips?"

"Why? Am I the only one who actually took a skill in that sort of thing?" I grinned anyway.

Banto rubbed the back of his neck. "Well… I mean… yeah. Honestly, yeah."

"Come on boys," Sika chided, "We need to hurry. I don't think we have time for this, we're nearly there."

"Oh, come on Sika," Ausben responded, Maro's on lookout, we'll be fine."

The lithe man with dark hair and simple leather armor nodded, climbing a boulder to survey our surroundings.

"Looks clear Sika, it might be a good idea- you know how hard it is to fight when hungry."

Sika frowned, glancing at the suns that were in view, gauging the time as she pulled down her window.

"Alright, Cook the meat as quickly as you can and let's get back on the road."

Maro glanced at us from his perch atop the rock, before turning back to the mix of grasses and stony ground between the mountains to the north and the forests and plains of the southern half of the first floor, probably activating his perception skill to try and spot monsters before they could see us.

"I agree with Sika" the woman- a tall person with auburn hair that she had given herself through the character customization window, "the monsters that spawn around here are more random- we could see anything- creatures from the mountains, boars and wolves from beginners town...the less time we linger out here the better."

I nodded, skewering a chunk of meat and holding it over the fire. My cooking skill was...low. The meat here was a pretty low class ingredient- which translated to bland, largely flavorless, but overall functional as a food item, which was the only reason that I could cook it at all. Even so, the wait time was long, and half of the skewers resulted in only charred hunks of no longer edible meat that I just had to toss back to the flickering flames.

"Alright," I called, holding out the eight or so successful skewers. "Eat up- what do you say Sika, about another hour to reach the nearest of the lakes?"

"If not less." She declared, eating quickly, practically snarfing the chunk of meat down without chewing, "Ten kilometers isn't really too far to walk in one day - even having to be careful and having to try to avoid monsters where we can."

I nodded. We'd set out a couple of hours ago- and the lakes, even though they were all the way across the floor from us, were only around seven miles away at the most- maybe even six and a half. Easily walkable within a day- even multiple times if we really wanted to.

I bit into the leathery meat, missing bacon for a solid minute before I forced myself to stand and knock the logs away from each other. The fire slowly died, it's almost-accurate flames withering away.

"Come on," Sika ordered- "we move out."

The other woman nodded, pulling reddish hair out of her face, and tying up the few things that we'd set out to sit on and returning them to her inventory. She didn't say much, but like the rest of us, she considered Sika to be the leader of our party.

I sighed, stretching a bit before drawing my longsword and giving it a few warm up swings.

Maros suddenly yelled, and flew off of his rock, crashing onto the ground.

His eyes met mine in panic as his health bar dropped by a third, and he rolled, his brown cape flying as he pulled out a small handaxe and dropped into a crouch.

"Ambush!" Sika yelled, barely bringing her shield to bear as something small and brown crashed into her.

A Kobold leapt up onto the rock. It was fairly small, maybe five foot at the most, possibly no more than four, but it rushed us with a savage cry, a crude machete like short sword hacking towards Sika. Two more leapt out from behind trees, rushing the woman and Banto, the two of them desperately blocking attacks.

Another one came at me, and I barely managed to bring my longsword around, my hands twisting as I set myself into Ox-Guard, bringing the hilt up by my ear, blade-point towards my opponent, whipping the blade down to hack through the Kobold's chest. It screeched at me, and I grimaced as it rushed me again, hacking horizontally with it's axe. I blocked two of it's strikes before it clipped me in the shoulder, and I ignored the pain that I was starting to get used to, the pain that the others claimed never to feel. I roared, and fell back into Fool's Guard, sword held in both hands and flipped behind me, parallel with my back leg. The little devil took the bait, rushing wildly for a downwards chop to my head, and I let my blade flare to life with a sword-skill, carving up under its ribs, sending the creature's two halves flying off into the grass of the lowlands.

Suddenly Maro's health-bar began dropping steadily, there three spaces below my own. I whirled, and saw a Kobold maniacally hacking into the scrawny man. Angry red pixel gashes criss-crossed his body, and I watched in horror as another slash broke through a gap in Maro's guard, biting deep into the leather armor on his side.

"Maro!"

I rushed forwards, lifting my blade above me to activate another sword strike, bursting forwards as I sheared down through the creature's head, blasting it back into a tree, where, weakened by Maro's desperate fighting, it finally erupted into pixel shards.

I wheeled.

"Banto, cover me!"

The large man lumbered over, gripping his own longsword tightly as he tried to position himself between us and any other Kobolds that were trying to break through the line that Sika and Ausben had formed at the point between two boulders. Ausben was gritting his teeth, boots planted and shield raised to lock with Sika's in formation, but I wasn't watching them- I'd seen this before.

I opened my inventory as quickly as I could, cursing as I searched, finally pulling out a healing crystal, the red gemstone dropping into my palm.

Maro gripped my arm, eyes wide in panic- and an arrow struck him in the chest.

I froze in shock.

"No-" he gasped, the tiny red corner of his health dropping away.

He shattered, the weight of his hand disappearing as his body burst into shards that drifted away on the wind.

"NO!" Ausben bellowed, breaking the line he formed with Sika, rushing back. He dashed behind me, and I stared in horror as two more Kobolds rushed Sika.

I dashed forwards, but the red-headed woman beat me to her side, lifting her spear and thrusting into the attacking group. An arrow took her in the back, and she ignored it grimly, taking a kobold in the eye with her lance before whipping the butt end around to smack another kobold in the face. One had leapt onto Sika's shield, and she was desperately trying to bat it away, hair flying as she slammed the shield against a boulder, finally knocking it off. Banto ran to help Ausben, dashing to the tree line, his health bar dropping a little in my view after each twang of a distant arrow.

I lifted my longsword, hearing a crunch behind me, and I dropped my blade to ready for a back rush, activating the sword skill, the blade practically dragging my body around me to carve into another kobold's side, knocking the dagger from his hand.

I spun back to the gap, where Sika and the woman were being driven back.

One of the Kobolds dove at the woman, and drove another machete through her chest. The woman screamed, and then, as she hit the ground, she too dissolved into sparks of blue.

I roared, rage filling every fiber of my being, and I carved upwards from Fool's guard before bringing the blade back down to finish off the offending Kobold. Again and again our blades flashed, there standing desperately next to Sika, before everything quieted.

I fell against a boulder, breathing heavily, eyes wide. Maro- our scout for the past three days, back in Horunka, and one I considered a friend, was...gone? I rushed over to where he had fallen, looking for any sign of him. Nothing. His axe and armor lay in the dirt,seemingly discarded. Next to the spot where he had fallen, lay a single red crystal, shining brightly in the dirt.

I felt a tear gather in my eye, but I stood, wiping it away with a sleeve, gritting my teeth.

Banto emerged from the woods, dragging Ausben, and Sika came up to us, face dark and grim.

"And so this world claims two more souls."

Banto bowed his head, and I stepped up to Ausben, holding up the crystal against his shoulder.

"Heal." I ordered, and the crystal shattered in my palm, it's red glow infusing the wounded swordsman for a moment, his health shooting from the low red all the way up to the green.

Sika pursed her lips.

"How many more crystals do we have among us?"

Banto hesitated. "I have one- Maro, Maro had most of them."

Sika closed her eyes, sighing deeply before straightening her back, and turning to the east.

"We move on. We do what we set out to do. We need to get stronger. Next week, we make our way to Tolbana- we join the people searching that maze, and get out of this place."

I crouched onto the ground, closing my eyes.

"May your souls find rest." I whispered, tracing their names in the dirt. Back when I still knew the name of the woman, before death became a constant concern. Before people I knew far longer fell to the blades and harsh environment of the world.

I stood, keeping my longsword drawn at my side, stepping up to fill Maro's place next to Sika in the marching order. I was no scout, Maro's perception skill had been far above the rest of ours, but with him gone, I was going to have to fill in.

We made it to the lake only thirty minutes later, seeing absolutely nothing. No boars, no wolves, no predatory plants or kobolds. We stopped at a small village to rest, and find a couple more crystals that we bought with our earnings from killing the Kobolds. They were expensive- this was a small village, without very many, but we were able to buy two. We straightened our backs, and went to a local pub, where sika bought us each a single glass of crude ale that tasted like burnt barely.

"To our friends."

"To our friends." We echoed grimly. Ausben broke down and started crying, and we hesitated, before Sika coughed, getting our attention once again.

"Akihiko be damned." She swore.

We responded in kind. We sat down, polished and attended to our gear the best we could to try and maintain its durability, and set out again to explore the lakes of the eastern side of Aincrad's floor one for the next week as promised, before we set off one Sunday morning to make our way through the mountains to our true goal- to Tolbana, the gate to the maze.