Chapter 2
December 2nd, 2022
1st floor Labyrinth, level 18
Approximately 08:00 AST (Aincrad Standard Time)
Party stats
Diavel: Level 10 Sword and Shield knight
Will: Level 9 spearman
Emily: Level 9 shieldmaiden
Grace: Level 9 Katana swordswoman
Xander: Level 9 War Hammer tank
Diavel, Xander, Will, Grace, Emily, and another player named Agil moved through the dungeon on the first floor cautiously. It was quiet, Will noted. Too quiet. "Hey Diavel, shouldn't we have run into some more enemies by now?" he asked, looking around to see if he saw anything. Since the beginning of the game, he had replaced the metal tip of his spear with a longer blade taken from a short sword and also shortened the length of the shaft to make up for the larger blade size.
Diavel shrugged. "I noticed that too. It could be that we're getting close to the boss room. Enemies always begin to spawn less frequently the closer you get to a boss room until you get to the level with the boss room, and they stop spawning entirely," he explained.
Grace's eyes darted around nervously, and she clutched the handle of her sword tightly, her other hand gripping a pair of kunai: small throwing knives that although cheap, she felt were very useful, due to them allowing her to attack from a short distance. "Still, I don't like it," she said. "This silence just screams 'Ambush' to me."
Agil set a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, I've got your back," he reassured her. It wasn't hard to see that the older man had quickly developed an almost fatherly attitude for the young swordswoman. Will wondered if, back in the real world, the man had a family of his own.
They continued onward, encountering only a handful of armored Kobold knights wielding metal maces before they ascended to the 19th level. On the 19th level, their only opposition was a pair of Ruin Kobold Sentinels, more dangerous versions of the foes they defeated below. After a short, uneventful period of walking, they came face to face with a set of massive stone doors. "Is this the Boss room?" Xander wondered, holding up his hammer.
Diavel nodded. "I think so. We should head back so we can tell everyone where it is," he replied, leading the group back down the labyrinth. As they walked, Emily thought about her family, and then she had an idea.
"Hey Diavel," she asked as they exited the stairs leading to the 10th level of the dungeon. "Does SAO's menu have a way to access the internet?"
"It does, do you want me to show you how to get to it once we make it back to Tolbana?"
Emily nodded. "I was just thinking about my family when I remembered that Kayaba showed videos from news outlets during his speech a month ago, and that made me wonder if there was any way we could use the internet to contact people outside of the game," she explained.
Diavel narrowed his eyes in thought. "Hmm… It's an interesting idea. Well, we may as well give it a shot once we get back since it'll either work, or it won't."
"It worked! I managed to send an email!" Emily suddenly exclaimed with great excitement. Will, Diavel, Grace, Agil, and Xander all looked up at once from their drinks. She had been working on it for almost a half-hour, trying to understand the unique web browser the NerveGear utilized. But she had cracked the code, and proceeded to show her group how she did it.
"The NerveGear uses a different web browser from what we're used to using at school. For whatever reason, sending emails is blocked by the firewall, but because my brother helped me download an application-based version of Gmail to the NerveGear, I managed to send an email to my parents just now!" Emily explained, showing each of them how to navigate the limited NerveGear webspace to the full internet, and from there, how she downloaded the Gmail app.
"I don't know if the messages will go through, but at least there's a chance, yeah?" she said as everyone sent emails to their families explaining what they knew from inside the game. (although there was a silent agreement to omit the fact that if they died in the game they'd die in the real world too.)
"Wow, nice work Em," Will complimented her, pressing the send button on his email window. He closed the browser window and leaned back in his chair, feeling emotions of ease and hope that had been gone for too long.
"Agreed, although given that it was a bit of a trial and error process for you to get to your email, something tells me that this is a bug in the game. As unfortunate as is it, we shouldn't spread this info around, or else Kayaba or another bug tester might get wind of it and block Gmail too," Diavel pointed out. As selfish as it sounded, Will had to admit that it was a good point all the same.
"I just don't understand this. As messed up as his logic for trapping us all in here was, I can still see the reasoning for why Kayaba did it. But making it this difficult to communicate with the real world? What use does that have for him?" Xander pondered, resting his head on his fist.
"I don't know, and frankly, I'm not sure I care either way. I just want to get out of here and go back to my wife," Agil replied firmly, closing his menu. Diavel stood up then.
"Well, the meeting is going to start soon. Will you all be there to help us take on the boss?" he asked the group.
Agil nodded, and soon after, so did the four band students. They pushed in their chairs and headed off to the amphitheater where the strategy meeting would take place, led by Diavel. Will couldn't help but feel a sense of admiration for the man. He'd offered to help them for no reason other than because he wanted to, and for that, Will sincerely hoped that all of them would survive this fight.
The meeting went mostly as planned, save for a short interruption by a player called Kibaou, who tried to pin the blame for the more than 2,000 deaths on the ex-beta testers, saying that they hoarded their knowledge of the game. Thankfully, before Kibaou realized and outed Diavel as an ex-beta tester, Agil stepped in and expertly dismantled Kibaou's whole argument with ease. After that, they all headed to get some rest for the night.
December 3rd, 2022
1st-floor labyrinth, level 20
Diavel thrust his longsword into the ground. "Listen up everyone. I've only got one thing to say to you: Let's win!" Diavel announced, opening the door. "Come on!"
The massive stone doors slid open with a horrible grinding noise, and Diavel led the charge into the room. Will, Emily, and Grace followed Diavel, while Xander went with Agil as part of his tank party. As if on cue, the room lit up with all of the colors of a rainbow, the walls morphing from an oppressive stone grey to brilliant colors and designs that made Will think they were made of stained glass. Illfang the Kobold lord jumped from the other end of the room to meet the players head-on, letting out a loud roar as four HP bars materialized beside him. He held an axe in one hand and a shield in the other, with a large sword on his back. Three Ruin Kobold Sentinels spawned in front of Illfang.
The Kobolds let out a roar as they charged, which was answered by Diavel, who shouted "Commence attack!", before leading the vanguard with the other players behind him all shouting battle cries. Will ran straight for a sentinel, a player named Kirito behind him with a longsword drawn in one hand. Will nodded to the player and slid past the Kobold, letting the swordsman take care of it while Will dashed towards Illfang. The massive Kobold attempted to stomp on him, but Will rolled to the side and cut open the boss's foot, before leaping to his feet. His spear glowed a brilliant golden color, and Will spun it in the air before jumping up and raining down a flurry of cuts on Illfang's leg, while another player brought an axe down on the boss's hand. Agil and Xander were up and the front, blocking hits with their massive weapons when Xander saw an opening and used a sword skill to increase the speed of his hammer, letting it come down with a shattering thud on that same hand. Moments later, Agil hooked his axe head around Xander's hammer and pulled him out of the way of Illfang's counterattack.
The Kobold howled in pain, but before it could do anything else, Grace was right there, using a gengetsu sword skill with her Katana to carve a jagged half-circle incision in Illfang's stomach, causing him to howl again, counterattacking with a wicked swing from his axe, hitting both players and sending them flying back, bringing both down to half of their health in a single blow. Two tanks caught them and set them on the ground behind them to heal. Emily was using her blades to climb up Illfang's arm and drove them into his skin right at the neck. "Be careful y'all, he hits like a two-tonne truck!" Will warned the group.
With a finesse that rivaled an expert fencer, Emily pulled her blades out in time to jump away from a backhanded axe chop, causing the boss to hit himself with the axe. She raked her blades down the Kobold's chest, landing on the ground and retreating as another attacker ran forward to deliver a crushing blow to Illfang's knee with a mace.
This sequence of one group attacking and then retreating while the next advanced continued until Will saw that Illfang's first, second, and third HP bars had been fully depleted. He finished downing a health potion and got to his feet, charging forward and using another sword skill to throw his weapon like a javelin, embedding it in the Kobold's eye. The weapon glowed once again and flew back to Will's hand.
"Squad's A and C, switch in!" Diavel called out. Will, Emily, and Grace retreated as the other two squads moved in. Suddenly, Illfang's axe began to glow a crimson red, and Diavel changed his order. "Scratch that, incoming! Block it squad B!"
The tanks braced themselves and the vulnerable attackers leaped to the side as Illfang hit the group with a crushing blow, which was parried by Agil and Kibaou's weapons. "Squad C, keep guarding and prepare to switch. Everyone else, when you fall back, regroup and flank them!" Diavel called out. "Squads D, E, and F keep those minions off of us!"
"You got it!" Kirito replied, slicing clean through a sentinel with his longsword. He called out to switch, and a girl with a red cloak and a rapier ran forward, impaling the third sentinel multiple times in the blink of an eye.
Illfang let out another roar and snapped his jaws at the group, before throwing aside the axe and shield. "Stand back, I've got him!" Diavel cried out, rushing the boss as his sword glowed a bright yellow. Suddenly, the boss drew a vicious-looking Nodachi sword, surprising the group. "I thought the guidebook said he'd have a Talwar?" Will thought aloud. And he wasn't the only one caught off guard by the change.
"Wait stop! Get out of there!" exclaimed Kirito, but it was too late. Illfang leaped into the air and came down, delivering a devastating slash to Diavel's torso, before hitting him again and sending him flying back.
"Diavel!" Emily cried out, running forward to attack as she was in no position to be a medic. She pulled her claws along Illfang's ankle, but the boss either didn't feel it or didn't care as it targeted the tank squad, roaring in their faces. Emily retreated and somersaulted away from a sword plunge.
Kirito ran to Diavel's side, but he was too late. The blue-haired knight shattered into a shimmering cloud of polygons as he pushed Kirito's healing potion away. "NO!" Will shouted, running forward and switching with Emily and pole vaulting onto Illfang's skull. He drove the spear down into the kobold's skull and unsheathed a small utility knife before impaling the beast's head with that as well. Unfortunately, the its thrashing sent Will flying along with the spear and into the arms of Xander.
Kirito and the rapier user ran forward and tag-teamed the beast, cutting away chunks of his health bar as the others watched, recovering from status effects or healing their HP until Illfang shredded the fencer's cloak, revealing her to have long, orange hair. Illfang sent Kirito flying into the girl with a powerful slash, and the two were stunned as the boss towered over their heads, preparing to kill them both with a single hit.
He brought the Nodachi down, and Will thought their lives were over until a loud clang echoed through the chamber. It was Agil, and he had intercepted the attack with his battle-axe and was now directing the two wounded players to fall back. The whole group rushed forward, chipping away at Illfang's health as they overwhelmed the boss until Kirito yelled "Watch out!" activating a blue sword skill and flying at the boss.
Agil and the others were down, but Kirito intercepted the boss as it attempted to bring its blade down on them and sent him flying away. "Come on Asuna! Let's finish him, one last attack!" Kirito called out, to which the fencer named Asuna replied "I'm with you!" The two charged at the boss with a scream and killed the boss with a flurry of slashes from Kirito's longsword and a series of stabs from Asuna's rapier. The boss flew into the air from Kirito's last attack and shattered into a million polygons, and then the lights in the room went out and the door at the opposite end of the hall opened.
A large message appeared in the air saying "Congratulations!" and windows popped up in front of everyone. Will and his friends all grew to level 11 and collected a load of Cor. Everyone began cheering for Kirito and clapped until a voice broke through the praise.
"Stop cheering!" Kibaou ordered, before asking a question. "Why'd you do it… Why'd you let Diavel die?"
"Let him die?" Kirito echoed.
Kibaou looked up. "That's what I said! Admit it, you knew the technique the boss was gonna use," he said, pausing. "You could've told us, and then Diavel would've stood a chance. He wouldn't have had to die!" Everyone began murmuring to each other after that.
"I know why he knew, he's a beta tester! He knew the boss's attack patterns, but stayed silent!" said one player. Asuna and Agil defended Kirito, saying that there was no proof because everyone there had read the guidebook, but the Kirito began to laugh. First softly, but then it became louder.
"So you guys think I used to be a beta tester, huh? It's not cool to put me into the same class as those noobs," Kirito said, standing up. Kibaou was angered.
"What'd you say?!"
"You heard me. Most of the 1,000 people who got slots in the SAO beta were rookies. They were so green, they didn't even know how to level up. Hell, even you guys are better than they were," said Kirito, walking towards Kibaou. "But me? I'm nothing like those guys man. During the beta, I managed to get higher than anyone else in the game, that's a fact.
"I knew about the boss cuz I'd fought tons of harder enemies with way more attacks on higher floors. And I know a bunch of other things too," Kirito told the group.
"What the hell…" Kibaou gasped. "If that's true then you're way worse than any beta tester. You're a cheater! No, a Beater!"
"A beater…" Kirito echoed. "Yeah, that's good. I like it."
"Ok, you can call me a beater," he said into the stunned crowd. "Just don't get me mixed up with those beta testers anymore." He donned a black coat and walked off, with Asuna running behind him. The two talked at the other end of the hall, but no one could hear what either said as they were too far away.
Eventually, Kirito moved on while Asuna returned to the group. "All right people, let's move out. Diavel wouldn't have wanted us to sit here a mope, now would he?"
A/N: And that's chapter 2! Just like with chapter 1, Please leave a review if you'd like, and don't hesitate to critique me on anything! Oh, and I should mention, there will be quite a few updates to this story very soon, because it's going to be a 20 chapter long story, and I've already got the first 6 chapters done!
