This here is Chapter 2 of the Assassins playing SAO. It seems that people are actually liking this. I've actually got a few ideas for this. I want to ask a quick question. What went wrong with Sword Art Online? What made people dislike it so much? I don't know if it's because all the girls became so weak compared to Kirito, Kirito became too powerful too soon? I'll be taking a few ideas from SAOA, since I actually like it more than the original series, as well as from other series.
Disclaimer: I don't own Assassination Classroom or Sword Art Online. Assassination Classroom is owned by Yusei Matsui and Shuiesha. Sword Art Online is owned by Reki Kawahara and Shueisha. As per the usual, leave a review!
"Hey Shisa. Shouldn't you get a new Katana?" Kirito asked the tealnette. Nagisa looked up at the dark swordsman next to him from his menu stats. He was at level 12, while Kirito was level 14. Kirito was wearing the same gear, but his Basic Sword had been replaced with an Iron Sword. Nagisa on the other hand was wearing a plain shirt with his Basic Katana. His hair was pinned into his signature pigtails.
"Why? I'm plenty good with this one." Nagisa asked. It was true. While Nagisa's attacks weren't very strong, he was very fast and skilled at evasion. Very rarely was Nagisa ever struck.
"While that's true, we're probably going to go up against the boss soon. We'll want to be as strong as possible for that. While you're very good with your katana, I think it'd be better for you to upgrade now and keep ahead." Kirito responded. Nagisa thought carefully, before nodding his head.
"All right then. I'll get a better Katana, but hopefully I can get one just as light as this one." Nagisa said.
"I think I know a place." Kirito answered. He began jogging in a certain direction and Nagisa followed. Kirito explained to Nagisa what he had in mind.
"There's a quest nearby that allows us to be able to get a good ore. If we manage to complete it, we can trade it in at the blacksmith in town, and you can get yourself an awesome katana." Kirito explained. Nagisa nodded. The two jogged in silence, before Nagisa broke the quiet with a question for Kirito.
"Kirito, how quickly do you think we can get through this game?" he asked. Kirito was silent. It has been two weeks since the start of the game, and the first floor boss hasn't even been found yet.
"I don't know. Months, years? It doesn't matter. All that matters is that we get out and survive until then." Kirito said in determination. Nagisa smiled and nodded.
"That's true." he said. He glanced around, before he quickly stopped. "Kirito, something's there."
"Yeah, I feel it too." Kirito muttered. The two drew their swords and waited. Out of the surrounding grass were a few Dire Wolves.
"Dire Wolves? Looks like free exp to me." Nagisa said cockily. He charged and struck several times in just a few seconds. Dire Wolves were some of Nagisa's favorite mobs to fight, as their high speed gave him plenty of practice in speed blitzing.
The way stat increasing worked in Sword Art Online was that certain stats were increased after beating certain mobs when you level up. You also get a few stat points to manually adjust your stats. A Frenzy Boar gave decent strength boosts, and a Dire Wolf gave decent speed boosts. Since Nagisa's hunted so many wolves, his speed is extremely high. Combine that with his high reaction speed, he tends to be quite difficult to hit. Kirito had hunted quite a lot of boars and wolves, making him a deadly offensive force when he fought.
The two hacked and slashed at the wolves, blowing them away quite easily. When they finished killing the wolves, Nagisa and Kirito checked the drops. All mobs drop exp and a small amount of Col, but a few also drop certain items. For Frenzy Boars, it was [Pig Leather] and [Pig Jerky], but Dire Wolves drop [Wolf Pelts]. Perfect for making cold resistant clothes, but more used for stacking up extra Col.
"Did you get any pelts?" Kirito asked. Nagisa shook his head.
"Nope, but I did get this weird skill." Nagisa showed it to Kirito. Kirito frowned in confusion.
"What the-Lupus Dash? What kinda skill is that?"
"I don't know, but it sounds cool." Nagisa said. He looked to the side, and held up his sword. Surging forward, Nagisa swung his blade down heavily, and was surprised by a massive wolf head surrounding his body and crunching down on the air in front of him.
"Whoa! I never saw a skill like that before!" Kirito exclaimed in shock. Nagisa grinned, and used the skill again, this time as he leapt. The skill actually pushed him forward, allowing him to move up higher in midair. He also found that he could still move in anyway he wanted while attacking, allowing him to follow up with whatever he liked.
"This is so cool! I didn't think I'd get a unique skill like this! Awesome!" the tealnette said happily. He checked his mana, and sweatdropped. "If I want to spam it, I'd better invest some stats to mana and mana recovery. Seriously, forty percent!?"
"Damn. If it's forty percent of your mana per usage, then you really do need to increase mana." Kirito laughed. "Come on, we just have to go a little further."
They continued jogging, and eventually reached what looked like a little quarry. There, Nagisa spotted a girl with blue pigtails on the back of her head, standing near a minecart, looking all over it. He tapped Kirito on his shoulder and jerked his head towards the girl.
"That the NPC?" he asked. Kirito shook his head.
"The NPC was an old dude. She must be another player. Come on, let's move quickly if we want to get the ore." Kirito led Nagisa to the real NPC. The NPC was indeed rather old. He told the two about how he had lost his pet rabbit and asked them to get it for him. After accepting the quest and grabbing a torch, the two trudged towards the cave. There, the girl from before was standing there, trying to muster the courage to enter.
"You okay?" Nagisa asked. The girl gasped in surprise and turned around. The two stared at each other in shock. The girl in front of him was a near mirror image of the other. She was a little shorter, and her pigtails were on the back of her head, while his pigtails were closer to the top of his head. She held an Iron Knife and wore some moderate armor. The girl stared at him, before she spoke quickly.
"Did you ever have a yellow octopus dressed in robes as a teacher!?" she blurted out. Kirito stared at her in confusion, but Nagisa nodded his head slowly.
"Yeah, how did you-" he was cut off by the girl dashing up to him and grabbing his hands.
"You must be the one who Mr Octopus told me about! The one who tried to blow himself up!"
"Wait, what!?" Kirito exclaimed, staring at Nagisa in shock. The tealnette pulled his hands away and waved them frantically.
"Duh, I mean, well, yeah. But it was with a toy grenade, not a real one! I wasn't going to die, the worst I'd be is a little burned." he quickly reassured. He whirled back towards the girl.
"And how do you know Korosensei!? Who are you!?" he hissed. The girl backed up and bowed.
"My name is Gushiken Hotaru. It's nice to finally meet you. Mr Octopus was a regular for a short while at the bar my family runs. He told me about how I reminded him a lot of a student of his. Most of what he said was while he was quite drunk. He helped my mom with her cancer with his tentacles." she smiled. Kirito looked between the two in shock and confusion. Nagisa facepalmed, causing Hotaru to look at him in confusion.
"Korosensei was supposed to be a state secret." he mumbled. Hotaru gasped and apologized. Nagisa waved it off, and turned to Kirito.
"I'll explain later, let's get the stupid rabbit." he muttered. Kirito sighed and turned to Hotaru.
"Wanna party up for a bit? That way we can all split the reward for the quest." he asked. Hotaru nodded.
"Sure!" Kirito swiped his hand and sent her an invite. When she accepted it, Kirito and Nagisa looked at her avatar name.
'Thorua?' they sweatdropped.
-Line Break-
"Okay, before we go in, there's some things we should go over first. Hotaru," Kirito addressed the girl. Nagisa and Kirito had silently agreed to not call her by Thorua, as it made them think of Chris Hemsworth. "What level are you, and what skills do you have?"
"I'm level 6, and I have the One-Handed Dagger skill and the Cook skill." she replied. Nagisa looked at her in surprise.
"Level 6? But the packs of Dire Wolves usually have members near the level of 8. How'd you survive!?" Nagisa exclaimed. While it was possible to defeat higher level mobs, such a gap in levels and numbers this early would be quite risky. Especially with only the One-Handed Dagger skill equipped as her offensive skill, and the Iron Dagger having very little range, making it more so a means of one on one.
"I used my Lurk skill." Hotaru replied. She activated the skill and became practically invisible. "I decided to get it when it became available so that I won't have to fight monsters!"
"But if you don't fight monsters, you won't level up. And if you don't level up, you might die. And the monsters will only get harder and harder to kill" Kirito said bluntly. Hotaru froze, before panicking.
'I get the feeling that she hasn't played a lot of leveling up games.' Nagisa sweatdropped.
"You'd better stick with us for now. The exp one of us earns will be shared with the rest of us too, so we should be able to get you to a decent level." Nagisa told her. Hotaru nodded.
"Okay, thank you very much!" she bowed.
"Stay in between us for now. I'll take the lead, since I know this place. Nagisa, you take the rear." Kirito instructed. After getting into formation, the three began walking down the path.
"Kirito? How do you know the cave system?" Hotaru asked curiously.
"I was a beta tester." Kirito said curtly. Hotaru stopped, Nagisa nearly bumping into her.
"A beta tester?" she whispered. Kirito turned and frowned.
"Yeah, why?"
"There's a man named Kibaou in the town. He claims that Beta testers are the reason why almost a thousand people have died already." she said sadly. Kirito and Nagisa froze in shock. Almost a thousand people? But it had only been 2 weeks!
"He said that the beta testers took all the good loot and farming spots, leaving the rest of the players helpless."
"That's bullshit!" Nagisa snapped. Hotaru flinched, and Nagisa lowered his voice. "The beta testers gave out up-to-date instruction guides in all the stores for free! Heck, my best friends were some of the ones who did so! Heck, Kirito released a map to all players with good hunting spots nearby! There's no basis!"
"It's fine Shisa. An idiot like that who believes these things without any real evidence only has power if people listen to him." Kirito said quietly. He turned and continued walking down the cave, lighting the torch. Hotaru and Nagisa followed him quietly.
"There's gonna be several monsters with levels 10 and above. We should be able to get a good level up." Kirito said. His voice was cheerful, but Nagisa saw through the guise. Kirito was obviously worried about what would happen if anyone else discovered he was a beta tester. Nagisa was worried about Karma and Kayano. Even if Kibaou was lying, the players would want someone to blame. Someone to hate.
"Yeah. Let's fight and live. Live and beat this game!" Nagisa said determinedly. Hotaru and Kirito nodded. Suddenly, Kirito whipped around and drew his sword. Nagisa turned and drew his katana. They backed up, putting Hotaru between them. She also drew her knife, but was clearly more nervous than the other two. Out of the shadows coming from the light, came multiple cobra looking mobs.
"Venomous Vipers!" Kirito exclaimed. "These guys drop a lot of Col, around ten each. And there's around twelve of them."
"Is it a haul, or is it a trap?" Nagisa questioned.
"For me and Hotaru, trap. You, haul. You need to use your speed and evasion. They'll rear up to spray their poisonous gas. Use your reflexes to dodge the gas sprays and you'll beat them." Kirito informed the assassin. Nagisa grinned.
"Piece of cake. Hotaru, stay with Kirito." Nagisa told her. When she nodded, Nagisa dashed forward. His speed and kinetic vision tore through the vipers with ease. The fact that they were at least four feet when they reared up might've been intimidating, but they only made it easier for Nagisa to kill. They sprayed their gas at him, only to completely miss as Nagisa leapt to the side when they rear up. All twelve were quickly decapitated, Nagisa easily defeating the mobs.
"Whew, level 13!" Nagisa said as he checked his menu. Kirito and Hotaru got a split of half the exp, but it was still enough to raise Hotaru's level since she was so low.
"Alright! Let's keep going!" Kirito said.
-Line Break-
"Where is the stupid boss!?" Nagisa yelled in frustration. The three had been walking for almost an hour now, but were still no closer to the boss level. The way the quest worked was that the three were supposed to find and fight the boss at the end of the cave system, and after they beat him, it's revealed that the boss had planned on eating the rabbit for dinner. They'd release it from its cage, and take it back to the old man, who'd thank them by giving them an ore that they can trade.
"The boss should be a little lower, be patient." Kirito told him. "At least we're getting a good grind from this."
It was true. Hotaru had even reached level 10. Kirito and Nagisa were both at fifteen respectively. Nagisa had unequipped his One-Handed Curved Blade skill for the Cobra Gaze skill, which he unlocked from killing all the Venomous Vipers. Hotaru had gained a new ability, being the Razor Edge skill. And Kirito had gained the Sharp Nail attack. Even despite the grind, Nagisa was still rather tired of walking.
"Well, since we've seemed to be walking for quite a bit, Nagisa?" Hotaru grabbed the assassin's attention. "What can you tell me about Mr Octopus? And why do you call him Korosensei?"
"Yeah, I was wondering about that too." Kirito turned to the two behind him. "Who is this 'Korosensei'? Was he really an octopus?"
Nagisa sighed. "Do you guys remember that day when the moon was blown up?" the other two nodded. They remembered. The moon had collapsed in on itself a few years ago and reformed into a regular circle, but for a while, the moon was a complete crescent, 70% of it demolished.
"Well, it was a result of an antimatter infused, artificially created life form. A man named Yanagisawa was experimenting on organic lifeforms with antimatter injections." Nagisa explained.
"Antimatter? How does one inject a person with antimatter?" Kirito asked in disbelief. Hotaru looked at the two in confusion.
"What's antimatter?"
"The opposite of regular matter, created alongside the Big Bang. Antimatter is extremely unstable on a molecular level, making it extremely dangerous." Nagisa explained. "That's the reason the moon was destroyed. There was a rat on the moon, people testing their antimatter injections. The rat was a ticking time bomb, and it went off."
"So, what you're saying is, this Yanagisawa moron, made a bomb that destroyed over half the moon!?" Kirito yelled.
"Keep this underleveled. If any of this had been revealed, it would've made a massive panic." Nagisa warned. "The same experiments were being performed onto an assassin."
"An assassin?" Hotaru repeated in surprise.
"Yes. but not just any assassin. The Reaper. The greatest assassin in the world. Who's body count was in the triple digits. And soon, the greatest teacher in the history of teachers." Nagisa said proudly. He looked forward and saw a massive cavern. "Kirito."
"Yeah, we're here. Let's finish this later." Kirito said. Nagisa and Hotaru nodded in agreement. Together, the three entered the boss room, ready for a fight.
Boom! Chapter 2! I've added Hotaru. A character who, quite frankly, needs more attention and love. Since her full name wasn't released/revealed, I've given her a family name. Now, serious question. People seem to like the idea of Sinon being in the game instead of Asuna. So, should I replace Asuna with Sinon? It won't change my overall plan for the series. But should I? Let me know what you all think, and I'll let you all know in a few chapters. As per the usual, leave a review! And I'll see y'all next time! Azure Out!